Grafunullif and Hao are walking along the beach, which has gotten much wider as they've been getting further from the village. Hao had a large leaf wrapped around his him to shield him from the sun.

"What's going to happen to Alig's son?" asked Hao.

"There's a good chance he'll be executed." said Graf. "But, maybe not, if they can prove that he didn't do anything then he'll be fine."

"It doesn't sound like he didn't kill the King, though." said Hao.

"I know, but Rami is not the type to kill someone, let alone the King. He's too much like his mother for that. And there were probably plenty of witnesses. His imprisonment is probably just a formality."

"Alig said that Rami's mother doesn't care about sounding smart."

"Yes, she doesn't care about much. One time, her house was robbed. She was at home with Rami at the time. She didn't try to stop them, or even leave the house. The thieves took almost everything and made multiple trips. When Alig asked her why she didn't at least leave the house she said it was too much of a hassle 'What was any of that worth, anyway?', and that it was easier to just let them take it all than to do anything about it. Alig left her after that." said Graf.

"She sounds kind of weird." said Hao.

"Oh definitely, she may even be weirder than you, beach man."

"You make it sound like I'm from the beach."

"Where are you from then?"

"That's a good question. I really can't remember. All I'm certain of is that it's somewhere I don't want to go back to." said Hao.

"What could have made it be that bad?"

"I'm not so sure. At least we had trees, though."

"Not having trees isn't that bad. We might not know what boats are, but it's not as if we're starving or anything."

"Yeah, but I bet you've no idea what an apple is."

"An apple? What's that? Do you use that when you cross the sea on a boat?"

"It's the fruit of an apple tree. It's tasty."

"Like a banana?"

"Kind of. They're round, with thin green and red skin that you can eat and firm white flesh that makes a crunch sound when you bite into it. Apples have a very different flavour to bananas." said Hao.

"Are there other types of fruit from trees?" asked Graf.

"There're tons! And they're all completely different. There are even different types of apple tree."

"I wish I could try some of them." said Graf. "Could you make a boat out of apple trees and then always have fresh apples?"

"You have to cut the tree down to make it into a boat, so it wouldn't be able to grow any fruit if you were to make it into a boat."

"Oh, that makes sense. What else can you make out of wood? Can you eat it?"

"No! It's way too solid for that. You can make lots of things, like carts, or furniture, or tools."

"You can make carts out of other things than metal?"

"Of course you can. You can make just about anything out of wood. Even weapons. What do you make furniture out of?"

"I don't know that word."

"Furniture?"

"Yeah, furniture. And you think that we have weird words."

"Grafufull is a weird name, no matter how you look at it."

"That's not my name! It's Graf-un-ul-lif. It's not even that difficult!"

"Alright, it's Grafunullif, I'll memorise it. How do you not know what furniture is? Everybody keeps furniture in their home. Don't you have chairs, or benches, or beds?!"

"The King has a big chair, we make benches out of banana plants. But nobody has those in their home. And our beds are just large cushions on the floor. I don't see why you'd need wood to make a bed."

"Wow. This is place is so unusual. Furniture is just the name given to things like that. We raise our beds off the ground using a support made out of wood." said Hao.

"You can even make things like that out of wood? What can't you use it for?"

"I told you, you can make just about anything out of wood."

"Why can't we have any trees! They sound so useful."

"I don't know why you don't have any trees here. I always thought they grew everywhere that wasn't covered in ice or desert. It's very strange to me that there aren't any trees here."

The two arrived at a small hut. It's roof was made out of platted banana leaves. In each corner were living banana trees, the walls were made out of stacked stones with platted banana leaves on the inside.

"It looks cosy." said Hao.

"Yeah, its nice here. Nobody lives here anymore though. Not since an alligator attacked a group of fishermen staying here one night."

"I'm not going to get gobbled up by some lousy gator am I?"

"I'd hope not. But someone will bring you a spear just in case."

"If I kill it would I become Hao Haoulus?"

"No, it would be Hao Haohaythulus."

"Those names stack? Who has the longest name?"

"The King obviously."

"Well, he used to, I'm sure. I feel kind of bad that my arrival made him die. I don't think I've come to terms with it yet."

"I wouldn't feel to bad about causing that man's death. He was a horrid tyrant who left all of his duties to his useless kids."

"You can't have been on good terms with him."

"Not at all. To get my position as a doctor after I finished my training I had to deal with his daughter, Anulualuala. It took me two whole years, she spent pretty much everyday just drinking at the food hall."

"That sounds like more of a problem with his daughter than with him."

"When I told him about it and explained that people had died because I couldn't use the power of the land to heal people in need he told me I was a moron for questioning his and his 'perfect' daughter. I couldn't believe it. Then he threatened to have me killed if I ever upset him or one of his kids again." said Grafunullif.

"If he was like that he can't have been popular."

"That's the thing, he was! So many people praised the ground he walked on and would do ridiculous things like pretend that he could predict the weather, or kill monstrous creatures with a glare." Graf's tone of voice sounded like she was releasing a lot of pent up frustrations.

"That is strange. It sounds like they thought he was a god."

"He pretty much was! That healing power of his was only one of the things he can do. I hate it so much, he wasn't any better than any of us, he just held the position of king. And yet people believed that he was some sort of superior being. It infuriates me! Earlier you asked me his name, I couldn't tell you with others around, but his name was Tath-killo-lsl Tath-killo-lsl-ulus-illium-illius-ikiyar-n. Everyone just pretends that they can't pronounce his name since he became king." said Graf. She had gotten red in the face and was talking very quickly.

"That is a pretty challenging name, though, you have to admit that much."

"I guess, but what does that mean, really? You said it yourself that its a stupid idea to correlate intelligence with the difficulty of a name. And now his dumb kids are going to be fighting over the throne. I will hate to see the outcome of that mess." Graf sounded defeated.

"If the King's name being unpronounceable was a lie, then can other people than the King read, or was that the truth?"

"That was the truth, unfortunately."

"How does that work?"

"A long time ago a visitor to the island brought some books. The only one that was allowed to learn how read them was the King, who has taught his children, I think. And if you're like my predecessor and try to come up with a method for writing down information for the future the King has you executed. It's so unfair." said Graf.

"Why not take the throne for yourself if you hate them so much. You obviously care enough about the village to do a good job, and I bet everyone hates the Kings kids as much as you do."

"You sound deluded. Let me get you some water." Graf lead Hao behind the hut where there was a small stone well. She found a rope inside the well and pulled up a large sea shell full of cold water. "There you go."

"Thank you." said Hao, who quickly drank the all the water. "Do you think they'll hate me for causing the King's death?"

"You probably drank that too fast. I don't know. You can't predict those people. There are bananas laying around, eat as many as you want, but not too many too fast, you'll make yourself ill. Someone will bring you a proper meal and a spear later. For now try to get some rest, I'll be back tomorrow to check on you."

"I'll be careful not to eat too many bananas. Thanks Graf."

"Not a problem, see you tomorrow." Graf left Hao, who took a banana and ate it on the large cushion on the floor in the hut.