Chapter 2 - Welcome Overstayed
The next morning I woke to birds chirping outside my tent. Sunlight filtered through my tent flap to my bearskin rug and my bear chest. My head ached, but I was accustomed to being hung over. I stood and stretched my muscles, turning my wrist over to look at my Luxen duct.
My body, and my duct, looked the same as they ever had. I knew they wouldn't change, not physically at least, but the effects would be different. I let a bit of Luxen release, blue gas like lake water poured from the duct, instead of the pink gas it had been just the night before. I was a Prudent.
I stepped outside my tent, and the other Suppelty who had celebrated with me the night before now eyed be with cold curiosity. That was always the way. I remembered seeing other Prudent leave after their last night. They never said a word. They just mounted a horse and rode out of the Suppelty camp. Part of me wanted to do that, but a far more driving part of me wanted to stay.
Emileeth emerged from a tent across the burnt out campfire. Her silver hair and pale skin conjured memories of our bodies coupled. My cock reacted. I wanted to taste her.
I walked around the fire and sprayed Luxen from my wrist around her head.
"What on earth are you doing?" she balked.
My head was foggy from drink. I knew my plan to take her wouldn't work. But I had to try. A group of Suppelty villagers now gathered around us to see the commotion.
"I want you. I told you last night wouldn't be the last time."
Emileeth breathed in my blue vapor. Then she opened her eyes.
"Ah so that's what the Prudent Luxen does. It shows me your thoughts, your plans, your ideas. I don't know why that would ever be useful, but I see the night the two of us shared on your bearskin. I see that you would like to join with me again, but I have no desire to repeat the act." Her eyes hardened. "You disgust me. You're Pathetic."
She walked past me and my stomach dropped. I knew she would resist, but I was so infatuated with her, and I had just had her the night before. It was a cruel twist of fate that she be so repulsed by me now.
"Please," I said, grabbing her by the arm, "I don't want to leave the Suppelty. I need you."
"Ha! What a pathetic man. You're not worth the dirt on the bottom of my feet. You're not welcome here anymore." Her voice was cold.
A murmur spread through the crowd followed my some snickers. Embarrassed by such a young woman, I lowered my head and returned to my tent. I rubbed my temples and tried to relieve the pain in my head that throbbed like a horse stomped it, there was no way I could ride to join the Prudent.
Then an idea struck me. I would force them to let me stay. I quickly snuck out of my tent, keeping my head low. I jogged to the horse's stable and saddled one with the small riding pads we used. No one questioned me. I was supposed to be leaving after all.
Once the horse was saddled I positioned myself on his flank. I used the dull side of my knife to jab the horse's haunch. It fretted and jumped a bit, but did nothing else but flare it's nostrils at me. I switched to the knife's sharp edge, and poked. Then he jumped, the horse's muscles flexed and it reared to kick its back legs out toward me.
I jumped away leaving my foot to take the brunt of the impact. I heard a crack and white hot pain flared through my ankle. I fell to the ground and rolled away from the horse in case it attacked me again. My ankle hung loose when I flexed my leg. It was good and broken.
I stood on my good leg, careful to only put weight on my broken ankle when absolutely necessary. My bare chest was covered in mud, and I walked slowly, watching as my ankle began swelling.
I hoped it was a clean break. I stumbled back toward the center of the camp, each paced limp on my injured ankle sending sharp knives of pain through me. I collapsed on the floor in front of my tent.
Emileeth saw me returning, and approached me with rage on her face. "What on earth do you think you're doing? I've never met a man so hot headed in my life. You must leave! Now! Or we will force you to!" Two strong Suppelty men stood behind her. They would do whatever she said now; her Luxen hung around them like a cloud.
"I would," I said, "but I can't ride. The horse bucked and broke my ankle. Take a look yourself." I held up my leg and my foot had swollen to twice its size. "I'll need help while it heals before I can ride."
Emileeth fumed, her fists clenched tight. Hannah approached from the crowd and took my leg in her hands. Her soft, sun-tanned features bent in concern. She prodded at the flesh on my leg, and I didn't have to fake the pain from the tender area around the wound.
