“When His hand tears itself away from His body,” Bambi’s mother explained, “there’s a flash of fire and it makes a bang like thunder. On the inside that’s all He is, just fire.”
“Excuse me,” said Ronno. “There is some truth in saying He’s nothing but fire on the inside, but it’s wrong to say it’s His hand He uses. A strike from a hand could never cause injuries like that. You can see it for yourselves. It’s much more likely to be a tooth that He throws at us. Think about it, that would explain a lot. And so you die because He bites you.”
Young Karus breathed a deep sigh. “Will He never stop chasing us down?”
Then Marena spoke, the girl was now nearly an adult. “That means that one day He’ll come and join us and be as gentle as we are. He’ll play games with us, everyone in the forest will be happy and we’ll make peace together.”
Mrs. Nettla shrieked with laughter. “It’s best if He just stays where he is and leaves us alone!”
“You shouldn’t say things like that,” Auntie Ena admonished her.”
“And why not then?” retorted Mrs. Nettla as she became more heated. “That’s really not something I could imagine. Make peace with Him! He’s been murdering us for as long as we’ve been able to think, and our sisters and our mothers and our brothers! For all the time we’ve been in the world He never leaves us in peace, He kills us whenever he sees us ... and you want to make peace with him? That’s just so stupid!”
Marena looked at everyone with her gently sparkling eyes wide open. “There’s nothing stupid about making peace,” she said. “We’ve got to make peace.”
“I’m going to get something to eat,” said Mrs. Nettla as she turned round and ran off.