"Don't linger near the edge. Fill the jar and run back home," my mother used to say every time she sent me to the lake to get fresh water.

"Why mama?" I would ask. I knew the answer but the story was the one thing I still had from my father.

"Same as your father," she would answer. "Curiosity infected you both the day your eyes first saw the sun. All I wish is that, unlike him, curiosity would not take you from this world."

"Tell me more," I would say. She would nod, handing me the jar and pushing me out the door.

"In the lake lives the thorny one. And the thorny one is always hungry. If you stay there too long, it'll come for you. His long tail, it's not like a dog's, but it ends on a hand. And quicker than fl...

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