affame_le_geant_behind_the_world fyn gula "that's the day i realized that there was this entire life behind things and this incredibly benevolent force wanted me to know that there was no reason to be afraid, ever. i need to remember. sometimes there is so much beauty in the world i feel like i can't take it and my heart is just going to cave in." ~ricky to jane as they watched his video with the dancing plastic bag (from the film, 'american beauty') the mandrill sat behind thora and twinkletoes as the cart swung out of towne and on to the bianca strada. she noticed immediately how smooth the ride was for she had never ridden in a cardboard cart, nor been pulled by a paper-horse. she was fairly close to the back of the horse and could read several of the expressions various people had written over the years. like, "my life is a vacation, so i'm not going to take one." and fairly big: "look closer." "how's your hand feel?" twinkletoes asked, looking back to the mandrill. "it's alright." she said, but actually it stung like hell. the second bandage thora applied was working much better to curb the bleeding. however, it was almost completely red again, but at least it wasn't dripping. it was interesting talking to an origami paper-man. she liked his hair most of all, the way the paper curled and lifted on the ends. she also liked the sharp angles that his knees, elbows, wrists, and fingers contained. she told him none of this, though she wanted to. "don't you worry," twinkletoes said, grinning. "my brother will get you fixed up." "well, thank you for taking me," the mandrill said. "sure," twinkletoes offered, and he clicked his tongue to the paper-horse to pick up th pace along the snowpacked bianca strada. "so, how was the flight?" thora asked her husband, and the mandrill was glad the attention was shifted from herself. thora was referring to the paper airplane trip he had piloted, taking newlyweds on a journey to the island of rynomari and back. "nice," he said. "real nice." "who were they?" thora asked. she tightened the hermes scarf around her neck for the wind was bitter, although it was not constant and for that all three travelers were glad. "the husband was a doggod. and his wife was a bearfrau. the dude was cool, though. we hit it off right away." (doggods were of course, men with human features except dog heads and personality and bearfraus were women except for heads that appered to be feminine teddy bears with alpine characteristics.) "what was it about him that you liked?" thora asked. she inched closer to him on the seat and laid her blue-feathered head on his shoulder. "he saw the firewood in the back of my cart when i pulled up because i had just been to nivekwood to load up. by the way, remind me to call my buddy erkenseppon tonight. he was helping me load and had a question about growing papaya indoors and i told him i'd get back to him, but i'm sorry, anyway this doggod dude told me he loved the whole process of a log-burning fire. that it was so beautiful to him and that there was this whole world behind it." "oh really?" thora said. "what did he say?" 030114 what's it to you? who go blather from