Something carried him with legs and hands tied to a metal pipe. At the very least he suspected that he was getting carried, since the bag over his head didn’t exactly help with seeing anything – it was all guesswork from the sounds, and the constant tugs and jolts. The jerks, and distinct lack of smoothness he got used to with Titans suggested that his captors were relatively small, around his own size. Surely they were human because… what else could they possibly be? Right?
…Right?
Well… He already saw one other sapient species… another one would be that far-fetched.
He tried to scream into his gag, vainly struggling against the binds, only managing to slightly upset the balance of the pipe. The captor at the rear mumbled something incomprehensible before smashing his thigh with a stick.
He whimpered. His eyes began tearing from pain, despite his best efforts. The hit didn’t break anything, but was enough to leave a nasty bruise for sure…
The gravity’s direction changed slightly, informing him that they were already at the base of the hill… Too far to be seen by Ichi, or… anyone else for that matter…
A slight anger directed at the three dragons arose in his mind. They didn’t protect him, but… he was mostly mad at himself for letting himself get captured… how could he know… who could have possibly predicted, or even anticipated something like that? Who were those people?! What were they even doing here and why would they… do this?!
His captors suddenly stopped, making him swing a little.
“Wǒmen zǒu zhè biān ba,” came a masculine voice from the front.
Huh? What was that gibberish? It confused him even further and made him genuinely worried that he had been abducted by aliens after all.
They moved again, but much steadier and slower this time, seemingly not worried about getting busted by Titans anymore… And were probably right. Even at daytime, a Titan noticing a few humans hidden in a city this big was less than unlikely… which made him attempt to break free once again.
“Tā yòu yīcì pūténg qǐlái,” a younger voice came from behind.
“Ānjìng diǎn... Tā yěxǔ néng lǐjiě wǒmen.” the older one responded.
Wait… he… he kind of recognised the voices… no, not voices – words. Yes, he has heard similar words recently… he just couldn’t put his finger on where exact…
The terrified reporter from China. The same what they spouted… probably at least. He couldn’t really distinguish between types of Asian gibberish, so it could have been Japanese or one of those lost tongues… like Vietnamese.
He decided to go with Chinese for obvious reasons. That in turn led him to several conclusions. First was that… those were not aliens… how stupid was he for humouring that for even a second? Second was that… this was absolutely NOT the Chinese government… nor his own government for that matter. They wouldn’t have kidnapped him like… that. This in turn left only two possible groups. Scavengers and… stalkers…
His shiver intensified for a split second. Both variants were abysmally bad, if for different reasons. Scavengers absolutely hated when anyone besides them knew their working spots… or even worse, their harbors. Was there a submarine somewhere around here? Or maybe it was a bunch of maniacs who risked it all on a regular boat? He also briefly considered if the blimp Ichi trashed couldn’t have been a part of a flying armada, before discarding it as ridiculous.
The second type would certainly be mad enough to consider tying someone up like this… And the first group would have most likely just shot him and be done with it… Well, maybe not right next to the dragons, but still.
There was also the option that those were the… stalkers… People who refused, or were unable to evacuate during the kaiju rampages, and who somehow survived the apocalypse that followed. It made sense though – the island was once teeming with people, so of course someone would be lucky enough to survive in this wasteland. Statistics basically demanded it.
But… Taiwan fell decades ago… Would there really be enough preserved food left in the rubble to feed… Oh God…
It suddenly dawned on him why they were carrying him like that. Like the way primitive peoples used to carry their catch. He was their catch…
They didn’t kill him yet, because it would waste some of his… calories… Some precious blood would have gone to waste, if they did it in the middle of nowhere…
Overwhelmed by panic of his new discovery, he began jumping, wriggling, struggling – anything to loosen his binds, or at least…
Something hit him in the head, drowning his vision in a different kind of darkness…
***
“PETER! PETER!!! PETER!!!” Ichi kept screaming at the top of her lungs.
Where was he?! She closed her eyes for a few moments, and he was gone! Where was he…
Ichi gazed into the surrounding darkness, her hands shaking from fear and anxiety, making Kendall shrink into herself even more. It wasn’t happening, no… No, of course it wasn’t… It was just a dream – she would soon wake up and…
Maybe he was just sleeping in the camp… maybe she somehow missed him…
She ran past Ni, ignoring her concerned expression, and for the fifth time rummaged through the mess of tools and materials he brought, her trembling fingers breaking even more than last time. He wasn’t here. Her precious little boy was… not here…
Ichi stood up and ran in the opposite direction to catch a glimpse of the hill’s other side. Just a barren wasteland… no sign of life, no movement… just bits of dust dancing in the faint moonlight.
Her muscles tensed up, her fists clenched on their own, her mind flooding with pure, unadulterated rage. “WHO STOLE HIM?! WHO DARED TO TOUCH HIM?!” she roared into the night, wings outstretched as if trying to challenge the world itself. “RETURN HIM NOW, OR CONSEQUENCES WILL BE DIRE!”
This audacity… To take something so precious from her… Unthinkable. Each exhale illuminated the area around her with blueish flames.
But… If whoever returned him now, she might have some mercy in her heart… if not enough to spare, then at least kill quickly. A squish in her hand… or evaporating with fire… It was far more mercy than they deserved…
Infuriatingly, her demands were met with even more silence. She tired gathering herself for another roar but… her muscles faltered, and she began shaking again. And this time, it wasn’t just her hands… It was… everything. Suddenly, Ichi couldn’t stand and collapsed onto her knees, barely preventing her face from meeting the ground by digging her elbows into it instead.
“PLEASE!” she screeched, her voice breaking. “I WILL GIVE YOU ANYTHING! ANYTHING YOU WANT! EVERYTHING I HAVE! JUST… PLEASE… Please…” Her fingers dug into the cold, loose earth, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Just give him back…” she whimpered.
Anything… just to have him back… just to know he’s safe and well… at least alive… Please… just alive…
Ichi broke down completely and fell on her side, quietly sobbing once the reality that he was almost certainly dead hit… that something simply snatched and ate him… “I’m… sorry…” she whispered shakily.
Just like that… everything was over…
“Ichi…” Ni began, squatting next to her.
Ichi didn’t respond, choosing to fiddle with earth, taking a bit into her hand and slowly pouring it out again… and again, just enough earth to resemble…
“Ichi!” Ni scoffed, shaking her by the shoulder.
Slowly, Ichi’s dead gaze fell onto her sister. What trivial nonsense would she bother her with this time? The brief, bright part of her life was over, and it was time to go back to normalcy… To caring about everyone but herself…
Ni lifted her off the ground and… hugged her. Her larger frame embraced her, pressing Ichi’s head against her chest, letting her sister hear her heartbeat. “Easy… everything is gonna be fine…” Ni whispered, gently tracing the back of Ichi’s head.
Ichi cried again. Even harder. Because… because she was horrible. She thought so little of her own sister… and all she’d done was try to help.
“Yes, get it all out…” Ni placed her chin on the top of Ichi’s head. “Get it all out, big girl…”
Ni let out her deep, stertorous purr in an attempt to comfort her. It didn’t exactly work, but… Ichi appreciated the effort. After a few minutes of this, Ichi exhaled shakily and raised her head.
“Better?” Ni asked.
Ichi slowly nodded, which resulted in Ni giving her a half-soothing, half-sour smile. “Good. And now that you’re not freaking out, listen closely – we are going to find your stupid boytoy,” she declared strongly and without waiting for a response, continued. “Because think about it – we would have heard anything big coming over, right? It would leave a lot of scent as well, never mind the footprints.”
Hearing that last word, her eyes snapped towards her own feet, fully anticipating a bloody stain… that thankfully wasn’t there.
“We would have noticed anything if that was the case… which means that he either wandered off on his own, or something smaller kidnapped him… and we know he isn’t dumb enough for that first one,” Ni lectured.
And to Ichi’s surprise… the reasoning was quite sound. Yes… something small kidnapped him…
Ni helped her up, patted her over the shoulder, and went to Peter’s obliterated workstation. Ichi followed and… Got mad at herself for wrecking everything to that degree. Ni lowered her head towards it and took a deep whiff.
“Yes… no blood. Means that whatever ambushed him, didn’t hurt him… at least like, with teeth.”
Ichi joined her and… yes. His scent was everywhere. The entire area smelled like him, if one excluded the all-encompassing kaiju stench… that was thankfully very old. She also smelled the remnants of goulash from his miniscule bowl lying to the side… and the strange substances he was using to lubricate the machine… and the other one that powered the generator…
Wait… where was it? She might have damaged some stuff, but she surely hasn’t destroyed anything completely… Looking into the container confirmed that it wasn’t there either, which meant that something must have taken it.
Or rather, someone.
“Smell it?” Ni took another big whiff.
“I…” Ichi sniffed the air again, detecting some strange, nondescript scent. “M-maybe?”
“Well, I do. It’s other mi… humans. Smell a bit strange, but definitely… two…?” another whiff. “No, three, but two smell very similar… or maybe carry each others’ scents.”
On that, Ichi would take her on her word – her sister was always way better at tracking. She watched in silence as Ni followed the trail, approaching two rocks around a hundred meters away.
“Here,” Ni announced. “They were hiding here for quite some time.”
Ichi hesitated and looked over the tiny tools. She located the flat, rectangular lamp and pinched it between her thumb and index finger, then slowly approached. There were indeed two distinct smells here. Both human.
So, it was like that… he was for some reason kidnapped, but… still alive… she felt a wave of relief so great that it bordered on fainting. But there wasn’t time for that. Ichi carefully maneuvered the tip of her claw into the power button and illuminated the hiding spot. The light revealed miniature footprints going in and out of there. They followed straight into the city…
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Ichi looked up at the ruins. “Lead the way.”
***
Darkness. All encompassing, impenetrable darkness. But even for how horrifying it was, deep down he knew… he knew it was something worse. A lack of anything that his fragile, shivering consciousness tried to hide under the mask of something it could at least try to comprehend…
Another flash appeared…
***
His head hurt… His wrists and ankles too, but… fuck, did his head hurt. A headache so splitting that it very well could have been literal – skull fracture and…
No, don’t think about it… not now… He had a much more pressing issue at hand… Being tied to a chair with a bag on his head.
With absolutely no idea where he was, what his captors wanted, and how they even found him… Ughh… He knew answers to at least some of those questions, but he wasn’t thinking straight… Pulsating head and… the damned baby crying non-stop were obliterating every thought longer than…
Another crying outburst. He loudly exhaled, deeply regretting that they decided to gag his mouth and not his ears. Couldn’t they just take care of it and be done with it? Seriously, it was just hungry – a fact so obvious that it hurt. Just give it…
Oh, right. Those were cannibals. Mother had to eat to have milk for the child. Hmmm… He wondered what they would eat first… leg or… Yes, extremely relevant to him question, contrary to questions like ‘how to get out of here’, or ‘what to offer them in exchange for sparing him’.
He at least knew the answer to that second one – nothing. Everything he had on him they already took, and everything else he could offer them would require going back to the camp… and that would leave the captors with no leverage over him. So in short, it was not happening. Better to chop him up and forget…
Some low, barely audible hum registered in his consciousness… But he couldn’t place it. Was it coming from the outside, or… was it just his internal bleeding making itself known?
Well, at least that might have been their plan – he knew that it wouldn’t work. Ichi would tear the entire island asunder in search of him, sooner or later finding them instead.
For a moment, he wondered if his girl would be above murder in revenge and… absolutely bloody not. She wouldn’t have touched anyone normally, but smelling his blood on them… As horrifying as it sounded, he wasn’t sure if she would even spare the baby. Which gave hi…
Someone he didn’t know was even there pulled the bag from his head, letting him see his surroundings. And they consisted mostly of a middle-aged Asian man standing right in front of him, inspecting his face.
They locked eyes for a second, before the man turned around and shouted. “Ràng tā bì zuǐ yīhuǐ'er!”
Miraculously, the child stopped crying after that – a blessing he was grateful for enough to almost consider not kicking the man in the balls at the first opportunity. The man looked at him again and took a deep breath.
“Nǐ shì lóng de púrén, bùshì ma?” the man said, studying his expression.
They stared at each other in complete silence, with Peter not even attempting to comprehend his gibberish.
“Nǐ shì lóng de púrén ma? Shì háishì bùshì?”
Peter blinked, which the man took that for an answer, because the conversation progressed.
“Tāmen huì liánmǐn wǒmen ma? Wǒmen xūyào bāngzhù.”
Peter blinked again, because at this point… why not? The man was clearly having an engaging, intellectual discussion, so there wasn’t a reason to stop him… maybe he will get into a better mood and decide to not eat him.
“Zhēn de ma? Huángjīn qiángrén de jiàgé shì duōshǎo?”
Come to think of it, how insane was that… He was more likely to get eaten by a human than he was by a titanic dragon… It was just laughable. Downright comical. He couldn’t help but chuckle under his gag.
The man’s face darkened significantly. Right… he probably just laughed at something very important.
“Shénme……jùtǐ shì shénme? Tāmen dàodǐ yāoqiú shénme?”
Sheshashishichichishushu… oh come on, man… Please, shove some more rustling bullshit into it, your gibberish almost got Croatian… Or maybe Slavic in general... Hell if he knew, they all sounded the same to him anyways. His annoyed expression apparently didn’t tell the man much, or…
Or maybe, it told him too much.
The man hesitated and quickly glanced behind him, then quietly whispered. “Tāmen huì dài zǒu……wǒ ma? Yǐ zhěngjiù wǒ de jiārén zuòwéi jiāohuàn?”
Peter just stared at him. How close the man had his face got uncomfortable. Seriously, the only reason why their noses weren’t touching was because the man’s was tiny.
“Tāmen huì dài wǒ qù ma?!” the man yelled, shaking him by the shoulders.
“Shá?! Bàba, nǐ zài shuō shénme?!” came a younger voice from behind the man.
“Ānjìng!” the man yelled, turning his head sideways, which made the boy freeze.
Mhm, that was what the day was missing… Cannibal family drama. What were they discussing exactly? Who gets to eat what? Well normally they would let children get the best parts… But from what he remembered, Asians did everything the opposite way. By that logic, the parents would get the best parts… So, his thighs and ass would probably go to the man. The boy would get his arms…
Wait, the boy wasn’t carrying the baby… And it was still silent. So by that…
He moved his head to look past the man, seeing two more people. Two women to be exact, though he had a bit of trouble determining that by faces alone. The older, white haired one observed the interrogation anxiously, while the younger one – seemingly around the age of the man borderline kissing him now – was busy breastfeeding it.
So, his thighs would go to her too. His arms to the boy and the granny would get some scraps.
The man’s gaze snapped to them and…
“Jué bù!” he yelled, slapping him in the face hard enough for his chair to rotate a bit.
Peter whimpered about as loudly as his gag allowed and gave the man an angry, hateful side-eye. Did he really think he was checking out his wife? Now? In this situation? Even if, she was way too old for him and… Right, Ichi wasn’t exactly young either but… That was different!
“Wǒmen yīnggāi ràng tā shuōhuà. Dān píng zītài hěn nán lǐjiě tāmen zhēnzhèng xiǎng yào shénme.” said the old woman in a patient, but tired voice of a heavy smoker.
The man sighed and ran his hands over his face, seemingly trying to calm himself. Imaginary jealousy… must be rough.
The man mumbled something under his breath and… slowly removed Peter’s gag.
Peter instantly swiped his teeth with his tongue, trying to lubricate them, and get rid of the taste of an old rag. “Fuck me man, you could have at least washed the thing before.” he grumbled.
The man’s eyes suddenly got wider… almost as wide as Peter’s were normally. Apparently, from shock and disbelief.
“What? You expected me to stay silent?” he asked, trying to figure out the bizarre etiquette apparently present here.
They stood in silence, completely frozen as if faced with some incomprehensible revelation. It was the father again who broke the silence. “Yǒurén huì shuō yīngyǔ ma? Yǒurén ma?” he asked, glancing at the rest of the family.
No one responded. Everyone except for the grandma suddenly got extremely interested in the floor.
“Érzǐ... Nǐ yīzhí zài xuéxí, bùshì ma?” the man said to the boy.
“Shì de, bàba, dànshì... Tā zhǐ láizì yī běn shū... Érqiě nèiróng bù duō,” the boy replied, desperately waving his hands.
“Yī diǎndiǎn jiù gòule... Qù hé tā tán tán,” the man said in a very commanding tone.
The boy hesitated for a few seconds, before reluctantly gathering himself and changing places with his father… though thankfully, at a more comfortable distance.
“Gud hi!” the boy began with visible effort. “My… name is Zhou.”
Peter stared at him for good three seconds, before glancing at the father, and finally choosing to respond. “My name is Peter,” he said slowly and clearly.
Zhou grinned like a maniac but quickly collected himself once the father loudly cleared his throat. “Peter you… haff…” he paused, his forehead wrinkling. The boy closed his eyes and began mumbling something to himself for a few seconds, before almost jumping from enthusiasm. “Peter you haff drive here on…” Zhou straightened, opened his mouth and began waving his arms. “Yes?”
Peter… just watched him. Somehow with even less understanding than before they attempted to speak his language. A quick glance at the father revealed a deep and honest to God facepalm. He could relate.
“I have absolutely no idea what you are trying to say,” Peter answered honestly.
Zhou paused and once again suffered from severe wrinkling of the forehead. “What?”
“Yes, what indeed,” Peter confirmed.
It only confused the poor boy even further… what poor boy? A cannibal, that’s what they were, he shouldn’t have any empathy for them!
“You… what yes?” Zhou mumbled.
“What?” Peter asked.
“Yes!” Zhou vigorously nodded.
Peter let his head fall backwards with a heavy sigh. What did he do to deserve this? Just… someone please explain it to him. Was it because he spilled Ni’s soup and blamed it on Ichi? That was the direst sin he could remember…
“Fuck me, couldn’t you just eat me and be done with it? Why the circus…” he mumbled.
“E… Eat! Yes!” Zhou exclaimed enthusiastically. “Eat… you! You eat!”
Peter nodded with a blank expression, actually glad that they were finally dropping the act… Or at least he thought that all this circus was an act, since he had no idea what else it could have been.
“Eat… Pizza! Yes, you Pizza!” Zhou continued.
“…You’re gonna make Pizza out of me?” Peter asked incredulously.
“Yes!” the boy nodded.
“…You sick fucks…”
***
“Midget! Come out, midget! I’m gonna kick your ass if you don’t!” Ni yelled for the five-hundredth time.
Ichi wasn’t yelling. Not anymore at least – one of them doing it constantly was more than enough. Instead, she focused on slowly putting one foot in front of the other… very slowly and methodically trying to check for tiny people since at this point, she was fully expecting some to materialise out of nowhere, just like all of this other stuff was. And there was just so much pointless, tiny stuff around… Just to spite her, she was almost certain. Not only did she puncture her skin on a random street sign – she also had to kneel down for every piece, check if he wasn’t stuffed inside any vehicle, check every car trunk, and only then crush it to mark progress.
Tedious, ungrateful work that was unfortunately completely necessary… or at least, that’s what she was telling herself. What else could she do though? She rigorously checked every not collapsed building she could, but rarely if ever anything was visible through the tiny windows – and even then, it was just one room… Whoever kidnapped him, could very easily go deeper inside and remain undetected.
Remaining silent also had the added benefit of listening for his cries far more effectively… if there were any. Even the captors weren’t audible apparently… or were just deliberately hiding from them. She and her sisters weren’t exactly hard to spot…
Ichi groaned with frustration and threw the ripped open minivan to the floor… street, causing it to get obliterated. Everything was made fragile and thin as paper, like usual.
“They haven’t gone any further north,” Ni communicated, flattening a small car that once could have been blue.
“Are you sure?” Ichi asked, staring at the destroyed car with concern.
“Absolutely. They zig-zagged a lot to confuse us, but this is as far as they got. Now we just have to check all the way to the shore.”
Ichi looked at the distance and sighed. They were around one tenth of the way there. They had a long day ahead of themselves.
“We are gonna find him, sis. I promise.” Ni hit her chest to make a point.
Ichi weakly nodded, unable to get her eyes off the tiny car…“You really shouldn’t crush them before checking…” she mumbled, pointing at it.
“Come on, nobody’s stupid enough to hide in them when we’re around,” Ni replied before hesitating and slowly lifting her foot. “See? Everything’s fine,” she added, not finding any unexpected stains.
“Sure… lets got…” Ichi mumbled, not even considering abandoning the car checking.
***
The microwave beeped, making Zhou rush to it and pull out the previously frozen pizza and put it on a large plate. Peter’s eyes jumped between it and Zhou’s face – between probably the most unappetizing Pizza he had ever seen, and the maniacally grinning lad.
“Thanks?” Peter whispered.
Zhou vigorously nodded and put the plate on Peter’s knees. He stared at it for a few seconds, before raising his eyes back at the boy and gesturing at his still tied arms.
Zhou shook his head. “You say… you eat. Yes?” the boy announced.
He glanced at the steaming, suspiciously smelling ‘food’ and finally realised that they were trying to bribe him with it… Which meant that they had enough to eat and were not cannibals as he previously suspected…
Understanding less and less about the situation by the minute, he raised his gaze back at Zhou, trying to convey being completely lost. “Say what?” he finally asked, giving up hope that the boy will tell him on his own.
“
You haff… drive…” Zhou hesitated. “GO! Yes, you haff go here…” He paused again, visibly straining his brain. “Lóng… yes?”
“… Are you asking if I’m staying here for long?” Peter asked.
“I…” the boy paused, seemingly unable to grasp his sentence, then turned around to his family. “Lóng yòng yīngyǔ zěnme shuō?”
He waited for something that apparently would never come. Zhou sighed and massaged his forehead. “Lóng,” he repeated slowly and loudly “LÓNG!” Zhou opened his mouth, displaying teeth and waved his arms again.
“Long what?!” Peter snapped. “Long wait? Long travel? Long patience? I don’t know what the fuck you’re trying to say!”
Zhou got startled by his sudden outburst of frustration... which made the father stand up and push his son away from Peter.
“Hěn jiǎndān, nǐ zhè bèn hóuzǐ. Wǒmen wèn de shì lóng de shì. Gēn wǒmen jiǎng jiǎng ba,” the man muttered through gritted teeth.
“Chimchirimchi ching chong ping pong,” Peter scoffed. “That’s how you sound.”
The man clenched his jaw, staring at him with anger, seemingly understanding the insult. Oh, so apparently racism didn’t need translation… Ironic.
The man straightened and tried to walk away, but then… the ground shook. Everything shook. And then again. And again. Each time more and more violently.
“…idget! Midget!” a familiar voice reverberated through the walls.
Another quake made the boy lose balance and fall to his knees. And Peter… just smirked. And then laughed. His rescue was here.
“NI! ICHI! I’M HERE!!!” Peter screamed at the top of his lungs.
The man recovered from the earthquake and looked at him, terrified, before another, even more violent quake made him stumble and force him to lean against the wall. The child began crying.
“ICHI! OVER HERE!!! NI, GET YOUR hmpff!” he didn’t finish, suddenly finding a forearm in his mouth.
He gave the man a hateful gaze and tried to wrestle himself free. And he had one, big advantage over him…
Another quake occurred right when he predicted it would – he jerked to the side in the exact moment, taking advantage of the momentarily startled man, managing to tip the chair.
They fell to the ground, the ceramic plate he had on his knees shattering on impact and sending the sorry excuse for a Pizza face-down to the floor. Taking advantage of being momentarily free, he screamed again.
“I’M HERE! HELP!!!”
That was all he managed, before the man desperately gagged him with his forearm again. Peter tried to scream in frustration and attempted to bite into his forearm. A look of pain and a slight whimper were the only responses – the man proved too resolute for pain to make him withdraw. The last, powerful quake made the lights flicker.
“Hear that?” Ni’s voice rumbled directly above them.
“Ràng tā bì zuǐ!” the man whimpered, terrified.
His wife gagged the screaming baby, making its voice almost inaudible. They spent a minute like this, with Peter constantly trying and failing to free himself, or make noise.
“I don’t hear anything,” came a weak, distorted voice he instantly recognised as Ichi.
“Pity… Could’ve sworn I’ve heard something…” Ni mumbled.
More quakes followed, this time getting weaker and weaker, until they stopped being noticeable. The man exhaled shakily and ripped his forearm from Peter’s jaw, examining the bite wound.
“They are gonna kill you when they find you,” Peter seethed, spitting out the man’s blood.
Hateful gaze was the only response. The man moved and gagged him again with the same rag as before, then set his chair against the wall, right in-between the rows of constantly humming freezers.
Peter watched the man walking away to speak with his family, the granny without a word removing his shirt to clean the wound with fresh water. Fucking idiots. Whatever their plan was, the execution remained atrocious all the same. But no matter… he was a much better planner. He just had to wait until everyone fell asleep to make his move.
He gripped the shard of broken plate a bit tighter.
***