Abby stared at Liv.  She let her eyes rake over the girl, trying to figure out if this was her friend or was the stranger she’d picked up along the way.  She couldn’t tell. The faces were the same. The eyes were the same.

“Alone?” she managed.

“Oh, come on, we’ve always been loners, all of us.  It’s not like we really like hanging out with people for any length of time.  You’re the same way. It’s just that this place forces a sort of closeness that makes us all uncomfortable.  So why not let her stay here in this beaver den? Let her relax until someone else comes along. It’ll be good for her.”

Abby’s eyes were on the lump in the blankets that was Liv.  The other Liv Something about the way Liv was talking was catching her attention.  She stared at the girl.

“I don’t know how they do things in your world,” she managed through a voice that wanted to rise up into a shout, “but we don’t *do* that where I come from.  Not to anyone.”

She stretched languidly and raised her eyebrows. “We’re all the same. All of us.  Livs, Abbies, Vics. Come on, you have to realized that by now.”

There were *two* long lumps under the blankets.  “Where…” Abby asked slowly, “did you come from?” Continue reading →