---

> "He is laziest bear in whole world, I would never be convincing him to climb up here."

On the other hand, if Wotjek wasn't lazy I'm a little amused at the lengths they'd have to go to to help him climb up to the top of the tower.

> No, it's all right," she said, surprising herself slightly as she said it. "I'm just... thinking of where to start. Or, no... of how to start.

I thought this was cute as a framing device to tell the rest of the story, so to speak.

> Embrace them? Not bloody likely. But her duty was clear.

Certainly not the easiest thing to do, although perhaps marginally so for the young.

> she didn't know their radio frequencies and wasn't sure her old Lorenz headset could pick them up if she did.

I wonder how common a name Lorenz is for inventing things. It's a completely different field, but the only place I was aware of it prior was the Lorenz rifle popular a hundred years prior during the Civil War.

> Behind and slightly above her, she saw one of the Orussian witches—a blonde in a sheepskin jacket, flying a brown-painted heavy Striker—rolling in on that same ground target in a shallow dive to the left. In her right hand, she held a long-barreled autocannon; tucked under her left arm was a bulky object Eila did not immediately recognize...

I'm embarrassed to admit that it's been a little bit so I don't remember Sanya's description offhand, and thus on first read I wasn't sure yet who was who and what Eila's first introduction to her actually was.

> Eila had just enough time to register its teardrop shape, its stubby fins, and realize that it was an aerial bomb, of the kind that would normally be slung under a conventional aircraft's wing.

I can't imagine that was fun to carry for however long she did. Hopefully she was able to instead pick it up from a ground supply truck or something?

> one with long grey hair and a long white coat, who fought with an old-fashioned rifle and (to Eila's distinct surprise) fixed bayonet

At least she can get her surprise out of the way now before meeting the wacky Fusonese witches.

> Eila was so shocked by the girl's youth and the surprising color of her eyes that she momentarily forgot where she was or why

Well, that's certainly a first impression that'll stick with you.

> She had a narrow horizontal scar under her left eye and a battered peaked officer's cap crammed down on her head, and in her left hand she had a pair of bulky felt boots.

You have to feel bad for very small or very tall Witches visiting other airfields unexpectedly where they may not have footwear in the right size.