Two Eyes Cenote [m] hard odds to beat when you're on all fours

She closed the distance between them and Talis blinked, shaking his head lightly. His lips parted to apologize again, this time for failing to answer her latest question. They pressed together as he flanked her away from the sinkholes. Talis gave them a slightly dazed glance, swallowing dryly, then returned his full attention to Inji.

I don’t know what any of those words mean, he told her candidly, but all of it sounds so exotic. It…

But the thought on the tip of his tongue hadn’t fully formed, he realized. Still walking alongside her, Talis lapsed into a contemplative silence, a furrow knitting his pale brow as his eyes dropped to his shuffling paws. Then it smoothed as he raised his eyes and caught hers a moment later.

My great grandmother was a zafra, he found himself sharing, a little shudder traveling down his spine, which meant ‘slave’ in her native tongue. She served a god called Shardul. The way you speak so casually about servitude reminds me of how my family always took pride in Regipre’s status as a slave. It was a great honor to serve the cougar who’d saved her life. Talis paused. Not many see it this way.