Seeing the small wooden fence surrounding his village, the little boy estimates that the journey that usually takes him so long, this time he will erase it in less than 5 minutes.
"Hera, watch out for the palisade. Quick, ask your cat to stop."
"That's a very stupid request. Go Stincky tiger, jump over the obstacle."
...
In the village tavern, like every night, all the local farmers gather to celebrate the end of their hard day.
"At the end of the day!"
At the call of the owner, who is above all a brother, everyone raises his cup of apple wine. Happy after a good day's work, their elbows bent, they bring their hands to their mouths, which open wide, when suddenly: (Boom) an earthquake makes them spill their cups on their clothes.
The region is usually fairly unaffected by this kind of natural disaster and more worried about seeing their cups empty than about a possible aftershock, without seeing the monster going by behind their backs, they cheerfully grab the bottles still standing to refill their cups.
"At the end of the day!"
…
Hera watches with astonishment the hut in front of which this Cliff, asked her to stop her cat race. Something else astonishes her. During her cat race in the city, she saw at least 50 houses and yet not a dwarf showed his head.
"Dirty little boy, why is this village as deserted as an old man's head?"
This Hera is exhausting. Not only does she never stop asking questions, but she refuses to call him by his first name. As for her question:
"Um, it's a little embarra.s.sing to admit, but, you know, this is a very small village. We live at our own pace and we have our own customs. In fact, to find a man at this hour, you have to go to the tavern, and the women are too busy with their stoves to get out of the kitchen."
Tavern for men, kitchen for women, Hera doesn't see too much difference with Griven. "And the children, are they out picking crayfish?"
"My G.o.d Cliff, what is that awful thing?"
Hera had felt the arrival of a third person but she hadn't paid too much attention, however, hearing this unjustified nasty attack, very angry at the vulgar woman who has just appear from the corner of the hut, she stands on her cat and puts her little hands on her hips.
"I'm not an awful thing, you raggedy dwarf. I am Hera!"
The pretty woman that Hera thinks is dressed in a rag, opens her mouth. She closes it, opens it again, but no sound can come out of it. When she finally comes to her senses, she sighs and looks at her son who can't go down from the monster.
"Cliff, did you find that child mixed in with mud and your crawfish?"
Cliff holds his laugh. He knows that little girl is very sensitive, so to keep out of trouble, he bites hiself lower lip. His cheeks swell a little, yet he holds on. Watching the angry little girl, he can't contain his joy at Hera's sulk, then, a little smile betrays him.
"You, you're not kind, so get off my cat."
(Boom)
…
"But tell me, darling, why are you travel alone at such a young age?"
(Slam) (Plop) In a large round tub, while Helene scrubs her back with a brush, Hera spashes the water that comes up to her navel. After thinking about how she might respond to the pretty lady's words, a nasty smile takes shape on her lips.
"Wuwuwu, My poor, old mummy is very ill. She suffers from a rare disease that can only be cured by swallowing large quant.i.ties of chicken wings. My poor daddy, a one-eyed man who has only one leg left, has a lot of trouble walking. So, my half of daddy asked me to go and fetch an extremely rare thousand-year-old chicken wing. Everything was going great, I even got the gold map showing the location of the extremely rare millennium chicken wing, but on the way, a bandit stole my map, all my clothes and everything in my purse."
Helene squints. This story full of references borrowed from the tales of the oriental countries stinks the scam. "With an animal so powerful at your side, the thieves dared to approach?"
Hera hadn't thought about her cat. It's true that with their two pairs of eyes, it's suspicious that they couldn't see the thieves approaching...
"That's because Stincky tiger is allergic to gra.s.s. Every day for two hours I have to gag him so he doesn't breathe in the nasty weeds and gently blindfold it cute eyes so that it can rest well. The cruel thieves waited precisely that moment to savagely attack me. But, but, me, Hera, all I wanted to do was save my poor mummy, wuwuwuwu! MUMMYYY!"
Seeing the mocking smile on the little girl's lips as she pretends to cry, Helene reflects. [That child is unreliable.] "Hera! You wouldn't laugh at me, would you?"
"Helene, I'm hungry. Do you have any chicken wings?"
