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“I told you not to enter these woods alone” Silas joined him on Vala “Did it touch you?”

Scab looked at his hands to see four pink marks on each “It scratched me”

“We must clean them, hold on”

Silas washed the scratches in water mixed with ash from the fire An old wives’ tale, but there wasn’t much else he could do The alternative was to chop the hands off

Scab’s head hung forward He’s feeling sorry for himself, as he should I couldn’t have made the instructions any easier to follow

The bruises under both Scab’s eyes had al, and many of the little scrapes and scratches were healed How is this possible? Those eyes were black as night only days ago Silas had bruises himself that eeks old No, he can’t be He’s just a skinny little boy I ined the bruises to be worse, rime

Silas was happy with his conclusion that the boy who sat in front of hirey eyes that heals at incredible speed Not a demon

He wiped Scab’s hands and tossed the cloth into his lap “Your hair looks like a bird’s nest”

Scab withdrew his hands to the cloth

“Use that to dry them” Silas stood and approached Vala He untied the squirrels and a bundle of kindling and dropped them at Scab’s feet “Stack that up in a pyramid, like I showed you yesterday”

Scab moved onto his knees and pulled at both ends of the bundle

Silas held out his blade “You’ll need this to cut the binding”

Scab stared at the blade, motionless

“Take it”

Scab took the blade and looked at it for a moment, then chopped at the bundle A little violent, so to kill it” Scab looked over the blade again as he twisted it “Like it?”