“Men stay lower down usually,” he said gesturing to the seven stories of rooms all around us.
Arge group passed and I stared at them. It was perhaps thirty families of male children all of varying
ages. They were surrounded by, several groups of grown men as they all moved toward the parking
garage.
“They are having Lessons outside today,” Thom said. “We did not Learn the way the children here do.
Most of those men are their male breeders. Some male breeders teach the young and some have
talents otherwise. Each of us does what he is best at, although we can change jobs if it is needed or we
wish to.”
I stared at the backs of the children and thought of Jonathan. My beautiful, blonde boy would be here
learning like this soon.
“Most of the industry is on the ground floor,” Thom continued to exin as we walked.
He pointed out an open cave and told me those men produced shoes, another opening produced
coats. Essentially, it was a town inside the mountain.
“We men eat together,” Thom exined as we passed a gaping cave. The inside area was covered in
tables. “You will eat with us, I believe The women like their meals raw for the most part, but they often
join us forpany. There are several families of females that bring their kill and eat with us every
time. Other women eat what we do and take every meal in the hall.”
It was so much to take in and I was d when Thom walked into a quiet opening off the main cave and
motioned us in. The inside of the room was tight with tables and fabric. It was well lit, though. The men
inside the room were busy, but stopped when they saw Thom.
“Hannah and Kennedy’s special guests have arrived,” Thom said cheerfully as the lead Brother
approached.
“Wonderful, I am Armant rescued from the Barnaspound. It is a pleasure to have you here,” the
man said congenially.
The man speaking appeared older, hardly frail or infirm, just with more years than I was ustomed to.
His shoulders were broad and his hands looked strong. He didn’t look Like any shopkeeper I’d ever
seen on this.
“They need the outfits Hannah specified,” Thom said. Armant smiled as he looked at Rose and I. “I was
told,” he said, “that these females can make things, nkets and such. Also, I was told they could
stitch.”
Thom seemed surprised and looked at me.
“Rose and I can,” I said to both of them cautiously. “She taught me to sew. I like to knit also.”
ninjanovel
“Ruth,” Thom corrected me, before turning to Armant. “Let the Administrators work it out. I don’t want to
promise you something too soon.”
“Put in a good word for me,“ Armant said to Thom.
“My Brothers and I enjoy this work, but our fingers are stiff. We could use the help. You all have not
taken enough shopkeepers to maintain this camp as it should be, old Warriors aren’t always good at
this type of work. They have no patience for it.”
Thom sighed before he spoke.
“If you want the rescues done differently, talk to the Administrators and give them your point of view.
You know how hesitant they have been to take shopkeepers. Perhaps your argument will sway them.”
“Doubtful,” Armant’s Brother saiding forward with an arm load of things, “they’d prefer to give the
jobs to us old Warriors. Shopkeepers have never been taught to fight. They can be so difficult to retrain.
They don’t know their own strength.”
It was like my friends and I weren’t present. The men talked and I learned shopkeepers were hard to
retrain. They’d been told they were unable to defend themselves their whole lives. Rescued
shopkeepers needed protection until they figured out they did have power. They were hard to grab from
the viges and annoyingly weak when they got here.
“I’ve told them we could train shopkeepers to fight. We’ve done it with the ones they’ve rescued,”
Armant saidying out the pieces his brother had brought. “We learned to sew and stitch. Shopkeepers
are harder to rescue and to retrain, but we could do it.”N?velDrama.Org (C) content.