Crossing of the Bosk

We have come to where the swollen streams have flooded a wide valley and created a vast area of water we have to cross. It appears like a lake .. only with many currents hidden beneath the seeming calm surface. Currents trying their best to funnel into one outlet that is too small to handle the mass of water. It will .. eventually ... drain. But we do not have that kind of time to wait. So we will cross.

The morning started with the whoops and yells of the riders gathering the bosk and starting them towards the flooded valley. Taking them to the farthest point up stream which gave them plenty of time to get across the current while not fighting it.

They were reluctant at first .. milling around at the edge of the water and attempting to double back. But the force of the herd behind them .. the mass of animals ... would not allow such and they eventually took the plunge and started swimming for the other side.

Riders swam their kaiila on each side to keep the bosk from turning .. or swimming too far away up or down current. They would also start bunching the herd on the far bank .. guarding and keeping an eye on them as they climbed the muddy bank and spread out to graze.

It was exhausting work .. on both banks. The bosk of the Tuchuk are mighty in number and strong and spirited. But then so are the warriors and kaiila. The battle of wills was epic .. but in a Tuchuk tradition ... the bosk made across safely and still with all those spirits intact.

When I finally made it back to camp everyone was moving their things around in the wagons .. Cana and Seveya specifically struggling with a large chest. I asked them where they wished it and helped by carrying it for them. I continued to help .. Seveya had a few more trunks that needed put into the Ubar's extra wagons to help distribute the weight.

Seveya did not treat me as if I had the Bazi plague tonight. It was a pleasant change. She spoke to me like I was human .. and I spoke to her and she responded like we were normal conversing people.

Later when we were all gathered around the fires I finally broke my quiet and asked why Seveya never came to the fires to eat. At least that I saw ... which of course that night she did and startled me by being near. I should have felt foolish for asking such .. with her being there ... but I did not. The entire thing was beginning to be annoying simply because it made no sense to me. And I was finally shoved out of peace enough to ask about it.

She told me that it was her father's idea that she stay away from the fires without the Ubar there. I think I choked. That idea amused the hell out of me .. but it was not for me to share the joke. It was only for me to avoid my food sticking in my esophagus and ruining the rest of my life ... which would be shortened considerably at that point.

I told her it all made sense now. Which was a terrible lie to tell a young woman. But I suppose in a way it actually did make some kind of sense .. just not a lot of logical sense. Which means that to me it did not make much even if in some circles it might.

Now in the natural course of this conversation it did come out that she was all bent out of shape with me for wandering off in the middle of our conversation right about the first day I spoke to her. That right then she had formed an opinion of me.

figures

Can women really hold things inside that long? I told her it was not a personal insult .. that sometimes I get lost in my thoughts or lost in work. Sometimes I forget people are still standing there. The drums had sounded .. there was a lot to do. I told her that her first impression of me was wrong .. but that I could see where it had come about for her to think as she had.

She told me I was not grouchy. I asked her if she was so sure about that .. she said I had given her no reason to think otherwise and then she added .. that it was not a challenge.

Well if that did not sound familiar. Someone knows me.