El

    By the time I awoke, my clothes had dried and Miles had roasted me two blackbirds and a fish. “We’ll see about that fish,” he said after I’d changed and packed away the meat.

    I woke to the sight of a small songbird perched in front of my nose. It tweeted at me from where it clung to the edge of my hammock.

    “So, what did Bluewhen mean when she said eighteen works for your age?”
    Miles grimaced. “She meant that I’m perpetually stuck at eighteen; old enough to need a job but too young to legally drink alcohol.”

Rice is
white grains in a grey pot
the non-stick coating peeling from use
a hot blank smell
and a breath of steam.
 

swullocking -- muggy, sultry
welkin -- sky
gleen -- burst of sunshine, or a gap in the clouds
brumous -- foggy
brae -- a steep hillside or bank

Eleven days.