Chapter Four: A Borrowed Shadow

Before leaving Everfair, they had to cross the noon square. It was much too bright. Without a shadow, the little cloud felt like a typo the sky might erase at any moment.

Milo folded her own shadow in half like a black handkerchief and offered it to Mallow. Beneath the cloud, it immediately became a soft little boat.

“Can a shadow be borrowed?”

“Of course. But return it before evening, or my feet may think they have lost themselves.”

Mallow rode in the shadow boat while Milo trotted along the stone road. At the center of the square, a hot wind flattened the cloud. Mallow hurriedly hugged every wisp close, but the shadow boat held steady underneath.

Some things did not have to grow from your own body to become a place of shelter for a while.

At the town gate, the sun leaned a little westward. Mallow pushed the shadow back beneath Milo’s feet, adding a neatly folded prow at the front.

From that day on, Milo’s shadow always seemed to set off half a step before she did.