Three Days to the Border Passes
by Lorvoker
Adventure
In Kyrgyzstan's Tian Shan, Anara, the widow of an eagle hunter, wakes to find her late husband's golden eagle gone from its perch, the only inheritance of her twelve-year-old son, with fresh hoofprints leading toward the Chinese border. The rider is her husband's younger brother, and he means to sell the bird to a falcon buyer who leaves the mountains at the end of the week. With two horses and three days, she must decide whether to take her son into the passes, trade away the family's winter flock, or bargain with her own kin.