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 Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2009 3:12 pm
Sasha's blue eyes widened as she asked, What's a horse? Is it like a bicycle?
In her limited experience with things that could be ridden, she'd found you could ride human beings, and that human beings sometimes rode bicycles to get around more quickly. Aurelie didn't, and Sasch was glad, because they looked like excellent contraptions for getting palui paws and tails caught, and they traveled much too quickly for her to be able to keep up on foot. She didn't like them.
Mm...Some humans just have more talented hands. Or maybe more experienced, Sasha agreed. She wasn't much of a lap-palui, and she didn't really like being held or carried, either, though she'd ride on Aurelie's shoulders or allow herself to be draped over them. I probably shouldn't have asked.
She twitched her ear multiple times to scare off a fly which was buzzing too close. She didn't like having bugs land on her, and some kind of flies bit. But you must have traveled to the fiery mountain to become...as you are. What's it like there?
Sascher-tort didn't think she'd like it, but she didn't mind hearing about it.
It took Aurelie a few moments to realize that when Conall said Kel he was referring to his palui. After that his response made a great deal more sense. The majority of her experiences with horses had been with the high strung show-quality variety. Some of her friends at boarding school had been into jumping and dressage and their horses had been the spookiest creatures Aurelie had ever dealt with. One of them was so high strung it had to have a comfort companion to keep it calm in unfamiliar settings, which was a goat in this case, and was prone to bolting otherwise. She hadn't been overly fond of that particular horse, who was also given to kicking without warning.
"That must be quite a sight. Kel's fire attunement doesn't bother her, then? That's very interesting." She would have thought that any animal would be a bit spooked by a flaming palui, and would have been uncomfortable even scenting such a palui. Not that she'd noticed much of a fiery or brimstone-y smell from Ceallach, but her nose wasn't as sensitive, and the wind wasn't blowing from the right direction.
She didn't have much experience with attuned palui. Sascher-tort hadn't attuned. Probably because she was kept indoors and away from those materials which were known to cause palui to attune in the wild. It wasn't something Aurelie had done consciously. She knew it wasn't natural for palui to remain unattuned, and she'd still love Sasch regardless of whatever she attuned to, but the little house-palui hadn't shown any signs of attuning. She knew some humans tried to attune their palui to certain elements, and the thought had crossed her mind, but it seemed unnecessary.
"I guess I should say thank you and leave it at that," she said. "It's much better than hearing 'You don't look much like your picture.' Not that it matters, I guess. Innocuous conversation topics and whatnot."
She shrugged. Talking about her publicity photos wasn't exactly the best topic she could imagine talking about. She'd rather stick to his horse, really, but it didn't really matter, she supposed. It was unlikely, from the words he chose to accept her offer, that he'd ever take her up on it. She guessed it was because he was a self-sufficient man who didn't want to be beholden to anyone, even if they wouldn't think of it that way, but she couldn't be sure.
Or maybe he simply didn't like her. His question about surrogacy bordered on hostile. She hadn't considered that he might have paid that much attention to the press surrounding her accident. It had been a number of years ago. Not long enough that she could forget about it. Hardly. But long enough that there was no reason people who weren't actively interested in her life should remember things like that about her life. His daughter must be quite the fan.
"Surrogacy had crossed my mind," Aurelie said, choosing her words carefully while trying to sound like she wasn't. It had been a while since she'd had to answer questions in this vein, and she was out of practice. "Naturally I would treasure the idea of having a child with my DNA, as it's basically a biological urge to reproduce. But I've enjoyed enough medical miracles at others' expense in my life. Asking for more at this point would be taking selfish to a damning level. When I decide I'm ready to be a mother, I'd like to be a positive change in someone else's life, and welcome them into my life, for good or ill."
It wasn't quite as smooth as she used to be, but it covered all the main points. The real reason she hadn't considered surrogacy was that she had been told it would be a bad move on her part. The special treatment her status had afforded her had placed her family in an unfavorable light, and it would be best if she avoided incurring any extraordinary medical expenses for the rest of her life. She heartily agreed that she would try to avoid doing so, and was a good enough politician's daughter to sacrifice her own hopes for her parents' standing. After all, they were denied a grandchild of their own flesh and blood, just as she was denied a child.
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 9:20 am
Ceallach hurmed thoughtfully to himself. What had it been like? A little hard to remember, and a little hard to describe. "Well... It was hot," he said eventually, "great view; you could see forever on a clear day. Lots of ash on the ground; that's what turns you apparently, the ash... Err... well, there aren't too many trees or plants of any sort nearby the top of the mountain, you have to go a little way down the slope to find food and water." He remembered that being annoying, probably one of the reasons he tired of the place. Spending his day plodding around looking for something decent to eat and drink was not his idea of fun...
Hu. Ceallach glanced up at the humans and frowned to himself. Red seemed rather agitated. He'd thought the two were getting on alright. There wasn't much in his human's voice to give it away, perhaps a slight hint of tension, but it wasn't that he'd noticed. He wasn't even sure what he was; he could just tell when Red was unhappy about something, a talent he gathered most of his kind shared.
"What's up with them?" he wondered aloud after a moment, turning to Sascher-tort with a bemused tilt of his head.
Damn. He'd gone too far. Far too far. Damn. Despite the innocence of her answer, something about it still annoyed him, which was stupid. Everything about this was stupid. She was a nice girl, clearly she was. He was just being an idiot, and letting an unrelated incident colour his feelings for her. Her accident and the subsequent string pulling had come years after his sister's death. Perhaps it was the fact that they'd never been told who had been bumped up ahead of Kelly. Nobody to blame, except everyone who'd had similar things done for them. Was he really this stupid an immature? Well, maybe, but he was going to try not to be at least.
Conall sighed and rubbed his face wearily. "Sorry. That was inappropriate. I shouldn't have said anything." No, he really shouldn't have. Idiot. He'd always been an idiot. He wanted to get on with everyone on the island, but he'd certainly blown this encounter. Even if he hadn't, he wasn't sure he could stand to know Aurelie well. It wasn't her fault, but he was still faintly bitter and angry. Twenty years. It had been twenty years. He should have let go of the resentment by now. Why had he been able to get over losing her but not over the anger? Because he was an idiot, clearly.
"Look," he sighed and shook his head, "sorry, really. I think Rachel might like to meet you sometime if you're not totally sick of the sight of me. We live on the northern edge of the settlement; the house is the one with the paddock and the big horse." Smiling weakly and rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably, Conall added; "If you like you can take 'Pony for a drive sometime, or a ride, if you can get your legs around her; she's a big girl." Stupid, stupid man. "Oh, and no, not anymore... I mean Kel, he doesn't bother her anymore. She was wary of him at first but she'd got over it."
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 11:10 am
Sascher-tort hadn't taken in a single thing Ceallach had said to her since his human had said something which had caused Aurelie's mood to shift abruptly. Something the big human said had put Aurelie's hackles up. Reflecting her human's mood, Sasch's ears lay flat against her skull and her tail lashed anxiously. She completely disregarded Ceallach's query and leapt instead to intercede, streaking across the sand until she was able to work her way between Aurelie's legs and stare fiercely at Red.
Knowing that the human would be too stupid to understand her exact words, Sasha didn't bother trying to articulate her displeasure with words. The defensive stance and furiously lashing tail ought to be sufficient warnings that she would bite him and worse if he did anything to hurt her human. It did occur to her dimly that Ceallach might be similarly inclined to protect his human, but Red was acting as the agressor, from what Sasch could tell, and didn't need protection.
She was pleased that the human took the hint and changed his tone, convinced that her actions had prompted his behavior. Nothing would have stopped her from defending her Aurelie, but she didn't think she'd come out of it well. He was many times her size, and even if he wasn't as quick, he was very strong, and if he did manage to catch her...Well, it hadn't gone that direction, so she wasn't going to consider it.
Aurelie's composure was cracking around the edges. Of course it was an inappropriate question, and the fact that he recognized it didn't make it any less offensive. If anything, it made it worse, because he'd known it was an inappropriate subject to bring up. Not that there was any way anyone with even a mote of social sense could have mistaken it for an acceptable topic of conversation between two strangers. At least she had mastered her uncharacteristic blushing before it could turn into furious flushing.
A slight tremor ran through her as she forced herself to keep her expression pleasant. She didn't dare take the deep breath she wanted to take, because if she did she would betray more of her inner turmoil to Conall than she cared to. She was much too proud to willingly allow him to see how effectively he'd gotten to her. Clearly she either needed to go back into therapy or spend more time dealing with people. As the island lacked a therapist's office, as far as she knew, it would have to be the latter, which meant she'd have to handle this diplomatically.
"It's not like I haven't been asked that before," she pointed out, reminding herself as much as Conall. "And it's not a completely unreasonable question. Definitely unexpected, but considering my background, not unreasonable."
Talking was restoring her calm better than she had thought it would. She liked words. If there was magic in the world, and she had any control over it, she would want to be a word-witch. It was an idea she'd toyed with a bit, but never put into writing because it would take entirely too much explanation for an main character's ability, and as a secondary character she couldn't see much use for such a being. So the idea sat on a back burner.
"Pony sounds like a very practical creature," she said.
"I would love to meet Rachel," she said. It wasn't quite the truth at this point, but she was able to separate this unknown daughter from the somewhat offensive entity that was her father. He had at least apologized, and even if he wasn't truly contrite, he'd made a token effort. "And Nuala and Pony, if you truly don't mind. But I don't want to force my way into your lives. It sounds like you're at a juncture where you don't need to introduce outsiders right now."
She refrained from mentioning that she wasn't used to meeting people who read her works outside of an obviously professional setting. She could, of course, just introduce herself as Aurelie, but if Conall had recognized her from her picture (with prompting), there was a good chance Rachel would recognize her anyway.
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 11:52 am
Ceallach glanced over at the other plaui before making his way slowly over to his human and rubbing up against the tall man's legs. He was angry and upset and... Confusing. Mixed up. Tired. Well, maybe he wouldn't be friends with Sascher-tort after all if Red didn't like her human. He didn't really want to in any case if the little thing was that easily roused to threats of violence. Ha, she was lucky Red wasn't as vicious as she was; he'd squash the little fluffball like a bug.
Choosing to remain silent for now, he didn't have much to say to someone who threatened his friends so quickly, Ceallach rubbed against his human's legs again and remained protectively close by. If Sascher-tort decided to throw herself at Red, the human wouldn't even need to splat her; he'd just set sparks in her fur and sent her whimpering to the sea to put them out. Sure he'd liked her before, but that was inconsequential if she was planning to attack Red. He wished he could work out what was wrong.
She was still annoying him. Something about her now, other than her good fortune, was grating. Rich, posh, never known anything about real work in her life. You chose the limelight, he thought silently, you brought these questions upon yourself. Hell, it wasn't even inappropriate really. You put yourself in the spotlight girl, expect to be stared at. And yet there you stand, trying not to look like you bit on a lemon. You asked for it. You invited it.
Still. Rachel might want to know her so he had to be polite and ignore the angry little thing between her legs. Palui picked up on moods, he knew, so clearly the girl was angry or upset or both. Well he hadn't meant to upset her, but really she should have got used to how famous people were treated by now.
Kel must have noticed his own agitation; the fire palui was standing close beside him, ears perked up alertly. He was glad that at his little friend hadn't shown him up by a display of aggression, and glad also of his supportive presence; it was helping him keep his cool. This was no time to be angry, or to suddenly miss Kelly again. Usually he only felt that wave of loss and grief when he was sitting around doing nothing, meaning when he was alone. He couldn't afford a display of emotion right now, not in front of the author girl. Keep calm. Taking a breath, Conall pushed down the confusing mixture of negative emotions and returned his attention to the situation at hand, hoping his momentary distance hadn't shown too much on his face.
"I suppose you would have been asked such things," Conall said without malice after a moment. "You might not be a film star or anything, but you're still famous enough for people to wonder things about you." Her answer about surrogacy still hadn't satisfied him, but if that was really the way she felt then so be it. Still. It really wasn't a strange or exotic thing to have done and he failed to see how it would be at anyone else's expense. Still, whatever, clearly her mind on that score was made up.
"I'm sure you'll run into the girls at some point," Conall went on eventually, beginning to feel his anger fade away again to be replaced by an almost unbearable weariness. "They wander about the place quite a bit with this friends and that, sometimes they even take Pony along so you won't have to see me again." He didn't want to see her. Rich, privileged and suddenly just so tiring to look at. A lot of things just felt tiring of late, he wished he knew why. Sometimes it felt as though the whole world was just pressing down on him and all he wanted to do was collapse into bed and lie still. He couldn't do that though; he had another job to get to in a few minutes.
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 3:42 pm
It didn't surprise Sascher-tort to see Ceallach mirroring her actions and rushing to his human's defense. It was what a good palui should do for their human. She pressed hard against Aurelie's shins to remind her that she wasn't alone in this conflict. There had been times when Sasch had worked to diffuse tense situations, but that had been when she was very young, and with the cold man who went away. She couldn't even recall the name other humans called him. It wasn't important. The present was more important, and in the present Aurelie was unhappy.
Does your human frequently prey on others of his kind? she asked Ceallach, making no pretense at talking around her point. She wanted him to know exactly how she viewed his human's behavior toward Aurelie, who she didn't believe had done anything to provoke this reaction.
Aurelie wasn't stupid. She knew that in Conall she had not found a friend, and she supposed it had something to do with the accident, though she couldn't see what he could possibly object to about her choices regarding motherhood. Just because he'd made bad choices about when to have kids that had worked out all right didn't mean he had the right to pass judgment on her for her own decisions. It was shoddy reasoning all around, and she sincerely hoped that wasn't the case. It didn't do much for her faith in humanity to think someone with reasoning that faulty had produced offspring.
It was unfair of her to think that, of course. She didn't know what conclusions he had drawn about her, but she had no cause to draw any conclusions of her own about him based on anything other than what she'd observed and what he'd said. He didn't seem unintelligent. Disliking her didn't make a person unintelligent, even if she couldn't think of a specific reason for him to dislike her. She assumed he had one. But even if he didn't, there were people she instinctively disliked, and she shouldn't begrudge others the right to dislike her instinctively.
"One of the side effects of my profession," she agreed in a carefully neutral tone. She was tempted to bend down and soothe Sascher-tort, whose high-strung nerves probably needed it, but she felt very much like doing so at this point would make her come off like the kid on the playground who scoops up her toys and stomps home when she doesn't like the way the game is going. She was an adult, and she could handle this in an adult manner. She'd been handling things in an adult manner all her life, after all.
"I don't suppose anyone ever considers them seriously, though, before experiencing them." She didn't want to continue in this vein. It had been what caused him to recognize her to begin with, and hence prompted the slight animosity she'd picked up on from him.
"Like I said, I wouldn't want to inflict myself on you and your family," she said. She meant to leave it at that, but the last words he said had rankled. "Particularly as I seem to agitate you so."
And now she was deliberately giving him leave to tear into her if he felt like it. Great reasoning on her part. She shouldn't do it. Sasha would probably not react well if he actually did raise his voice. She didn't know how good the little palui's memory was, but Aurelie remembered how much Sasch had hated it when Chester yelled, and doubted she would have outgrown her aversion to loud disagreement.
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 4:23 pm
Ceallach turned his attention back to the other palui with difficulty; Red's increasing unhappiness was distracting to say the least. "No," he said eventually, "he never does. I've never seen him be anything but kind and quiet and patient." He wished he could understand what was going on between the humans, clearly it was complex. Perhaps humans were more complicated creatures than he'd given them credit for; there was no obvious reason for the pair of them to be suddenly unhappy with one another. Well, either they were more complex or more stupid; it was hard to say.
"I don't know what's wrong with him," Ceallach added after a moment, looking up at his human with concern once more. "Usually he gets on so well with other humans."
He didn't bother to respond to her words about her profession. There was little point given the other things she'd said. How could he respond? He didn't know. He just wanted to walk away. He hated confrontations, hated them and that seemed to be what she was trying to get out of him. Why? What was the point? He couldn't see one at all, unless she was hoping he'd smack her silly and give her something to get in the news about. That was stupid, obviously it wasn't that, it was something else though he couldn't begin to guess what. He was just so tired; working out her motivation was too hard.
He still didn't know what to say to her, and he was aware that he'd been quite for some time now, staring blankly into the middle distance. Well he had to say something. Heaving a heavy sigh, Conall rubbed his face and turned his attention back to the silly girl who seemed to want a fight... He opened his mouth and there was nothing to say. It wasn't all her; it was partly her circumstances and partly her manner. Maybe only her manner because of her circumstances. He was just so tired of looking at her, and seeing someone like the person who had stolen his sister's life.
"It's complicated," he managed eventually, his tones as dull and worn out as he felt. "I don't think it's really you. I don't know." It wasn't really complicated at all he suppose, but it was something he didn't want to explain, especially as he wasn't really sure he understood his own feelings. Was it all just down to anger over her good fortune in life, not just after her accident but in general? He didn't know. She annoyed him, upset him, for whatever reason, and that made him angry with himself and now... Now he just wished he'd stayed on his bench and ignored the palui.
The day had been alright before this; he'd been feeling pretty good about life. He had to go back to work in a few minutes and he couldn't contemplate it. Not like he had a choice though. He'd get through the day, go and pick up the girls, make their tea, take care of Pony, play with the girls, help with work if they needed it, cook dinner, wash up... The list of things he had to do before he could fall into bed seemed to go on forever and filled him with an inexplicable feeling of despair. Why was everything so difficult sometimes? He couldn't understand it.
"Perhaps I should go now," Conall added after a few moments of silence, "seems I'm agitating you too." Of course he was, because he'd asked her a question she didn't like. That was all. His tone hadn't been hostile, he hadn't shown her any aggression at all. He'd apologized and everything. He supposed she had a right to be upset even if she was famous and should be used to personal questions but... But this felt like too much. He'd picked up she didn't like him, said she could meet his daughters while avoiding him which he considered pretty generous really, a lot of parents wouldn't even consider letting a stranger meet their children unsupervised... It didn't matter. Whatever the reason, she wanted to pick a fight with him. Pretty stupid really, and pretty lucky for her he wasn't the sort to rise to bait like that. He just wanted the encounter to end so he could start the uphill struggle towards the time he could finally rest.
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Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 5:25 pm
Sascher-tort shifted a little uncomfortably as she looked up at her own human. To be truthful, Aurelie's behavior was out of character, too. Before, when her voice was more moderated, more careful, it had sounded usual, but just now her voice had had an edge to it, like she was trying to goad Red. Sasch couldn't imagine why anyone would want to goad a human as large as Ceallach's was. She'd observed enough of human interaction to know that things could rapidly go downhill if the situation wasn't salvaged.
Aurelie's not usually like this, either. I can't say she's good with all other humans, but I've never seen her react this way to anyone else, Sasha admitted. Doing so felt like a betrayal of sorts. And yet, Sasha couldn't shake the feeling that wherever the fault for any confrontation might have lain before, if any altercation occurred, Aurelie would have prompted it.
I feel like we should stop them before either one does something they'll regret. If it wasn't too late already.
The anger that had coursed through Aurelie was leaving her, and though she hated being held in the sway of powerful negative emotions, she hated the aftermath even worse, because it almost always came out that she'd done something stupid. It wasn't like she entered a disassociative state or anything like that. She was perfectly conscious and in control. She just didn't reason as well when she was angry. She didn't know why she'd been angry in the first place, really. Yes, his question had been impertinent, but he'd apologized and she'd been asked worse. Her behavior had been bad.
That realization was almost enough to bring her blush back, but again she mastered the impulse, though she was grateful for her long hair hiding her eartips, which would probably be red otherwise. This time she hid her blush so that it would not be mistaken for renewed ire. This was stuipd. She'd handled all of this badly, and fully deserved whatever came out of his mouth next, regardless of how hurtful it might be. She was caught up enough in her own humiliation that she wsn't even aware of how long Conall had spent staring at nothing in particular.
Apologies had always come easily to her, despite the pride which sometimes paralysed her. The pride meant she couldn't always apologise as soon as she ought to, but she was almost always capable of recognizing when she was in the wrong and when an apology was owed, and she would eventually deliver it. She'd gotten to the point where she was willing to apologise even when she wasn't in the wrong if it would solve things. This wasn't one of those situations, though.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I have no reason to antagonise you, and I shouldn't've tried. I have no explanation or excuse for why I did. I'm sorry." That pretty much covered it.
At this point she stooped to pick up Sascher-tort and quickly transferred the she-palui from her arms to her shoulders, before Sasch had the opportunity to remember that she didn't like being picked up, held, or carried. Shoulder perching was all right, and draping over shoulders was all right. When Sasha had herself balanced, albeit precariously, Aurelie said, "I should probably go, too. This one's going to want feeding soon, and when she gets hungry she gets vocal to the point where any neighbors might be prompted to lodge a complaint."
Well. That was a feeble excuse, and a worse attempt at humor. But it was better than saying she didn't really want to be around this person who made her so uncomfortable anymore. She really wanted to go home and wallow in her own humiliation for a few days while watching movies with heriones whose feet had taken up permanent residence in their mouths. It wasn't often that she could relate to those women, but in this instance she felt they might be kindred spirits.
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Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:13 am
Before Ceallach could respond, the tension in the air seemed to diffuse a little. Not much, but a little and that was reassuring. Still... Though Red's tension had gone he still seemed unhappy, more so than when he'd been tense. Humans. He couldn't understand them. Nobody had got into anyone else's space, stolen their food, there hadn't been any raised voices... It wasn't like a palui disagreement at all so it was hard for him to say if it had been worked out or not. It seemed to be though. He hoped it was.
Ceallach watched as Sascher-tort was lifted up onto her human's shoulders and relaxed further; even if it wasn't really resolved, it seemed the encounter was coming to an end. "Looks like they sorted it out for themselves," he commented to the other palui with a slight smile. He probably wouldn't be able to be friends with her given the situation, but he had liked her until their humans had started getting tense with each other. He wanted to remain on good terms even if they didn't see each other again.
Good. He didn't know what he would have done if she'd kept up her attitude. He'd probably just have walked off, which was rude but better than the risk of an argument. He was no good at the verbal ones, and far too good at the physical ones. If for some reason the girl had snapped and thrown herself at him he might have accidentally snapped her trying to shove her away.
"It's fine," Conall said after a moment with a shrug, "forget about it." He was certainly going to try to. He supposed he couldn't really blame her for her snappish comment; she was barely more than a child after all, and a sheltered one at that. All children, no matter how basically nice, were given to short tempers at times. Time to go then. "Well, goodbye," Conall said with a nod, turning away and picking up his bag of tools again. Ceallach chirped up at him in a concerned tone of voice, but he didn't have time to reassure the palui just now. Repressing a heavy sigh, he set off up the beach, back towards work.
After a few paces however, he paused. He hadn't meant things to go this badly, no matter what his feelings about her. "I'm sorry if I hurt you," he said softly, swallowing the lump that was building up in his throat. Why was he so tired and so miserable? It was stupid. He was stupid. Forget it. He had work to do. Maintaining his composure with an effort of will, Conall set off once more and tried to put the whole incident out of his mind.
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Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 9:01 am
Sasch perched precariously for several moments before settling into a stole-like position which had taken her a long time to perfect. Her front paws and hind paws almost touched near Aurelie's collarbone and her tail wrapped around Aurelie's throat, more like that of a monkey than a palui. It didn't really help her balance, but it made her feel more secure. She liked to be up high.
I'm glad they did. I don't know what caused it. Humans can be confusing. I've lived with mine for three years, and I still don't understand everything she does. Her ears twitched in a silent palui laugh. She supposed there were some palui who were better in tune with their humans than she was with Aurelieand could read them better, but she'd met few of them, and even they had admitted that their humans' behavior sometimes baffled them.
She was glad that nothing too unpleasant had come out of this encounter. No one had been shouted at. Nothing had been thrown. No one had been struck. That was all very good. She was disappointed that what had begun as a pleasant morning was not, and she was certain Aurelie would be unhappy for the rest of the day until she put it out of her mind with the plastic hummer or the bound paper leaves. (Computer and books, she reminded herself).
Aurelie nodded. Forgetting about it seemed like good advice. Although she would have to take care to steer clear of the northern portion of the settlement, and perform an about-face if she ever found herself looking at a pasture.
"Good bye," she said softly.
She watched him depart for a few steps before going to retrieve her sandals, which was a complex balancing act involving keeping Sascher-tort in place without losing large portions of her flesh to the palui's flailing as her perch shifted. Usually she accomplished this by holding Sasha's paws together with one hand while picking up the sandals with the other in as fluid a motion as she could manage. She thought she might have heard something behind her, but she couldn't be sure, and there were few things stupider than whipping around while wearing a living palui stole. At least, if one was fond of one's throat.
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