I saw this a while back, and I've been meaning to read it. I finally got around to it today and I'm glad I did. This was a pretty simple story, with a somewhat quick ending, but I enjoyed the set up of the setting, with the star-farmers coexisting with the Aboriginal spirits in order to make that land inhabitable.

My favorite part (because I'm immature) was when Sam started fighting with the horse. I could just imagine him slapping the horse's face without much effect.

And I was hoping Stella would comment on Sam naming his horse after his sister. Not a very flattering thing to do. x)

Cool twist. I loved the humour with horse-Stella, especially when she just pushed her way into the cottage. If I wasn't so sick at the moment I would've laughed harder. Love a horse with attitude. The world building is wonderful. I could definitely see you doing more with this setting, especially with the malingee. I don't know much about them and would love to learn more. Great work as always.

This was a really neat idea, and I enjoyed reading it! I liked the confusion between the sister and the horse, and her farm's "security" leaves a lot to the imagination _

Can't log in! Anyway, I really enjoyed this setting - Australian wild west! It does seem that this would benefit from being a longer story. Also, not sure what a star farmer is- did I miss that? Having a little trouble reading on my ipod but will be traveling until the deadline.

Holy crap, Bread. I spent most of this story feeling confused and disjointed, but every single detail you included I loved. The Mars-stralia setting. The horse. The horror at the end. It reminded me heavily of Anthony Huso's "The Last Page", and I kept expecting 'horse' to mean something very different in your setting than the mammalian quadruped it means in our world. I also kept expecting just a *little* bit more background on the principle characters, but the Mars-stralia scenery descriptions were wonderful as well.

I would love to read more of this.

This is a brilliant piece, filled with color, mysticism, intriguing characters, and enough Outback to be a Steakhouse in America.

Other than a few typos/missed words here and there, this was an amazing story to read. You managed to fit quite a lot into 3,000 words.

Awesome job!

Sorry y'all, the guest review below talking about Australianisms is from me. I forgot my phone wasn't logged in to FP.

Sorry for messing up your review count, Augs.
Here's another review then, to make it count:

Great work! A wonderful little piece, really bursting with colour.

Ah, wonderful as always, Augie. Your knack for beautiful descriptions gives the valley a real life and energy, and I love the Australianisms, especially the little touches like "larrikin" in the narration. It really cements the Down Under vibe. All the characters have great personalities that really pop even in such a small space, so really well done there. Horse-Stella in particular is fantastic, and I love the image of her somehow disappearing in the tiny cottage.

I really enjoyed the reveal of the true Stella, but you tipped your hand a bit with the "not that he knows of" bit in the description. Still, overall a wonderful little piece. Well done!

Some spelling and grammar nitpicks:

who wanted to retake *the* valley - "the" is missing.

Munity- should be mutiny.

Blood run cold *at* John's next words

Stella bit the *closest* arm

Great story! Your descriptions were spot on, meaning enough for me to understand the setting, but not so much that it took away from the story. All in all good story, it did take a couple of minutes to fully understand what was happening, I think simply because it is a short story and you have to cram as much information as you can.

Oh, dear lord - this is awesome! Dude, you seriously need to consider a switch in genres. I would love to see more Crazy Australian Outback fantasy.

Interesting story! What's a star farmer?