Dingos Surrounded the Baby, but Something Older Watched From the Ridge

She Kept the Ring

Clara didn’t show Tom the grass ring right away. She brought it inside to the kitchen counter and sat staring at it while Elsie napped. The braid was clean and precise, not something tangled in passing. It was definitely not a child’s toy, either. She’d seen similar objects used in local stories.

But those were about talismans or markers, nothing made with this level of symmetry. That evening, Tom spotted it while boiling pasta and asked where it had come from. Clara looked up. “The hill.” She watched his expression shift and quickly told him not to throw it out. Not until she understood what it was for. He didn’t argue.

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