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Lani frowned "There are only six places to go back to How does anyone forget that?"

"He seereed

"Me," said Kitten

Fox nodded at her "True," he said "Ninety-six big ones That’s old enough to forget things"

"I don’t know," Alex said "Whatever It doesn’t irlto do"

He wanted to believe it But the girl was a single person in a sailboat He had a whole zoo full of people and creatures and statues, plus a giant ship to move The task seemed insurmountable, yet he continued to mask his worry in front of the others "Simber will be here any time now And then we’re out of this wretched place"

Sky shot hi she didn’t believe a word of it

A Second Chance

Progress outside on the ship was slow and purposeful Inside, things wereof material assembled and ready to repair the ship, and every day fewer scavengers were needed and s

But still there was no Simber

Alex buried himself in tasks to keep hispreserve spell coic when his mind was fresh and he could concentrate Instead he turned to his next indoor task The e fluffy pile that had been faithfully added to daily by the Arti for when Alex was ready tocarpet co sleep at night, silently begging Siure out how to acco back to try to fix the tube again seean to pull thetheet the fragile h, and inevitably he ended up with a carpet that wasn’t strong enough to carry Fox,he was nearly there with the design "Just a few tiny kinks to work out," he said whenever anyone asked about the progress He even enlisted help from Ms Octavia, but to no avail Without a looress, Alex knew he’d have to confess the truth He decided to go back to the drawing board one last ti the news But when he entered the nook where thenext to it