Stryker didn't know how to make it better. He grasped at thin airs for ideas on how to ease the Littles woe but he came up blank.

So with no way to fix it, he saw no option but to dig his hole deeper.

"A few weeks," he whispered. Jamie stiffened, his whimpering momentarily ceasing. It ramped itself back up as thunder struck again but shushed itself as soon as it had passed. "A few weeks, that's all this was supposed to be. Kernal couldn't cope with the amount of Littles he had been left with and asked me to take one. It was only supposed to be short term....