Despite the chill in the air the afternoon work was hot and dirty, but enlightening. Rose and I were small and closer to the ground than the men. They thanked us heartily for helping them pull the unwanted weeds from around their nts.


    The field we were in today was growing something that seemed familiar. It looked an awful like corn, but Arik called it spota. It was something Rose and I could eat. As we pulled weeds the men told us about where it grew wild and how to prepare it. It was a staple in this part of the world.


    The men were friendly enough until they got on the topic of vers. Men like that had no right in their camp. Even if they had been male breeders for Hannah and Kennedy, they still were horrible creatures. vers should be left at thepounds to rot was the general opinion.


    It took courage, but I finally said something.


    “That isn’t fair,” I said firmly to the man picking the sporta off the stalk next to me. “Our families have changed. They know they made a mistake, now, you can’t judge like that without giving them a chance.”This content ? 2024 N?velDrama.Org.


    “vers,” the man said pulling off another mature piece of the nt, “have an entirely different way of viewing the world. They do not know respect for other living creatures. We do not want them here.”


    Rose spoke in an almost begging tone while looking at the ground, “Then you need to teach them,” she said. “If you don’t like how they view the world, you must be patient and teach them.”


    The men grumbled and fussed. vers weren’t worth teaching, they were poisonous and evil. Just look at how Rose was acting, vers had made her that way. She was scared and shy, still staring at the ground. The free men around us did not understand why men on thepounds kept ves or why we were defending them.


    Both Rose and I worked hard to change our behavior as the afternoon went on. Continuing to act as we’d been trained to would only hurt our families. We had to start acting like free women again.


    After a day in the field Rose and I were both dirty and sweaty. The bathing pot in our rooms was small and we had really liked the warm bath that morning. Before the evening meal we went back to the bathing ce and washed ourselves and our clothing.


    It was a good thing I was ustomed to being naked. I had to strip off my outfit and wash it before getting into the water to bathe my body. It had been a long time since I felt self-conscious without clothing. After being dressed all day, I found my bare skin made me shy. Still, I was determined not to cower in our rooms with Rose.


    Arik’s family and Ratru’s family ate with us again that night. Rose and I were getting used to the new families and even rxed enough tough at their jokes. It wasn’t the same closeness I was used to with Damien’s family, but it was nice.


    One of the families I rescued from the caves, the same one that brought Kennedy’s pad to me, even showed up and sat at our table. We all squeezed together so they would fit. I got the feeling the men liked to be this close to one another. It was different from the almost istion the families at thepound were used to.


    The lead Brother’s name in this family was Rayn. It was easy to recognize his family because of the one tall Brother. Rayn had pulled up chairs so his family could take a meal with all of us. He and his Brothers worked almost exclusively with rescues from thepounds or exploration of the surrounding area. They were rarely in the camp.


    “We like to be outside,” Rayn said betweenrge bites. “Some men like the safety of the camp, but we find it confining. My Brothers and I want to be out in the world.”


    I smiled at him and nodded. He and his Brothers looked like the most rugged men I’d seen here. Listening to their stories it sounded like they had seen a great deal. Had we been on Earth, I imagined they would be explorers living on the edge of civilization.


    Rayn’s family had even brought back a bag of seeds for Arik and his Brothers. It was a fruit the men had difficulty cultivating here, but they all liked it. Rayn and his family were positive Arik’s family could figure out how to grow it this time, though. Although Arik’s family was obviously physically weaker than Rayn’s they were well respected for what they did.


    I watched the men interact and noted that Hannah had been right. Free men believed strongly in equality. Rayn’s family didn’t shun Arik’s because they were smaller. There were things Rayn just wasn’t good at and he could acknowledge that.


    Thinking back I realized thepound had been divided in a very physical sense. Shopkeepers behind one wall and Warriors behind another. Even the Administrators kept closely to themselves. None of the groups mingled the way I saw them purposefully doing here.


    Our meal finished and we were left to go back to our lodgings on our own. I walked with my friend through the camp and found myself wondering about Damien and his Brothers.


    “You know,” Rose said quietly as we walked, “I bet if we get up early again, we would see our families in the morning.”


    She was right and it quickly became an addictive pattern. Rose and I met our families almost every morning in the bathing hall. It was deserted that time of day so no one noticed what we were doing.


    We never had long with them and there was always the threat someone woulde in. It was just a few stolen moments everyday to say I love you and check on each other. I wanted more, so much more, but it just was not possible for us to be together.


    Our men were fairly happy in the camp, but very isted. They were not invited to dine with everyone and they were not included in group activities. If it hadn’t been for Arnold’s family and Tyle’s family they would have been very lost.


    Our men were essentially left on their own. They had to catch and cook their own food. They had their jobs and they usually took them far from the camp. I know some part of them missed the camaraderie of thepound, but they made do. Instead ofining they used the free time to explore and learn. Nobody limited them and they adored the freedom.


    Our men were usually given the worst jobs and the most dangerous. None of them everined about that either. Instead they were bing the toughest men in the entire camp. Damien told us they saw things and ces the other men rarely did, due to the danger. That was fine, because they had new experiences everyday.


    The only thing they everined about, the only sadness that seemed to touch them, was the loss of Jonathan. Evan mourned for his lost child just as I did. He could sense the boy and knew he was alive. All our other information came from the ck and white pictures we watched from time to time.


    Jonathan was a fierce little boy and so was his family. They fought each other to get stronger and fought other little boys to prove dominance. Everything seemed to interest them.


    I noted that Jonathan’s curiosity got him and his Brothers in loads of trouble. He wanted to know everything. I cried each time I went to watch the monitor. Tears poured for the little man I would not know any more than this. Evan told me he felt the same as I did when he watched our raucous child.


    Our men’s opinions regarding Rose and me changed slowly. I knew that Hannah and Kennedy talked to them frequently when they were here. Gunth counseled them, also. My family madements to me and I knew they were being educated. It was just a very slow process for them to change their thinking. They couldn’t believe we didn’t need their protection.


    The main issue was that Rose and I associated with other men all day. Our families weren’t sure they liked the way we lived our lives. We talked to them about the friendly men we talked to and worked with. Men in the camp taught us things and we told them about Earth culture or knitted them nkets. The continued little interactions concerned our men. One day they’d finally had enough of it.