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The Cavers Kiss: Snippets Part 2

Here are some more snippets from The Caver's Kiss.  Enjoy!





     Hilma clinched her ancient fist.  “You may make him welcome, but I will make him fly like a frightened bat.  Then we will have both fulfilled our promises.”

 **


     Instinctively, my eyes wandered from Kana as she sang and into the shadows at the outskirts of our light.  Ally sat there, curled up with her heila.  And, as I watched her, she looked up and her eyes met mine.

     Whether I believed the Wheston legend or not, there was something peculiar about our circumstance.

**

     His words smacked against Ally like a slap, and she wished she could slap him back.  

 **

     “You LIVE here,” Amos said in a fierce whisper.  “I’ve never seen a cave to match the beauty of this one, and you get to see it every day.”

 **
     “I’m sorry, but that is the best one yet,” Amos laughed.  “It’s right up there with the tribe that required young men to kill a wild boar and eat its heart.  Or the one that required a young man to dance the kirawimba for 24 hours straight.”

**
      “Mm-hmm,” she said, around a mouthful.  Then she poked at my stew with her carved spoon – more specifically, she pointed at an unidentifiable slimy green lump in my stew.  “Make sure you eat your iaki,” she said.  “It will make you live long like grandfather Grayun.”
      It was a rather disgusting-looking lump.  “Is it worth it?” I asked Kana.  “Just how old is Grayun exactly?”

**

     But the relationship seemed a little rocky, no pun intended. 

**
      I raised my eyebrows.  “And they lived happily ever after.  The end.”  Maybe I had been mistaken in thinking I was living in a legend.
     “No,” Ally said, her voice so serious that I flinched.  “Because then I was born.”

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