"What about your parents?" Light asked. "They let you go?"

"Honestly, I ate them." said Boar. He didn't think the parents he'd been raised by were ultimately his biological ones, neither grew as large as him as quickly and neither had his inclinations. His mother had hinted that he'd been found rather than born a few times, he'd just taken this to mean that he was something special, someone more important than anyone might think. "As soon as I was old enough, I had enough. I wasn't about to die in a harsh winter, I was already hungry enough because of...environmental reasons."

The famine in the Boglands had been extreme and taken its toll on all who stayed behind, and worse things had happened behind their borders.

"I let myself go."

He snorted, but decided sympathetically, "That's rough. Guess you know what it's like better than I do. But they didn't want that for you either." He looked up at the sky overhead, splashed with clouds and fading colors.

"I don't want him dead. I just wish he'd listen to something besides reports. I could be good at other stuff."

"No, they wanted me to take up a life of restraint and self control." he laughed at the sheer absurdity of that. "I wanted my own life instead, I had and still have significant plans."

He shrugged. "Sometimes people will never listen, they have their own aspirations. Maybe you can do this for the next ten years and at some point he'll promote you to watching AND guard duty while the rest of the tribe does whatever they want that whole time."

Light looked really gloomy at that.

"Forever, huh?" he said. "That's what I've been afraid of." He straightened his shoulders some. "But you can do whatever you want. So, enjoy it, alright? And maybe think of me sometimes."

Boar could feel himself starting to get irritated at the resignation of the other kin to what was a life of utter servitude. He wasn't patient and he didn't have much patience for weakness either.

"So you are just going to accept it? That's it, your lot for the rest of your life?" he said. "This tribe truly are weaker even than I thought."

The acha raised an eyescale.

"It's not all like that," he said. "And maybe not forever. I've got plans too. Like you said. But I mean, no offense. But if you're tribe's so great, why are you here, and here by yourself?'

This seemed to genuinely rankle Boar and the fur across his shoulders bristled.

"I stumbled across this place while out walking alone." he said curtly. "That's hardly a measure of the value of my tribe. Though I suppose your sense of worth might be skewed by the fact you can't even go take a piss without people watching what you do, maybe you assume everyone needs people with them all the time. Either way I'm sure your plans will absolutely come to fruition and you won't just be a watchkin your entire life."

He snorted and turned his attention back to the food on the table, drifting away from the Acha, to resume eating the eggs he'd been eating previously.

There really was no point talking to anyone.

"Alright, you don't have to be touchy," Light said, but he huffed another laugh about the piss. "Right now, we're in the same pool."

"M'not touchy." he grumbled through a mouthful. "I just keep proving to myself time and time again why no one is worth anything." The world was just food, things to be consumed in different guises, nothing of value, nothing permanent, nothing transcendent.

"You really don't like questions, huh?" Light asked. "Well, that's alright. I didn't mean anything by it. You can ask me what you like, I don't mind questions about me."

"Is there much to ask?" he said, looking critically at Light.

From behind Boar a small pig trotted out of the trees and stood obediently by his side. It had a rudimentary vine harness about it of the kind teeth could tie and Boar laid a sheaf of rich plants across its back and bound it firm. It turned and trotted off again, taking its cargo with it.

He looked to Light. "What are your plans?" he asked.

"Not yet," Light said. Boar had been effortlessly squirrelling off food one way or another. He wasn't sure he came from a tribe at all.

He lowered his voice.

"I think there's opportunity for business, you know? Everybody visits from all over, and if you want something from outside the swamp, forget it. But nothing's organised. I think it could be."

Boar didn't look much convinced. "In this mess? I don't think that business is really compatible with... well." he inclined his head at all of the surroundings. "They seem more interested in frivolities than anything else."

He shrugged. "Sometimes we come up with interesting things from beyond the swamp. Kin still wander in and some of them have things with them."

He seemed to be ok with this though. "You seem to have a good head on your shoulders. I was never one for business. I'm more a fear kind of kin. Fear and food."

"Yeah, I don't think dad would go for it. He's pretty focused on here. But why? Why not expand? I think it could be good. I'm not just going to watch forever. I've got stuff I want to do. Not just in one tribe, not just in the swamp, but everywhere." Light sat back.

"But it'll be a while before I'm put in charge of anything. So now it's just reporting to my dad, and keeping alert." He looked longingly at the table. "And no snack breaks."