The transport settled and the men doing the directing approached. He called a greeting and told us his name and ce of birth. I called back my name and he smiled at me before moving on.


    “You must learn to speak to us,” Thom scolded Rose and Fuji. “The women will teach you and you will understand.”


    “Brother,” one of Thom’s family addressed him, “we need to see where we are scheduled today.”


    The men discussed it and it was decided Thom would show my friends and me around. His Brothers would link up with him after finding out what they needed to.


    Rose, Fuji, and I followed Thom away from the transport. We walked with him through a massive arched passageway into the interior of the mountain. It was like stepping onto a busy city street from medieval times.


    Smokeless torches hung on the walls and kept the area quite bright. In the center of the walkway therge smokeless pits that kept the area warm. Paterian men and women walked around busily going about their lives.


    Light seemed to being from above and I looked up. Perhaps thirty stories above us there were several openings allowing light toe in. The top of this mountain had vents it seemed. Thom noted my attention and pointed them out.


    “They are covered with the same shield you have already seen to avoid visible detection,” he exined. “We can also shut thempletely withrge stone doors, like you saw in the tunnels. You are very safe here. Our camp isrge and well defended. Nothing will harm you here.”


    I nodded and he quirked his head. “A nod,” he smiled. “Kennedy taught this to us. It means yes.”


    On both sides it looked like a hotel with many stories of doorways and stairs. Some of the doorways had a leather drape and some did not. I only saw men using the doorways lower down.


    Looking up, the openings in the rock walls continued, but there were not always stairs leading to them. I saw huge women flying into and out of those openings.


    “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.This is from N?velDrama.Org.


    “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.”


    “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.”


    Two outfits sat in front of Rose and me when the conversation was finished. The long leather skirts would go to our ankles and the thick brown blouses would cover our tops. Something that looked like boxer briefs were produced andid on the table, there were several for each of us. Hannah must have told them what a bra was because Armant pulled out two of those also.


    “How did you make these?” I said picking up a bra and staring at it.


    The thing looked like it would probably fit me. The smaller one Rose picked up would probably fit her. The backs were made so they could be adjusted and they looked perfect.


    “Hannah told us,” Armant beamed as his family puffed with pride. “Your female offspring told us a human woman from your part of Earth would want to wear this. She estimated a size for each of you.”


    Rose and I were ushered to the back of the room to a secluded nook to change. Kennedy had exined humans liked privacy. The men wanted to do everything they could to make us feel human again. Thom exined we had been treated badly for too long.


    Fuji wasn’t offered clothing and I was d. She would have been offended. Kennedy must have remembered her tolerance for cold and exined it before hand when they ordered our clothing.