ly, breaking over ecaps flas of courage. On tant s escape of a . quot;Speck,quot; I railed across ters, but s t of land, too large and unkno cross, so I sat on ted. On t her.

    I staggered into ted and depressed,  to talk at all. t  fe by ttled. After t a fire and fed me nettle soup from a copper pot, tory poured fort for tion of my name, except for o ;As soon as I realized s to look for raveled as far as t;

    quot;Little treasure, go to sleep,quot; Smaolac;ell come up  promise.quot;

    t morning or any ot. I read every tense moment, every crack and creak, every ed my grief and gave me rying to drating me drift aoo, but I felt any otry ted to remember properly. I ed t stopping aking me into tion. I kept t I sa and fell  to be merely tcer play over stone, I came upon  tucked beneaturned out to be a fa in a window of sunsernally. And never here.

    retcory. I spent an eternity trying to forget rying to remember. t to talk about  I surprised ter an afternoon of fiso tion not intended for my ears.

    quot;No our Speck,quot; Smaolacold t;If s be coming back for us.quot;

    tole furtive glances at me, not knoring of fiso sending t t on me. But   s survived, but I preferred to t so t to mind tense colors of her eyes, and a brief smile crossed my face.

    quot;S; I said to t group. quot;I kno;

    t turning over stones in ts and salamanders, to cook togete, and took its toll. Famisiny bones t cruncars emerged,  to bed, our stomacaxed by te late t morn