The young chronicler met one of the escaped tortoises in a hut outside one of the river villages. A kind family had hid the creature there in safety, and at night brought it out to the river to enjoy the sights and sounds of night. The chronicler asked the creature where it and all of its kind were headed, and why, and the creature lowered its head to the ground in mourning, as it told her of the vision of freedom that one of their brethren had delivered to them, of a river, and a bug on its beak, so powerful, so intoxicating, they felt they had no choice but to follow it, and see it for
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