Her twin sister was chasing fireflies, but Li-a was looking toward the heavens. She wondered how the trees held the stars in place every night, and why they dropped them each dawn when the big light rose out of the ocean.
Li-a liked the stars better. The big light hurt her eyes and burned her back if she ignored it for too long.
She liked to collect shiny things like her sister, Triata. But she would not waste time foolishly chasing fireflies. She gathered rocks that glittered, especially the delicate ones that flew from the mouth of the Volcano God and and shattered as they hit the ground. They were sharper than the spear heads used by the men for hunting, and she had already used one to discourage Chatre. He always came too close to her and his hands were like gutted fish, slimy and putrid to smell.
“With enough of these rocks,” she thought, “I could be like the Volcano God- ferocious!”
She dreamed of scaling the shear slope and touching the stars before dawn could take them away.
And so, she waited.