rfalcn

Telara, that mark you drew yesterday was beautiful.

Not that anyone's done a design like it before, but compared to all the ones you were trying to copy, it's a huge improvement.

I feel like you've suddenly <i>gotten</i> it.

Don't you remember, Kestrel? After the merchant left that day, you kept drinking and drinking.

We talked about so much that night... not anything to do with 'bite marks', but I remember one thing you said really clearly.

You said you were forever a warrior, but you wouldn't be fighting forever.

And that got me thinking, maybe 'bite marks' are the same. They can be more than warriors' records of the past.

Really... you can look at them as a kind of blessing too. Just like the pattern for protection the chief taught me.

No, Kestrel, what I mean is, I want to draw everything we see. All of it.

Sargon's people, its wilds, and every story we come across. Maybe we can use 'bite marks' to convey all of those.

Not in blood, and it doesn't have to be in special colors, or with designs set in stone in the past...

Hahaaah!

I'm SO glad you came along with me, Telara!

I see now... everything the chief did for me. Everything. That's what it all meant.

Meant... what?

You know, it's really simple.

I'm not in a hurry to head back to the branch office. We've got time to do some more wandering.

I want to see other places like you do. Not just the barrens, but the people and things in places even farther away.

Let's figure out how to create some new 'bite marks' together!

Sounds good to me, Kestrel!

Let's go, then! First up, crossing these barrens!

Kestrel points a finger to the distant horizon, and the two cross the bustling crowd with a grin and make for the wilderness ahead.

In the market crowd under the searing sun, a foreigner waving a piece of paper misses the two of them like cities passing in the night.