I am proud to say that Alay has been selected to be published in the collection of short stories, After Oil 4: The Future's Distant Shores, an anthology curated by John Michael Greer, author and blogger at the The Archdruid Report, to be published by Founders House Publishing early in the new year. Therefore I have had to remove it from here. Just to get you in the mood though, here is a brief outline of a monumental day in the life of Alay.
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The story takes place roughly two-thousand years after the present, in Dubayuway, in the South-Western corner of present day Australia. It follows Alay, a child of the Mudhamyn, a nomadic collective herd comprised not only of people, but of the many animals adopted by them. They stand out in Dubayuway, with customs and traditions that don't sit well with their static neighbours and Alay though still young, knows his inevitable delegation by the elders is due any day now. The openness of his crude uncle on the matter, while exposing him to certain realities of life, embarrasses him as much as it entertains and educates. But, he is coming of age and finding that the line between youth and adulthood is not so clear cut, nor the path straight.
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