Back to .. Basics

This morning I went in search of Pacu .. Oren and her family. They had moved their wagons back to the furthest rows where I had met them. I suppose they saw their place at the First Wagons due to me and if I was not there ... they were more useful elsewhere. I have no doubt those of the First Wagons would have treated them well .. but I am not unfamiliar with the pride of Oren or Pacu so I am not surprised.

As usual they treated me like I had never left. Like I had been riding with Pacu yesterday and eating Astar's stew the night before... arguing with Oren about verr. If there was any difference in how they treated me .. there was perhaps a little more stew in my bowl .. perhaps a softer clap on my shoulder from Pacu than usual .. A sharper glance from Oren ... but otherwise it was as if I never left. They never asked me where I had been.

Oren .. looks older. I did not think that was possible but her eyes are a little less dark and a little more glassy ... but I am not foolish enough to test her. Her mind seems as sharp as ever it was.

After food and bosk milk .. after Oren left to the verr herd and Astar began the chores of cleaning up and preparing the next meal ... I sat with Pacu and we spoke of my herd. My herd. Not the bosk that were mine for the position of Ubar .. but my own built up from when I got my first courage scar. My kaiila .. bred with specific care by the Kaiila Clan from my own beasts. Each one was taken with my power .. my own hands had provided. These things .. all of my possessions were kept and had flourished under Pacu's hand. I was very grateful for he had his own family and his own herds to care for. He gave me details on breeding .. numbers. I had not done too badly though it seemed there had been a great loss in the recent move North. A loss though that was shared by many Tuchuk and not just I.

No one had ridden Kai .. the kaiila ... or Rocca. It took be awhile to get them used to the idea I was back. A while that left its mark on me and by the time I was done I was as tired as I could ever remember being tired. But it was a good tired.

The kind of tired that left a man feeling as if he had accomplished something. Done something real. Put another mark on the things that he was building for himself and those that he would care for. Dust .. sweat ... bosk piss... kaiila spit ... blisters and leather burns. For a man that has been through what I have .. there is no better medicine than to get back to basics.