Stavanger Bay Troverai quella mia timidezza

He cracked a wry grin, a rare lapsing of his usual vague frown.

You grew up on fish? So that's why you're so skinny.

It was true; il viaggatore was whittled and lean, the product of erosion or a methodical carving knife. There was a sharpness to his arrowhead features. Pier swore that he could've had some coyote in his blood.

My family name, Montanari, means from the mountains. It felt almost sacrilegous to admit his last name so freely, even though he knew that it held little to no meaning here. His family was powerful but did not have too much presence outside of their natal forest. They were secretive and isolated - a hermit kingdom.

But I grew up in the woods. He turned back, eyes squinted against the wind.