Debarre and Do I Know God After The End Waking stood, naked and frowning, on the granite that hung cantilevered above the pond that had dug itself into the forest floor beneath the falls. It wasn’t a high drop, not enough to turn the stomach, but enough to keep them from simply jumping in.
“And you’re sure it’s deep enough?”
-“I am not, no,” End Waking said and then let out a shout and leapt off the overhang out over the water
-The weasel’s frowned deepened. No sounds of screaming below, at least.
+“I am not, no,” End Waking said, then let out a shout and leapt off the overhang out over the water.
+The weasel’s frown deepened. No sounds of screaming below, at least.
“Fuck it,” he muttered, and stepped off the edge of the rock, arms folded over his chest, and plunged, feet first, into the water.
The cold was enough to drive his breath from him. Even though there wasn’t any snow this low down on the hillside, it was still cold out and even colder up-slope from whence the snow-melt came. He realized, too late, that another possibility that there wasn’t any screaming from his boyfriend below was due to the frigid water.
All the same, there was nothing beneath his feet for at least another meter as he sank below the surface.
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@They slicked the water off themselves as best they could while walking. Fluffy as he was, End Waking had the larger job of it, spending most of the rest of the short trek back up the hill to the fire he’d built squeezing water out of his tail fur.
Once there, they parked a meter or so before the fire and huddled beneath his woolen cloak, held open toward the flames, soaking up as much warmth as they could.
“That was fucking cold,” Debarre said once he was able to speak without stammering. “You’re such an asshole, I can’t believe I ever listen to you. Fine fucking way to ring in the new year.”
-“Yes, well, I love you to,” End Waking said, grinning. “Thank you for joining me, and for your help today.”
+“Yes, well, I love you too,” End Waking said, grinning. “Thank you for joining me, and for your help today.”
They’d spent the afternoon building up a rammed earth wall for the skunk’s new house, pulling sandy clay from the pile they’d brought up from the pond’s shore the previous day, mixing in deer’s blood as a binder before stacking it in a frame, and pounding it with logs sanded smooth and cut down to a diameter that fit comfortably in their paws.
Part of the ramming process had involved carefully setting the chimney pipe for the wood stove between the layers of earth as they built up. This had seemed an unnecessarily fiddly process despite the admonitions that, if the pipe crumpled beneath the sand, clay, and blood while they pounded it, the wall wouldn’t be sturdy and there might be gaps. As it was, after they built up the rest of the tent, they’d have to seal that spot with more bloody earth and a layer of pitch.
It had left them both feeling worn out and dirty, and when Debarre said he was going to wash the sticky earth from his paws and fur, End Waking had suggested turning that into the icy plunge.
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@“This is by design.”
Debarre laughed, shaking his head. “I’m just worried about so many changes in so short a time.”
“How so?”
-“I dunny,” Debarre mumbled. “I just think there’s a lot of subtle things — more like the little stuff May Then My Name talks about — and I’m worried those will break or disappear.”
+“I dunno,” Debarre mumbled. “I just think there’s a lot of subtle things — more like the little stuff May Then My Name talks about — and I’m worried those will break or disappear.”
End Waking hummed thoughtfully. “They have survived Secession and Launch.”
“Yeah, but those were political things, right? Not technological things.”
“You are worried external engineers will tamper?”
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@There was a long, long silence before the skunk replied. “Sleep, my love. There is work to do in the morning. Sleep, and dream beautiful dreams.”