When Bright Sky reached her sixteenth winter, the Day of Leaving came. Ever since they saved her from the Grown-Ups, Bright Sky had shared everyythign with the other Children of the Valley. Her Leaving was especially hard, because she was the Story Keeper. She had taught Meadow Grass the stories: how blossoms of fire grew on the horizon, how the many-season winter came, how the silver birds fell burning from the sky. Meadow Grass learned every story word for word. Bright Sky knew it was time to go.

She was becoming a Grown-Up. The Children hid when the Grown-Ups came, mud-faced men and women in goggles and leather. The Grown-Ups wanted the Children of the Valley for slaves or meat. It was not safe where the Grown-Ups lived.

But Bright Sky knew the story of the White City, where the water was good to drink, where people called mothers and fathers lived. She knew that she, like all the others who had Left, had to seek the White City, before it was too late for her, and she, too, became a Grown-Up.