Hoose."Friends." Oh-kay." Last items out of the car were a picture of Jas's mom and ashard of armor from a Paladin mobile artillery platform.Mr. Hoose...examined the shard. "This is good alloy." Not for recycle."Mr. Hoose nodded.Mr. Hoose spent the morning teaching Jas what was good to eat in theforest this time of year. The rain continued, soft but penetrating. Theycollected roots, berries, the bark from certain trees, and some fungusthat looked like neon brains or mac-n-cheese. After a while,. “Very well then. We will continue.”As soon as she had finished speaking she whipped Clarissa with the belt again. The leather whistled through the air then cracked against the nymphs behind. She let out a loud cry of pain as she flexed against Teluri. The Archmage did not relent. She delivered another whistling blow that brought a matching cry. She felt Clarissa grasp her leg, squeezing tightly with each strike of the belt against her punished skin.The nymph’s cries were full throated now. Loud. I saw myself as a bride to a commanding uniformed guy and this remained my ideal for years. I was quite innocent about all this until I reached an age where I began to wonder what was happening to me. I started to read the dictionary definitions. As a result I ran away from it all. forced myself to stop dressing, tried to date girls (disaster). University...had a girlfriend. Wild about one another but never even tried to have sex. A guy seduced me, fucked me and suddenly I thought 'this is who. My future, and the future of many others had been dropped on me. I heard the lawyer speak many times, in the past, and I just now realized I had not been listening. Oh, I had listened, but none of what had been said to me actually sunk in. The two words spoken did sink in. "Sign here." Boy, did they sink in.My mouth was dry, as were my lips, but my hands were soaked with perspiration. I walked to the refrigerator and took a can of beer and almost popped the top. I looked at the can and replaced.