There and Back - Chapter Four
"And.... on the day you saved Osalet from Glok and his men, she was telling me how much you interested her. Over the past months she has continued to ask about you."
"And?"
"And we think it is time for you to consider her as an added mate."
"Why?"
"First, because you tire us out," admitted Osalet.
"Second, because she is being pursued by another and she wants only you to be her mate," Izabe added.
"What's wrong with this other suitor?"
Osalet began to show anger.
"He is a lout. He is a liar. He steals. He doesn't trade fairly....," Osalet allowed the last sentence to trail away like there was more.
"And?"
My two mates looked at each other and Izabe nodded to Osalet.
"He is Glok."
"Glok? The guy who attacked you?"
"Yes," Osalet said. "The girl has been telling any and all that she would want to be your mate and Glok has said that he would take her as his mate just to pay you back for your defense of me and for making me your mate."
"So, another maiden in distress. What is this maidens name?"
"She is Argari. You met her the first day."
"Was she the one with the green hair?"
"Yes, my mate," Isabe replied.
"I just barely remember her," I said.
"She remembers you, my mate," Izabe said. "All she talks about is you and how lucky I am to have you as mate and how wonderful my life is making love to you."
"She knows about that?"
"Pa-ul, us girls do talk," added Osalet.
"My loves, this goes back to the same situation as when Osalet first came to us. I didn't know her, I don't know Argari. By now you know that I'm not going to take a mate just to have someone to have sex with."
"We know, Pa-ul. But I can tell you, she loves you."
"She doesn't know me."
"She knows of you and she is in love with that you. She has seen you working around the village. All she could talk about for the longest time was how you would lift entire walls to help build and yet you were as gentle as could be with the young ones who came to watch you. You even played games with them. She watched you teach the young to play rock, leaf, cutter. She loves the you she has watched."
"I sounds more like hero worship to me."
"What is hero worship?"
I closed my eyes. After this many months I was still teaching terms to my mates. I didn't mind but I thought that by now I would have run out of words!
"In my world, a hero is someone who does things beyond what is needed in order to help or save another. When I saved Osalet, Argari and others probably saw me as a hero instead of how I looked at myself as just someone helping someone else. Worship is when someone loves another so much they are treated or seen to be like a god."
"What is a god?"
"Oh no! I'm not going into that one. At least not right now."
"If she only spoke of you in terms of the day you saved Osalet, I would understand what you say. But she talks about you all the time."
"Oh boy. OK, invite her to join us for an evening meal. She and I can talk and I can see if there is anything there for my part."
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I was holding up a section of a roof to be repaired when I heard the scream and looked around to find the source was a green haired girl being dragged by the arm. The person dragging was Glok. I remembered him from the attack on Osalet. I raised my voice for the first time since I'd been in Frotraloesh.
"Glok! Let her go or face me?"
Glok looked over towards the loud voice and I saw fear in his eyes. Then I saw something else. He pulled his sword and ran towards me. I was about to react when I realized that I was holding up a roof with several workers on it and under it and they would be injured if I let go.
Apparently others realized the same thing. Brugga stepped in front of Glok and Glok stabbed him and kept running. When he was in striking distance he stabbed the sword out and caught me in the thigh and then in my side. Doing the only thing I could think of, I kicked him.
My foot landed square in the middle of the top of his chest and he dropped as though he'd been clothes lined. Laying on his back at my feet, I raised a leg and stomped down on his chest as hard as I could and followed it with a stomp to his head. There was a scream and then a loud cracking noise and Glok went still.
Others ran over to check him. He was very dead. His chest was crushed and so was his skull. Then people took a look at me. I was bleeding from the wound in my side, but I was losing a lot of blood from the wound to my thigh. The first thing I thought of was that he had cut my artery and I was going to bleed out.
One of the other workers grabbed a rope and tied it around my thigh and pulled it as tight as he could. The bleeding slowed to a trickle. Just then several others came running to the house with long poles and they propped up the section of the roof I was holding. As soon as I knew it was secure I let go of it and took a few steps and fell over.
I felt hands on me. I felt pressure on my thigh and my side. It occurred to me that I didn't have the fat I used to have and the sword attack had actually hit something and not just blubber. I lay on my back and closed my eyes. I listened to all the noise around me. There seemed to be so much more than just the voices of those around me.
"Pa-ul! I'm here. Can you hear me?" It was Izabe's voice but I couldn't speak.
I tried but I guess I was in shock. I looked over at Izabe and she was attending to my side. The green haired girl was attending to my thigh. She must be Argari. She's pretty. The crowd parted and The Healer approached me.
"Don't try to move. Your wounds are being sealed. As soon as that is done I will start the healing of the poison."
I nodded and remembered the previous attack had been with poisoned swords. I knew then that I was in trouble. It seemed like I was lying there forever when I felt my mouth being opened and warm thick liquid was being forced down my throat. I swallowed and swallowed until I could latch onto the large nipple. Then I suckled furiously.
Suddenly the suction was broken and another nipple was offered. I latched on to that one. All totaled there were five nipples that were placed in my mouth. When it seemed like I couldn't swallow anymore, I just lay there. Something covered me and I was suddenly warm. I'd been cold and didn't realize it.
I slept.
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