“I feel like the adobe wouldn’t be as great if you didn’t.”
“sweet, i’ll start making plans tomorrow.”
Yalani nods and takes a deep breath. “Get some rest, okay? I’m gonna stay up and patch up my armor until someone can fully repair it.”
she nods and gets in her cot.
Yalani gets his armor and starts covering the holes. “By the way, I’m thinking of speaking with the chiefs to change my last name from Luwe to Aklinne.”
“why?”
“Because as much as I appreciate Kota giving me a last name, the Coyote Trobe has a small rumor that calling the name of the deceased makes them ghosts, roaming the earth and haunting people. The name is unique to the individual, so reusing it sort of binds them here.”
“makes sense.”
“Yeah. My new last name isn’t final, but Aklinne is my fallback. That would make my name ‘mountain fire’, which could elude to a volcano, and guess what volcanoes produce when they erupt?”
“lava.”
“True, lava-” He causes a ball of ashes to swirl over his palm, “and ash.”
“yes, that to.”
“Yeah . . . now that I think about it though, maybe I shouldn’t change it. I dunno, we’ll see what happens tomorrow.” He continues to focus on his armor.
“well you do what you want.”
“Sometimes I just don’t know what I want, you know? I’ve always been a bit indecisive.”
“then quickly make a choice and follow through with it, no matter where it takes you.”
“I guess I have no choice but to do so. Hesitation hasn’t really worked out well for me.”
“then go ahead.”
“Well, no need to rush in. This is my name we’re talking about. I can change it anytime I want. What’s more important is fixing my armor and healing my wounds, so I’ll focus on that before I even consider changing my name.” He smiles.
she just nods and falls asleep.