Though the G?ren house stood one story high, it had an attic. Reached through a ladder at the very end of the hallway, Hinte had used it quite a bit in the past, for the roof could be reached through the attic. She had gone to the roof a lot when she learned to fly again.
Kouou,” was the response, just two notes repeated a few times. Hinte looked around. The attic was the blind darkness of night, so Hinte retrieved her milkmoth lantern from her bag. The light cast glairy white light.
Kouou,” from the parrot. Hinte licked away the sour venom on her fangs.
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Footsteps came from the hatch. Hinte stirred, not quite sleeping, but not fully aware. She did not know how long she held Monsun, but her lantern had dimmed, shining paltry light and almost dead. A wrinkled face appeared by her side, a purple parrot perched beside them.
She didn’t like to be pushed, either.”
quiet?” he asked.
whom?” Versta mimicked Gronte’s voice.
coocoo. She even know what respect is anymore?”
polyps, and that was telling enough. Hinte shook her head, and walked further into the workshop.
It was a joke, not a veiled insult. She was acting like Ushra`. Kinri meant well.
her new friend hadn’t been good enough.
you don’t need it. Yes, warriors might have won a battle or two with alchemical venom???—??but what of the damage to their fangs? What of the damage to their glands? What of the feeble-tongued aspiring soldier who opts for a dragonfire operation, and the feebler-tongued alchemist who cripples their glands permanently or gives them a defective mixture?”
lie. I’ve hardly perfected die Wunder.”
them needed dragonfire.” Versta trilled, punctuating Gronte’s words. “Shush,” she murmured.
is being used.”
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Ushra had shooed the wivers from his workshop. Versta followed Gronte without question, and Staune trailed behind them. She revealed her ulterior when she flew to the almost-empty bowl on the dining slab. While Staune finished off the leftover food, Gronte collected dinner plates.
Ueheh, minnow.” Swiped, the purple parrot now had some of the feathers of his ridge crooked.
flown, so high and hard, the fluttering, humming flight only a small fledgling could manage. Afterward, it had felt like her wings were broken. The world became silent.
lived. Because of Sonnesche, Hinte did not end up like Monsun.
Hye. Why it smell so sour in here?”
weird. You don’t make any sense.”
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The floorboards of the G?ren house thudded as Hinte slinked to her room. The dim light from the fixtures faded as Gronte put them out. Hinte’s heart fluttered in her breast, and her breath came in staccato pulls. The conversation in the dining room came sparse and dwindling behind her.
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