Sometimes the simpliest answer can do wonders

I chose a few rows over to offer out skins of water. It worked well. There were none left by midday and it gave me a few moments to myself. I found a rock to perch on and grew lost in the warmth of the sun. Nothing really came to mind and if something did I put it away quickly. Between Ts'ya's unique expressions of affection, the larl's love tap, the tension that still wove between my former Master and I and the rousing rounds of who's on first with the other slave's yesterday I was wound tight. When I heard one of the Masters come up behind me to speak, I spun around ready to fight. He laughed at me and my defensive posture. He laughed at me ... but he reached down to pull me up with him on the mount.

Events of the day before, sort of came in a lazy banter. He just let me vent while we rode. I was worried about the Ubar, I was worried about his beast. I would never intentionally hurt anyone or anything. Food and danger didn't count, survival ran through my veins enough to know the difference. He did say he had stopped me from bailing back into the fray so no one would get hurt. Feeling like I would have been the victor got a little deflated when he said he meant me as well.

He had managed to get all scuffed up last eve himself and I worried over checking the wounds for a moment before settling back in. Despite all the lessons the healer has given me in first aid, it doesn't seem to be my specialty. Interogation on the other hand, was his specialty and the easy manner of it this time asked about why there had been a scuffle between us girls in the first place. I can tell you this, his joke about us being territorial didn't get a laugh. I'd just been trying to serve, then I had just been trying to help. I would like to be close again but I was really and truly just trying to serve. I'm a camp slave and that is what we do. Geez I live here just like everyone else, I work here, I work hard.

I knew I had made mistakes, a whole lot of them in a whole lot of places. Some I felt far more acutely than others. But HE didn't know that, well maybe now he did or at least now he knew that I knew. Schtufffffff kept rumbling through my head like I've always managed to make him angry, hurt him or dissappoint him. He didn't put his collar on me until after damn near killing me a few times. I was quick to mention He had saved raven and I from the kaiila's claws .. that had not gone unnoticed. I wasn't trying to get close ... I wasn't. Well maybe. The suggestion that I should just sit near him, be available to everyone else but still near was met with a sigh. That was all I was doing lately and it hadn't eased any of the tensions, in fact it seemed to just make it all worse.

Can you ever fix the wrongs? He had a few ideas ... good kaiilas rides, simple times by the fires, lying down to look at the stars. How did we get on that topic anyway? I keep changing the subject with everyone and it keeps getting brought back up.

'Sometimes the simpliest answer can do wonders, belle'

I felt the floodgates rise against the backs of my lashes and this time he let me talk about something else.

The rest of the afternoon was more about what I had learned of tracking. There was as much detail as I could provide in describing each of the ones I saw. I had begun to recognize patterns. I felt rather proud when he said I would have made a good hunter. I knew his non pattern pattern as well as anothers .. Ts'ya's. The scrape of metal on a rock near the stream, and the fact that I knew he was following me often. The confession didn't come easy trying to speak of him. He wasn't rational so it wasn't easy to predict what he would do or when or for that fact why. It was the first time I felt like anyone heard me. I was afraid for my former Master. I didn't mention I was afraid for the boy too because the weaver rode up.

It is always good to see her and this time she surprised me. She had been looking for me. She said when the wagons circled at the end of the day I could climb on top hers with her and watch over the harriga. She even gave me permission to crawl up there when she wasn't around.

While we rode I listened. I learned a great deal both about the man and the woman. In the end there was a greater respect and admiration for him. Even beneath all the responsibilities he had, he had the gift of understanding and even more ... listening. In the woman I found a connection, in the depth of her feelings and convictions and her willingness to stand by them.

The Master said that three good things had happened to me today. When I left to finish my chores I was thinking of them. If you thought that the first was a good kaiila ride, you would be mistaken. See, he gave me the simplest answer.