13. Monkey-Monkey

Kinch and Galva leave the temple courtyard and climb a rise to assess their options. West offers empty, flattening hills; north and south look similar; the Thralls loom to the east with ominous smoke. Distrusting the mountains’ "bad heart," they reject returning and, despite uncertainty, choose to march south.

As they walk, Kinch wrestles with self-reproach over their failed book gambit, then forces himself onward. The landscape is stark and beautiful but offers no visible water. The ever-present mountains dominate the horizon, reinforcing their dislocation and the risk of scarcity.

A troop of red-arsed monkeys appears from the foothills, watching intelligently. While they skirt the animals, Galva tells a cautionary tale of a witch who turns lovers into bears—echoing the danger of deceptive encounters and threes. The monkeys test their range and seem to understand the threat of Kinch’s bow.

One monkey approaches, miming for food. Against Galva’s warnings, Kinch tries to barter dried meat and demonstrates water from his skin, hoping for guidance to a source. The monkey feints compliance, then shoves a filthy hand into Kinch’s mouth and snatches the waterskin. Kinch’s angry shot misses; the troop flees with even his broken arrow shaft.

Galva, irritated, anticipates sharing her dwindling water; Kinch mocks the monkey’s begging and earns a punch to the shoulder. They continue south, now more parched and exposed, their prospects narrowed by the theft and the unforgiving, waterless terrain.