[ He was an entire grown seven year old, thank you! Far too mature for such infantile silliness.

(It might have been a little fun. He'd never admit it. He'd been in a hurry to grow up. The sooner he did, the sooner he could be just like Rezo.)

Zel will absolutely not be pulling that cart. He's not adding fuel to the fire of horsekin allegations, and there's no way in hell he's giving these coachmen any reason to think of him as even less human than already must. ]

They use mules here to transport heavy materials to and from town; that's how they've managed to bring in fresh water since all this started. I'll ask around to borrow one.

[ He doesn't anticipate this taking too long. If they've got an animal and a cart to spare, what are they gonna say, no? Nobody turns down a more convenient source of water.

Lucky that the animals don't appear to be affected by the contagion, or they'd be royally screwed.

Realization flashes across his face. ]

...None of the animals have suffered ill effects from the water. They're perfectly fine.

[ Not mules, not birds, not dogs, not cats. Just humans.

A nasty question pops into his head unbidden. Is there enough of him that's still human to "count"? ]