We rejoin Mor, the orange amazon superwoman and our solitary traveling uh, well, ok, let's go ahead and call him a hero, for want of a more precise term, Baldo Rheen. Baldo has suffered some internal bruising at the hands (and feet) of Mol Dett; Mor's (now deceased) former slave master. Mor has set to making a tea of herbs and a poultice from flower buds she had stashed aboard Mol Dett's vessel.
Mor looked rather fetching in her undershirt and pants, tending the fire and mixing her concoctions. She turned to me with blackish paste on a big leaf in one hand, and a bowl of steaming liquid in the other.
"Here, sip this slowly while I put some of this on your wrists."
The tea smelled great, sort of like pine needles, but it was somewhat bitter. The paste, on the other hand, just stunk.
"You know," she said, looking me in the eyes, "I don't even know your name."
"Baldo," I said between sips, "Baldo Rheen."
I watched as her face changed. She went from calm and collected to tight lipped, exploding in a guffaw of laughter after five or so seconds of self-restraint. I let her go off. Actually, she laughed quite beautifully, even while drooling, as she eventually did. Her dark eyes sparkled in the firelight, as did her teeth.
"Ok, what's so funny," I asked when she started to calm down.
"Well," sniggering, "In a language I'm familiar with, baldo means 'rat', while reen means literally, well, it means 'shit'." At that, she stood up and leaned on the vessel, laughing and sputtering with the hilarity of my name.
"Ha, ha, ha." I got up and teetered toward the river, a little pissed at being laughed at so much. This tea was working on me, I wasn't quite so sure of my feet. Really, I had meant to stomp, but my feet were feeling a little heavy.
"Look, I'm sorry," She said, putting her hand on my arm, "But, you can see the joke, right?" Smiling timidly.
Looking into her eyes, I realized I needed to lighten up. I smiled back. "I guess so."
"You haven't been down south before, have you?"
"Well, not yet, no."
"I didn't think so. We had better change your name before we head down there, or you're going to be the butt of everybody's joke. I will start calling you Breen. That's the name of a powerful and courageous king from long ago. It has come to be a word for strength. What do you think?"
