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Maybe she was drawing near the Smoke

She stared at the two rivers in the darkness, one big and one s that pretty symmetry was silly, because she’d rather have a face with two different sides

Tally hadn’t realized it at the time, but that had been an important conversation for Shay, the first tily If only Tally had noticed at the ti away And they’d both be in a party tower right now, together and pretty

"Right it is" Tally sighed, and eased her board onto the smaller river

By the tiht choice

As the tributary climbed its way into the mountains, the fields around her filled with flowers Soon the brilliant white bonnets were as thick as grass, driving every other color froht, it was as if the earth were glowing from within

"’And look in the flowers for fire-bug eyes,’" Tally said to herself, wondering if she should get off the board Maybe there was so for

She drifted to shore and stepped off

The flowers cae of the water Tally knelt to inspect one closely The five long white petals curved delicately up from the stem and around its mouth, which contained just a hint of yellow deep inside One of the petals below the round Motion caught her eye, and she spotted a s fro its beak into one after another

"They’re so beautiful," she said And there were so many of them She wanted to lie down in the flowers and sleep

But she couldn’t see anything thatthe horizon Nothing li up into the mountains

It all looked so peaceful, a different world froht

She stepped back on the board and continued, slower now as she looked carefully for whateverto stick on a sunblock patch as the sun rose higher

The river cliher into the hills Fro the flowers, expanses of dry, sandy earth The patchy landscape was a strange sight, like a beautiful painting that soot off her board several ti else thateyes" But as the day wore on, nothing made sense

By the ti smaller Sooner or later, she would reach its source, asnowdrift, and then she’d have to walk Tired after the long night, she decided toif anyinto her in her sleep terrified her Who knehat the people inside the thing wanted? If she hadn’t been hidden in the water the night before, ould they have done with her?

One thing was certain: The shiny solar cells of the hoverboard would be obvious froe; ht sun now overhead

She unfolded the hoverboard, but only halfway, and hid it a the tallest flowers she could find Then she hiked to the top of a nearby hill From up there Tally could keep her eye on the hoverboard, and hear and see anything approaching from the air She decided to repack her knapsack before she went to sleep, so she could bolt at a moment’s notice

It was the best she could do

After a Bol, Tally curled up in a spot where the white floere tall enough to hide her The breeze stirred their long stalks, and shadows danced on her closed eyelids

Tally felt strangely exposed without her sleeping bag, lying there in her clothes, but the warht’s travel put her quickly to sleep

When she awoke, the world was on fire