Quiff helped me prepare, and I was happy to learn that he would accompany me. There were others of his kind, some of whom I met, including one who I took to be his spouse. They were indeed an unknown clan, who spent most of their time underground. There were two young kits, even stranger looking than the grownups, with eyes that looked startlingly large in their little faces. But I must have appeared strange to them, too, and one of them took to following me around and staring at me with a curiosity that bordered on obsession. Finally this kit tugged at my tunic and asked, “Are you a fffffreak?” Composing as solemn a look as I could muster, I picked the goggle-eyed youngster up, looked straight into its huge eyes and said, “Yes!” Then we both laughed. This little friend was with me for the next few days while Quiff and I prepared. As One had explained to me, Quiff and I would travel underground and emerge somewhere behind Frane’s army. This was not as easy as it sounded. On the maps Quiff showed me there were vast areas that no one had explored for centuries, and others, marked in bright red, that were considered nothing less than dangerous.
