Harald flinches, rubbing his knives over
And over on a stone. "You ready yet?"
With one eye closed and the other squinted
He inspects his edges. "I'm just thinking--"
"Don't think," Sal snaps. Harald buttons his blades
Into their sheathes. "Seems the water's rising
And no one's built an ark." He cracks his neck,
Knuckles and back. Sal dry fires the shotgun.
"But old Noah'd only take one of us."
Harald and Sal pre-date my current Cathartes Aura books. This was written back when I was building random mounds of post-apocalyptic stuff.
I figured there are three types of people:
People who build. They bring things and people together.
People who exist, move in, through and out without changing things much.
The greedy who use up and destroy things. They take what they need right now. They rob and kill.
Harald and Sal are the third type. They are goofy and fun to write for, but when they see something they want, they take it. They are deadly dangerous.
I'm not sure where they will fit into the project. They may show up in Book 3 or maybe later. Maybe not at all.
Thank you so much for sharing this. As nasty as Harald and Sal are, I'd certainly be interested to learn more about them!
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