Q: in his deep raspy voice he said , '' i 've been wonderin ' about this some . when you found the dead guy in the river -- '' before he could finish the sentence a wasp buzzed past his ear . he slapped at it and jumped back , stirring up a little cloud of dust . he settled down and started all over . '' when you found the dead guy in the _ ... Fill the blank.
A: blank is river

Q: the castle had had enough mice until now , and the previous ruler used to pay to have them caught and removed . paying to bring mice into a castle , notwithstanding tom 's elliptical arguments , was not something that castle-owners regularly did . not even if they were crazy . and as far as bert was concerned , lenchen was anything but _ ... Fill the blank.
A: blank is crazy

Q: a wound like that would have incapacitated her , prevented her escaping , probably even knocked her unconscious for several minutes , long enough for the stables to be set on fire and be fully engorged in flames before she regained consciousness and could scream . '' '' but if her throat was sliced , she would n't have been able to scream , '' bricker pointed out . '' not right away , '' eshe agreed . '' but the nanos ' first reaction would be to repair the damage to such a _ ... Fill the blank.
A:
blank is wound