Welcome to Stories from Among the Stars. You're listening to Nettelin Bone by T. Kingfisher,

narrated by Amara Jasper.

Chapter 1

The trees were full of crows and the woods were full of madmen.

The pit was full of bones and her hands were full of wires.

Her fingers bled where the wire ends cut her.

The earliest cuts were no longer bleeding, but the edges had gone red and hot,

with angry streaks running backward over her skin. The tips of her fingers were becoming

puffy and less nimble. Mara was aware that this was not a good thing, but the odds of living

long enough for infection to kill her were so small that she could

not feel much concern. She picked up a bone, a long, thin one from the legs, and wrapped the ends with

wire. It fit alongside another long bone, not from the same animal, but close enough.

And she bound them together and fit them into the framework she was creating.

The charnel pit was full, but she did not need to dig too deeply.

She could track the progression of starvation backward through the layers.

They had eaten deer and had eaten cattle.

When the cattle ran out and the deer were gone, they ate the horses.

And when the horses were gone, they ate the dogs.

When the dogs were gone, they ate each other.

It was the dogs she wanted.

Perhaps she might have built a man out of bones, but she had no great love of men any longer.

Dogs, though.

...