"Wilf" I gasps with relief. "You've got to help me! Viola says there's a Soul Eater around here somewhere and we've got to-"

"I ahm that Soul Eater, Ben, who's also called Todd."

"find them and- what did you just say?" My noise is bouncing around like a hare on steroids. I must have misheard him. I must have.

"Ben. For how long have yoo 'nown me now?" Wilf's Noise is, as ever, a flat grey unreadable thing, bouncing back all attempts I make to read him.

"About five moons, Wilf."

"An' has it ever occured to you why Ah helped yoo?"

"Well... no." I shake my head slowly as I say this, and the realisashun of what's coming next hits me like a bullet.

"Ah've been slowly trappin' yoo, an' now Ah've succeeded! Ah've got your name-soul! The name-soul of the Spirit Walker!" He raises his head and gives a sickening laugh.

"But Wilf-" I try to tell him but he won't let me.

"Ah can control yoo! Yoo'l do whatever Ah tell yoo!"

"Wilf-" I try again, but he's forgotten all about one thing in particular.

"And what might that 'one thang' be, Ben?"

I smile nastily. "Manchee"

"What the-" His sentence is cut off as Manchee, my pak-brother, the best bloody dog in the effing world, jumps out from the bush he was hiding in and lands on Wilf, knocking him over, tearing out his throat, chewing an eyeball, killing him.

I whistle and he looks over at me. lowering my eyes to his left, pawing the ground, I talk to him.

Stop. He's not-breath. We are finished.

That evening as I gaze up at the sky, I think. He still has my name-soul. He never gave it back. This is worse than being clanless. I am nameless. I have to make sure. Sneaking into the Mayor's tent that night, I steal his mirror. Taking it outside and using the light of the Bloodbirch moon, I look at it. No reflecshun. It's true. I have no name-soul. I have no name. I am no longer Todd, just... him. The one who was outcast and chased by the army through the forest, hiding. If they saw me they were allowed to kill me. But I survived. I was the outcast, and I survived. I was clanless, and I survived. Now I am nameless, it will be no different. I will survive.