A small, quick-moving child with sun-browned skin and a faded tunic that hangs nearly to the knees. Their hair sticks up in uneven, wind-tossed tufts, usually full of grass seeds. They favor their left foot when sprinting, then suddenly pivot on it with a skittering, birdlike turn. Their front teeth are slightly crowded, and when they laugh they show a dark gap where a baby tooth has just fallen out. They leave the impression of a child who has already noticed three ways out of the room.

Osket is eager to make people laugh but takes danger more seriously than their jokes suggest. With friends they are impulsive and inventive; around stern adults they become watchful and oddly formal. When frightened, they do not cry easily: they start listing routes, objects, and tasks until their hands stop trembling.

Osket lives in a village built beside a shallow, fast stream. Their mother, Dema, repairs nets and their father, Yorgos, tends the communal oven. When Osket was six, a spring flood swept away the footbridge while several children were playing on the far bank. Osket remembered a narrow cart track above the water and led the group to safety, but afterward became frightened of deep, rushing water. Since then, they have mapped every lane and shortcut in chalk, turning the village into a private puzzle. Their friend Tavi, a miller's child, helps test the maps, while the reclusive ferryman Ketta lets Osket watch the river from the safe side of the landing. Now a surveyor has announced plans to divert the stream, and Osket has found a fresh crack in the bank that suggests the village well may be at risk.