“We really should have thought of that sooner,” Rose mumbled, building a makeshiftsandwichout of her food. “I can’t believe we never thought of it before, although it feels like we are using their religion against them.”


    “Not really against them…” I said mixing the vors on my te how I liked. “Some arguments just get to the heart of the matter.”


    We sat and talked, barely noticing the room around us.


    “May we sit?” a deep voice asked and I looked up.


    We had not heard the group of men approach. The now familiar faces of Mund and his family were holding their tes and waiting for permission.


    “Of course,” Rose smiled up at them, “take a chair.”


    We had a pleasant meal with the other men. They were hunters, usually, and brought in most of the meat we ate. They had been called to the field today to help protect the men there when the scars attacked. Neither Rose nor I was very familiar with this group of men.


    “Family likes to be together,” Mund said quietly as we were all finishing up. “We enjoy our quiet time at night with one another.”


    It was a strangement, but all Mund’s Brothers agreed. They liked quiet evenings by the fire. I smiled wistfully remembering quiet nights with Damien and his Brothers.


    “We have had your families’ lodgings moved near ours. It was many of our friends that saw what happened today,” Mund said quietly. “Come visit us tonight and we will not notice where you go when you leave ourpany.”


    “It is a private alcove,” Mund’s Brother said under his breath. “Our friends and I enjoy peace and quiet in the evenings. No one bothers us once we have retired there.”


    I blinked stupidly at Mund until Rose thanked him. She got directions to the ce he lived just before the men got up and left. Understanding dawned on me and I was shocked.


    “He’s going to let us-” I started to say and Rose cut me off.


    “Visit him tonight, Ciara. We will visit with our new friends,” she said firmly, “Nowe, we both smell and we should bathe before we visit with… Mund and his family.”


    Rose and I bustled out of the dining hall and stopped short when we ran into Fujiing in. It had been many days since we had seen her. On Earth I would have saidweeks. Fuji’s hunting kept her outside, so she was rarely at meals.


    Fuji looked amazing. Her skin glittered brilliantly and her bright red hair was thick and lush. That strange wicked tail was out moving powerfully behind her. She walked with confidence and poise.


    We greeted each other and that tail flicked forward trailing down my front and then Rose’s front. Fuji’s eyes narrowed and she stepped right into my face. Her aggressive stance was not lost on me.


    “You were with them!” she used angrily looking between Rose and I. “I sense them on you. The rules must be followed. They are for your own good!”This is from N?velDrama.Org.


    Fuji’s tail was sensitive as well as deadly. I assumed she “smelled” our male family members on our clothing. Rose and I had freshened in our rooms, but not changed our attire.


    Rose and I rushed to exin how we had leapt onto the transports and ended up with our respective families. It had not been intentional and there was no reason to worry. It had happened in the middle of a mass scar attack.


    “very is wrong,” Fuji said firmly. “What those men did is wrong. The way they think is wrong. You cannot go back to the way you were. I will never go back!”


    Rose and I both sought to shush Fuji. Luckily the dining hall was a slightly chaotic ce and no one was watching us.


    “Fuji,” I exined patiently, “if you remember my men tried to stop being ve owners long ago, so did Rose’s family. I know Stayne and his Brothers-”


    “Have never respected me,” Fuji growled. “They continued a lie I was told my whole life. I was born to live free. Your men never respected you, either.”


    The argument continued and got slightly heated. Fuji didn’t seem to be listening at all. She was adamant in her beliefs about vers. Eventually Rose and I had to say good-bye and left Fuji. She refused to listen to us. There was no use arguing with her, so we ended the conversation as politely as we could.


    Rose and I scrubbed ourselves in the warm water of themunal bath after washing our clothes and leaving them to dry. Tonight was the first time we would see our men in a ce we could freely be together. Neither of us said it, but we both expected to be intimate with them. We wanted to be clean.


    Rose and I walked slowly to the ce Mund said he and his Brothers stayed. It wasn’t on the main corridor like our room. Some men disliked the busy thoroughfare and wanted a ce to be close to their friends, but away from others.


    Women had dug a few deep pockets in the side walls of the mountains. Inside these pockets would be a smallplex of twenty or thirty rooms with their own set ofcquered pots and argemunal fire pit. I thought of them like small viges. The men that lived that way tended to be simr in demeanor and very close to one another. It impressed me that men like that had invited our families to join them. It was essentially like opening their home to someone.