Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 9)

(What the fuck and he’s leaving in a week???)

(In a week but he will not have calculated for how hard it would be to go places after having a limb chopped off and no prosthetics made yet so that will be delayed for sometime
But he wants to be able to move more freely when the gods wake)

(He's still dubious about it but he is concerned)

(okay yeah that makes sense. I thought that's what he was hinting at but like I feel like there is no universe in which Sera would sanction a massive road trip a week after she lops his leg off haha)

(Would any of your characters try to cross-examine Ky since she's the only other witness and Gaius is... being Gaius xD I could come up with her letter too but that doesn't really involve your characters so idk)

(Cross-examine meaning about seeing the troll?)

(ah yeah sorry that wasn't clear. Or Rönn/anything that's happened that's come to light. Idk if Gaius would have the patience to fully explain himself or if Sara/Sera/someone else would want another perspective? idk at all just spitballing)

(Sara or Sera would definitely be confused and concerned. There's a bunch of eyewitnesses for the troll at least but OH the little kids!! Gaius will 100% have gathered his family and told them everything to a certain extent and they'd be over the moon about Rönn)

(ooh nice that could be fun! Ky is going to be so done with them xD But will make an effort if we wanna go that way haha I'm down for whatever. Would anyone stop her from sending a letter saying whatever she wants? She'll want to spill her guts about Rönn and the troll and beg them to consider packing up the family to go to Austraka and list out the benefits of such a move. Just dunno if she can vaguely think back on it or if someone would try to stop/censor her so she doesn't alarm the Loquiturs?)

(No they wouldn't stop her. I think Gaius would think it prudent to write Tomhas as well so he'll be writing a letter as well, but at his desk.)

(Okay cool… so… on to child scene then? lol my brain is at like 1% capacity rn so I feel like you should just pick something and I’ll come along for the ride haha meaning like I don’t have anything specific in mind and am happy to jump in with whatever you feel like setting up. That work?)

(Mine too honestly. That works!)

Mattathias and Marcella came bounding into the writing room when Ky was about halfway through the letter to Tomhas, bursting with energy.
"Is the Marrow Man real?" Marcella demanded, and both of them bounced up and down. "Is he??"

(Cool! I am honestly so annoyed at my body. I only got a little under four hours of sleep last night. I’ve been dragging since like five pm. Needed to wait up for my laundry to finish and then was gonna go to bed literally the instant it was done… and my night owl decided to wake up ten minutes ago and I’m super alert now even tho my laundry just finished)(I have to be up in 9.5 hours this is not okay lol)

Ky flinched as they burst into the room, springing to her feet and stumbling backward before she processed that it was just the twins. She sighed, the panic settling over her in even more exhaustion than she already felt. She sat back down. Word had got the out quick, apparently. “Yes. His name is Rönn.”

(God that's the worst
You better get some sleep)

"Rönn," Mattathias gasped. "Why didn't he eat you?"

(I hope so too ;-; )

“Because he’s my friend.” She glanced at the letter, then back at the twins. This was a frustrating interruption.

She’d managed to start the letter which remained the hardest part — she finally decided on skipping the address and just starting it with a ‘I know you probably didn’t expect my next letter this soon after the first, but important things have happened since I sent it’ — and then jumping straight into her preemptive justification. This really happened. I’m not crazy. I’m not lying. I didn’t imagine this or dream it. You can ask Gaius if you don’t believe me but I’m telling the truth. That sort of thing. And now was struggling to figure out how to explain when and how she’d met Rönn. Seeing as she did not, in fact, mention him in her first letter and now was admitting to having met the Marrow Man himself, less than a week after claiming their journey was uneventful. It was even more challenging trying to think up a half-truth of how she met him, without having to admit the real context. That would only worry them.

“He’s a lot nicer than everyone claims.”

"Can we meet him?" Marcella asked. "Where is he? Does he really eat people and look like a goat?"

“He’s with my uncle Zander,” Ky said. “He’s going with him to make sure he stays safe until he’s back to the South.”