Placed on the northern hemisphere the Sea of Ember is a world of ice and stone, a land of fire and storms. Uncanny tempests sweep across the rocky terrain, rising and spreading ashes from dozens of active volcanoes disseminated everywhere in the continent. However, during winter, sudden snowstorms, almost as lethal as the rivers of magma scorching this plagued realm, turn the land into a literal hell. That's when Lithoniel's journey begins, during the last weeks of Spring. It should have been a hunting expedition, a short trip not far from the tribe's territory. Yet, when the Nightstalker, the tribe's chief hunter, decides to bring them in an unexplored area of the Asp ridge, Lithoniel has to decide if she can be something different from the outcast she had been for all her life. But can a fledgling hunter, an outsider in her own tribe be a leader? ------FIRST DRAFT-----

Corporal Dia Zephyr assumed it was just another drill, no more than a Navy tradition, a rite of passage for the recruits. She expected a spacewalk, maybe a shooting game inside an asteroid field, skimming along the Collective's border before turning back to the Empire's space. After all, this was what they knew, what everyone expected. But that's not what happened. Highest ranks: [27 in #Science Fiction - 25 in #Horror 10-01-2018]