Ratru’s family taught us to fight and to use the swords they had made for us. The men were surprised and impressed I already knew some of the drills and moves. That Damien’s family had actually trained me seemed to startle them. It gave them a tad bit more respect for the men they still called “vers”.


    Rue and his Brothers, much to their dismay, were instructed to teach Rose and me about the guns. Much like everyone else, Rose and I should be fully armed. No one was surprised by Rue’s treatment of us. Apparently Rue treated everyone horrid, not just humans. They were good teachers though and I learned to use the weapons they’d made.


    As time went on, I was getting braver and braver. While everyone else was indifferent to Rue’s subtle underhanded remarks, they finally put me in a mood. Even in the middle of many families I felt my temper re. We were standing in the “training range” where we learned to fire the weapons when I exploded.


    Rue had exined in an exaggerated fashion how to aim the weapons, since I had missed, which was actually unusual for me. His Brothersughed as he repeated his instructions. Theymented about how slow and stupid I was. I heard the remarks and couldn’t resist.


    “So,” I asked loudly, “will you lock me in a box overnight for this? Perhaps there is another punishment you would like to inflict on me KEEPER?”


    The training ground was suddenly silent as the men around us registered thement.


    “Why do you call these men Keeper?” a man asked from the side. He was a rescued man from the Barnaspound. That word had meaning to him.


    I crossed my arms and stared at Rue with open malevolence. “Didn’t you tell them how you used to keep ves in exchange for stones? Aren’t you proud of your role in supporting very in thepounds?”


    “For stones!” Rue’s Brother said loudly, “We never used you for your purpose or showed any interest in you.”


    “very is an abomination,” a man said loudly to our left and I grinned.


    “You participated,” I said to Rue smugly. “Really, what kind of men does that make you?”


    I turned and stalked away, leaving Rue and his Brothers to deal with whatever mess I’d stirred up. Some part of me wanted to feel guilty, but I didn’t. I deserved a little payback for all those nights locked in that little vault. Odds were the Administrators would sanction the other men, but in my opinion it was worth it.


    The men weren’t supposed to fight and usually they behaved. I heard the scuffle begin behind me and grinned knowing what it meant as I walked out. A little payback wasn’t a terrible thing.


    I saw Fuji rarely in this new life, but when I did the differences were striking. The more freedom Reed and Hassar insisted she take, the better she looked. Her skin practically glowed and when her hair started to grow in, it looked like I’d never seen it before. It was an extraordinary difference.


    Instead of the thin mangy look her red hair had always had, it was now thick and lush on her head. A strip of it even ran down her back along her spine. She looked truly magnificent and wild.


    Fuji’s favorite activity was hunting and the women encouraged her to do that. She roamed the outside world and brought back meat for many of our meals. I’d see her sometimes on the mountainside beyond the protected perimeter. She was fast and they’d taught her how to fight. My friend had be a brutally efficient hunter. Everyone respected her skill at it.


    We’d talk sometimes when she came back into camp. She was so entirely different than she had been prior. Gone was the demure girl who had no opinions of her own. Fuji used the resources avable to her and became an individual in her own right. She had be proud, stubborn, and opinionated. It was a miraculous change.


    I saw her one day dragging the bloody carcass of a rack through a ground level entrance into the transport storage area. The men surrounded her as she entered and eyed her catch with appreciation. Every piece of a rack was valuable in the camp, none of it would be wasted, but catching and killing one was a feat. The men were honored when she gave her prize over and instructed them to make good use of it.


    “How did you do that?” I asked as the men carried the body away with hoots and calls, alerting everyone to the bounty.


    “Racks aren’t hard,” Fuji informed me, shaking her hair out. “I could catch more, but the Administrators only want me bringing the poption down, not decimating it.”


    Up close I could see several healed lines on her flesh. My friend had no use for clothing and continued refused all offers to furnish her some. Fuji had scars that crisscrossed her torso and arms. Knowing what it took to prate her skin, I imagined learning to kill a rack had not been an easy chore. She was too proud of her ability to be worried about that. Her worth was not based on her perfect physical self anymore.Exclusive content from N?velDrama.Org.


    “You’ve changed, my friend,” I told her. “I never thought you would be like this.”


    Fuji looked at me and then at the world outside the cave.


    “My home was like this,” she said. “I was not able to explore it. Women on my are only valuable for sale. My male breeder secluded my sisters and me underground. We were trained to serve and then sold, so he could continue his habit…”


    I felt foolish, but I didn’t know much about Fuji’s home world. I wasn’t sure what habit she referred to. My confusion was evident.


    “I’ve learned about my home, Batra,” Fuji exined. “The worms that are so nutritious for you are from there, but we hunted them to near extinction, once we discovered them. They are very difficult to afford, now. Before the worms, my people were proud fighters. We did not sell our children to be ves on other worlds. The worms took away our sense.”


    I nodded sympathetically, knowing that drugs had ruined many proud humans on Earth.


    “The hold of those things can be hard to break,” I said sadly.


    “I have broken their hold over me,” Fuji stated with obvious pride. “I do not need the worms to feel good. Hassar has brought them here and I was able to sit and look at them. It made me feel strong to ask her to take them away from me.”


    In the distant past I’d seen Fuji react to the worms. If she no longer felt the pull for them, that was really saying something. It was a testament to her new strength she didn’t need them to feel good.


    Several men approached and wanted Fuji to hunt for them. They wanted to work at a ce they knew to be infested with racks. My friend could help them keep the creatures away and under control while they worked.


    We bid each other goodbye as she walked casually off with the men. I watched her leave with some awe. She looked like a radiant goddess and carried herself the same way. Freedom had done amazing things for her.


    Rose was changing, too. Once upon a time, she’d been a bright energetic girl with strong opinions and midwestern work ethic. Her husband had started to crush her spirit and then very had taken away what she had left. Free and encouraged, she found herself again.


    I watched with admiration as my friend took on the task of being a free woman. She was unstoppable when a job needed to bepleted. When the men around us were tired and frustrated Rose became their cheerleader. Everyone appreciated having her around.


    Time came and went and I timed it by my menses. They seemed to follow the cycle of the main moon, which I found odd. It took three cycles before things started to change in the way the camp’s men felt about the “vers”.


    During the day Rose and I talked nonstop to the men around us. We made every argument we could in favor of our families and it started to work. Actually the argument Rose chanced upon started to work. She had asked me innocently if all men on the were part of the Great Harmonious Spirit or just ones like the people in the camp.


    By the time we tried it on our coworkers, Armant’s family, we were sure it would be effective.


    “Of course all men are part of The Great Harmonious Spirit,” Armant answered her. “They must only ept that part of themselves and bond with us. We are all part of The Great Spirit.”


    Roseughed, a light sound that did not even hint at the power of what she was about to say.


    “Basin’s family and Damien’s family are not part of your Spirit,” she scoffed. “They are outcasts and forbidden from blending into the camp. No, it seems to me you pick and choose those that are allowed to join your Spirit, everyone is not part of it.


    Armant’s family was offended and bothered. I saw Rose’s sly smile as I stitched diligently. I would never have thought to try that argument, but it seemed to be working.


    As we walked to our afternoon chore, we were in the fields today, I told Rose what a good idea that had been.


    “It seemed to me the only argument they might listen to,” she said quietly gripping the hilt of her sword. “Basin and his Brothers are learning and so is your family. They have been loyal to us, we must be loyal to them. We must fight for their rights.”


    I agreed and gripped the handle of my own sword, she was right. Damien and his Brothers had been willing to fight for my rights, I owed them the same. Since we’d finally found an argument that worked, we would use it.


    Rose and I went to the garage with the transports and caught a ride with a friendly family. We both knew how to drive the transports now, thanks to men generously teaching us, but we didn’t like to go out alone. There was just two of us, which was not enough to man the transport’s weaponry. We were safer going with a family.


    The men we went with today were Abram’s family. They all wore their hair in a long style, tied back. They were nice men and liked to tell jokes. They usually worked in the kitchens, but it was harvest time for many nts. They’d do whatever job the Administrators put them to, including field work.


    Rose and I rode with them outside the protected area to arge field growing rupe. We could not eat it, as I already knew, but native Paterians digested it fine. It was harvested and put on the tables when it was in season. Rose and I knew what it looked like and avoided it, just like any man with human ancestry.