Feathered FireBy Roland Clarke
The sun warmed the world as Vasy’s goats nibbled the coarse grass. Light sparkled on the winding Berezina River. A tree stump in the sandy forest clearing gave Vasy the perfect place to tend her friends and watch.
On the far bank, the Nazis were unloading explosives and weapons from trucks. Guns they would use to kill her Soviet comrades. These invading vipers must be driven from her Motherland.
Their noise drowned out forest life. They had felled trees and levelled a track to the water’s edge. They were assembling a bridge from boats and pre-built parts.
“They forget us partisans,” she said to the goats, to the land, and to the sky. “We can stop them.”
She gazed at some birds flying high above her. Was her older sister, Kalyna safe? Her heart swelled, p
