Short Stories 2

The Orphan

The young girl stood upon the shore, her feet sinking into murky sand, and her hands covered by dangling strands of seaweed and kelp. Her name was Orbona, and she worked tirelessly in the fading afternoon light, pulling clumps of algae out from a mound laying plump upon the coast. Orbona’s hair was ratted and brown, with sticks and leaves caught in the knotted net of her scalp.
Her cloak was drenched thoroughly, a sodden garment of loosely threaded vines. The girl’s skin, deeply tanned and glowing amber in the fading sunlight, was coated by thick layers of swamp muck and sand. Her ankles were covered
by marks where leeches had gnawed, and her toes were calloused by years of trudging through sharp bristles and vermin-ridden flora. Orbona, however, was not particularly fussed about the state of her appearance.

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