Chapter 36

There was silence for a little while and I was glad Master Damien had fed me. My stomach growling would have been very distracting now. The only sounds in the room were the gentle crackling of the fire.

"Once," Master Kein said quietly, "we were on a hunt for a lost man. I was hiding, staying in one place; I had heard the women's wings nearby. They landed less than a body's length from me, but didn't see me."

The men murmured and Master Kein continued.

"Do you all remember? I stayed very silent and watched. They laid the man we had been looking for on the ground. They put a little jug of water beside him. He was sound asleep. Once the women left, I went to him and woke him up. He told me he had run away, he seemed very confused. We'd never seen anything like it."

Master Evan was the next to speak. "The marks on our shoulders, do the women place those?" he asked.

"Yes," Christof answered hesitantly, "I think so. That is what the other men told me." <