Annotated 47-4
This one was Flo with some tweaks from me. She was really happy with the last line I added, IIRC. I also like the “practiced ease” bit: it shows Penk thinking like a tactician.
And that tactical thinking is also why the departure of the land sharks is no small thing: any student of military history will tell you that keeping your army fed is as important as any fighting-related decisions you make. Hammerhead implies that this won’t be a fatal blow to the coalition, and surely he’s right: every race had to do some hunting to survive before Harky’s coalition was a thing. But this is still a headache, the kind that Penk is going to have to deal with a lot from here on out.
Stuff I missed when describing the cover (since not everyone reads the comments): Tamara and Rana are among the marchers shown there, and there are no land sharks among the marchers, which neatly foreshadows this development. Also, the FB for that cover was “Today’s GUILDED AGE measures progress in feet.”
This one’s is “Last night, Penk scowled at the sun going down, because that meant it was time for him to do something unpleasant. Now he scowls at the sun going up, because that means it’s time for him to deal with something unpleasant. If this keeps up, he may start wearing shades.”
This is what happens when you ally yourself with stupid, violent people. Penk is lucky they’re just leaving without eating anyone. I wish the stupid, violent elements of our society could be got rid of as eazily.
But – if he has to wear shades, wouldn’t that mean that the future is so bright…?
Hammerhead finally realized that he and his people needed to stop feeding the trolls.
*slow clap*
*picking up speed with clapping*
…
*notices that he’s the only one doing so*
…
*returns to slow clap*
*Stops clapping, sits down, adjusts suit.*
*points* “Engage”
In his own brutal way, I think HAMMERHEAD does like the coalition (if he didn’t I doubt he would have left food. Might have eased the lack of food… other ways though) but the coalition making friends with prey goes to far against his predatory morals.
I wish him all the best… far far away from me
The food he left seems pretty suspect. I’m thinking it’s be to be an insult, especially given Penk’s expression.
Its more the comment not the food that gets the expression
I sort of agree that this is almost a diplomatic exit. He could have tried to kill Penk, or take over the army. At best, he could have just walked. But he and his spent the night hunting for their former allies. I don’t think he “likes” the Coalition or Penk but he respects them enough and has decided that an amicable departure serves best everybody.
Without the commentary saying otherwise, it never occurred to me that the land sharks were actually hunting for anyone but themselves (or, indeed, that what they hunted was likely to not get devoured on the spot). I took Hammerhead’s words and the pile of meat he gestured to as 100% theatre: You have embraced, on behalf of your people, a kind of insanity that makes you completely helpless.
Without the commentary, I would also not have thought that the landsharks were contributing a lot to the food supply.
But thinking about it. it makes sense that they would, and also that they left so much food behind: Anything that is not an ally is food, therefore anything that is not an ally is killed, on the spot. Makes sense that some stuff gets let over, and as they leave, they wouldn’t necessarily take that with them (because that would require planning, and of course there’s more food to kill where they’re going. So Hammerhead just uses the stuff they left behind for an unusually witty comment.
The fact that the land sharks were the food suppliers for the other races was established almost as soon as it was revealed that they were a part of the rebellion; chapter 8 page 8 shows two land sharks bringing prey to a gnoll family, and I’m pretty sure it was also mentioned in a conversation somewhere (but I don’t remember exactly where, and I’m not going to archive binge to find it).
I didn’t notice on my first read (or don’t remember it at any rate) that Harky’s remains are being taken from the arena on a stretcher.
Do Troll leaders, or other influential individuals, receive any kind of special burial? I don’t remember if there’s anything coming up relating to it.