noon
`` I like you , too . Good night . '' Ijale stayed near Jason the next day , and took the next station in line when the endless _ krenoj _ hunt began . Whenever it was possible he questioned her and before noon had extracted all of her meager knowledge of affairs beyond the barren coastal plain where they lived . The ocean was a mystery that produced edible animals , fish and an occasional human corpse . Ships could be seen from time to time offshore but nothing was known about them . On the other flank the territory was bounded by desert even more inhospitable than the one in which they scratched out their existence , a waste of lifeless sand , habitable only by the D'zertanoj and their mysterious _ caroj _ .