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FOREVERGREEN PART 10óAhn Lai is locked in a cell talked to by Willowsnap who also
finds and flies into and knocks over Windkin. Preservers have 3 fingers. Windkin
admits he doesn't understand the humans as much as he thought he did. Aramak is recalling
his childhood, at a time when he has his hand wrapped when one of his fingers was
cut off to make more elf like. His blond mother tells him those who died, those who
came before him, faltered in their belief. Soon she will see how beautiful he will
look when they slit his ears and put in their his points. He has blueóish hair, wears
only a thong of white and red lined, held by a yellow jeweled chain around his bare
hips. He will believe he tells his mother. He will be as the spirit who has guided
them before memory: Door. He thinks because he will believe, he will stay just as
young as he is now. Aramak laments that he grew old. Dodia thinks it strange they
live among so many humans now...and wishes they didn't smell so. Jethel has a reed
in his mouth as he and Suntop sit near GeóO who is tied to a post, sitting also.
He will tell them nothing. Suntop asks, "What would we want to know?" Dodia
thought Chot might be hunr...he grabs an apple from her. The human boy will tell
Dodia nothing. Dodia sighs and tells him that no one cares that he is here. Yun returns
to the pool and looks in. Above her, in the trees, are Kimo and Dart, both holding
in their laughing but they jump near her and splash, teasing. Kimo tells her they
thought she might have been a human, she was making enough noise, calling her a clumsy
GoóBack. He and Dart are shirtless and possibly totally naked. When they splash her
from the inside of the pool, she jumps in at them, yelling she will tear the guts
out of both. PeióLar asks, "MMM...and this would be...what? Another strange
sky spirit rite that we humans wouldn't understand?" Shenshen siiigghs, "It's
the waiting..." Door, out on his perch, thinks of the Black Snake, who said
she would help him explore places and do things. She did through her cruelty. He
marveled at the games she played with her own son, her human pets, with other elves
of Door's people. And with him. He resolved never to let that happen again and to
use his own pets. Door tells the two slave boys they are hisóóhe can root them to
the ground as easily as put stones in their bellies. He claims Winnowill's lesson
is at an end. Two elves from Sun Village with wolves look to see the human caravan
coming toward their village. The little male in blue shoulder cape and gray boots
and the red dressed redheaded female will go back to Savah to warn her of the many
humans coming. The male tells the female they will go back to die with their friends.
Thuggop leads Bailon and his slave boy and many other humans, both older men and
young boys across the desert. Thuggop has his own reasons for wanting the slaughter
of the Desert Spirits. A green eyed blond human says they will have new land, weapons,
allies, and riches. The slave boy tells them Thuggop wants not only spirit flesh
but bones to gnaw on. He ischased by the troll. Savah laments they may lose Suntop's
original birth home. The Palace of the High Ones has been shattered by Winnowill's
treachery and the elf tribes are splintered, "Is this where Rayek's endless
circle finally breaks?" Savah is happy that Suntop is not here. If her part
in the scrolls ends now, he will carry on. She is tempted to send to her kitling
and tell him of all that is yet to come but she cannot...he is too good at what she
taught him. "He would see in the future I reveal, the present I cannot hide
from him...and I would spare him that grief, at least for a time. Remember all that
was, the searching, the discovery, the happiness and the love...oh, especially the
love! And keep in your heart above all else, the memory of the place where you were
bornóówhere you grew and learned. Remember this little green growing place, here
beneath the Daystar, that was once called...Sorrow's End." |