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better to travel by river or mountain, for it is said that those who travel the mountains gain wisdom, but the river encourages cunning. She wraps her arm around his head and draws him closer. Her excuse is that the sun has finally dropped below the trees and it is growing colder, but their bodies are still sticky with sweat, and each breath she takes is weighted with the damp of a tropical night. He looks up at her, seeking her out in the growing dark, but all he can see is the distant blot of a bird against sky as it heads towards the lake, ready to swoop and submerge. *** It happens suddenly, in a way he could not foresee. 
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The location of the thieves' den is known to him. He prepared with deliberation, as if in a trance. Before departing the temple, he stared at his hands, his fingers, noted the hairs growing on the fourth knuckle of his right hand, the mole just inside his left wrist. If he was to be scarred or maimed, he would at least have these memories. Master Lau, enjoying his daily smoke from a pipe with a length of half his body, only coughed disagreeably. Just come out alive, that's what matters, he sighed. The young man frowned on hearing this. No other final advice? he pouted. No special instructions? No weaknesses in myself I should avoid?  |
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