Oren’s Circle of Home — Under the warm rumble of Firecap Mountain, Oren nudged a curly vine along the streambank. Read the full story →
Under the warm rumble of Firecap Mountain, Oren nudged a curly vine along the streambank. He had invented a game called Circle-Home: every friend had to add one thing from the place they loved best. A stegosaurus tucked in a flat river leaf. A tiny pterosaur dropped a smooth sky-stone. Oren wanted the circle finished before the evening ash made the valley smell like wet chalk.
Then Firecap coughed—whump!—and orange light slipped down its sides. The T. rex on the ridge stopped roaring. Palm leaves rattled like paper fans. Oren lifted the vine in his horns and called, “Add your home, quick!” One by one, the valley came to him: fern, pebble, feather, bark, and a splash-cool reed from the stream.
When the ash began to fall, the vine circle was too beautiful to leave on the ground. Oren placed it around his neck, and everyone followed its bright little pieces back to their own safe sleeping spots. Ever since then, triceratops have worn vine-collars in that valley when Firecap mutters, to remember every place that belongs to them. If you spot Oren’s necklace, can you tell which piece came from the streambank under Firecap Mountain?
