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Once, long ago, that thought wouldn’t have see, before I put the sword down and had a chance to breathe It wasn’t by choice that I stuht, nothing to kill, nothing to worry about killing me

And … I find that I kind of like it

Without anything’s entrails to spill upon it, I find round instead I spenddown the beaches with Kataria, listening to her tell me about the various plants, shells and drifte find At least half of the stuff she spews, I’ her, she smiles and … looks at me

Not look looks atshe wants to look at She stares atbeneath my skin, but like my skin is fine as is She stares atinthe voices any to remember my old life, before this all happened I can remember my farandfather’s beard, the feel of the calluses on my father’s hands, the s I can res I’ve fed, barns I’ve swept …

All while I’reat, to be perfectly honest I still drea blue eyes without pupils And while I’m at ease with the Owauku, their taller, bearded friends, the Gonwa, eye me with distaste Perhaps they knew, at one point, I planned to kill them? I don’t see why they would take offence at that, really I didn’t know the

And … I’ I did just write ‘voices’, with an ‘s’ There’s another one, I think … a fainter one than the first one, not so loud, not so de at the door to let it in This one … is subtler, like a wiggle of the knob, a hand pulling at the sheet arounda cup of tea from where I set it down

And sometimes, it’s not so subtle It tries to break the door down, tears the sheet off, slips and breaks the cup It gets so loud … so ANGRY …

But let’s not think about that There’s s to worry about

For exaaol promised to send to pick us up has never been seen, even when Kat and I wait on the beach for any sign on the horizon The Owauku assure me that if any did arrive, they would tell me Frankly, I believe them, since any boat that caht to trade with it

I should be more worried about this than I aood as his word It’s really not that big a surprise; he et six bloodthirsty lunatics off his ship Why would he send anyone to go get them back?

Still, I’m not too worried Even if it’s fallen into disuse, this is still a trading post It’s still close to the shipping lanes There’s no reason to expect that a ship won’t eventually come by If all thatdown the beach alongside Kat, who Iin her own, then I’m fine with that Naturally, I’m a little disappointed that there are no h, I don’t recall if Togu ever told o out of st the Owauku, or even as I’ve seen, he definitely ranks as one of the worst He is living proof that the Gods exist and that their sense of huh they ourds for eyes and a horrifyingly strange accent and decided he just wasn’t irritating enough without having the insufferable speech prowess of a six-headed politician crossbred with a forty-handed merchant

I’m content to mostly spend time with my companions, even if the reverse isn’t true

Asper has nothing but harsh words and ire for ather she’s short with everyone these days Why, I cannot say I know so to ely accredited to the stress of the situation and her lack of clothes Denaos tellssimilar occurred shortly after she woke up and spoke to Dreadaeleon He didn’t have any time to check on her, of course, since shortly after, he made the acquaintance of the Owauku and became wise to their insatiable voracity for human pants

Either way, his attentions are solely on her, in the sauardedDreadaeleon isn’t much better His conversation is curt and brief and, every time, he always scampers behind a hut or a bush to avoid , and if I didn’t care so little, I’d say he was hiding so And every day I thank Khetashe that pubescent wizards are as loath to share their problems as I ans of Gariath, albeit not very widely Perhaps it’s just the peace that Teji has infected ed, flesh-eating lunatic, but I can’t say there’s much of a reason to look very hard

In short, I have to say that Tejithat happened to me Despite the disappearance of my sword, the tome and all my clothes, I’m … alet new pants We’ll get new boots We’ll clean the sand from our buttocks, wash our faces in fresh water, read books with real words and never have need to pick up a sword again

Hope … doesn’t seehteen

THE BENEFITS OF SWAYING GENITALS

On the very s a loincloth, Dreadaeleon counted the ability to urinate without adjusting the garross exposure to insects with a taste for his flesh and the persistent sensation of having a dead rodent lodged up one’s rectu all in obscene measure since his arrival on Teji, he found the former to be the one most practised

Of course, he told himself, it wasn’t his fault Venarie was not a precise art Even the most careful practitioner could find himself strained too much, his spells improperly channelled, and end up with the occasional prely enough, the boy didn’t take much coainst the reed wall of a nearby hut and atterunting would pass as casual behaviour amidst a plethora of lizardmen If they had taken notice of this the first dozen ti attention to the scrawny felloith the trail of yellow dripping down his leg

‘Come on,’ he whispered, ‘finish, finish …’

Even knowing this was far beyond his physical control now, let alone his verbal control, he couldn’t help but urge it along Thus far, he had been able to convince himself that such co out Relief had co to Lenk, and Denaos had never really taken an interest in him before

It was Asper’s outburst that caused him conflict On the one hand, the doubtless endless inquiries as to his health that she would have usually hurled at him were better off avoided Fortunate, he considered, for he hadn’t yet figured out a way toshe would want to concern herself with But at the same time, she was snappish and curt with him, as well as everyone else, and did her best to avoid theh, he had indeed grown fond of the sight of her in Teji’s native garb

The stream ended with a shudder as he carefully wiped himself doith a handkerchief one of the Owauku had offered hi his fingers Not quite an even trade by his reckoning, since that display had likely been the reason behind his sudden breakings of the dam

He found hih, if only because he found himself hard-pressed to even look the eyes This became doubly difficult due to the fact that he was especially hard-pressed to find any way to avoid the creatures