POLL: Will the Royals make another trade in this last week before the trade deadline?

'I chose to count my self among the minor'ty, hoping they might could get rid of that smilin' sonofabitch.'

'DeJesus.'

'Right.'

He stood.

'Guess that's a bygone now.'

He looked out onto the barren field. Strips of bleached skeletal remains and white stones and brown stubble, the dirt itself a story.  The three men, tired and broken, fed the horses their own last meals, leaving the camp smoking in the distance.

They would part never having known each other's name.

Col. Pods.  Prof. Farns-Worth.  The cook, Jose.

In the forest, a lion was stirred from its sleep by the travelers.

The lion cried.

And then mauled them.  In the face and eyes.  Well, he ate their faces, starting with their eyes.