I am not sure how or why things happened the way they did but as I lay here entangled with Shilka in a blissful embrace, I searched my mind for the reason that things happened the way that they did and I hope that when she awakes, things will still be right between us. I suspect that the blame for our night of passion lay with the soldier we had watched take joy in the company of his young lady. Ok, that is putting it too politely, he truly shagged her rotten, but the witnessing of the act between the two of them had Shilka and I quite hot and bothered I must admit. For a few waking minutes I thought that maybe last night had been a wonderfully erotic dream, but as I found myself still laying on a soggy bedroll, I knew it was no dream.
As Shilka lay in my arms and snuggled all up against me, I noticed that the sun had climbed higher in the sky than it normally had before the soldiers marshaled us to breakfast. Something was different today. Perhaps the emergency is over and we can slow things down a bit and catch our breath. Speaking of breathing, Shilka had stopped snoring and was stirring to life next to me. As her eyes opened I smiled and bid her "good morning", to which she groaned and pushed herself up to face me. She slipped an arm behind me and pulled my nakedness in close against her and kissed me. My arms slipped around her neck and draped over her shoulders as I kissed her back.
We were both a mess. She looked as much the wild savage as I did, and I knew I was badly in need of a bath. I hoped that she would find some way to make that happen as we both had that early morning walk of shame look about us. We broke our embrace and began discussing the lack of movement of our wagon train, and the need for food and bathing. Shilka picked up my nightshirt and tossed it at me with the suggestion that we go outside and see what was going on and have some breakfast if we had not missed out on getting our morning ration.
We dressed quickly then exited the tent. I have to say that walking was a little bit of a challenge as some of my more sensitive parts felt quite raw. So raw in fact that I skipped the underwear this morning so that perhaps some soothing fresh air would hit some of those sensitive parts. Outside the tent, some of the girls were fully dressed while others were milling around in their nightshirts. I found it odd that most of the women wore the same style dresses, and the same style nightshirts, the same hairstyle. The only difference seemed to be a little lace here and there and perhaps a difference colored thread, but all were white and of the similar style.
Shilka made attempts to get answers from the other girls, but none of them had the answer she was looking for as to why we were not moving on today. Now I have to say that even in her waking hour, Shilka is the model of refinement and beauty and would not normally leave the tent until her hair was done and she was looking perfect. This morning, she looked like me... a wild haired frazzled little savage. One of the girls in our little troupe walked past, looked Shilka and I up and down and made some sort of snide remark that I did not understand before stomping off. I suppose that even on this as yet un named planet, the "walk of shame" was universal. Shilka was a bit disturbed by this treatment by the other girl and my hope was that it was nothing that I did that caused her grief. Shilka leaned into me and whisper, "Keep an eye on that one, she is usually trouble." I nodded and told her that I will be careful.
We managed to track down one of the senior officers and Shilka asked him what was going on, and why the delay in our departure. I did not fully understand the answer as the UT was only up to 66%. What I did get was that a large army unit was moving to the south and needed full access to the road we were on. We were ordered to stay off the road until they had passed. My first thought was that I would like to get a look at this army, perhaps that will teach me more about the culture here and their level of technology. Secondly, it meant that we should have most of the day to hang out at the lake, take a nice swim and relax, and perhaps wash out my soggy bedroll. Mentioning the laundry part to Shilka brought a giggle that caused the young officer to nod politely and walk off.
We went back to our tent, cleaned ourselves up a bit, brushed each other's hair, hung my bedroll out in the sun to dry, then sauntered off to find ourselves some breakfast. The morning meal was the same as yesterday, a small loaf of bread, a bit of fruit, and some fresh water. It was filling but the feline in me was craving some meat. This got me to wondering about how upset these good folks would be if I slipped off by myself for a while and put the survival skills that I was taught at the academy to use to get us some real meat. I put those thoughts out of my head quickly as Shilka acquired a couple of towels, some soap which she dropped into a fairly large shoulder bag she was carrying, then led us off in the direction of the lake and the huge boulder we hung out at the night before.
When we got to our spot we found that we were not alone. Other girls were there already, as were a few of the soldiers. Most were bathing and frolicking around in the water. My attention was on the others around us and I had not noticed when Shilka has slipped behind the rock until she returned wearing an awful baggy looking outfit that spanned from her shoulder to her knees. This is what passed for a bathing suit here as I noticed the girls not washing themselves were wearing something similar. Shilka pointed behind the rock and suggested that I put on something appropriate to swim in. Unfortunately I had nothing like that in Victorian nightmare my bag, or in my wardrobe collar. I would need to connect the collar to a data terminal to design something that would be acceptable.