So we don't get tired?

Where I am from mice do not have anything to do with whether you get tired.

I mean, you must use something, it doesn't have to be mice. You might be too young to have seen it done much.

I think usually when people are tired they sleep. Or they eat special foods. I guess maybe you could eat mice but you didn't do that, earlier -

Well, yeah, little kids sleep, if you've got a dreamward, but otherwise no.

I think I might be from farther off than you're thinking.

Are you from far enough away that you don't even worry about klaonso? How the pit did you get here then?

I don't know! There was a sort of snake but I don't know how it got there or how I got here after that.

...okay. Well, we're getting you to civilization and can get you under a dreamward and I don't know what you're gonna do after that. You really, really can't sleep here.

Why not? What's a klaonso?

It's a kind of demon that isn't made of stuff, so walls can't keep it out, so they're all over the place. They can only eat you if you're asleep though.

Well now he has a guess at where they are, at least.

So people here...don't sleep?

Right. I mean, our bodies don't sleep, our souls sleep but they have to take turns.

- take turns with what?

Sleeping. Right now I'm awake and my cohabitor's not, and Book's awake and his cohabitor's not.

I have not got one of those. It sounds neat, though.

Places with dreamwards don't do it to little kids, they let you sleep under the dreamward till you can pick your own cohabitor. And I guess maybe you never even do that if you live out too far for klaonso to be a problem but you should really at least have someone who knows how in case even one klaon drifts over and starts eating people's souls.