Adama lives in a time long before recorded history, when the small population of human beings exist at one with nature. Intelligent, they still retain something of the wild animal. The climate is tropical summer, punctuated by a short rainy season that isn’t only a time of constant heavy rain, but also when the Grim appear. These creatures are the reason humans build burrows, to hibernate in during the rainy season. But the Grim have begun to detect these underground burrows and root out their inhabitants. When Adama meets Graf, a traveller from the north, they share a quick sexual encounter before Graf continues on his way. However, the rains have come early this year, and with the threat of the Grim, Graf turns back. They share Adama’s burrow, but even securely tucked away, there are dangers. Who, or what, is banging on the entrance to their burrow? Will Adama and Graf survive to explore their burgeoning friendship?

The Burrow

There was a large cave nearby that opened out of the ground like a giant yawn. It went back further than he’d ever gone, but he didn’t need to explore it any more than he had. To one side was a narrow ledge, quite high up and accessed by a tumble of rocks at the far end. Back along the ledge, towards the front of the cave, was a small, enclosed space, hollowed out by millennia of water passing through it from above.


There was no longer any water. The space was as dry as a bone. The walls of the ovoid cavity had been worn smooth by the action of the liquid, and aside from a small opening, which was used to enter the space, there was a narrow vent to connect it to the outside world, thus providing oxygen without letting in anything unwanted.


Chapter 2