“I’m… supposed to find a girl for Garnedell?” Joe asked a bit incredulously, glancing towards Garnedell to see the boy with his head down in his hands but face so red that Joe was still able to see the bright red of his forehead through fingers and hair.
“Yes.”
“What… how? When?”
“At the appropriate age.”
“What is the… you know what. Never mind. Garnedell, look at me.”
It took a bit of coaxing to get Garnedell to look up and when he did, his face burned red. Joe took a moment to settle himself to impress on Garnedell how serious he was willing to take this, “Garnedell. Let’s do this. You find a girl you like and tell me. I’ll be willing to do this for you, OK? But it’s got to be a girl your serious about. She’s going to be your number one for your whole life until you die. You’re not going to leave her or your children behind. It’s you and her for life, right?”
Garnedell calmed a bit then turned a brighter shade of red before nodding and Joe turned back to Kilniara, “Well, thanks for letting me know. I really didn’t know that.”
Kilniara nodded and quietly said, “You're welcome.” Then she cocked her head slightly and looked at him a bit curiously.
“What?”
“Well… the way you described your people’s ways… it was truly strange to me. I have never heard of such things. Could you explain more?”
“Oh. Well, sure. I guess. What do you want to know?”
“How does one express interest to someone they like?”
Joe chuckled and responded quickly, “Badly!”
The other three looked at him in confusion but he quickly extended his explanation, “Sorry. My people are pretty bad about expressing interest because it’s, well… It’s pretty new among my people. Traditionally, the boy will talk to the girl and say he likes her using a lot of convoluted and messed up things like pickup lines and…”
Zilnek interrupted excitedly, “Pickup lines?”
Joe smirked at Zilnek’s interest and reply, “A pickup line. Hmm… It is a sentence used to express interest in a unique or interesting way.”
“Can you give an example?” Zinlek asked.
“One of the cheesiest… uh.. worst ones I’ve heard,” Joe turned to Kilniara and turned the conversation to her, “Kilniara, did you hurt badly when you fell?”
Kilniara expressed some confusion, “I… did not fall recently, Joe.”
“Oh, you must have fallen quite far from your home in the heavens for you are as beautiful as an ang… goddess.” Joe decided to elaborate the ‘punchline’ a bit more to make sure the other three understood.
Kilniara’s bright flushing face and glance away followed by Garnedell’s and Zilnek’s wide eyed looks seeming to show they understood well enough and Zilnek glanced to his sister before he snickered slightly.
“You really like that, didn’t you,” Zilnek cackled loudly.
Kiliniara said nothing, but burned lasers at him with her eyes before glancing quickly at Joe again and looking away.
Joe smiled a bit but didn’t want to leave Kilniara disconcerted too long, “I’m sorry Kilniara. I didn’t wish to make you uncomfortable. I just wanted to give an example.”
She looked back up at him, struggling to fight the blush but nodded before asking another question, “So, men and women just bluntly express interest in each other in such ways?”
“Hmm… not all. Some of the… freer men and women do so. There are still many among my people who are bit more traditional.”
“So they then ask their parents to make a match?”
“What? No! They still seek each other out themselves, but they simply ask or let each other know they are interested or like each other. Pick up lines are… not seen as a truly respectable way to express interest in another. Such things are usually used for meaningless short … moments of one or two nights or weeks with one another. Longer relationships for marriage are usually formed from more substantial meetings. Not all, but many are.”
Kilniara quieted at this and dropped out of the conversation, but Zilnek and Garnedell quickly jumped in, peppering Joe with questions of how to gain the favor of women, and Joe found himself hard pressed to give a decent answer, especially as he’d never really had a girlfriend, and only had a crush that didn't go beyond admiration from afar during high school and really didn’t have any experience outside of that. Despite his lack of experience, the two boys seemed even more naïve and he felt quite debonair as he spoke.
Part way through their discussion, Kukurnal joined and the conversation continued, although taking on a more scholarly bent as Kukurnal asked questions more towards culture and development than overly sexual ones that immature teenage boys typically asked.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“So your society must be quite unstable,” Kukurnal observed after backtracking the conversation to learn again that children were choosing their own mates.
“Hmm… I wouldn’t say unstable. It is certainly much more fluid, but that is not simply because of marriage. Our schooling does it as well but it is also dependent on quite a few other factors. The Eastern peoples have a more communal and high power distance society and therefore are much more likely to be stable over a much longer time since power is based on age and those older are much more likely to maintain societal norms than reject it. They also can gate who can enter prestigious positions and continue to safeguard societal norms. The Eastern societies have almost all taken to the Western norms of youth choosing their own mates, although they are much more business-like in their choices and love is much less important than in the West. Despite that, the Eastern cultures have done quite well to maintain their cultural norms in contrast to the West. So, no… marriage likely has very little, if any, impact on the stability of our cultural norms aside from failing marriages. Well... hmmm."
Joe paused and reconsidered a bit, “Well, if you want to talk about family and failing marriages, then they greatly impact our societal norms. Immensely so. Stability of the family, uh... healthy children... hmm... then yeah… that has greatly impacted our families, I think.”
“Hmm… so marriage choice amongst youth effects family stability but not your culture?”
“Well, no… I guess you’re right, but I’m not a scholar. I’m only guessing, from what I’ve learned from my schooling. And a bit of guessing on my part,” Joe shrugged, not really invested in the conversation.
“But, you seem to know quite a bit.”
“Hmm… sociology 101, civics, psych 101,” Joe shrugged once again, “Most of my people study this if they choose to go on to the next level of education. It’s pretty basic, although it does require synthesis, so… well… maybe not everyone would figure it out”
“So you’re not a scholar.”
“Definitely not. Heh. I’m more… well, I’m a martial artist.”
“Martial artist?”
“Someone who practices physical combat.”
“You’re a warrior.”
“Uh… no. Not really. We don’t have any warriors, really, among our people.”
“But, you practice physical combat? How are you not a warrior?”
“We practice physical combat to be great and protect ourselves, if we need to, but we do not usually fight each other except maybe in practice or tournament.”
“Your people never fight or have wars?”
“Oh, we war, but we have professional combatants we call soldiers who fight. They are trained to kill other soldiers.”
“So you are not trained to kill others?”
“I am very capable of killing others. But I’m trained to simply stop those who would do harm, not kill them.”
Kukurnal fell silent at that, saying nothing and Zilnek jumped in, asking questions excitedly about Joe’s training and life.
“So you have been trained to fight?”
Joe smiled, glancing back, “Of course.”
“How long?”
“Hmm… pretty much my whole life. My parents were pretty much martial arts freaks. Kinda passed it on to me and my siblings. They ended up traveling all over Asia to study and made sure both of us got the same, although they made sure we had all our education as well. It sure didn’t match our martial arts training though, so…”
“You’ve trained since birth?”
“Well… that’s not really possible, but from when I was about three or four years old.”
“You are a noble!”
Joe chuckled at that, a shallow smile coming to his lips, “Hmm… it might seem that way and it’s probably the easiest way to understand my life and my family. But pretty much all of my people can, if they choose, live this way. It is not easy, but it is not entirely impossible to live the life I did but many don’t do that because they either do not know they can or focus on other things. Also, Most don’t want to leave home.”
“Few like to travel then,” Kukurnal jumped in.
“Oh, no. Many travel the world over, exploring regularly. Less choose to live abroad… uh, that means live outside of your home country… um, clan.”
The conversation continued but Joe began to lose interest, turning to his meal, “I’m so sorry, everyone, but I’m really tired and hungry and everyone is asking me questions. Can I eat a little? And share the questions? There are four other people who can answer questions, too. Please share them,” Joe ended with a weak joke.
The other four seemed to look away a bit embarrassed as they realized that they had been hounding him. The conversation quickly turned to other mundane topics and Kukurnal grew bored, even with the recap of their dungeon escapade. Shortly after Joe brought the conversation to an end, Kukurnal left back to his temple and the other three left Joe alone to enjoy his meal while the three excitedly spoke about their day and rewards.
After Joe finished eating, he let the other three speak for a while since he had to go and talk with the inn keep. He stopped by and let the man know they were done with the water and asked for it to be emptied, although they could leave the tub in the room since Joe would now be using it regularly, possibly even daily.
He came back to the table and listened a while longer before interjecting and telling them about the new titles they had received, explaining each one quickly and quietly. They spent several moments going over them then Joe told the three good night and headed for bed.
“I’m wiped out, guys. I’m going to bed. You can sit and chat if you want, but I’m out. Have a good night.”
“Good night, Joe,” Zilnek and Garnedell both quickly said, while all three stood when he did.
“Sit, sit,” Joe waved them back down, “It’s fine. Have a fun night.”
Zilnek and Garnedell nodded quickly and sat but Kilniara shuffled a bit, seeming a bit shy as she didn’t sit and looked to him, “I’m… I’m feeling tired as well. I think I will sleep now as well.”
“You sure? You can stay up if you want. I’m just going straight to bed. I’m exhausted.”
Kilniara quickly nodded and stepped away from the table to stand beside Joe. Joe acknowledged her then waved at the two boys as he turned to leave, Kilniara falling in step beside him.
They wove their way through the tables, up the stairs to their floor and into the room. Joe turned directly to bed and settled on his mattress before starting to take his shoes off. He’d just started to take off his shirt when he noticed that Kilniara was still in the room and Joe stopped, not wanting to bother her.
“You OK? Did you need something?”
Kilniara fidgeted a bit before shaking her head and turning away towards her room, walking a bit stiffly and Joe felt his concern spike. Standing quickly, he stepped up to her and laid a hand on her shoulder, “What’s wrong? I can tell something is bothering you. Is it Garnedell? He shouldn’t bother you but if he does, just yell loudly. I’ll come right away!”
Kilniara quickly shook her head as Joe began mentioning Garnedell, “No… it’s… no. I’m not worried about Garnedell. I’m… just,” she stuttered to a stop and glanced around the room a few times before she finally shook her head and turned away, moving to her room quickly, “Good night, Master.”
“I’m not,” Joe trailed off as she shut the door forcefully behind her and turned back to his bed with a sigh, “your master.”
Joe considered for a minute or two before dismissing it from his mind and disrobed for bed, settling in and falling asleep rather quickly, the day’s fights completely exhausting him.