As Meadow stepped out of the woods. She was now caring a small storm lantern. It was the clearing where she had met Fish Bait before. As Fish Bait rose from the log he had been sitting on, she snarled “noth! You would have to be here.” She looked up into the rain and sniffed the air.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Fish Bait whined.

“You mean noth? Or the fact that I’m complaining about you being.” She looked at him sniffing the air again.

Fish Bait pulled up his cloak more tightly around his shoulders “both I suppose.”

“Fine” she sniffed the air again “noth means curses or cursed and if you weren’t here I could get out of this noth rain and go home where its dry. I can barely smell you.” She sniffed the air again.

“So what are you sniffing?” Lark said.

“I think it’s rotting fish” she said thoughtfully “but it smells a lot like ether and it’s not coming from Fish Bait.”

“Of course it’s not coming from me” Fish Bait replied indignantly “I took your advice and scrubbed with that mild lye soap that your mother makes. That stuff burns you know.”

“Noth kaja” Meadows said sniffing the air “ze dacka basca v’tavver dacka zek.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” he asked looking confused.

“Just complaining about the rain” She continued “Well we better get going. We’ve got a long ways to go and a short time to get there.”

“Do you have to complain in Orcish? Someday you’re going to have to teach me to speak Orcish.” Fish Bait started heading toward Shell “I hope you’ve got a plan”

“I do” she replied as she headed towards the north “and you’re headed the wrong way.”

“Are we going to Somerton?” Fish bait asked.

“Yep” she snarled “I hate rain. But we’ll use one of the roads that come in from the north, and we’ll be disguised. I don’t want to be recognized. We’re going to have to move to get where I want to be before sunrise. We’re going cross-country so trying keep up.” She headed straight pass Copper.

He saw the snake and let loose a yelp “what’s that?” He was pointing at the snake.

“Copper. It seems that Avocet thought I needed a chaperone, so he sent that snake. It probably won’t be able to keep up with us.” She sneered at the snake.

The snake hiss back “I chose to come on my own. I wanted to spend some time with you. I will have no difficulty keeping up with you. I simply didn’t want you to tell Avocet what I am, and to do that I needed to talk to you, in private. I was worried that mind without flesh would read my thoughts, and you would tell Avocet what I really am. You will keep my secret. Hee thinks I just a snake.”

“Of course” she looked back “now let’s get moving.”

“Were you talking to that snake?” Fish Bait inquired.

“Yes, I studied snake in school” she said shaking her head and heading into the woods.

They all followed her and shortly Fish Bait said “but you don’t go to school.”

“Actually, I do, but I go to school in Dalvack.” She said picking up the pace “it’s a real headache.” At the pace she was now going everybody shut up, as they concentrated on keeping up to her. Even Lark seem to be having difficulty until she grabbed Meadows hair and floated along behind her.

I thought I might mention three of the characters, Meadow, Stephen, and Ishie. Although these three characters are chronologically different ages, developmental wise they’re all about the same age. Meadow is ten years old which makes her about two thirds of the way to adult hood. She looks the oldest of the three, but she’s actually the youngest. Because she looks older Stephen tends not to realize that she’s younger than he is. Stephen is fourteen and developmental wise he’s actually the youngest of the three, but he does have more experience than Meadow. She sometimes rather childlike. She also is fairly easy for him to manipulate, due to her lack of experience. Ishie is twenty, but once again she’s about two thirds of the way to being an adult Orlie. Unlike the other two she hasn’t developed any interest in the opposite sex. This is because as a juvenile Orlie she actually has no sexual characteristics. At present she is a complete neuter, and the only reason that she’s known to be female is because she was genetically tested right after she hatched.