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Princess Alara and her guard-in-training, Siptah, have done something unthinkable. By accident, they activated the volcano deep below the tunnels in which they live. If they can’t stop the volcano from erupting the whole of Miu will be lost.

But that isn’t the only problem they have, their fathers are missing and time is running out, so it’s up to them to fix things by themselves. A clue found in the king’s chamber suggests their human friends, Kate and Emma, must come back to Manu to help them. Can the group of friends overcome their fears and frustrations and solve an ancient riddle in time to save the Land of Miu?

From thirteen Australian writers comes a collection of original speculative fiction short stories that will take you from the great unknown of our own planet, to the stars, and beyond to mystical fantasy worlds. These stories of ‘hope’ include High Tide at Hot Water Beach (Paul Haines), Burned in the Black (Janette Dalgliesh), The Haunted Earth (Sean Williams), Eliot (Benjamin Solah), Boundaries (Karen Lee Field), The Encounter (Sasha Beattie), The God on the Mountain (Graham Storrs), Deployment (Craig Hull), Flowers in the Shadow of the Garden (Joanne Anderton), Blinded (Jodi Cleghorn), The Choosing (Rowena Cory Daniells), Duty and Sacrifice (Alan Baxter) and A Moment, A Day, A Year… (Pamela Freeman).

Twelve year old Kate Dawson is unhappy at home. Her widowed mother has remarried and Kate has a stepfather and a six year old half-sister, Emma, who is nothing but a pest. She knows the resentment she feels towards Emma and her stepfather is making her mum unhappy, but Kate is confused by the deep feelings of guilt and jealousy that plague her.

One morning, Emma disappears down a mystical looking well. Irritated but worried, Kate follows and the two girls are thrust into the tunnels of Miu, an unknown place built within the lava tunnels of an extinct volcano. They meet a young Miuan princess and her guard, who are on the run, and the girls are instantly swept into a danger that will test their skills, their friendship and their love.