The Last Solstice Gift

The Last Solstice Gift is a short story about a child receiving his traditional last Solstice present at the age of 13.

It's set in the Time Before among the Maer, hairy humanoids featured in many of my books. Uffrin, a child in this story, is one of the main characters in Wings so Soft, coming October 2023, and his parents, Cloti, Aefin, and Ludo (called by their family nicknames Maoti, Maofin, and Paodo here) are the main characters of Cloti's Song, coming early 2024. The story also makes a passing reference to The Isle of a Thousand Worlds, in which Cloti plays a small but important role, despite the book being set almost 2,000 years later.

You don't need to know anything about those books to enjoy this very short story.