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. These past nights they tell of battle, and of
life and death for a stag. It's a' there - for them as looks
close." He added, "Maybe tha has not seen these strangers -
but tha will." He turned to go.
The stag watched him. "I have a retort," he called,
"timed and well framed, laden with irony and literary
allusion - but I refuse to favor you with it. I have my
dignity."
The centaur said nothing, and in the stag's heart he
knew that was the best retort of all. The centaur waited a
moment longer, then went his way.
A moment later the lead draconian appeared, sword
ready, behind the stag. "He is gone?"
"He is." The stag was looking where the centaur had
been, thinking hard. He tried to imagine the centaurs dead
and defeated, bleeding as the wood fell again to strangers.
He could not imagine that any centaurs would run, or
would turn traitor, or would think at all of themselves.
"Then we remain undiscovered."
The stag thought over the centaur's words. "Let us say
you remain unseen. Remain so a while longer, by moving
behind me again."
The draconian looked at the stag without love and
withdrew. The stag moved slowly, thoughtfully, toward the
center of Darken Wood.
He caught himself humming
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