Snippets

Chapter 5

I know!! So soon!! It simply means you can't all screech at once if I don't update for a while >:) *keeheehee* Anywhoo, I will do my best to update again soon. I'll be writing more tonight, in fact! But the next few weeks will be sketchy, so bear with me. I love you all so muchly! Have fantasticalipsiotic afternoons/evenings/mornings/whatever it is wherever you are!

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Chapter 5

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(Logis POV)

I made certain we were out of the shabby town early the next morning, though not to avoid the absent traffic so much as to beat the worst heat of the day--not that anytime sun-up was pleasant, as the atmosphere was now so fragile that heat bled through with relentless ferocity.

Glancing back over my shoulder at the small town disappearing slowly behind us, I became curious, "What's the name of that town, anyway?" I asked my companion, turning back to see her ever-vigilant eyebrow cocked at me in that condescending way.

Despite her eyebrow, she replied quickly, "Yiraidketchasht."

"That's a mouthful," I said with sincerity, "No wonder no one bothers to remember the name and simply calls it the shabby town."

"You know it wasn't always shabby." She replied defensively, looking ahead as the highway stretched toward the lower formations of the Palehrodo Mountain Range.

Surprised at her defense, I almost asked about it, but knew I had no business asking about it and nor did I really care. The town's name could come in handy for Mother Kiza's map, however, as the name had not yet been recorded, and mother was the only one with maps anyway.

Besides, I shouldn't be talking with the prisoner. There was nothing I could do for her now. She must have made a mistake, and when it comes to mother, mistakes are never permitted. I flexed my jaw, determined not to become a mistake myself by talking with the black blood.

Of course, she would talk to me...

"So, what's your name?"

That would be the first question. Of course I felt obliged to answer, but somehow I steeled myself to continue walking instead. She repeated her question, nudging me, and I glared at her to let her know she wasn't getting a reply.

Huffing, she stopped in her tracks and glared right back at me, "Oh come on, do you really think I'm attracted to the idea of spending who knows how long with someone I don't even know the name of walking across who knows how much distance to find who knows who so I can adopt another fake identity and give who-knows-her-true-name random who-knows-what-it-means information?!"

I definitely didn't follow that, but couldn't ask for a repeat, so instead I grabbed her arm and power-walked her in front of me so I didn't have to feel the burn of condescension in her gaze.

"Oh really!" she squawked as she marched in front of me, "You really do think I'm attracted to that idea, don't you?" She tried to turn her head around to look at me, but ended up slipping in the loose shale, and I nearly fell with her, cursing internally as the phrase of "embracing manhood" popped so unceremoniously into my mind. I let Shaf fall to maintain my own balance. She bounced back to her feet, spinning around, and opening her mouth to... but I snatched her wrist and twisted it roughly behind her back before she had a chance to say whatever had come to her mind at my lack of gentlemanliness.