Wouldn't be the first time somebody's just kept chattering to fill in the silence he leaves in any given conversation. When it's not about battle plans or training camp or some other military topic, he's never had that much to say.

It's profoundly ridiculous for him to be thinking about dinner when there are two entire plates of pasty sitting next to him and he's got another strawberry tart in his hand. But between the hard physical labor and the passenger putting his metabolism in permanent overdrive, he can't help asking.

"I don't know. What's for dinner?" And also a much more practical, important question. "And when?" Is he gonna have to sit here for several more hours, then? That's another thing besides silence that Krauser's never had an easy time killing.

"You got another stump to deal with or something?"