"Tal Kaz." Arigh is a strange woman. Stranger than most. She was sitting there on the ground watching me for the longest time before she finally decided to speak. You know, as if she's never seen a man lead his kaiila to water before. Nevermind that Necessity prefers to stand in the middle of the stream.
"It's Kazhuye... and Tal."
Suddenly she was throwing snowballs at me.
"Hey now. What was that for?" The last woman to throw things at me was Sakmeta. Rocks to be precise.
"You looked frustrated with your beast, thought I'd help cool you off. Have you considered giving him a longer tether so that he doesn't go so crazy when you do let
him out?"
"No." I sniffed and just stared at her for a moment. Did women suddenly feel they knew a man's war beast better than he did? Ahh but what the hell... I wasn't gonna let her drag me into any argument over semantics. Women were just... testy that way. "And I ain't frustrated either."
"Well you got to admit you make a damn good target out there trapped by your own beast in the middle of icy waters. But I have no more ammo, so you are safe."
"I ain't trapped. I led him here." Right about then Necessity's snout came bobbing up out of the water, snorting and spraying slobber all which ways. He has such uncanny timing sometimes that I am often left to wonder if he understands Gorean fluently.
"Mmmhmm...Necessity agrees." I'm not sure exactly what she meant by this. But like I said, she is bit strange.
With a tug to the reign, I leaned a bit in the saddle as if expectantly to drive Necessity onto dry land again. But the kaiila didn't budge. Instead he snorted again and bobbed his massive head back down into the water. More loud slurps. Guess he wasn't done yet, eh?
Arigh was laughing at me by now, "Should I go get you some blankets, its liable to get cold out there tonight?"
"Don't be pokin fun at my kaiila, woman. He might bite you." Necessity's tail switched back and forth fairly rapidly. Damn beast was in a mood.
"I'm not poking fun at him. I like him. He's kinda....well....cute. All attitude and stubbornness. I think he thinks he's Tuchuk. I could bring you food too? I'm a very good cook."
Last time a woman tried to cook for me, all hell broke loose. "We already ate." Suddenly the kaiila's snout bobbed back up out of the water, and Necessity took a flying leap across the stream, landing on dry grass again. With a languid stretch, he drew downward at a verticle slant, only to rake his claws across the ground and leave deep ravines in their wake as he righted himself once again.
Arigh walked towards us, "Water and a great big stretch, feeling better there Pretty Girl?" As she reached to rub a very cold and wet snout. Then looking at me she asked, "Are you always so guarded?"
Why do people keep callin' him a fucking girl?
"What do you mean by guarded?"
"Guarded, untrusting, keeping people out before they can hurt you. Guarded."
Necessity reared back slightly and nudged the woman's hand with his snout, more interested in sniffing it than being rubbed, it seemed. And then when his curiosity was sated, he turned round and swatted her across the head with his tail as his interest went elsewhere. I of course, had to turn around in the saddle slightly to keep my focus on the woman below.
"Hurt me? Ha! I am Kazhuye of the Tuchuks and a warrior! I fear no one!"
"You fear no one huh? So you don't fear allowing people close? Joining the first fires so that you have more family? Joining the first fires so you could...I don't know...mate T'zuri?"
"I have all I need." Once again my eyes narrowed slightly upon her, as if she were testing me somehow. And what the hell? I have Necessity and Paenuria, the she-bosk. One covered wagon and one flatbed. What else does a man really need? At the mention of the singer though, I glanced away for a moment. "I expect if I get me a woman, she'll be coming to my wagon. Not the other way around."
"Yeah, you aren't guarded at all." She was patting my foot now! "You really going to let location stand in the way of love?"
I snorted and glared at the woman now. "You sure talk big for a little gal." After that I drove my boot heel into Necessity's flank, making the kaiila rear up and dance around in a half circle before crashing back down upon terra firma once again.
"Yeah, its been one of those kinds of days, I guess. Don't mean to offend."
Wheeling the beast the other way, we circled round and round the rock, much as if we were honing in upon prey on the open plains.
"What sort of day, Sleen Trainer?"
"Actually it has been more like a hand. Dealing with stupidity and not being able to do much about it, because I'm just a prospect. Having to take insults, cuz I'm just a prospect."
"A prospect of what?" I asked. "And what kinda stupidity?" Circling round and round, his concentric rings grew smaller and smaller until at last Necessity was standing right before the rock. I leaned down against the kaiila's long silk-furred neck and looked right at her. Almost like I'd just seen her for the very first time. And yep... she was definitely a woman.
"For the first fires. Woman who are supposed to be grown acting immature. And other women who should be happy acting like ungrateful spoiled brats and then being passive aggressive shit heads when you call them out on it."
Far as I knew, that pretty much summed up the entire female populace. Which is why I tend to avoid women like the plague in general. I chuckled briefly though. "But... you still wanna live there at the First Wagons. Guess that's the price, hmm?"
"Yeah, what do you want? To live alone forever? Have no sons to train up to be like you? Is a flat bed all to yourself really that much of a benefit?" She asked.
Grinning, I replied, "I don't gotta listen to women gripe." In my estimation, I have it good. While others are miserable day in and day out.
"Gonna still feel that way, if T'zuri mates someone else? I've seen the way you look at her. How hard can it be to go ask Fonce for a bride price?"
My grin faded slightly as I glanced away. From the side of my face, my jaw tightened slightly while I wound the leather reign around my fist tighter and tighter.
"How did you know her guardian was the Ubar?"
"Because the Ubar is my guardian too." She was smiling again. "He's not as scary as he seems."
I snorted, tugging Necessity back a bit. The kaiila's sidesteps were slightly zig zagged... but I did finally put a little distance between myself and the woman.
"I ain't scared of him. Sounds like you're anxious to see the Singer gone in a hurry though."
"Why would she be gone? She'd still be here. I like the little feisty singer. I've just seen you with her. I've seen you look at her. And a man doesn't look at just
any woman like that. You don't have to talk to him. You don't have to mate her. You can stay alone. That's your perogative as a Tuchuk man. Just going back to my statement of what are you going to do if it is too late?"
"I never looked at her no kinda way!" I wasn't gonna admit that shit! Not to her!! "And why? Who's courtin' her?"
"I don't know if anyone is or isn't. I've only ever seen her with you outside of the fires. But I know one thing. I spend my day playing with sleen and at the end of the day I smell like a sleen. Regardless of whether someone thinks I'm pretty or not, at the end of the day I still smell like a sleen. The singer there is beautiful and she doesn't play with sleen all day. Who you think is gonna get mated first?"
"She don't like me anyway." Oh I know the singer likes me just fine... but not that way.
"He and I have never spoken about that, so I can only assume you know that for certain or that you are trying to protect yourself from getting hurt. On either account, I don't blame you. but she sure did go a long way out of her way to make sure you were taken care of when you were a little drunk off your keister. Most don't do that for people they don't like. But sometimes one doesn't know how they feel until someone starts making them feel special."
I only snorted again. And so did Necessity, by the way. We're quite a lot alike sometimes.
"I can take care of myself."
Arigh huffed at me now. "I didn't say you couldn't take care of yourself, sheesh. I was just pointing it out."
"I don't need no help, either!" With a terse tug on the reigh, Necessity shot around in a half circle before taking off like a flaming dart sprung from a bow. Of all the outriders' kaiila... mine is the fastest. Even among all four tribes of the Wagon Peoples. And just like that, we were gone. Off to find the truth!
