The Earth Dwellers

You made friends with a prickler?" Hawk says, standing just inside the secret opening, apparently having come inside during my story, "I'm confused," Adele says. "At first I thought pricklers were some kind of plant, but are they an animal? Or some weird kind of person?" "We ate your friend" Tristan says, his handsome face screwed up even more.

This girl's out of her mind, about two pebbles short of a cave-in.

A simple touch, but it speaks so much to me. It’s the way I would touch Circ—the way he would touch me. More’n a touch—a feeling. These two mean a great deal to each other, that much is as clear as the cloudless sky above us.

He hugs me and I’m home. He kisses me and I’m never alone.

Tristan grabs my chin and pulls it toward him and then we’re ripping off our masks and kissing, his lips so soft and yet moving fiercely against mine. I wrap a hand around the back of his head, lace my fingers through his hair, breathe him in, kiss him back. My heart blossoms.

many more survived because of the brave actions of ordinary men and women who found it in their hearts to be extraordinary.

Evil wears many disguises, some that can be mistaken for beauty.

...in the end, we all die. But we don't die equal.