"Heh, Mree! What's wrong this morning?"

Andrea jerked on her bed skins. Someone was shouting outside.

"Oh," Mree's voice called, "you know. A pack of stealers killed a flocker during the night."

"Psh. Bad luck."

"Yes, my husband is dancing it away."

Andrea sighed and fell back onto her bedskins. It was just the morning shouting match. The Eethlek Call to Gossip.

"Oh, those stealers," the other woman sounded like she was standing behind ...