Dusk, outside

[scots_wolf]

Urquhart is outside, watching the early sunset.

He's not shooting anything right now. The black fur rug he was making is finished.

Instead, he stands, with a mug of mulled wine in his hands, feet planted deep in the snow, and watches the daylight fade into the odd brownish yellow typical for snow clouds, and then, darkness falling, along with more snow.

It settles on his shoulders and in his hair.

Comments

[young_womble]

"They assume it's a human in snow shoes."

[scots_wolf]

"But the prints wouldn't be deep enough," Urquhart points out. "You're much lighter than a human.

[young_womble]

"Yes, but human beings don't tend to think like that."

[scots_wolf]

"I would, if I was on a job," Urquhart says. "Tracks that seem odd or fake would make me very distrustful."

[young_womble]

"You don't get many assassins in Hyde Park."

[scots_wolf]

"I don't know," Urquhart says. "I've never been there."

[young_womble]

"It's somewhere for human beings to enjoy. Unfortunately they respond to that by messing it up as much as possible."

[scots_wolf]

"A mess is rarely enjoyable," Urquhart says, "but that's what people are like. Some of them would just live in pigsties."

[young_womble]

"I don't know how they would survive without us, sometimes."

[scots_wolf]

"I'm sure they couldn't," Urquhart says.

[young_womble]

"I suppose they'd notice eventually."

[scots_wolf]

"Yes, when they suffocate in their own dirt and mire," Urquhart says. "You should have seen the muddy hovels some people lived in in my time."

[young_womble]

"Why do they do that?"

[scots_wolf]

"They're very poor, and nobody has ever taught them better," Urquhart says.

[young_womble]

"Why should being poor make someone uncaring about their environment?"

[scots_wolf]

"They are so busy surviving, they have no time keeping clean," Urquhart says. "And after a few generations, they forget clean exists."

[young_womble]

"Clean is relative." Wellington says.

[scots_wolf]

"But you recognise dirty when you see it!" Urquhart says.

[young_womble]

"When you clean the floor, do you eat your dinner off it?"

[scots_wolf]

"No," Urquhart says. "I use a plate."

[young_womble]

"But you'd still call the floor clean."

[scots_wolf]

"Yes," Urquhart says. "Clean is different for different things."

[young_womble]

"Yes, it's relative." Wellington says.

"We mostly pick up rather than actually clean."

[scots_wolf]

"Remove active bits of dirt, you mean?" Urquhart says.

[young_womble]

"Litter, mostly. Cans, bottles, lolly sticks. The occasional really big thing like a dumped cooker, or car even."