Thief of Time - Desparate

There was not, surprisingly, a great deal of blood. The head rolled into the snow, and the body slowly toppled forward.

'Now you've killed-' Lobsang began.

'Just a second,' said Lu-Tze. 'Any moment now…’

The headless body vanished. The kneeling yeti turned his head to Lu-Tze, blinked and said, 'Thaat stung a biit.'

'Sorry.'

Lu-Tze turned to Lobsang. 'Now, hold on to that memory!' he commanded. 'It'll try to vanish, but you've had training. You've got to go on remembering that you saw something that now did not happen, understand? Remember that time's a lot less unbending than people think, if you get your head right! Just
a little lesson! Seeing is believing!'

'How did it do that?'

'Good question. They can save their life up to a certain point and go back to it if they get killed,' said Lu-Tze. 'How it's done... well, the abbot spent the best part of a decade working that one out. Not that anyone else can understand it. There's a lot of quantum involved.' He took a pull of his permanent foul
cigarette. 'Gotta be good working-out, if no one else can understand it.’

'How is der abboott these daays?' said the yeti, getting to its feet again and picking up the pilgrims.

'Teething.'

'Ah. Reincarnation's alwaays a problem,' said the yeti, falling into its long, ground-eating lope.

'Teeth are the worst, he says. Always coming or going.'

'How fast are we going?' said Lobsang.

The yeti's stride was more like a continuous series of leaps from one foot to the other; there was so much spring in the long legs that each landing was a mere faint rocking sensation. It was almost restful.
'I reckon we're doing thirty miles an hour or so, clock time,' said Lu-Tze. 'Get some rest. We'll be above Copperhead in the morning. It's all downhill from there.'

'Coming back from the dead...' Lobsang murmured.

'It's more like not actually ever going in the first place,' said Lu-Tze. 'I've studied them a bit, but... well, unless it's built in you'd have to learn how to do it, and would you want to bet on getting it right first time? Tricky one. You'd have to be desperate. I hope I'm never that desperate.’

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The Thief of Time - p189-190