From My Heart Down to My Legs (джен)

When Darcy is seven and sneaks into a grunt’s rooms she stumbles across a small shelf of well-read books and the lowly grunt shrugs and lets her borrow them. These are strange tales, featuring young men or women who go on journeys and learn about such strange concepts as family and friendship.
When she is eight Mother kills the grunt and burns the books and makes her swim the gauntlet, but by then she knows enough not to mention the small little pearl of feeling. She keeps it in a little compartment closed off from everyone: Mother is not like the mothers in fictional stories.