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"What else is involved?" I asked,the path

"Depends on what kind of cloth If it’s cotton, we harvest the cotton, separate it froh a few other steps to eventually turn it into a thin yarn If it’s wool, we sheer, wash, and spin That’s a very siuys have sheep?"

"Yep Goats, cows, and horses, too"

I looked around "Where are they?"

Mandy laughed "Not here, obviously"

"Obviously," I said, feeling stupid

"We have a ranch that’s not far away You can get to it by canoe"

"Aren’t you guys afraid of canners or other people getting out there?"

"No We keep it hidden And protected Even uys have let us know about the canners"

"That’s cool"

"Would you like to see it sometime? I could take you"

"I’d love to" I couldn’t believe I was actually going to see a horse again I’d never been one for riding before, but I couldn’t ignore what great transportation they’d be these days "Do you guys use the horses for getting around?"

"Yeah, sory kids for obvious reasons"

I shook h food on this planet that no one needs to go around eating kids or horses or dogs or any of that crazy stuff"

"You and I know that, but they don’t You’d be surprised how many kids think food just appears in boxes from some factory somewhere I don’t think they ever questioned where their food started, you know, as crops and things"

"Even if they did, they probably think those crops are all gone and can’t be used anymore"

"Exactly Maybe soes But until then, we have to worry about ourselves and keep our animals away from the wackos"

We had arrived at the pool and I looked around, trying to find the gator traps

"Are you co?" Mandy had walked ahead and was already partway down one of the wooden ays, going towards the ring of huts

"Yeah I’ator sticks"

"Gator sticks?"

"Yeah The sharp sticks that keep the gators out"

"Oh They’re farther that way and over there" She gestured to the perimeter around the outside of the huts

"What about the snakes? What er and Sneaky, the raccoons, the foxes, herons, bass, soer and Sneaky?"

"Our cats The snakes don’t really like the snakes?"

"Yeah They’re badass Kind of like canners to the cottono faint "Cottonmouths? There are cottonmouths here?"

She slades, you know"

I looked at the pool with new eyes "Holy crap I swarabbed oofball There are no snakes here We make way too et enough to eat Believeout than here"

I eyed the water, but saiggly thingsaround "I want to see these cats"

"Well, co for attention"

We walked across the boards until we reached a hut that had its cloth sides on but rolled up There were already a few people inside, none of as Peter Dammit

"Bryn’s here to watch us o sit down at a loom At least that’s what it looked like toover to stand next to her I reached out to touch it

"Ah-ah-ah! Don’t touch" She raised her hand as if to slap me

I jerked rasshopper," she said

She moved some levers and passed a hunk of ith souitar strings stretched across the fra soain from the other side I watched her for a few minutes and was fascinated to see an actual piece of cloth starting to appear at the frame near her stomach

"Wow, that is so cool"