Chapter 35

As Bartz started to come to, he heard two gruff voices in the back of his consciousness. One of the voices was saying, “How did the human break his legs raking leaves?”

“I don’t know,” the other voice said. Even in Bartz’s semi-conscious state, he could tell the other voice was only playing along.

“It fell out of the tree!” the first voice said, barely able to contain itself.

Both voices started to guffaw with sharp yips thrown in. With that, Bartz became fully conscious, though his head was still spinning and his eyes were blurry.

When he found himself stretched out on the ground with his arms and feet tied to stakes, he wished he was still out cold. He looked over to see that Tomas and Nata were beside him, also staked out like tarps. He noticed they were all still breathing and heaved a sigh of relief. At least there was hope.

A scruffy dogman with one eye walked over to him. “Good. You are awake,” he said to Bartz.

“You speak common,” Bartz sa