The men in the hall that were beingmanded by The Great Harmonious Spirit barely spared her a nce. Rose and I both jumped nearly a foot in the air hearing her outburst.This is from N?velDrama.Org.


    “They are not fine!” the woman raved. “They are children that were attacked by an ALIEN! This is not a safe ce for the men! They will be killed here!”


    I couldn’t help but let out a sharp, coarseugh at her outrage.


    “The MOMENT my boy saw the danger he reached out for his male breeder for help,” I responded angrily. “My family reached out to the camp. These boys were never safer. There is always danger, but you took away the men’s ability to defend themselves on thosepounds. They can’t connect to The Great Harmonious Spirit when you keep them divided and isted. The men have to have love and trust to survive.”


    The woman on the b had a vicious wound across her neck. She still looked at me angrily and growled.


    “We put them there for their safety! They are not safe here! You are nothing more than a ve and will never understand!” she spat out.


    “What doesn’t she understand?” Kana asked walking up from behind us.


    She gently shooed Rose and told her to go help the Healers. I spared my friend a confused look as Kana settled on the edge of my son’s warm stone. She pushed me around the rock so I rested behind her. I didn’t really feel we needed protection, but my family and I were going to get it.


    Rose moved away, but continued to watch as Kana spoke.


    “Perhaps you should exin the whole story to her,” Kana continued. “Tell the human how we tricked the men onto thepounds. Exin to her how we made sure the different ages never bonded. Tell her why we did all that. It was never for their safety and you know that. It was so we could sell the ore off the! The men are powerful when The Great Harmonious Spirit has them. They can even defy us. These aliens will never survive here.”


    The room was silent after Kana spoke and I saw the rage in the eyes of the woman she had been speaking with.


    “How DARE YOU…” the woman started to say and Kanaughed.


    “They know,” Kana said blithely, “the men here know because their women are honest with them. You should be honest with yourself about our motivations and reasons. Arguing that these injured males are reason to undo the salvation of this world is foolish indeed.”


    A young family that had been standing along a near wall approached us slowly. Just looking at them I knew they were young Warriors rescued from apound. They were not bonded to the camp and they were not grabbed by The Great Harmonious Spirit. They looked very suspicious of all of this.


    “Why would we be put on thepound instead of living here?” the lead Brother asked Kana with a slightly defensive posture. “We have never heard this.”


    The boys looked nervous talking to females and I could tell they were ready to bolt away if Kana attacked. They must be brave men to do what they were doing now. Kana just settled herself more firmly on Jonathan’s stone and started to speak with them.


    The woman with the neck wound attempted to get up, most likely to fight, but she couldn’t. Her wound was too bad and prevented too much movement. Tyle and his family further limited her by pushing her back down.


    “Movement will injure you, cousin,” Tyle said in amanding tone. “We will not lose good women to this battle when we can help it. Stay still until you heal.”


    The woman wanted to fight Kana, but she was no match for men under The Great Harmonious Spirit’s control. Several families approached quickly and literally bound her body to the table with stike rope. She would be calm and rest, whether she wanted to or not.


    Kana watched the men bind the other woman impassively before continuing her conversation.


    “Many generations ago we realized the ore on this was valuable to other races. It fuels the portals that allow them to cross between worlds,” she exined.


    Many older boys and men from thepound, left here for their safety, slowly surrounded her to listen.


    “Men of this world did not like the idea of letting the ore leave our world. They fought the idea fiercely and called it wrong,” she announced to the assembly.


    “Why?” one of the young men asked, inching closer with his family.


    I crawled on the b beside Kana and looked to her to continue. I didn’t know either.


    “The ore is us,” she said and her audience gasped in confusion. “The ore is in our very make up. When we are delivered back to the Paterian fire the ore umtes. As our physical form sinks deep into the fire we be our integral parts and the has us back. The ore the women mine from the mountains is our physical presence on this. Without us, there is no ore.”


    The men and boys were still not understanding, but I did and found the revtion shocking.


    “The ore is part of the matrix in our bones and muscles,” Kana’s Sister with one wing said. “Each of us has a little ore stored within us. The ore is the power that shapes us and connects us to each other and our world.”


    Both women took very non threatening postures and it seemed to encourage the men to ask questions. It took time but I watched the men from thepound and mountains slowly start toprehend. They’d never thought about what literallyposed their physical selves.


    As I sat and considered it seemed the ore wasparable to Earth’s coal and oil. It wasn’t the same, not by a long shot, but it was simr.


    Women all around us were paying attention to the conversation. I heard the shift of arge body behind me and looked back to see Asper watching the interaction intently. She did not speak or interrupt the proceeding, but I noted how pensive she appeared. I wondered what was going through her mind and whose side she would take in this argument. For now, she seemed to be holding her counsel.


    Jonathan and his Brothers slept, as they had beenmanded to do. I stroked their foreheads and watched them breathe. They seemed well and unperturbed, so my attention shifted back to the conversation.


    Kana was talking about how the men were kept divided because, while one family was no match for the women, many men under The Great Harmonious Spirit could challenge any number of women. In fact, even the power of the women’s venom could be ovee by the sheer force of numbers. When the men joined they became strong in many, many ways. In order to sell the ore, the women tricked the men onto thepounds and then slowly eroded theirmunal bond.


    “We had thought once we were a rich we would free the men, but it never happened,” Kana said sadly. “I don’t even know why we continue this way. It was soon evident there is nothing we needed from others. We hoard the riches, but they have no value to us….”