... actually .. a nice fat bosk steak will do just fine.Now I have always been a man with little against walking. Kept my soil legs under me more than most .. but truly there is little more pathetic than a plainsman on the plains without his kaiila. It just is not natural.
But that was the least of my worries. I was hungry .. thirsty ... looking at me seemed there just was not much left. A bit of sinew and skin hanging on some big bones is all. My eyes were dark and sunk into my skull as if they were hiding out there instead of interested in what I was facing. My lips dry and broken .. chapped and raw. My fingers worn to the bone in places .. my leathers mostly gone .. perhaps I had eaten them. I sure did not present myself well .. to anyone's standards. Especially the most fierce prideful people on the plains. I was Tuchuk .. not some withered hole dwelling excuse for a human ... would have been better if my appearance had matched my thoughts.
It was not long before the lack of food and water took hold of me and I was stumbling around in a fevered daze. I think I followed a little bug for a while .. weird. Hard to tell which way I was going .. as the moons gave way to the Central Fire I thought for sure it was a crazy fool thing that a man could go from freezing to death to heat stroke in such a short time.
I worried some about being a walking meal .. smelling of blood I was bait for anything that was hungry and on the plains that was a terrible list of critters that could do with a fresh slab of meat ... no matter how scrawny and thin it had become .. just made it easier to kill. What those critters did not know is that I was hungry enough to eat them .. I was just not sure I had the strength left in me to do it.
Sky only knows how long I stumbled around like that under the Central Fire. Sky only knows why I was not made a meal of .. I suppose there are things left for me to do yet.
I was in such a daze that I never saw that meaty shoulder before it knocked me clear off my feet onto my back .. a slow wheeze of air forced from my lungs and I coughed trying to get them to fill up again as my eyes attempted to find focus. Hot breath washed over my face and the stench was like nothing I could ever explain .. well ... yes actually I could. It was a stench I was very familiar with ... or had been in another life it seemed. About that time a thick rough triangular tongue washed all over my face and I gagged and rolled over spitting kaiila drool. That big head nudged me and I felt a rib crack as I was tossed over like a child's rag doll. Poor beast had no idea he was near killing me with his curiosity. I got my shaking legs underneath me and waved a hand around till I found his big ugly maw and grabbed hold of his cheek and hauled myself upright .. finding myself looking strait into the most beautiful ugly kaiila I had seen in some time.
Tal Ciegue.
I do not think I was ever more happy to see an ugly kaiila in my life. And I would hate to think of a time in the future to outdo this one. I wrapped my fist up in his mane of hair until I was well tied into it .. enough that I might have to cut myself out of it even. Did not trust my strength enough to haul myself onto his back. Give him credit he seemed to know I needed to be among the humans for he turned and set off as if he knew where he was going and why. I stumbled along as best I could .. him dragging me along when I could not .. listening to his big paws as they thudded upon the plains grass .. it soothed my soul and gave my heart a rhythm to beat to.
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