There must be a language that doesn't depend on words, the boy thought.

I'm going to go back to doing just what I did before, the boy thought.

I can always go back to being a shepherd, the boy thought.

I don't know if I'll be able to find life in the desert, the boy thought.

Maybe the alchemist has never been in love, the boy thought.

Whatever else he might be doing, the boy thought, the King is maintaining a marvelous city.

I'm going to have to be awfully fast, or hold a little under them the boy thought.

I'm not dead yet, the boy thought, but it's only a matter of time and place now.

Just the same, the boy thought, we've become a force of nature, and not only on this world.

Father, please don't die, the boy thought, and wondered again if this were why he was being sent away.