Ankyra Sound he beat her with a belt once, ‘cause she cried

After all the traveling they had done, it seemed strange this was where their journey ended. Raleska, conditioned lean by long and hard miles, could not help but feel some unseen monster lurked between the impossibly large trees. Maybe it even sat in the grotto, and would uncoil its immense frame and slither our from the caves to eat them all. 

She had no way of knowing her mother shared the same feeling of burdenous foreboding. Maybe being neurotically high strung was a family trait. In any event she eyed the trees (had they been that big before?) with healthy skepticism, and kept mostly to the beach where the monolith’s tall shadows could not reach.