The Path Changes The Traveler Ch 05

*****

It seems that our group of fugitives are surviving for now at least. They've found a place to hole up for a little while and wash.

To Morgan, Maggie and Maddox, there's an uncomfortable sense that to do that carries the feeling of risk that they're flirting with disaster. All three of them are mindful that what they'd planned and what's taken place so far are not really all that similar.

And then of course, there's that other thing. If you suddenly find that you've cheated death somehow, why there are things which you do in a certain order, right?

You check yourself out for bullet holes or other damage. Check to see if you've still got your wallet, and then see which pocket the car keys are in.

And if all that checks out ok and you find yourself looking into the eyes of a really attractive person who has survived the very same perils that you've faced, something else might come to mind then.

Well I've run you through 4 chapters to this point. I thought it was time for SOMEbody to get some.

Again this is fiction. I'm not even sure that where they are even has geographical features like the one that they're about to bathe in.

0_o

*****

The sun wasn't too far above the horizon and it gave the front of the stolen tank an odd and rather charitable look - charitable in that with the warm cast of the colour from the sun being reflected off the surface of the water, the thing didn't look quite so ominous, like a machine designed to operate in a deadly business.

Everybody wanted out. Maggie looked at Morgan, who said, "If you can't see a soul around here then I'd say let them go. Hell, I need a bath too and the interiors of tanks aren't the sweetest-smelling places in the world to start with. I'll cover everybody and keep watch. We just can't spend the evening here, so tell them to keep it a little short since we need to keep one thing in mind here.

As soon as the sun is down, we need to be rolling."

As he climbed out of the commander's hatch to sit on the turret, Morgan had to grin as he set down the binoculars and his rifle. Maggie stood on the grating over the engine looking at the others.

Everyone was feeling at least hopeful now. They were miles away from the village where they'd been only slaves to be sold. The ones from the market didn't know a whole lot about the safety of their lives at present, but for the moment, it was enough. They'd all removed the little they had which might have been confused as clothing once and after a moment's hesitation, they were all in the water, bathing and beginning to enjoy the place.

Mena had expressed some uncertainty over Morgan, but it had been said in English to Junah who'd laughed, "Mena, think a moment. I know as little as you, but I do not think that you need to have any worry over that one. I do not understand the connection between him and Maggie, but I think of what they have done to get us away from the slaver. For myself, I want to trust in them. What else do we have?"

Mena saw it and she nodded then, just managing the barest of little smiles.

Junah looked around at the others and what she could see of the local scenery which consisted of a long spring-fed pond surrounded by date palms and for the moment at least, she felt fairly safe, though she knew that it didn't mean much. It did give a feeling of some comfort and it caused her to relax. Then she began to look at a few of the others and that led her to begin admiring a different sort of scenery.

Maggie caught her eye and Junah wondered at the very brief glimpses of some of the tattoos which Maggie had. They'd only been visible at all to her in quick moments as they were very near to each other during their escape in the tank.

Often, the vehicle would jostle them and things only improved for Junah when she was in the gunner's seat. Maggie was most often standing very close by while working with Darotai and between hitting a bump now and then or the way that they occasionally moved from the way that the tank was driven had caused them to end up against each other quite often.

Sometimes, Maggie had found herself a little sprawled over Junah and it brought them both some slightly embarrassed laughter as they'd untangled themselves. Since they rode in this way for miles, it happened over and over and after a while, they only smiled at each other with a sort of 'what are you gonna do' expression.

And, Junah remembered now, there were a few times when she'd been a little slow to remove her hands if they ended up in slightly strange places on Maggie and she'd noticed that Maggie had also grown a little slower to remove her hands as well. More than once ...

Junah smiled to herself. More than a few times, after the bump or whatever it had been that had caused them to be against each other was past, each of them had exchanged just the slightest of squeezes, sometimes even as they looked at each other with the barest of smiles.

For her part, Junah had wanted just the chance where they would have ended with their heads nearer together than had happened. It had never happened the way that she'd have wanted, but Junah had been trying to hold herself a little ready if it did. She'd have left a little kiss just to see what might happen.

-----

Back at the tank, Maggie began to remove her jelabeeya and made a face for a moment, "God, I reek.

Morgan, can you sit watch for everybody? I need to wash in the worst way, and I thought I was bad before I even got out of the truck. Now I feel like that mythical gatepost that Quan's always talking about when she feels like she needs a bath."

Morgan looked over, "What gatepost? I don't think I've ever heard anything like that from her."

Maggie grinned and chuckled, "It never made sense to me before, but if it doesn't apply now, it never will.

When she really wants a bath, she always says that she feels about as clean as the gatepost out back of a boozecan tavern anywhere in rural Asia. I asked her about it one time and she means the one that everybody either pukes on or pisses against."

It caused Morgan to laugh a little. "Well, I'd say that you ought to get clean then, if it's that bad. I've got this covered, Maggie. Go wash and try to get the others to hurry a little. I want to be on the road again just after sundown and that won't take too much longer.

In the meantime, I'm actually trying not to look at all of the incredible naked women around me.

He looked up at the sky through the trees overhead for a moment with a resigned sort of smirk, "I know the priorities, but this is just a little cruel, you know? If I was sixteen again right now, I'd probably already have embarrassed myself by not being able to keep watch to save my life."

Maggie grinned, "So you'd be walking around with a boner then, right?"

Morgan shook his head, "No, I mean that I'd already have gone past that and probably have come just from standing here looking around."

Maggie smirked at him, "So you're telling me that you're unaffected by all of this at the ripe old age of twenty-seven?"

He shook his head, "Hell no. Why do you think I'm sitting here with one leg up so nobody can see the bulge?"

Taking off her jelabeeya, Maggie looked over with a soft smile, "That's better. I was wondering if I ought to be concerned for you for a second there."

She glanced at Priest, who nodded back and said, "I think Morgan's just a severe case of arrested development. If I wanted to marvel at all of the naked bodies, I'd organise a game of volleyball."

Maggie liked that about Priest and she laughed. He often said what he meant, and she had to give him that.

As she disrobed, the others who saw stared at Maggie's body, seeing the beautiful tattoos and the weapons which were held in a harness that she wore low on her back. In a moment, Maggie stood with only the two pieces of thin linen that she wore most often under anything else, and that only lasted as long as it took for her to untie them.

Junah's eyebrows rose in surprise because the tattoos were far larger and more involved than she could have ever guessed that they'd be.

She wandered away at that point, seeing Sonja washing a distance away and she shook her head a little as she walked, seeing once again how shy her friend could be about her body just by watching her actions from this far away. She knew that there were times when Sonja was almost brazen if the mood was on her, though it was a very rare thing when it happened.

Sometimes, like now, she was beyond painfully shy.

And there were times when it seemed that Sonja had arrived at the conclusion that her body had failed to really develop at all, other than in height. At those times, she was beyond caring, behaving as though it was just something which she'd accepted about herself. She'd tell others that she was still a stick-thin girl like she was as a child, though it wasn't the case at all. Sonja just refused to see that while she hadn't been graced with much in her chest, the truth was that some development had occurred at least, for all of Sonja's adopted blindness with regard to her own body.

Junah knew that it had. She was there as it did. It might not have been much, but still, it hadn't been the way that Sonja spoke of it. She saw Darotai beginning to walk toward Sonja, so Junah headed there.

Junah liked the Eritrean. She knew that she would like her, since at least here, Darotai seemed more like a normal person rather than someone who maintained her rage and perpetual anger at being captured and sold into slavery.

She was sure that they'd have gotten to know each other much sooner if it had not been for this trait. The loss of one's own freedom was a huge blow to anyone after finding themselves treated like a head of cattle, but Darotai had spent more than half a year in her rage, more like an animal than a woman, always looking for a way to get away somehow, always thinking while her eyes seemed to be quietly burning. She never spoke to anyone if she could manage it and she appeared to refuse to even try to learn enough words so that she might at least get by, so no one came near to her.

Some, like Mena were obviously afraid of Darotai.

Junah could have kicked herself for the wasted time. It hadn't been until Darotai had overheard Sonja speaking to Morgan earlier, telling him that Junah was from Ethiopia that Darotai had realised that there might be someone here who she could speak with.

Darotai's people had a different name for Ethiopians, but she knew the word and it was only after seeing Junah and Sonja being led away that it had come to Darotai that Junah might know at least a little of the Tigrinyan language. Darotai had admitted to Junah during the ride here that it gave her the last bit of hope that she needed to run to Junah rather than just try to escape alone once the slavers had been killed.

-----

A few minutes later, Darotai and Junah were standing close to each other and laughing, happy to have made it this far and chuckling over the kid's shyness.

"Oh, calm down," Darotai smiled at Sonja, knowing that Junah would translate, "I do not know about Mena other than what the nephew of the trader did to her as he did to us, but I think that it is safe to say that Mag-gie has knowledge of men. I know almost nothing about you, but it is plain that some of us do as well, and - "

Darotai stared for just a second, her eyes wide over the thought which had just come to her. She looked at Junah, "Your young friend thinks of the taller American. It is my guess that he does not know that she is a girl. She has shorter hair and speaks like a boy, but ..."

Junah nodded, "I think you are right."

"Does she wish to hide this from him?" Darotai asked, "Then tell her that she should stay low in the water. That way, if it is so important to her ..."

Junah shook her head, "No, she sees that he thinks that she is a boy. She does not like that she has no figure to her in the way that she thinks of herself. I have often told her that I like the figure that she has. She does not really care what he thinks; it only makes her a little sad.

If it comes to what she likes in the two men here, then it is the other American man."

Darotai looked at the kid and smiled as she put her arm around the thin shoulders and leaned in to kiss Sonja's cheek softly, "It does not matter, my friend. To me, you are now the very best tank driver that I know - and also the most lovely one that I have ever seen - and that is a long way from the girl drivers that I knew. Those ones would be filled with jealousy to even see you."

Junah translated and Sonja beamed just a little.

Darotai looked at Junah as she held the girl just a little longer, "I hope that it does not cause trouble for you, Junah. I mean nothing by my joking, but I wish for you to tell her that she is very brave and that I was speaking the truth. She can drive a tank very well for someone so young."

Junah laughed when she heard it. "Darotai, Sonja only looks so young. She is twenty.

If she was back in Moscow at this moment and was not homeless with no family anymore, she would be trying very hard to get into a Red Army tanker unit herself and shouting at them loudly if they didn't take her out of being a girl. She knows that there women tankers in the last war."

The Eritrean's jaw fell at that and she looked down, knowing that she'd already seen that there was no pubic hair on the girl, and now needing to check again for some reason, "But - "

Junah grinned, "The slaver saw that Sonja is not a large one who can be of much use for hard work for very long. She is just not built like that. So he thought of the best way to sell her, and that was hopefully to a man who enjoys the beauty of one such as she is. I guess that you never saw it or looked very often, but he always shaved off what little fur my friend has."

Darotai grinned then.

"Well," she smiled widely as she hugged Sonja a little longer, "then please, Junah, tell her that I like to see her in this way. Tell her that she has nothing to be ashamed over in my eyes. Sonja has her own charms. I do not have the eyes of a man, but looking at her some moments when she does not see that I look gives me such good thoughts."

She leaned in and nuzzled Sonja's neck for a moment, which produced the usual ticklish response until Darotai drew her head back with a grin.

"You do not look to me to be much older than Sonja if at all," Junah laughed, "While I stand here an old crone at twenty-one!"

Darotai chuckled, "Well if there is any of the old crone to you, Junah, then it is only that you are very wise and you must have learning to know at least the five languages that I have heard you speak. How many can you manage all together?"

"Seven," Junah said, "plus a few dialects of some of them.

I know nothing about this wisdom that you speak of, Darotai. My poor wisdom led Sonja and I almost straight to our capture, since I trusted that a relation of mine would help us. Instead, he was happy to hear that my parents must be dead, so he saw ways to expand his influence - once he had gotten rid of their daughter. I have seen much more wisdom than I have in the way that you did what you did today, so I think that I must doubt that you are much older than Sonja."

"I did nothing more than use what I know and saw in the actions of the militia around the town, Junah," Darotai remarked, "It is what I know to do. It comes from the way that I have lived and I do it without thought, really. So by that I mean that it is not wisdom to my mind. And as far as what you said, I am twenty-five."

As the other two looked at her with surprise on their faces, Darotai looked as though some thought came to her for a moment before she looked at the two women again.

"Are you lovers? I never saw much where we were kept, since I always felt like an animal in a cage and I was angry all of the time. I suppose that I never looked farther away than my own rage."

She gasped and smiled widely then, "And now I see what is between you."

Junah moved forward and seeing it, Sonja turned her head to Junah and the two exchanged the sort of kiss which is passed between two people who love each other, the sort which does not last longer than needed to deliver what was meant.

"We have been together for a long time, from when we were old enough," Junah said openly. "I knew no one in Moscow but I had Sonja. We just drew together and with what happened to my family and our trying to survive as we went; it was just natural to go on. It is just what I learned to do with Sonja in our better times. And I think that it helped us to get through the worst."

She looked around the pond for a moment, "Which I must hope are mostly past.

In my heart, I would be happy to have my Sonja forever. We have never ... really been with anyone else. I like the way that these men here look to me and I see that she does also. I cannot say where it will lead."

"My first thoughts are often not about lying with another woman." Darotai said softly, "But I am a woman who lived in a machine like the one over there with four other women, and often, there were no men of any sort whom most of us would have wanted for a little comfort and pleasure. And there was no privacy at all.

I learned from it and still I would prefer a man often, but with the right woman ... one never knows, and I am not so much the proud one, no matter how I may try to seem that way."

"That is a good thing to know then," Junah nodded with a soft smile. "It gives me nice thoughts also, though it is unlikely to happen, from the way that I see the large American looking at you often, but as you said, one never knows, and - "

She stopped, noticing the feeling of a gentle caress on her bottom under the water and she looked at Darotai, who looked back with a questioning expression. That expression changed after a moment and they both looked at Sonja, who began to laugh.

Junah asked a question and then looked at Darotai, "She grew bored because she does not understand this language we speak."

"Perhaps she would like this language better then," Darotai grinned as she seized Sonja and began to kiss her fairly ... well, intensely.

Sonja was surprised and she struggled briefly, but there wasn't anything that she could do about things. The tone of the sounds she made went from surprise to something a lot more pleased-sounding in the span of a breath or two and she ended with a soft moan when Darotai drew back.

Sonja looked up at her with slightly wide eyes and sidestepped slowly and cautiously closer to Junah, who stood chuckling.

"What does she say?" Darotai asked when Sonja spoke for a moment.

"She says that you can really kiss and to tell you that she hopes that you think of her if you are ever lonely some evening," Junah chuckled and then burst out laughing as Sonja said something further.

But then some of the humour left her face. When she spoke again to Darotai, it was much more quietly, almost as though she was thinking aloud.

"We do not know what is to happen to us if we reach this airplane that Mag-gie mentioned to us. We do not know what might come or even what the people are like where we go. Sonja said that it may be that we three might need each other there and for her part, she hopes that she can be with us two, for to her eyes, we are both less fearful than she feels."

She looked at Darotai's face, "She knows how our countries have fought against each other and in her eyes, she wants to be close to us, because she sees us as two fighters, or maybe ... two women who are stronger than she is inside."

Darotai shrugged, "Tell her not to feel this way. Tell her that I would always want to help you both if it is something that I could do. I am not as much as she hopes to see in me, Junah. I just do what I can. It is all that I know to do and it has kept me alive this long - when I was not in chains."