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Riana was silent through all the time it took to roast the hares,
though some of her fear seemed to leave her as she listened to
Tanis's easy banter and Flint's gruff answers. She did not speak
during the meal but to thank them for the food and finally to offer
to clean the cookware at the stream.
Tanis listened to her careful progress down the bank. A cold wind
scampered through the clearing, rustling the leaves and causing the
bare branches of the trees to rub and clack together. These were
the only sounds in a forest fallen silent before winter's approach.
The sky had been clear at sunset, but now thick clouds crawled
up from the north. Though Lunitari's crimson glow had lighted
each of their nights before this, it would not tonight; Solinari,
could she be seen, was only a slim new curve. Beyond the fire's
glow the trees' gnarled hands scratched at the grim sky. Ghostly
mist drifted between their dark trunks, obscuring the ground and
lowest growths.
In Flint's pack was a small pouch containing nothing but blocks
of wood. Tanis smiled as he watched his friend reach into the
pouch, taking the first one he touched. The size of his hand, the
block was smooth and white, taken from the heart of a maple.
Flint's dagger gleamed in the firelight as he made himself
comfortable before the fire. In the companionable silence that fell
between the two, the little block of wood became a rabbit, one ear
dipped, one standing at the alert
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