"And you"re the owner of those forests."

"Not yet," Tol laughed. "In ten years, maybe."

"Enriki, now it"s your turn."

"I"m from the city and my family lives here. And I"m the only one Orel didn"t come up with a nickname for. My name is Enriki Galas and I"m a former investigator, eight years worked for the secret police."

"I think I want to be your friend!"

"Do you like my people, Nikto?" Orel smiled.

"Chosen with a great taste, I"d say."

"Then a question for you," Orel paused. "Is it true what the Unclean say? There is a creature from another world behind you."

"If I say there is a part of the truth in these words, will it be enough?"

"Yes," Orel said. He was looking at Nikto as if he saw him for the first time.

"Do you meet with *him*?" Tol asked; he seemed careless as always.

"What?"

"You know, I"ve decided I"ll take back all the bad words I said to you," Tol laughed. But the others didn"t feel like laughing.

"Fine," Orel said at last. "We"ve cleared it and won"t talk of it again."

"So, you"re an Unclean, aren"t you?" Enriki asked.

"Not at all."

"You look like an Unclean."

"He looks like a half-blood," Tol said.

"The Black have dark hair and eyes," Orel said. "The Red have red hair and yellow eyes. Nikto has blonde hair and light eyes, he looks like someone from the White world."

"I spent my childhood in the southeast near to the entrance to their world," Nikto said.