on the digestive nature of tangleweeds

OIA'I'O

and i asked myself about the present:

Were you to hear your twin's thoughts, you would remind him that pride has nothing to do with it. Your work is satisfactory at best. Moreover pride is not something Rae would likely feel towards the pair of you anyways. Then again though you think you understand your life-giver better than your twin, really, you have the same set of evidence. You disagree with your twin's conclusions, but both hypotheses are consistent with what you know.

But you aren't a mind reader, so it hardly matters.

"Small rodents perhaps? Grasshoppers and the like?" Pausing, you consider what you've just said. "I expect flinthoppers could probably devastate an entire population of these." Which of course leads to a follow up query: "Do you think flinthoppers reside here as well?"

As Kai leans against you, you fight the immediate impulse to grow stiff and take a step away. You love Kai in a way you'll never love anyone (or anything else), but even that doesn't stop the immediate rising panic that physical contact brings. But over the years you've learned how to control it especially well with him. Your version of cuddling him back is simply remaining where you are, and perhaps leaning into him slightly as you try not to over-analyze.

"I don't know." But that isn't what he's asking. He's asking you to speculate, and only because you love him so, do you endeavor to do this, much as you loathe it. "Being contained they might have either grown placid, or more aggressive. Then again, the documents indicate that the number of Outlanders being portalled in has increased dramatically. They might be accustomed to people showing up, by now. "

The notion they might have forgotten the gods does make you tense involuntarily. They can hate Rae all they please, it changes nothing. But to forget something so fundamental strikes you as ludicrous. Then again...barred as they are, it is possible. "The heralds will have reminded them." You say, though suddenly you feel far less confident in this.

how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep