“Does it hurt?” asked Leon. The boy touched his aunt’s skin. It was textured like a clay roof tile.

Euthalia’s gave a stiff chuckle. “I can’t even feel your touch, little one.”

“I want to be an explorer when I grow up!” The boy loved his aunt’s stories. “Did you see dead snake-hairs there?”

“No.. but surely, there must be some there.” Euthalia had difficulty speaking. She was afraid to crack her cheek. “I saw grass, flowers and trees that had been turned to stone though. It’s said that the village at the center of the Medusa Graveyard buried a witch and her baby daughter alive. The witch cursed the land, and all its living things, to be taken by the earth as well. There exist few places more still and quiet in all of Dorattica.”

Leon’s mom entered the bedroom with a vase of olive oil to rub on her sister’s skin. “You’re suffering from petrification sickness, and still you have time to move your mouth for my boy!”

“I saw a village of statues… I appreciate being able to move at all.”