Teco is a broad-shouldered human man with the compact strength of someone who has hauled wet nets, corpses, and stubborn children out of rivers for most of his life. His skin is sun-browned and permanently freckled with pale salt marks along the forearms. His black hair is clipped close on one side and hangs in a stiff, uneven braid on the other, usually threaded with a copper fishhook. He moves with a boatman's rolling balance even on dry ground, but when danger appears he becomes unnervingly still, like a heron watching beneath the surface. His hands are scarred, blunt-nailed, and always smell faintly of cedar oil. The unexpected thing about him is his immaculate smile, bright and almost boyish, which appears most often when he is furious.