Beats Butterfly

She slogged across mud that had been moss. It was midday; the gloomy light would last another three hours. Scarbutt claimed that without the overcast, they would be seeing a bit of direct sunlight nowadays. Sometimes she wondered if she would ever see the sun again. The castle's great yard was on a hillside. Mud and sullen snow spread down the hill, piled against the wooden buildings. Last summer there had been a glorious view from here. And in the winter, the aurora had spilled green and blue across the snow,复件 (58) air max, glinted on the frozen harbor, and outlined the far hills against the sky. Now: The rain was a close mist; she couldn't even see the city beyond the walls. The clouds were a low and ragged ceiling above her head. She knew there were guards on the stone walls of the castle curtain, but today they must be huddled behind watch slits. Not a single animal, not a single pack was visible. The Tines' world was an empty place compared to Straum -- but not like the High Lab either. High Lab was a airless rock orbiting a red dwarf. The Tines' world was alive, moving; sometimes it looked as beautiful and friendly as a holiday resort on Straum. Indeed, Johanna realized that it was kindlier than most worlds the human race had settled -- certainly a gentler world than Nyjora, and perhaps as nice as Old Earth. Johanna had reached her bungalow. She paused for a second under its outcurving walls and looked across the courtyard. Yes, it looked a little like medieval Nyjora. But the stories from the Age of Princesses hadn't conveyed the implacable power in such a world: The rain went on for as far as she could see. Without decent technology, even a cold rain could be a deadly thing. So could the wind. And the sea was not something for an afternoon's fun sailing; she thought of surging hillocks of coldness,复件 (33) air max2, puckered with rain ... going on and on. Even the forests around the town were threatening. It was easy to wander into them,复件 (29) air max2, but there were no radio finders, no refresh stalls disguised as tree trunks. Once lost, you would simply die. Nyjoran fairy tales had a special meaning for her now: no great imagination was needed to invent the elementals of wind and rain and sea. This was the pretech experience,BEATS BUTTERFLY, that even if you had no enemies the world itself could kill you. And she did have plenty of enemies. Johanna pulled open the tiny door and went inside. A pack of Tines was sitting around the fire. It scrambled to its feet and helped Johanna out of her rainjacket. She didn't shrink from the fine-toothed muzzles anymore. This was one of her usual helpers; she could almost think of the jaws as hands,复件 (80) air max2, deftly pulling the oilskin jacket down her arms and hanging it near the fire. Johanna chucked her boots and pants, and accepted the quilted wrap that the pack "handed" her. "Dinner. Now,复件 (2) air max1," she said to the pack. "Okay." Johanna settled on a pillow by the fire pit. In fact the Tines were more primitive than the humans on Nyjora: The Tines' world was not a fallen colony. They didn't even have legend to guide them. Sanitation was a sometime thing. Before Woodcarver, Tinish doctors bled their patients/victims.... She knew now that she was living in the Tines' equivalent of a luxury apartment. The deep-polished wood was not a normal thing. The designs painted on the pillars and walls were the result of many hours' labor. Johanna rested her chin on her hands and stared into the flames. She was vaguely aware of the pack prancing around the pit, hanging pots over the fire.