Page 44, Paragraphs 1 - 8 ***SPOILER ALERT!***

Back at it.

***SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't read the end of "Hob's Hog" yet, you probably won't want to read this post, as part of the ending of the chapter is revealed. Don't say I didn't warn you.***

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Page 44, Paragraph 1 (first paragraph after the break):

...but darkness.

Paragraph 2:

And flowers.

Paragraph 3:

I open my eyes. My face is cold. A greyness comes into the dark opposite the river village, as though a long time has passed. I smell flowers, and hear the girl's whisper from outside the pigpen by the open gate.

Paragraph 4:

"It's not dawn yet," she says. "I'm here. I've got a lot of food. Come out," she says, "so we can eat. After we're done, we'll go away."

Paragraph 5:

Now I think about all we talked about doing, and it gives me butterflies in my stomach. Walking around the world with the girl. Finding food with the girl, and lying with her. Ah - more good times will come than I can imagine. "Quickly now," she says. "Quickly now."

Paragraph 6:

I stand up and walk across the pen to the open gate. I think it's good that she found clothes for me ; it's so cold, with fall changing slowly to winter. I can now see better in the dark, which is where I see the girl. She's down on her knees outside the pen. In front of her, she's set apples, bread, and many kinds of meat. I smell the food, and smell the flowers, and am filled with desire, as I always am when I smell them. I want the girl to stay with me my whole life, and not to go away like my people. Like my mother. She looks deeply into my eyes. "Come out," she says. "Come out."

Paragraph 7:

Now I walk out of the gate and out of the pen. I'm only a couple steps away from her. I smile at her, but she doesn't smile back at me - she just looks into my eyes. Now I hold out my arm - I don't know if it's to get food or to take up her long bright hair to rub it.

Paragraph 8:

There's a hand on my back.