Breakfast was the usual slop.

The bowl of lumpy, gray-brown goop was paired with some smooth, plump, bright red berries that exploded with sweet, sticky juice as you pressed into them. When the lady came around with the coffee urn, I dug through my coin purse even though I knew it was empty.

Rock nodded in my direction and gave her a kren for me. That was two; I had to make it up to him.

Chirpy, perched on Geraln’s shoulder, tilted her head down and pointed her nose at his bowl. Geraln picked up a berry and offered it to her. She took it and clamped down, only for it to burst and spray droplets of juice everywhere, including my face. Jame got some, too, and winced at having to wipe his face off. Geraln laughed and wiped his arm.

Geraln offered Chirpy another berry, but cupped his hands around her so it wouldn't go everywhere this time. Chirpy then craned her neck up high above his hands before clamping down and splattering everyone a second time.

Jame twisted his face and sneered, “seriously?”

Chirpy let out a joyous string of clicks and pointed down for another berry.

Geraln glared at her, “you did that on purpose.”

At that, Rock slid over with a berry from his own plate and with a huge grin held it close to her. Chirpy held still as he squeezed down, splattering juice all over her tiny lizard face and all over Geraln. “You've got to be kidding me!”

She let out another string of clicks and chirped, then looked excitedly down at the berries while Rock chuckled heartily and grabbed another one.

Jame got up. “I'm leaving.”

Geraln, too, shook his head with an exasperated sigh, set her on the table, and most of us stepped away. Chirpy grabbed another berry and scampered over to Rock who closed his eyes with a smile to receive the juice all over his face.

“There he is!” Jame looked towards the archway that wasn't filled with spider webs.

Borel stood with a native woman I didn't recognize, wrapped up in each other's arms. He took a lower step, and she still needed to stand on her toes to kiss him on the lips. He wore a black silk loincloth with a long flap at the front and back that was decorated in silver embroidery, and this woman’s dark-green hands covered every slice of his muscled back. After a moment he stepped up and headed inside, only for her to swat his bum and wave goodbye with a seductive grin. Borel turned towards us with a big smile across his face.

Jame looked up at him. “Is that that dancer from last night?”

Borel grinned. Before he could answer, a new band of men was escorted into the mess by Taganu, the same man who knew the names of every alligator who lived in the moat. He gestured towards the breakfast line and faced them, “as soon as you’re finished, come back out to the training grounds. Ahmi has some friends she’d like to introduce you to.”

That gave me a good chuckle. I looked around and half our unit smirked with me. Geraln looked at the new men and exclaimed, “Racius?”

A tall, lanky Herali with his head low perked up and looked over at us with his eyes wide. “Gods!”

The same man tapped the shoulder of another who’d had his back turned. Oren's meaty face lit up when he saw us. “Holy fucking shit, man!”

The two clambered over to where we stood. Racius spoke first. “When did you miscreants get here?”

Oren added, “fucking hell, man, I wasn’t sure about this place for all them horror stories, but now that I see you twats, we're definitely fucked!”

I sniffed the air and turned to Geraln. “You smell something?”

“Yeah,” Geraln grinned. “It was fresh and clean a minute ago, now it smells like… gods, what is that?”

Oren grinned, “probably your mum's cunt.”

Racius stifled a giggle at that.

“Gods!” Davod’s excited voice flew down the stairs from the officer's mess. He carried a half-eaten leg of crispy fried chicken and raced over to where we stood. “Is this the trash they're sending us now?”

Oren chuckled and looked him over with his eyes wide. Davod wore a dyed cotton loincloth and was otherwise naked but for his boots, a leather bow strap over his left shoulder, and on his right was a fresh, black tattoo of Falcon with His wings swept in a dive that wasn't there yesterday. His hair was also braided into cornrows that fell down his back.

Racius smiled and nodded, then turned to the rest of the new men. “Falcon's back, baby!”

The others looked at one another. Borel gave off a wry grin and turned to Jame. “What he say?”

Jame smirked. “He said Falcon’s back on the menu.”

Half the room laughed at that, and even Renou added in a sheepish voice, “yeah, I heard that too!”

Several of the new men turned to Borel while one of the taller ones pointed. “Orca?”

Borel, Jame, Ales, Faren, Gino, and Renou all raised a fist. “Through and through!”

While the others gathered, Racius and Oren came in close to the three of us. Oren’s face dropped and he spoke quietly. “What can you guys tell us about this place, man?”

Davod, Geraln, and I glanced at one another. It was Davod who went first. “Ahmi is going to tell you how to not get your throat ripped out by one of those lizards. Very important.”

I inserted, “don't call them ‘girls.’ They hate that. Also don't use the F-word…”

As I spoke, Racius’s eyes lingered on the pendant dangling around my neck. “What… the hell… is… are you…”

Geraln snickered under his breath. “Have you met Miyani?”

The two men glanced at one another. Oren nodded, “that pint-sized cutie met us coming down from the pass riding one of those… things?”

Davod chuckled and rested his arm on my shoulder. “Meet her boyfriend.”

Geraln filled in the details, “she killed an enemy in battle and gave Caleb this ear to wear in case some other woman tries to talk to him.”

Oren nodded, but couldn't help but laugh as he turned to me. “Well, she's perfect for you, then!”

I sucked my teeth and looked away.

“THE FUCK YOU LOOKING AT?”

Two men from the new group did not look like the others. They had deep yellow skin and kinky bronze hair, and their eyes were black like coal. Each of them dressed in the most tattered rags you’d ever seen and were barefoot. Each had a number branded into their arms, 858-471 and 858-472. 472 was a few inches shorter and young like perhaps Jezi’s age, while 471 might have been a year or two older than myself. Their faces each had the same jaw line, the same brow, and the same down-turned eyes.

They faced off against Malchuk, who stood like a statue betraying not even a twitch in the scar that ran down his face. He said nothing but crossed his arms, took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly, betraying no hint of emotion.

471 stood with his fists clenched and lurched forward, “I’m talking to you…”

By then, Davod was upon him. He loomed easily half a foot taller, and his bare chest rippled of powerful muscle. He pushed his tree-trunk arms in the way and gave the man a light shove. “I DON’T GIVE A SHIT who you think you are or what beef you think you have with one of MY men, but you take that shit up with me FIRST!”

The man looked up at him in shock. By the time I caught up to them, he’d looked at 472 and back to Davod, only for both of them to stand beside one another. I leaned into Davod, “I don’t think either of them understand Herali.”

Davod glanced at me and tilted his head towards them. “So translate.”

“Right.” With that, I stepped in front of him and thought about how I might communicate the sentiment without escalating things further. “OK, so…”

Blue snaked his head between them, turned his head slightly towards 471, and squawked. Then he yawned his mouth full of jagged, serrated teeth open before turning his head to look at 472, only to look at 471 and squawk again.

The two mens’ eyes gaped and their faces fell to horror, and they backed away, holding their hands out as they stepped. Every man in the new group stood trembling, while Blue strode up to me and rubbed his lizard face in my cheek. He squawked again, lifted his head high and turned his face to give everyone in the room his eye for a moment, then rubbed his face in my cheek once more before letting out a string of clicks and stepping out of the mess hall entirely.

Oren stepped beside me and lifted an elbow to my shoulder, nodding towards the giant lizard. “That’s quite a girlfriend you got there!”

Rock and Chirpy were a total mess.

Later on, I was working with Faren to fix his bow technique. He could now draw back the string without pulling the arrow away from its rest, but he still couldn’t hit anything. His first several shots were in the dirt. Every time he corrected for it, it still wound up in the dirt. Then finally he sent an arrow sailing about twenty feet above the target to smack against the stone walls surrounding the city.

Off to one side I saw the same group of new men standing in a circle while Ahmi introduced them to Thunder, Blue, and some other vita’o I didn’t know. I watched as Blue stood still to allow 472 to stroke along his neck—under Ahmi’s close supervision.

Then I saw Ta’o turn the corner and make his way towards them, and there was something I needed to talk to him about. He stopped and looked at me as I came near. As I got close, he gave off his usual easy smile. “What’s up?”

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“I need to talk to you about last night.”

He laughed and waved his hand in front of him. “Don't worry about it, bro. She likes you. A lot. Like, a lot a lot.”

I scratched at an itch in my hair. “It’s not about that…”

“Look,” he leaned in. “I wasn’t going to tell you this, but there’s a… it’s a phrase. OK? It kinda means what you think it means, but not really. I mean… it does, but only if you’re good about it, if you know what I mean.”

I shook my head. “No? What do you mean?”

“OK,” he straightened himself up. “So, one of the things she said was, xemiyu peŋevide.”

“Um… OK?”

He giggled. “What do you think that means?”

I shook my head and shrugged. “I don’t know? Hemi-yu….”

“xemiyu peŋevide,” he nodded.

“OK, well vide is possessive, meaning something that’s hers?”

“Do you know xemiyu?”

I had to think about that one. “-yu is a pronoun, right? Like she? I think?”

He shook his head. “No, she is -ye. xemiyu means to uh… sing praises. Like to celebrate something, but with gusto.”

I nodded. “xemiyu. Sing praises. Got it.”

He grinned. “And what’s peŋe?”

I shook my head.

“Oh, come on! That’s the first word you people want to know!”

I shrugged.

“It means pussy! Speaking of which, why the hell are you a virgin? I know you had options.”

“Maybe I did and screwed them all up.”

“Sure, uh-huh,” he shrugged, then laughed it off.

“I’m Daenma.”

“Bullshit. I’ve known plenty of Daenma who play around.”

I shrugged. “God demands chastity. That doesn’t mean everyone does it, but that’s His command and I… do try. To follow it.”

“Uh-huh,” he nodded.

“So wait… my pussy sings praises?” My eyes popped—that couldn't be right.

He laughed. “That’s what the words mean. It really is just a saying, but in your culture that stuff is taboo so you people always think it’s funny. It doesn’t actually mean that literally. Sometimes. Sometimes it does. But yeah. Anyway, she was just saying that she’s very happy that you kept trying last night, that you wouldn't give up. You have no idea how much that meant to her.”

“Wow.”

He then slapped my arm. “Anything else?”

“You spaced out.”

He laughed, but I could see through the veil of comfort he wore.

“I’m just going to speak. You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to, but I’ve seen that before.”

He furrowed his brow at me and fixed his lips.

“I have a friend back home; we grew up together. We were both orphans in the church, so she was like a sister to me—they used to put us in the same crib together. And she would do that. Sometimes you’re talking to her, and she just goes. Where she goes, no one knows, but her mind goes somewhere and leaves her body behind. Just like you did last night. You know what else?”

He looked at me and blinked.

“She would have nightmares. She would hear voices, like people talking in a room down the hall and then she goes into the room and there's no one there. One time she heard a baby crying in the oven, burnt her hand trying to rescue it. And sometimes, it got real bad. She would seize up. Fall to the floor. Shake violently, flail her arms and legs about, froth at the mouth. I grew up watching that. Now, I don’t know if what you go through is as bad as that, but the way Dashuni reacted to you and the look on your face right now tells me that it gets bad for you, too.”

He pursed his lips and sniffed the air.

“And I wanted to talk to you about that because I think that’s the reason you were returned, isn’t it?”

He blinked his eyes at me but kept his lips taut. His shoulders were tense as was the rest of his body. He gave me no hint of a yes or no.

“For all I know I’m a complete arse because everything here I’m saying is wrong and whatever you’ve got going on is nothing like that at all. In which case, you can write that on my tombstone once Blue finishes off with my spleen.”

He didn’t laugh; he continued to glare at me.

“My point is, Sarina always thought she was defective, but she’s not defective—she’s incredible. Probably the most amazing person you could ever meet. The day we went to see Peyumi, you told me you’re a liability. You told me that they won’t let you fight because of it. Well, I wanted to tell you that you’re not a liability. You’re not defective. Like her, you had the plague when you were an infant and it made you that way, and like her, you have to keep it a secret in case some idiot comes along and accuses you of witchcraft or some other nonsense.”

At that he took a deep breath and lowered his eyes a moment.

“For what it’s worth, I’d let you fight. Believe me, I dealt with that growing up, so I know just how much of a liability you’re not. If it were up to me, I’d have you out there protecting my stupid arse.”

At that he laughed and looked away.

“Just know that I got you. In case… you know. I know what you go through, I know what it means, and I know what to do if that happens, I got you. I just wanted to tell you that is all.”

He smiled a little and nodded. “Your friends… do they know?”

I took a deep breath. “OK. Two new guys, Oren and Racius, that's him and him,” I pointed. “They're from Quesas which is in Gath Barony, maybe an hour’s walk down the road. I don't think they know about Sarina, but she did space out around them one winter. Geraln and Davod grew up with her—they know what’s what. I didn't tell them about you.”

“Please don’t.”

I nodded. “Of course.”

He looked down. “It does get bad.”

“How bad?”

“Everything you described. Everything she… all of it.”

Towards the end of the day, Miyani came by to watch us practice. She gave me a little wave and smiled wide, and of course my heart went crazy. I got looks from some of the guys, but I didn't care. As far as I was concerned, I had the most awesome lady in Carthia’s attention. I didn't know what it was she liked about me, but I did not, did not want to spoil it.

I looked at the cuts all over my wrist and understood that I needed to have my own relationship with Blue else I would always be on the outside looking in. When I saw him next, he was crouched low, nearly dragging his body over the ground as he slowly, very quietly stalked forward, popping his head above the grass like a periscope with his eyes fixed on a pig about three hands high some forty yards away.

I watched as he sprang at the beast, only for the fat pig to scurry beneath the barracks nearby. Blue chased it hard, then thrust his neck under the side of the building and stopped when his body got too big to fit. I heard a hiss, followed by a series of squawks, followed by another hiss. He pulled his head out from under the building, then hissed again. Then he paced around the front, the opposite side, and back to the first hole, lowering his head to the ground every time the gap below the rotted-wood building offered room enough to look.

Then he hissed at it again.

I looked around me. No one else seemed to pay him any attention, and thoughts of back bacon knocked on my mind.

I made my way towards him while Miyani came with me, wearing amusement on her beautiful face. Blue turned his face to me and clicked, then looked beneath the barracks once more and hissed at the animal.

I crouched low and had a look for myself. There was the pig, with a gaping gap on the opposite side of the building. Beyond that was the wall, with enough open space for Blue to catch him if he made a run for it. There was another hole beside the stairs leading to the entrance, but the rear of the building was closed off.

There was, however, enough crawl space for me to fit. I looked at Blue. “Come this way.”

He squawked at me and clicked twice.

“I have an idea.”

At that, he looked at Miyani who urged him forward, still with a smile across her face. He then peeked at his reluctant dinner and followed me to the front of the building.

“OK, so you step up here…” I ushered him onto the steps. He hesitated at first, but then stepped up onto the creaky wood floors of the barracks and blocked the entrance for two men who were trying to get inside.

Miyani held out a hand and looked at them, “wait pliz.”

I crouched low and checked the animal again before making my way towards the maintenance shed to grab two long, wooden poles. Then, I crouched low and crawled beneath the barracks, slithering on my belly while holding out the poles before me.

The back bacon snorted as I came to join him, then paced around in a small circle.

I set the poles out at both sides, making a funnel with myself at the center, and slithered towards the creature.

He snorted, then took a few steps back towards the gap beside the stairs, only to lunge at me. It was so sudden, all I could do was lift up the pole to block the creature. It squealed loud as it tried to attack me again, but that time I punched the thing on its snout. It squealed again and trotted off to one side, towards the gap where he’d come in on.

I lifted the pole and wiggled it in front of him, then gave him a good swat. He… wait. Yeah, he inched towards the other side, so I brought the pole towards him on that side.

I slithered forward a few more feet, when the back bacon made a run for it. Only instead of going out the exit he was supposed to go, he went around my pole and made for the gap at the side.

I heard a rough growl, and saw Miyani on her knees with her hands out brandishing the black claws she wore on her fingernails.

At that, the pig squealed and raced off in the opposite direction, only to earn another swat from the pole in my left hand. It squealed again and made a beeline for the larger gap to the left of the stairs.

Once free, the poor thing didn’t make three strides before a giant lizard mouth snatched him up at the back of his neck. I heard a few panicked squeals, followed by a muted crack, and then silence.

At that, I scurried out from beneath the barracks as fast as I could; I’d retrieve the poles later. I saw Blue’s feet walking off, so I called out “wait!”

Blue took a few more steps before I heard Miyani call after him, “pʊ xeŋɪɣe! feŋeðude ʃa dowa zʊ’ʊze.”

At that I heard him groan, but at least he stopped.

She spoke to him again, “vʌ zɪbixaɣe! vʌ xewekʊdeza vodo ʒowoθaze toto.”

He whined again and groaned, then let out a muffled click.

Back out on the grass, I saw Davod talking with Commander at the end of the training ground. I saw Blue standing with one eye fixed at me as I dusted myself off. I walked up to him and reached out for the pig, and he pulled away and groaned again.

“Alright,” I said. “How’s this. I cut, you choose. Fair? Uh… ŋozude… and uh… xaðʌ-se.”

Miyani laughed hard and shook her head while Blue looked at her. She then pointed up at the sky, “xaðʌ.”

Cloud. I searched my mind for the word. “Uh…”

Miyani looked up into my face and nodded each word. “yʊpi ŋozude…”

I nodded, “yʊpi ŋozude…”

Then she added, “ʃa… xapʌse.”

“OK,” I turned to Blue. “yʊpi ŋozude ʃa xapʌse.”

She urged him on, and he slowly set the pig down in the grass and stepped away.

I took out my knife and knelt. A proper butchering should have been more involved, but I suspected Blue wouldn’t be interested in waiting around for that. Besides I knew what I wanted, and carved out the tenderloin in its entirety with the glorious back bacon and set it aside in one pile, leaving a generous carcass of ham, shank, shoulder, chops, ribs, butt, and everything else in a separate pile for him.

Whatever Davod was telling Commander, he looked upset, waving his hands about while Commander stood still with his arms crossed.

When I was done, I stepped back and nodded. “See?”

Blue passed his nose between the two piles, then snatched up the tenderloin and darted off.

“HEY!” I shouted, but he was gone.

Miyani doubled over laughing while I shook my head and gaped in disappointment at the improperly butchered pig carcass with the best part removed. Miyani, still laughing, rested her hand on my arm and smiled wide. “dowawe puyo. You… want… same!”

“Yep,” I nodded. With nothing else to do, I picked up what remained of our kill and we headed towards the mess hall. I saw Commander walk off leaving Davod with his head hung low and gritting his teeth.

Miyani and I went over to him. “What’s wrong?”

Davod passed his eyes between us and snorted. He let out a huff and explained, “training is over. Tomorrow, we go out.”