Hollis & Crestess

In a world of hard labor and handmade trades, Hollis is a warrior of the dirt. But when a boy glitches into her yard smelling of a sea that shouldn't exist, she realizes some wounds can't be mended with a needle-and some secrets are better found in the silence of a slow-burn heart.Twenty-year-old Hollis is a warrior of the mundane. In a world that prizes the steady hand of a seamstress and the sharp edge of an axe, she and her cousin Rocure are the anchors holding their family together. Surviving is a rhythm: the smell of curry, the warmth of shared tea, and the "deepest trust" found in a quiet moment on the porch.
But Hollis's reality is haunted by a father who vanished into the "Great Silence" and a dream of a sea she has never seen.
When Crestess glitches into her yard-smelling of salt spray and sounding like a lightning strike-he brings the mystery of the coast with him. He is a boy out of place, a "loop" in time that shouldn't exist. As Hollis hauls him out of the dirt and into her life, a slow-burn connection begins to form-one born not of heat, but of shared burdens and whispered secrets.
Between the hard work of the farm and the strange magic of the teleporting wanderer, Hollis must decide: is Crestess a clue to finding her father, or is he the first person to finally make her feel secure enough to stop fighting and start thriving?