Drinking With Men
.I felt doubly bad now. First for the fact Necessity had been the culprit in making the girl cry. Secondly... for damn near drowning her. But more and more she seemed to give in to the numbing effects of the icy cold water she had fallen into, losing her coherence and the abilty to form complete sentences.
I don't know what I was thinking. I don't know what came over me. But after I mounted my kaiila, I reached down and hauled the Singer right up into the saddle with me where I wrapped her in the blanket. I did this even though she had once said she did not ever want to ride in the same saddle as me.
I took T'zuri home with me, because I did not know where her own wagon was. I do not think she was able to even tell me where, either. When we reached the group of wagons in my own camp, I hopped down and waited for her to hop down too, unsure whether I should touch her again. You know, in case she might accuse me of being some kind of letch.
"I need help, Kazhuye. I can't feel my legs." Touch me, it's alright.
For just a brief moment I had her in my arms, and I do not know what I was thinking, nor what came over me. Because... I liked it.
But I put the Singer down by the still-smoldering campfire, around which others had already either passed out cold or stumbled on home. And then I gave her paga. Only half a cup though, for the other half I drank myself.
The Singer gulped it down and asked for more. I wondered if she'd had paga before.
