Liz smiled sweetly.  "I'm making some gloves," she said.  "Do you know how to knit?"  She held up the tools she was using.  "Where are you from?"<br/><br/>"Yes," Rebecca said, her hands folded in her lap.  "That's--that's really what it is.  Breeding.  These days, there are more half-breeds than people born.  And every year the orcs and gnolls get bolder.  This year they started just coming right into town, going to the tavern.  Even--even some of the barmaids are carrying their offpring, from what I've heard.  And they take any female who has started her monthly cycle.  They don't care.  And there are so many of them."  Outside, there were two wolf-howls...then another."