I was outnumbered. Pushing the memories away I let theirbined consciousness take over. The
girls would be fine and we would be fine. The worry floated away and I let it go.
“Good girl,” Evan praised as he poured warm water over my hair to start cleaning it.
The bath was just what all of us needed. It was warm and rxing. The water washed away the strain
in their muscles as they cleaned away the dirt.
The men weren’t particrly bothered by being dirty, but the cleanliness was expected of them. As
children they had been trained thatck of concern over one’s physical being indicated weakness. A
man must keep himself in top condition at all times.
I remembered my uncles for a moment. They’d never bathed well enough to wash away the stale
sweat or the odor of alcohol. Of course worrying over their physical health had been thest thing on
their list. I remembered Uncle Eddy with his paunchy gut and toothless smile.
N?velDrama.Org owns ? this.
“Earth is a strange ce,” Christof saidughing at my memories. We finished the bath and I was in
much better spirits. The men were d for my settled state of mind.
“We have questions,” Bane told me quietly as we dressed.
ninjanovel
They did have questions, for once we all did. Nu-reeh was acting so strange. Damien and his Brothers
would make the rounds and find out what was going on. They nned to find their friends and ask the
pertinent questions.
Rose was good for me, so the men felt safe leaving me with her. She would keep me from silly
thoughts. They settled me at the table she was at and strode purposefully out of our new area.
Rose was thrilled to have me back. She’d been trying to work on the stories herself, but she didn’t
know enough words. Her owners’ Mistress, Mistress Catna, wanted her productive. Rose had been
making nkets for men in thepound, but enjoyed writing a great deal more. Since I was here, we
could get back to that.
We knelt together on thefortable kneeling chairs and talked for a moment before Rose insisted we
do some work. The woman that owned Rose’s men was quite insistent she not bezy. Rose was
terrified of the woman. She pressed the pad she’d been given into my hands and entreated me to
begin.
I usually came up with what to write about and Rose made it sound good. I thought for several
moments.
“We could write about scars,” I offered drawing the symbol for that horrible creature absently on the
pad.
The pad lit up and Rose put her hand over her mouth. It was a drawn replica of the Scar from many
different angles. She pulled it closer and looked at it shuddering.
“What,” she asked, “is that?”
The written words apanying the drawing was too technical for me to fully understand. It resembled
a scientific journal article written for specialists. I read what I could to Rose of the introduction. The
information was very detailed.
“Read the whole thing,” she requested politely. “Our story might be made better if we had more
information.”
I smiled and nodded. The Light in Rose’s eyes was like nothing I had seen from her before. A teacher,
starved of all education, finally able to learn again. She Looked radiant.
As I stumbled through theplicated passages, it struck me again. Rose’s talents were wasted here.
very was a waste of her mind. Hannah was right. The way this world ran was stupid, stupid,
stupid…
After we read the article, we wrote a simple story about how to disable and cook a Scar. Fuji looked at
the pictures and determined she could draw it. The article described how to kill it and she depicted her
men doing just that.
A sound got our attention and Rose and Fuji leapt up. I watched as a woman strode into the room with
her femalepanion. My eyes misted as I recognized Hannah and Ra.
I flung myself at my daughter and hugged her tight. Hannah gripped me and pulled me against her
massive frame. We cried and hugged for several moments. When I was done with Hannah I gave Ra
the same affection. From our first short meeting I realized it was expected.