Zahrah the Windseeker

On the plant-covered planet Ginen, Zahrah Tsami lives in the small town of Kirki, on the northern edge of the Ooni Kingdom, a civilization that blends technology with plant life but fears the vast Forbidden Greeny Jungle bordering its settlements. Zahrah was born dada, a rare condition marked by thick dadalocks, hairlocks naturally woven with thin green vines. In Ooni culture, dada people are widely believed to bring bad luck, though older stories say they are destined for wisdom. Zahrah's parents refuse to cut her hair, but at school she endures relentless bullying. Papa Grip, Kirki's village chief and a surrogate grandfather to Zahrah, encourages her to embrace her difference, but she remains withdrawn. Her only friend is Dari, a bold, talkative boy who befriended her when they were seven and has defended her ever since.

Strange things begin happening: A mysterious breeze follows Zahrah everywhere. On the same day she gets her first period, the strangeness intensifies. That night, she feels a tingling sensation and rises off her bed, wide awake and terrified, dropping back down when she panics. She discovers she can levitate by relaxing and concentrating, though fear always breaks her control. She tells no one.

Needing rose oil for her scalp, Zahrah ventures into the Dark Market, a forbidden section of Kirki's marketplace where exotic goods are sold. She meets Nsibidi, a tall woman who sells luck-charm necklaces and works with the idiok, intelligent baboons capable of reading people's personal spirits. Nsibidi reveals she is also dada but cut her hair, and tells Zahrah that dada people are connected to the trees, the plants, and the sky.

Three weeks later, Zahrah confides in Dari, floating off a tree branch to demonstrate. At the Kirki Public Library, they find a single reference in Ooni Fashion Magazine's Best of the Year: a mention of "Windseekers," dada people supposedly born with the ability to fly. Dari also borrows The Forbidden Greeny Jungle Field Guide, a controversial digi-book that has not been checked out in 26 years. They return to the Dark Market, where Nsibidi, herself a Windseeker, confirms Zahrah's ability, reveals that her parents and brother can also fly, and urges Zahrah to practice. The idiok read Dari and give him a glass leaf-shaped luck charm, with Nsibidi warning ominously that he will need it.

Days later, Dari proposes they practice in the Forbidden Greeny Jungle, where no one will see them. Despite her terror, Zahrah follows Dari past the border. They find a sunlit clearing about a mile in and return regularly over two weeks. Zahrah's levitating improves, though she cannot achieve true flight. Then one Friday, a war snake, a white serpent with green military-like splotches, bites Dari's hand. Its venom rapidly drains his energy. Zahrah supports his weight as they walk the mile out. He collapses, and an ambulance is called.

At the hospital, a doctor explains that war-snake venom causes a permanent coma. The only cure is the yolk of an unfertilized elgort egg, administered within three to four weeks. Elgorts are nightmarish beasts known in Ooni only from horror stories, and obtaining an egg is considered impossible. Lying beside Dari and listening to his heartbeat, Zahrah decides to go into the jungle alone. She leaves a letter for her parents, packs minimal supplies, and sets off before dawn.

Her journey north is harrowing. She survives giant spiders, navigates with a digital compass, and sleeps in trees despite her fear of heights. Days in, a massive whip scorpion slashes her arm with its razor-sharp cartilage whip before a giant two-headed tortoise kills the scorpion. The field guide warns that whip-scorpion poison is often lethal, and survivors suffer spontaneous deep-sleep episodes for months. Starving and poisoned, Zahrah finds a beehive inhabited by a wood wit, a sentient personality living inside a tree. The wood wit's bees pressure it into offering a choice: Be cured and sent home, or take honey that might save or kill her. She chooses the honey, which saves her life.

She presses deeper, encountering deadly creatures at every turn. A rude pink frog with gold speckles appears repeatedly, demanding to know what she wants, but she dismisses it. When the scorpion poison causes her to collapse, she is found by Greeny Gorillas, the "Modern People," who live in a technology-free village. Their elder, Misty, heals Zahrah and warns that elgorts once attacked the village, killing half the population. To find a nest deliberately, Misty says, Zahrah must consult the Speculating Speckled Frog, the jungle's most intelligent being. Zahrah realizes this is the rude pink frog she has been ignoring.

Zahrah departs with a green glass destiny necklace from Chief Obax, the gorillas' elderly leader. Two days later, Nsibidi finds her from the sky and urges her to abandon the mission. The next morning, the Speculating Speckled Frog appears, and Zahrah calmly asks where she can find an unfertilized elgort egg. Moved by her determination, the frog gives precise directions. Zahrah slips away from the sleeping Nsibidi and follows them.

She finds the elgort path, a wide swath of flattened trees, and follows it to a cave on a hill. She waits until the female elgort leaves, then enters and finds seven eggs. She touches each: The fertilized ones are warm and twitch; one cracks open and a baby elgort grabs her arm. The sixth is cool and still. She snatches it and runs. The mother elgort races back, its trunk nearly catching her. Facing certain death, Zahrah relaxes and takes to the sky for the first time, bursting through the canopy. A mile away she accidentally drops the egg, but the Speculating Speckled Frog catches it and congratulates her.

The flight home takes three days. She arrives at her family's door at one in the morning. Her father opens it and the family reunites in tears and joy. Zahrah demonstrates her flight for her stunned parents; her mother reveals that Zahrah's great-grandmother could also fly, though the family had dismissed it as a story. They rush the egg to the hospital, where doctors inject Dari with a serum prepared from it. Twenty minutes pass with no change. Zahrah spends the night on a cot in Dari's room. Late that night, Dari speaks, weak but alert. The doctor confirms the next morning that he has fully recovered.

Their story sparks public debate about the Forbidden Greeny Jungle. Papa Grip awards Zahrah a Medal of Honor, Prestige, and Excellence, praising her transformation from a girl who wanted to blend in to one who did the impossible. Researchers discover healing properties in the elgort egg, and scientists venture into the jungle for the first time. Zahrah and Dari visit Nsibidi one last time. Nsibidi reveals that the idiok had foreseen everything: Dari's bite and Zahrah's journey were destined. She also reveals that she grew up far beyond the jungle, raised by Windseeker parents; her father is from a town near Kirki, but her mother is from Earth, a distant world Dari has long theorized about. Sitting together afterward, Dari thanks Zahrah for saving his life. They hold hands, aware that reality extends far beyond the Ooni Kingdom, and head to their favorite baobab tree to watch the sunset, with Zahrah declaring she will no longer sit on the lowest branch.