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I fell hard on the ground and sprainedaway fro, he was crouching by my side with a fierce look on his face

"Oh, hey, man, I didn’t hurt you, did I?"He had a friendly voice, and I realized er; the look on his face was one of concern, not anger

"I didn’tto scare you a little, man, for fun"

I sat up and rubbed my elbow "I’m okay,"I said

"You’re sure? It ain’t broken, is it? I’ve got herbs that can help, if it is"

"Herbs can’t fix broken bones,"Sa beside Evra

"They sure can’t,"the stranger agreed, "but they can elevate you to planes of consciousness where worldly concerns like broken bones are nothing but minor blips on the cosmic map"He paused and stroked his beard "Of course, they burn out your brain cells, too"

Sam’s blank face showed that even he didn’t understand that long sentence

"I’ain I stood up and rotated my arm "I just twisted it It’ll be fine in a couple of er said "I’d hate to be the cause of bodily harm Hurt’s a bad trip,and chubby, with a bushy black beard and long, scraggly hair His clothes were dirty and there was no way he’d had a bath recently, because he stank to high heaven That’s what the strange s; itabout how afraid of hiuys locals?"the uys are with the circus"

"Circus?"The man smiled "There’s a circus around here? Oh, man, how did I miss it? Where is it? I love the circus I never pass up a chance to see clowns in action"

"It’s not that sort of circus,"Sam told him "It’s a freak show"

"A freak show?"The man stared at Sam, then at Evra, whose scales and color pretty much marked him out as one of the performers "Are you part of a freak show, man?"he asked

Evra nodded shyly

"They don’t mistreat you, do they?"the man asked "They don’t whip you or under-feed you or s you don’t want to?"

"No"Evra shook his head

"You’re there of your own free will?"

"Yes,"Evra said "All of us are It’s our hoain "You hear ru shows You"He slapped his forehead "Oh man, I haven’t introduced myself, have I? I’m so dumb sometimes RV’s the nahed with e his voice to a whisper, "it’s short for Reggie Veggie"

"Reggie Veggie ?"I laughed

"Yeah,"he said "Reggie’s ie’s what they called etarian Well, I never liked that, so I asked them to call me RV instead Some did, but not ie Veggie if you want,"he told us

"RV is fine by me,"I assured him

"Me, too,"Evra said

"And htened up "So, that’s my name out in the open How about you three?"

"Darren Shan,"I told him, and we shook hands

"Sam Grest"

"Evra Von"

"Evra Von what?"RV asked, as I had when I first met Evra

"Just plain Von,"Evra said

"Oh"RV smiled "Cool!"

RV was an ecowarrior, here to stop a road fro Protectors - and had traveled the country saving forests and lakes and animals and stuff like that