The smaller man smelled like rust, and outside battle, moved like someone extremely old; his speech was soft and slow and suffused with words that Gau had no hope of understanding.

The younger man was enormous, with a voice like thunder, and he moved with a lot of unnecessary arm swinging; he occasionally swiped at Gau playfully with one of his huge fists, and Gau would hiss back and they’d chase each other all around.

The smaller man would smile at that, and the younger man would seem relieved; and Gau, though he knew not why, would be relieved too.