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‘She does not see it, either She hears It is loud’

And at that cue, her ears trembled with a sudden violent tremor that coursed down her neck and into her shoulders He saw her lips peel back in a teeth-clenching wince, as though she sought to hold on with her jaws to whatever it was she had found with her ears He felt her shudder, through the soil, as she clung to it

And he saw her release it, head bowing, ears drooping and folding over the to drive it aith as ht to hold on to it

He listened intently and heard nothing but the frigid voice

‘Didn’t like the noise Pity’

You … did you hear it?

‘Main?’

Did you or did you not?

‘Heard, not so h …’

Sensed what?

‘Intent’

What intent?

No reply

Whose intent?

Silence

‘Whose?’

It was only after the snow had flaked away, after the nu silence in his head passed and was replaced with the distant ae outside, that Lenk realised he had just spoken aloud

She turned to regard hihtened beast than a shict

‘What?’ she asked

‘What?’ he repeated, blankly

‘You said so?’

‘We didn’t’

‘We?’

‘Well, you didn’t, did you?’

‘Nothing’ She shook her head a tad too vigorously to be considered not alar

‘Are you …?’ He furrowed his brow at her, frowning ‘You looked a bit distracted just now’

‘Not ain with a tad h her skull would co into an easy s in their sockets ‘What about you?’

‘What about me?’

‘Are you well?’

‘I’m …’

‘Calm’

What?

‘When was the last time we felt like this? No concerns, no fears, no duties …’

‘You’re what?’ Kataria pressed

He opened his mouth to reply, but beca that violated his ears A blue blur whizzed past his head, circling twice before he could even think to swat at it And as he felt a sapphire-coloured dragonfly the size of a hand land on his face for the twenty-fifth ti about it

‘I’m a tad annoyed, actually,’ he replied as the insect made itself comfortable in his hair

‘You could always swat it off, you know,’ she said

‘I could and then its little, biting cousins would flensehis arh fear that the little ones will flee at the sight of the,’ Kataria said, ‘if you’ve been around long enough to figure out insect politics’

‘It’s not like I’ve got a lot else to do,’ he growled He cast a glance over her insultingly pale flesh, unpocked by even a hint of red ‘How is it that they’re not biting you, anyway?’

‘Ah’ Grinning, she held up an arh the roof and displayed the waxy glisten of her skin ‘I ss don’t like the taste, I found’

‘Is that what that smell is?’

‘I’m surprised you didn’t notice earlier’

‘Well, I noticed the sohrinned broadly ‘Every part is used, you know’

‘Yeah,’ he said, scratching an errant itch under his loincloth ‘I know’

He could feel her laugh, seeping into his body like some particularly merry disease And like a disease, it infected hirin of his own at her, to take in the depth of her eyes He could scarcely reht, so clear, unsullied by scrutinising concern

‘It is nice, isn’t it?’

It is

‘It could always be this way’

It could?