When you meet a Kur

After I saw the kaiila brushed and returned to the pens, it was a bowl of hot blackwine that would be the perfect end to a decent day. I saw him sitting there and all of the wind let out of my sails. It would be the first time we met since I became free and of all the entire harigga ... I realized in that one moment his thoughts mattered greatly to me. No matter how many times I may have envisioned it all, it was not as easy as I wanted. Everything I did just seemed ... not the right thing ... at the right time. Do you know that feeling ... when you want something more than anything to go right that you make it go all wrong?

How amused he must have been watching me flush with the vulnerability of the occasion. How he must have laughed aloud inside to see such a wisp of a woman bow up like a spit fire ready to take on the elder over a bowl of blackwine. It was like the flutter of a peregrine's wings as it settles once more to the gauntlet. All fluster and show before the wings are folded in again to still. I offered to get him a bowl while I was up getting mine but if he was going to get that sappy look in his eyes and visualize me at his feet wearing nothing but a kalmak and chatka then he could just get his own brew. It was a simple soothing of feathers as he told me I didn't have to be defensive. It was natural to still think of that sometimes but I'd been free ... how long ....versus being slave for far longer. It was merely a learning period .. that's all.

In my thoughts and I suppose in my heart I call him Papa Kur and told him so. Now that did make him laugh heartily. Was he that bad? Well the Turians have a different name for him and he added that slaves have another ... the free have many they call him. I watched as he rose to stand in front of me. It was like looking up at a massive wall to study the line of his scars, his features, those eyes that could look deeper than any I have ever known.

The words he spoke would remain with me through all that I face in the future ... he was there, that I could always come to talk with him if I needed to. It was the first time anyone had said that and I truly felt as if they meant it. Then he leaned in closer to press a paternal kiss to my forehead and in a voice that was calming and soothing he said

... just remember to breathe.