And I have officially typed the last extra segment/arc of Papa; that might not depress you now, but you won't be happy when you read it. Trust me. But now I can move onto my next project, and spend no more time (except editing) on this.
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Galatea's grip tightened just a bit more, enough to prove a point. "You!" she came close to snarling. "You brought that… that… thing into the heart of the city! Do you have any idea how much danger you put everyone, including yourself, in?!" Only the demand for answers held her back from popping his head like an over-ripe watermelon.
Raki, however, showed no sign of fear. "I'd appreciate it if you keep your voice down. There are other people recovering, you know. And Priscilla," he said, emphasizing the name, "is in the next room. She doesn't trust you because of what you nearly did to me, and the last thing either of us wants is for her to burst in on you strangling me. That would get messy, fast, and no one would be able to stop her."
Galatea glared and lowered her voice, but didn't loosen her grip in the slightest. Instead she forced Raki's head closer to her own, so she could give him a menacing whisper. "Give me one, just one, reason I shouldn't kill you right here for cavorting with a man-eating yoma. Give me two for why I shouldn't kill you for bringing one into this city that I've spent so long trying to save from the damn things."
"One, she hasn't eaten a single thing in all the years I've known her," said Raki, still with no fear at all. "That's why she's so small," he explained at Galatea's disbelieving look. "And two, I didn't bring her to this city. I came to find her and take her away from it."
Galatea looked at him and said one word. "Explain." But her hand was no longer threatening to choke him to death as her sharp senses detected no hints of deception.
"We've been traveling in search of someone, but we were separated. Rabona was the largest city we had ever stopped in, and I immediately headed here to check first because I feared this is where she would come. I've never seen her eat anything in the last several years, but she's approaching limit. If she had…"
He shrugged, and Galatea heard the scrape of his sword blade against the floor.
"I'd do my best, at least. That's why I ran into the church with my sword. But she was a good girl, and was just looking for me the entire time. She's rather protective of me."
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