In the darkness of the night, in a humble shelter of dirt and dusty rock, Koop would recall the twilight hours when Kraft had left behind his hasty requests.

……

Koop stretched open his slightly stinging eyes and punched his spirits.

The flame of the cotton linen wick beats, emitting the burnt smell of fiber mixed with grease burning, and after staring at it for a long time, you will feel the black smoke on the flame on the eyelids, and it hurts after piercing the eyes, and you have to squint your eyes.

But as soon as he squinted for a while, drowsiness flowed out of the corner of his skull, and he pushed his forehead to the table without realizing it.

He had to find a topic, whatever it was, as long as it prevented him from falling asleep during the vigil. Peter, who was in charge of the second half of the night, had fallen asleep and could not be disturbed, and only one colleague was awake who could not be called a colleague.

"Mr. Kraft has said that it is better not to read in low light."

As a man with no long-term intention of pursuing a career in academics, Koop firmly followed the principle of "almost, just do", but Yvonne's act of flipping through the pamphlet in the middle of the night still gave him an inexplicable sense of oppression and an urge to join in this self-torture behavior.

He glanced sideways into the booklet, the crooked characters following what was presumably a gesture of stick figures, instinctive frugality that made the girl's writing more crowded, and the lack of auxiliary lines, coupled with the hesitation of beginners, inadvertently created an additional encryption effect.

Obviously, the progress of the learning content was synchronized, and Koop couldn't find the words he recognized on this page.

Yvonne obviously didn't want to listen to him, and when he saw him, he naturally closed his notebook, as he had done in the past few weeks, and had formed a habit, "When did you say that?" ”

"About ......" Koop didn't expect her to be serious with herself, hesitated for a moment, and then noticed that the girl was spreading out the little notebook again nonchalantly.

No, you can question me Coop, but Kraft did say that. He didn't want to be labeled as a "fake Krafft quote", not even if he thought about it.

Coop struggled to recall for a moment, and when Yvonne was about to turn the page, he stumbled upon a scene, "It was about the time of Comfort Harbor, not long after you came. ”

Eyes turned away from the booklet and looked at him with some suspicion.

"I remember that it was night, and Father Adrian lit only one candle that didn't illuminate the whole table." There was hesitation in his tone at first, then faster and faster, like his lips opening and closing like a shaped language, "Mr. Kraft said then, we were all there. ”

The conversation worked, and he felt that he was temporarily out of his lethargic state, and his mind was active in thinking, and he described the situation along with the scene of the remnants of his memories that had collapsed most of them.

He happened to have a little impression of this, as if he had a vague and uncertain understanding of those two words when Kraft asked a question, blurted it out, and then self-doubted.

"Ahh Yvonne opened her mouth and spat out a tone word with a hint of surprise, maybe, maybe, probably something, and she had a meager memory that was almost nothing after being reminded.

For Kraft's sake, close the booklet and stuff it into the small package.

But she hadn't thought about what to do next, she was already past her sleepy early childhood, and she wasn't as tired as an adult. Today, with her mind, she also sensed that something big was happening, and it was difficult to sleep.

With her age, she can't help, and her energy can only be used on the only "business", and after putting down the booklet, she writhes left and right in front of the table, fidgeting.

Coop took out a little elder and continued the topic, in fact, he wanted to say that this matter is not a day or two, "You have a lot of time, you don't need to rush it, and Kraft is not a person who lacks patience. ”

And he hadn't thought about arranging any work for you, Koop thought. He had come into contact with people in the academy, and the youngest Lucius was probably the same age as him.

Considering Yvonne's late start, only Kraft would agree to the request of "studying medicine", and he would not dare to think that it would take a year or two to teach reading and writing from scratch, and that the so-called "help" would take several years.

The cost of time and money invested will be a large amount, and the average small merchant family may not give their own son such an education. Yvonne really dared to mention it, and Kraft actually agreed.

The speed of this meeting is not worth mentioning compared with the future investment, and there is no need to rush at all.

Now that I think about it, if I had said "I want to learn too", maybe Kraft would have agreed?

Koop shook his head to dispel nonsensical thoughts, he never felt that he was the material, and the two words he answered at one moment were just accidental, and there was nothing to compare the mind of an adult with that of a child.

"There's no need to rush." He repeated sincerely, "No one is going to steal anything from you." ”

Yvonne bowed her head and remained silent, sometimes driven by more of an entangled insecurity, and Koop could vaguely perceive that nine times out of ten those in the Salt Tide District who had lost the care of their elders prematurely, they would be obsessed with expressing their "worth".

And the intuitive manifestation is to compare with others, no matter what it is, there is a visible standard.

This is not something that can be explained in a few words. He moved his chair to the wall and leaned against the slag-covered wall to make his back more comfortable.

"Thank you." After a long silence, the girl said, "But I still want to do something." Can you tell me what the hell is going on? ”

"As you can see, Captain William is lost in the mountains, and Mr. Kraft must go and retrieve them." That's right in terms of process, but the specific execution details are a little bit worse.

But he had a blind trust in Kraft, and he couldn't tell where that trust came from, out of the feat of confronting the wriggling light, or from the subtlety of everyday words and actions.

"There's no need to worry."

It's useless to worry about it.

Looking up at the narrow window on the height, there were no stars and moon in the night sky, there was no reference to come, and I didn't know how to define the first half of the night, hoping that Peter would wake up consciously and take over.

Koop snorted, feeling sleepy, but didn't want to fall asleep. The face lingered, lingering in the memory, as if it would emerge from a dead corner outside the light at any moment.

There are also petroglyphs, the faces of boys, which are repeatedly remembered when relaxed, alternating in the form of indeterminate images, sometimes overlapping each other.

For a moment, he felt that the boy was a little close to a certain wide flat face on the petroglyph, and the face shape was very different, but there was a similarity like a blood connection, like a middle-aged father and son standing together.

"It's weird."

"What's strange? I always feel like you didn't tell me everything......" Yvonne put her hands in front of her chest, a gesture that seemed to mimic Kraft, who would do so when she had nothing to do and nothing to hold, and she couldn't really do that inexplicable ritual of prayer in her image.

"Knock knock!"

The two looked at each other, then looked at Peter together, convinced that the voice was not coming from inside the room.

"Knock knock!" The knocking sound that interrupted the small talk sounded again, coming from the doorway, "Is anyone awake?" I have something left at home. ”

They remembered the voice as the original owner of the house, the sturdy woman who wielded a pickaxe without hindrance.

Yvonne was about to open the door, but was held down by Koop, who quickly got up, and turned back in confusion to see him covering his mouth and making a "silence" gesture.

[Go there]

He pointed to Peter's sleeping bed, a small space that was not noticeable, half of the luggage was piled up there, and the rest of the room could not fit an adult, but barely enough for a child.

"What's it, where's it?"

Kraft didn't like chorus, and Koop had something he hated, and the doors and windows that sounded in the middle of the night were the first. The knock on the door swept away the drowsiness and suffocated the breath.

Is it a coincidence? The homeowner who had just moved in next door had just forgotten what necessities he had.

It is only when they are invisible that these thoughts are so active, impressed by fear that they may not be able to perceive, combined with the unreasonable things and the mysterious totems of paganism, to guess at worst.

Turning behind him, he made a gesture and realized that he was trying to ask someone for advice. Outside the door was a tidal wave of darkness, and the night could hide the worst and its associations in the depths of his memory.

[Now this is a place I can't take care of]

"Hell yes." Koop muttered to himself, from the last time he fell from the gategate, he was the one in charge here.

Fast! He gestured to Yvonne and walked to the bedside to pull out Kraft's bag and make way for her.

Peter woke up with the bed shaking, his mouth covered by a hand. A belated response came through the crack in the door, "Firewood, I'm going to get some firewood." ”

The guide looked out the window in confusion and shook his head to deny the possibility of local habits.

"Please, open the door, I need to come in and get some firewood, it won't bother you too much." The voice had a hint of pleading, it was the woman who had taken them to the mountains in the morning.

"Okay, wait, at least let me get dressed." Coop unhooked the hammer from his waist, looked around, and handed Peter a stool.

This time Kraft didn't bother with this, but the good news was that his hands weren't shaking.

A new fantasy book with a werewolf as the main character. It feels very good, and interested book lovers can check it out. (˙▽˙)

(End of chapter)