For children: A giant comes to Kato in search of a storyteller. Kato is sure he is mistaken

Kato shot the flat pebble over the small lake’s placid surface, causing a ripple to streak across it like the Thalaxu’s web. Lakhi, kini, kuthu, bidi, pungu, tsugho… he counted to six before the stone finally disappeared into the water with a satisfying plop! Chuckling to himself, he bent to retrieve another missile from the teetering heap at his feet.

“Oizao! Dear mother! What are you still doing here, you rascal!” A very annoyed voice thundered into his solitude.

He picked up his satchel and watched his mother storm towards him, cane basket swinging from her back. “Get going this instant or I shall whip the skin off your buttocks!”

Stooping, he picked up one last stone, this one as black as his mother’s hearth, and whiffed it onto the water before running away, shooting a defiant look at his tormentor.

If he’d stayed to count, he’d have noticed that the stone skipped over the water thrice before it vanished above the lake. The spot where it disappeared mid-air shifted like the air sometimes does on a really, really hot day – one moment it was there and the next, it simply winked out of sight. But Kato was already racing up the slope, and...

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