I grinned. "If I tell you, you'll get mad." No, I won't. What's my problem."I looked around. No teachers or vice-principals in the immediate vicinity....I pulled Tami around in front of me, my hand still in her back pocket, and kissed her. "The problem is, you want to tell your secret. I don't."Tami kissed me. "Damn you."I kissed her again. "Life's a bitch, ain't it." Damn you," Tami repeated and kissed me again."If you two aren't going to eat, could you get out of the doorway?"I glanced back at. Everyone could use a blessing, most especially those who say that they don’t.’ Something about the way he said the word ‘mortals’ made you stop. The way it sorta bounces around your mind, ringing like a churchbell. The air itself seemed to hang on the word, ‘mortals’. It made me stop, stop and think. There was a hidden meaning there, I was sure of it. I thought about the words around. ‘What fools the mortals be.’ I remembered it from somewhere. Somewhere in school. I was 15. The day that… the. The only difference between them was what they hunted: monsters or humans.“Do you ever get soldiers patrolling this way? I thought they were supposed to help deal with the bandit problem.”Joshua shook his head and grumbled. “Not for a few years. They’ll ride around, sure, but they don’t do anything. They’re either new recruits or failures who couldn’t make it on the front line. I heard the bandits just bribe most of them to look the other way. All we can do is rely on ourselves. Of course, the. They also had their shotguns, so they were ready when a monster bat flew in. The bat had a wingspan of something like 4 feet and looked like it had about a million teeth in an especially wide mouth. As it happened, Sue reacted first, and her experience shooting skeet stood her well as she was able to hit the bat with her first shot from her shotgun. Only moments later, two more bats showed up, and Sue took care of one while Jeff got the other. That was the end of the bats for the moment, but.