[Introduction: Zachry] Bronze be burnin'...

[no_kona_fodder]

[Spoiling the whole section of the novel]The bolt had entered the flesh just as they where entering Palalo track, and it'd been a wonder that Zachry hadn't fallen off the horse, another wonder yet that he'd caught on to Somni' auguring, and another again that the Kona had all fallen to their deaths in the river bed

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[the_crat]

He may come across a cat crat, sunning himself in the best dozing spot he could find. Of course, that usually means he's in the way of someone; it's simply how the best spots are.

Echo will wake up and move if asked, but for now he's quite content to stretch out over the floor and relax.

[no_kona_fodder]

We aren't sure household cats actually survived the degeneracy of civilization that followed the Fall, and so Zachry might be crouching a little ways away, observing the resting animal.

He might be considering trying to eat it.

It's alive. It's mammal. It's catchable.

It may therefore be food.

[the_crat]

Echo is familiar with being hunted and the effects of starvation and so knows when and how to run to avoid being eaten.

Still, he's not really 'on guard' here and so, when the sun moves a bit, he only yawns, stretches and shifts over. "Oh sun, why do you move so quickly," he mumbles, getting comfortable again.

[no_kona_fodder]

Blink blink. Did that animal just.... speak?

"Ol'devil, don't you be followin' me here," Zachry whispers urgently. "Ain't got no more stonin' for you, nay. I's done with all them mad schemes, yay. I'll be all goodwise'n don't want no more sorrisome days."

And calling louder, "Be gone, foul Georgie! I ain't obeyin'!"

[the_crat]

Blink. Yawn. Lift head to look at the stranger. "Georgie? I ain't no Georgie. I's be a crat by namewise Echo." Another yawn.

"And be no kind of trouble'n fir a man." What strange speech patterns, but interesting enough and the crat stands and stretches again. Probably not going to get much of a nap now.

[no_kona_fodder]

"What's a crat, if not'nother fangy devil out'o its hideynick?" Zachry asks. "Now you be warned, Ol'Georgie's got half o'my stoned soul, but you ain't getting th'other half, nay nay. I'm gon'stay civ'lize, aye. Don't go tryin' to make me ill, cause I got me Sonmi's augurin' an'er goodwillsome words on me side."

[the_crat]

"A crat. Like to be a cat, but what ways can speak. We got nothing doing with your soul nowise, and don't mean ill n'r harms bro," Echo explains. "I's be good and quietsome, so longs as others be good ta me."

[no_kona_fodder]

"Ain't looking for no trubble," Zachry replies, "But ain't ever see no crat either."

Pause.

"You be with them Prescient?"

[the_crat]

"Only crat I ken. Not with none 'cept meselfwise and don't want any trouble no which way. I be a crat o' trust and kind." Echo wraps his tail neatly around his feet, watching Zachry closely.

"Can't see harmin' a brother same as yourself, as you're bigger'n a crat be."

[no_kona_fodder]

"If you talk, can be you've got more tricks, or you're a trick, lil fellah. You look good'n all with your politewise howzittin', but I ain't got no proof to say you ain't some other livewalkingdream o'some slywise game by O.G. hisself, nay."

[the_crat]

"Might'n just as be as truthsome as I be," Echo points out. "Got no proof I be a game or somewise be devil, aye? And if'n I be, still don't mean no pains on you and all."

[no_kona_fodder]

There was a time when he believed in Sonmi as a goddess, but now he knows she was a person, however important she might have been to the Old Uns.

Still, that is enough for Zachry to accept that maybe there are beings that aren't gods, but that he's never seen. After all, he's never been off Big I before.

"You don't look like it," he agrees. "You got a name, Crat? I'm Zachry, o'Baley's dwellin', though ain't no dwellin' no more, and no valleysmen on Big I."