Duck Lake can't remember when it started

"Well - that's a damn shame," said Murdock, voice gruff. He wasn't quite sure what else to say, or if the girl would accept or even listen to a stranger's advice - but at the end of the day, it couldn't hurt, and Murdock had never been one to keep quiet when there was something on his mind.

"It's good you've come to see him. This time of year is the time for family, and drawing closer, and slowing down," he told the girl, lounging back in the dry, yellow grass as his lids began to grow heavy. "My mom would call it 'breathe deep' - she said that this is when our hearts open up. When we're apt to fall in love, and when we're most likely to forgive."

He thought fleetingly of Chemukh, and her fine, dark face.