“Out of everyone I’ve spoken to, you have the least skills.”
I give him a small smile, wishing I could send a charge through his body to make his eyeballs pop. “You would not say that if your stomach is grumbling from starvation.”
“We have enough men to hunt, and we do not need more guards.”
I understand what he isn’t saying: they do not need me.
“Do your guards know how to prepare the carcass without wasting any part?”
“It will not take them long to learn, and your leather worker will teach others how to prepare it and make shoes.”
I shake my head. It is not the leather worker’s responsibility to prepare the leather. “And when you are done learning, what do you intend to do with us? Will we remain valuable members of your colony?”
He licks his lip, and his heart rate increases as he panics.
I lean back in the seat to appear less of a threat. “You’re not a leader of the colony, so it’s not your place to decide. I understand that as my mother was chief. But I also understand how these things work. I need to be useful and to earn my place. You do not want me to hold one of your weapons because you do not trust me.” I pause for effect. “The feeling is mutual. However, I will never act in a way that will bring harm to my brothers or their human mates.”
He flinches as if being reminded that my brothers have human mates is offensive. What a greedy little man he is. There are three women for every man. He should have made a choice already. I wonder if he is one of the men Sabine and Ruby talked about. The kind who doesn’t want to make a choice because he wants to sample as many as possible so he can feel important.
Pathetic.
“I need to assign you a job.”
I can think of several, but he has already discounted them. “And you are not willing to teach me how to do something that will be useful.”
“That was not my instruction…maybe that can be done in the future.”
I doubt that very much. Besides, learning how to fix their technology is not something a person can pick up in a season. I make it easy for him. “What is the job nobody enjoys doing?”
He is silent for several heartbeats, staring at his device. His heartbeat is too fast. I wonder if he realizes I can tell how nervous he is. That he smells like fear and sweat? Does he expect me to lash out if given a job I do not want?
I am curious where my brothers will be assigned.
Aldit will be on leatherwork and shoe making, that is obvious. Vari and Orik have the sock making, which they started with Bridget. Perhaps Edilk and Sunif are helping with the food situation, the hunting and the crops. Tiril has been teaching the humans about us.
I’m hoping we can all sit together tonight and discuss our new assignments and situation.
“It is not about what people like, it is about what the colony needs,” he says without meeting my gaze.
“Your colony is not so different from my tribe. While everyone would like to be an artisan, that is not possible. We only need so many silver beads and so many pots.” But in thedepth of winter, when there is not much else to do, creating things of beauty fills the soul. People decorated their clothes, made music, and told stories. They wrote the accounts of the summer months and contemplated ways to improve the village.
There were discussions about new ideas and test models made. Some were a failure, but we all learned, and everyone was invited to contribute to solving problems from how to harvest faster, make a new wheel that was stronger, hot water in the communal bathroom, better latrines…
When tribes met for trade and mating, there was always discussion of the new ideas and inventions. No one laughed at the absurdity. When I was ten, I went to one and someone came up with a solution to a problem that had been raised when I was a baby.
There is a little time for beauty and creation in the life of a banished warrior.
“Yes, exactly.” He nods as though pleased with me. “You are no longer wearing your clothes.”
“I am not. They need washing…and it has been many years since I have had a new set of clothes.” I pluck at the short-sleeved shirt. “I am grateful for their addition to my room.”
“And how do you wash your clothes?”
I blink. Is he serious? Did he never learn how to wash clothes? “In the river. On a warm sunny day since I only had the clothes that I was wearing.” Now I have a new set of human style clothes.
“Is it common to only have one set?”
“No, it’s because I’m banished. We live with only what we can carry. We need to move fast to avoid being hunted by other tribes and predators.”
