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| SERIAL FICTION | VOLUME ONE OF A FOUR-VOLUME SET |
The Trining — Cha 4-a
Becoming Pondria
Summary of Chapter 3
While the two still-unnamed people, one an amnesiac, the other his former captor (until he wrestled her spear from her hands, comically failed to break it over his thigh and finally threw it down the hillside) are in a kind of uncomfortable equality.
They talk, though defensively, while they traverse a narrow path around the perimeter of the mountain. She tries to get him to admit he is Pondria, he denies it and asks her why she saved his life if he was a danger to her people. He convinces her to give him her name, which she finally admits is Axtilla.
As they continue to talk, he prods her with questions about why she is alone there. She finally cracks under his questioning and tells him her people banished her there.
And Now
My people banished me here! Those words formed an uneasy loop in my brain as I followed her along the path’s now slight decline toward the level ground of the mountain’s base about a hundred yards ahead. I knew it was a sensitive subject, but it was important for me to broach it soon. Unless this was an island, far from her homeland, there would likely be guards patrolling the…
