"The Wisdom should be able to help him from here. I've cleaned out the poison and staunched his internal bleeding."

"Thank you."

"If the monsters were after me and my friends - will they come back here if we stay?"

"They will."

"Will they follow if we leave?"

"I hesitate to say that I hope they will, but I suspect so. They are here for a purpose, not for sport."

"Will they leave the village alone?"

"If you leave."

"How sure are you?"

"Enough to wager my life on it."

"...I need to think. But - I can't fight. But I can play bait just fine, so."

"Which of my friends might they be after? And why us?"

"You, Matrim Cauthon, and perhaps young Katwyn. You are all the same age, born within weeks of each other."

"Why does that matter?"

"Because the only clue anyone has to the Reborn Dragon's identity is the approximate date of his birth."

" - Wouldn't a lot of babies be born in that time - and how would anyone actually tell?"

"Many and more. That you have survived this long speaks to that, not only the Two Rivers' isolation."

"So you think it's us for - other reasons - or everyone our age is being picked off."

"Some of both, in fact."

He is So Concerned.

" - I still need to think. And talk to them. And - make sure dad recovers."

"What else makes you think it's one of us?"

"I've been tracking candidates for twenty years. You are the last."

"You can rule people out?"

"The window of time in question is not that large. And there are- other signs that mark the Dragon."

"Like what?"

"More than I could describe in a short conversation."

Uh huh.

"Do you intend for us to go with you?"

"If you'd rather die in a Trolloc cookpot, sheepherder, you're welcome to."

"You need to sit down," he says to Eloise.