Nara and the Long Water

She dreams of blue. Nara is born in a hollow of ferns, six steps wide. On the twelfth night she dreams ofsomething blue with no edge and a sound like breathing that never stops. Her mother saysdreams are for sleeping in, not for walking to. She goes anyway. Everyone she stops forPip, a rabbit with one floppy ear who insists nothing is that big. Tam, who counts everythingthree times and is never without an acorn. Bo, an otter who will not let go of his favouritestone, until he gives it to you.

Iris, a heron on one leg who says one word a day. Rook, afox kit who sleeps with one ear up. Mossback, a turtle older than the meadow with a flowergrowing on his shell. Juniper, a gruff badger and her three cubs. Nell, an owl far too proudto ask for help. Scuttle, a crab with one enormous claw. Each one teaches her something sheneeds later, and every one of them comes back at the end. The words you type are the storyThere are no word lists.

Every line you type is a line of the story — from she isborn to a passage that names every place she came through. Fifty levels across fivechapters, and the scene performs what the sentence says: when the line reads Nara pullsthe thorn out, she braces her hind legs and pulls, once per keystroke, and the world stopswhile she works.…