10 February 2013 Root-ball

“When twilight fell he looked around for a safe place to sleep. Finally he climbed up onto a fallen oak with its root-ball towering so high into the air that it offered good shelter for the night. The root-ball was like a great rampart of earth, yet some of the roots still clung to the ground as if unwilling to let go of life.”

—Inkspell by Cornelia Funke

I know I’m late to the Inkworld party, but I am quite impressed by Funke’s trilogy. We are reading the second book aloud to Sam now, and while on a walk this afternoon, AC pointed out this fallen tree and said, “Look, it’s Dustfinger’s root-ball,” and I knew exactly what he meant.