Role

Chapter 17

I keep having this dream. Well, it's a nightmare. In it, a tide rises past my
shoulders, to my neck and ever higher. I resist it, stretching, and spit salt water.
But it's no use. I am drowned and there's no swimming my way out of it 'cause my
stubborn paws are merged with the sand. I am powerless to stop the deluge. And so
when I'm finally underwater, I open my eyes. As my held breath releases and water
floods my lungs with my involuntary inhalation, I think, "This is my final work of
art, to be picked clean by fish."




Ketherr,

Been a while, yeah? I was happy to hear about you getting your own shop. That's a
long time coming, you deserve it, brother of mine! It's funny how far we've all
come since we were kits, isn't it? I've even been thinking about putting down roots
of my own. Laeden got to talking about kits again, you know, 'cause everyone else
expects us to have some. And you know me, I've been wary of the notion since always.
Would adventurers make good parents? But we're not getting any younger. Anyway,
since he's Provost and all and saddled with more enemies than we can count on all
our claws, we'd have to keep a family very hush hush. So I've been looking around
at houses out in quiet little burgs. At first I thought Silverpine would be great,
but there's no family near there, and then I started looking in Aturi. Well, you
know, Myrrif and Efthairre both live in Seantryn, and our nieces and nephews are
scattered there and to the South. It'd be nice. Anyway, with all this domesticity
on the table, I've been thinking a lot about cooking. I've thought about it for
years, honestly, since Laeden tends to eat scraps and rats and whatever he can sniff
out. And you know better than any of us that food brings people together. I've
always wondered about other avenues of inspiration I could try. Right now I could
really use a change. Anyway, send me some of your recipes?

Love,
Renize