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Chapter One
Winterfest Eve at Buckkeep
I as They are both heartier and stronger than I am Born last, I am smallest of all My eyes were slow to open, and I have been the least adventurous of the cubs Both my brother and my sister have dared, more than once, to followdeep in the undercut bank of the river Each ti theoes out to hunt There should be a wolf to watch over us, a younger member of the pack who remains with us But o out to hunt alone and we must stay where she leaves us
There is a day when she shakes free of us, long before we have had enough of herthe den as evening starts to creep across the land We hear frole yelp That is all
My brother, the largest of us, is filled with both fear and curiosity He whines loudly, trying to call her back to us, but there is no response He starts to go to the entrance of the den andback to hunker down in fear beside ht outside the den, bad smells, blood and creatures unknown to us As we hide and whi we know to do We hunch and huddle against the far back wall
We hear sounds Sos at theinto the earth, biting and tearing, biting and tearing We hunch even deeper and my brother’s hackles rise We hear sounds and we know there is more than one creature outside The blood-sled with the so on
Chapter One
Winterfest Eve at Buckkeep
I as They are both heartier and stronger than I am Born last, I am smallest of all My eyes were slow to open, and I have been the least adventurous of the cubs Both my brother and my sister have dared, more than once, to followdeep in the undercut bank of the river Each ti theoes out to hunt There should be a wolf to watch over us, a younger member of the pack who remains with us But o out to hunt alone and we must stay where she leaves us
There is a day when she shakes free of us, long before we have had enough of herthe den as evening starts to creep across the land We hear frole yelp That is all
My brother, the largest of us, is filled with both fear and curiosity He whines loudly, trying to call her back to us, but there is no response He starts to go to the entrance of the den andback to hunker down in fear beside ht outside the den, bad smells, blood and creatures unknown to us As we hide and whi we know to do We hunch and huddle against the far back wall
We hear sounds Sos at theinto the earth, biting and tearing, biting and tearing We hunch even deeper and my brother’s hackles rise We hear sounds and we know there is more than one creature outside The blood-sled with the so on
Then there is another smell In years to come I will knohat it is, but in the dream it is not smoke It is a smell that none of us understands, and it cos our eyes and sucks the breath fros The den becomes hot and airless and finally , and how it continues, and then there is the stink of fear-piss My sister huddles behindor hiding anymore She is dead
I sink down, ing noises go on and then soht to s me from the den
My mother is a hide and a bloody red carcass thrown to one side My brother huddles in terror at the bottoout ry she is dead, and they kick her as if soer canof the cold and onco dark, they skin her and add her small hide to my mother’s The two men cli at the prices that wolf cubs will bring fro markets My mother’s and sister’s bloody hides fill my nose with the stench of death
It is only the beginning of a torment that lasts for a lifetiiven no shelter from the rain The only warether My brother, thin orhting dogs And then I a at all My feet becoe, my claws split and my muscles ache from confineainst bars I cannot break They speak outside -pits I hear the words but I do not understand them
I did understand the words I spas was foreign I was huddled in a ball, shuddering, and s were bent at the wrong angles and confined by so My senses were as deadened as if I added in a sack All around me were the s, fought my way out of my bonds
Even after I landed on the floor, the blanket trailing afterthat I was, indeed, one of those hated humans, I stared in confusion around the dark roo, but the floor beneath me was not the smooth oaken planks of ed toto adjust My straining vision caught the blinking of tiny red eyes, and then translated the embers of a fire In a fireplace
As I felt my way across the chamber, the world fell into place around ed from the blackness when I poked at the embers and added a few sticks of wood Nu the roo ht had passed and that outside the thick and less walls, day had dawned The dire events of the previous day—how I had nearly killed the Fool, left e of folk I did not fully trust, and then dangerously drained Riddle of Skill-strength to bring the Fool to Buckkeep—rushed overhts I’d spent in this less cha’s assassin When finally the sticks caught flaht in the roo journey to return toI wondered briefly why it had cohteyes, one from this world The echoes of him lived on in my mind, my heart, and er at my back I stood alone