Ryder stood on the swaying wooden platform hanging from the back of the wagon that Matron Weeli lived in. He felt humiliated by the fact he was wearing a loincloth of soft cloth. A narrow strap across his front that only came to mid-way across the his thighs and only went halfway to his knees, with another strip across the back that barely covered his butt crack. The cloth was soft and silky, a shimmering gray color, and held on by a leather cord made up of interwoven leather strings. Instead of a buckle it had a complex reddish-bronze clamp. Ryder was still wearing the heavy manacles around his ankles and wrists, as well as the collar. Matron Weeli had ordered younger males to measure Ryder's feet, then had cushioned hand-crafted moccasins put on his feet. It had been vaguely offensive to Ryder's feminist sensibilities that Matron Weeli had ordered her sons to measure Ryder's feet than her daughters to rub lotion into his skin before dressing him.
Ryder watched Matron Weeli step off the platform and onto the highway easily, a single practiced step that made Ryder wonder how long she had been doing it. Two larger dark skinned males were holding metal poles hooked to his collar to pull him or push him in what direction Matron Weeli wanted him to go. It was obviously a practiced move, Ryder figured that they normally used it on animals. They guided him, clicking at him, up the long line of wagons. Two columns on each side of him stretched as far as he could see in front and behind him on the wide highway.
A dangerous animal, that's how they see me. White people like me must have ravaged their society and culture until they decided to flee their homeland. It looks like one of the big Interstate Freeways like you see in those backwards Rust Belt states full of inbred meth'd up hill billies. Ryder thought to himself.
He glanced down at his own body, seeing the reddish fire under his skin coil and spiral in a flickering pattern across his arms and legs.
What is that? Ryder wondered again, not for the first time that morning. When he'd woken up, the fire coursing under his skin had burned, a tingling burning combined with heartburn that had lasted until Matron Weeli had bathed his skin with something from a bottle that had smelled like apples. Why do I have it and none of these little black people do?
Matron Weeli walked beside Ryder, feeling the weight of his glance at him. The amount of warfire the boy was showing alarmed her, made sweat bead up on her back.
Ryder saw Matron Weeli looking at him and turned his head so he could smile at her reassuringly before looking where he was walking again.
Matron Weeli breathed a sigh of relief when Ryder turned away. She dealt often with humans and their cousins the orcs, invited them into her wagon to discuss business. Even after years of dealing with humans during the cataclysmic Lich King War, and the decades since, the sight of those sharp meat eating teeth, those intent eyes that sought out movement, and the way they moved with such restrained menace and aggression. Of all the sentient races the human and orcish smiles were the most intimidating, with all the meat eating teeth on display.
Their smile says that they could rip your throat out but they choose not to right now is what most of the people who only interact with humans believe, Matron Weeli thought to herself. She looked down at the ornate and heavily jeweled bracelet on her right wrist. It was an expensive item, difficult to make with a long list of exotic components that were difficult to locate, much less extract and refine. It had been passed to her by the Matron who had held the position of someone who had to deal with those not of the people.
It let her feel the subtle ebb and flow of human emotion without delving far enough into their minds to kick in their inborn defenses.
The boy is frightened, confused, but arrogantly confident that nothing will happen to him, Matron Weeli thought to herself, avoiding looking at him. She could faintly feel the snarling static of the boy's warfire protecting him from Weeli doing much more than correctly parse what another human would pick up through body language, facial expression, and tone.
Ryder stopped for a moment, glad that Matron Weeli waved her hand to let his two guards know that it was all right if he stood still for a moment.
It was hot and muggy, despite the warm rain. Ryder didn't even think to question whether or not the rain was adding to the mugginess, or notice that the Phaelan around him had their cloaks pulled close and were wearing gloves and hats.
This forest has to be far away from any Western nations. No way they let trees like this stand for long before cutting it all down and displacing the indigenous peoples, Ryder thought to himself. He looked at the huge wagons passing by on either side of him. Some of them a hundred paces long, reminding Ryder of two semi-trailers put together with windows cut into it. Oh, and being made of wood. With larger wheels.
Weeli felt a small surge of amusement from the boy as he looked away from one of the crafting sledges.
OK, maybe not like semi-trucks, Ryder thought to himself.
A group of smaller ones ran by and Ryder pushed down feelings of contempt, hiding the feeling with outrage he summoned up. Then embarrassment when he realized that it wasn't his place to judge their culture, that their culture was just as valid as anyone else's.
Matron Weeli tasted each emotion, noting that the second one had been forced, while the last had the smoothness of something someone was familiar with to the point that it no longer felt forced.
The girls were all wearing dresses, had ribbons in their hair and bonnet, where the boys all were wearing pants and button shirts with caps that reminded Ryder of the caps news paper hawking boys in movies wore. They ran by giggling and chattering.
"Look, a Xue'nghozi!"
"He looks funny."
"Warfire warfire warfire."
"Mistress Balan has cherry drop candies!"
"I'm faster than you!"
"Nuh-uh!"
Ryder noted that they all wore boots, laced with grommets, not buttons like he expected. All of them looked worn to Ryder and he wondered why their parents didn't buy them newer ones.
Maybe Big Timber ran them out of their homes with clear-cutting their ancestral lands, that's why they're travelling? But how did we get here? And where is here? Ryder wondered.
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Thunder rumbled in the clouds and he looked up. The clouds had a dark cast to them, purple lightning flashing in the depths.
the logging truck pulling out in front of him... the motorcycle crushing against the side of the trailer... pulling him underneath, dragging him along...
the sound of spurs
Matron Weeli noted the warfire under the boy's skin had surged suddenly, the warfire coursing and surging through the boy's skin heated his blood and flesh until the cool rain steamed in the cool morning air.
Six days from Warlord Elshon. We are in either the land of Alben, within Bloody Elshon's claimed territory, or we will be there by morning. We need to turn these Xue'nghozi over to Bloody Elshon as soon as possible, Matron Weeli thought to herself, unwrapping a cherry-sparkle candy that she took from her pocket and putting it in her mouth. The confectionary alchemical coating made it feel like she had little sparks jumping around in her mouth as she sucked on the cherry flavor. The wrapper she shoved back into her pocket. Paper though they may be, ten of them got a free candy, and Matron Weeli had not become wealthy and powerful by throwing away things that could be useful.
Ryder paid no attention, starting to walk forward again. The little men were careful to maintain at least an appearance of controlling Ryder. They were both nervous being this close to a Xue'nghozi even with the manacles and the collar keeping his warfire in place.
"They aren't human," Jack's voice echoed in Ryder's mind as he watched several obviously female little people sitting on a fold-out platform on the side of one of the wagons. All six of them had turned around on the bar-stool like stools, all six had big pewter mugs in their hands that were steaming.
All of them stared at the sight of the tall lean white skinned Xue'nghozi clad only in a loincloth, his warfire making him steam in the cool spring morning.
"Turn around, Maidens, your brains are in your heads, not in your wombs," Matron Weeli called out.
The girls giggled and turned back around. One reached back and flipped up her short skirt, giving Ryder a view of her panty clad bottom. The movement caught his eye, pulling his attention to her. He could see the tattoo of some kind of bird on the little woman's left buttocks. Her skin was a warm brown, smooth looking, and round like the women Ryder had seen in music videos.
The skirt fell back in place, covering the woman's buttocks.
Patriarchial normalization of women as sex objects, Ryder thought to himself, looking away. Does their society push them into sexualizing themselves and seeing themselves as breeding objects?
Matron Weeli could feel the disgust in the young Xue'nghozi and noted that the feeling surged when he had seen Chelayni flip her skirt at Ryder.
Interesting. Is he a ladybug or a hummingbird? Matron Weeli asked herself. Or is he merely repulsed by the idea of laying with a Phaelani? Unusual. Humans are known their willingness to have intercourse outside their species. Yes, orcs will mate with humans, they are cousins after all, and there is the exception to the rule, but for the most part, only humans mate or have intercourse outside their species.
Perhaps he is one of the rare humans who is disgusted by other species? Or perhaps he finds the sight of a plump Phaelani of breeding age to be disgusting?
Ryder was unaware of the Matron's confusion, instead he was looking at the wagons.
Why do the names of the wares in the wagons repeat themselves a half dozen times? Why is the name of the wagon and what they deal in get repeated over and over? Ryder wondered to himself.
He can read. I was under the impression that Xue'nghozi Battle-Lords were all illiterate, Matron Weeli mused, watching Ryder stare at one of the confectioner's tradecraft wagons.
"Do your people have candy?" Matron Weeli asked in a gentle voice.
Ryder looked over her, taking a split second to remember to look down. He nodded slowly, unwilling to talk with that jagged piece of metal in his tongue slicing up the roof of his mouth.
"Follow me, you have behaved well this morning. I will get you some candy as a reward for if you behave, then we will return to my wagon where I will make food I know is safe for humans to eat," Matron Weeli said. She knew humans could eat almost anything, including things that were poisonous to most people, but at the same time it seemed almost as if every other human had a bad reaction to a common food, flower, or other such substance that most other humans were immune to.
Matron Weeli dealt with many humans, and had gathered a list of might cause a human to turn red and swell up. She knew how to make dishes that humans could eat safely.
She was thinking about the ingredients she had and what she would cook the young male Xue'nghozi as she stepped up onto the stepping porch of Stannam's Prime Candy's. She reached up and rang the bell, waiting and motioning Ryder's two handlers to ensure that he followed her.
Ladybugs and hummingbirds like sweets, Matron Weeli thought to herself as the door opened.
"Matron Weeli," the short young Phaelani who answered the door said, smiling with her mouth closed. "What brings you to... oh!" She had just seen Ryder standing on the stepping porch.
"He is restrained, have no fear young one," Matron Weeli said. "What is your most popular candy among young humans?"
"Lemon sweet and sours," The Phaelani said, smiling.
"And something sweet. I believe he will like sweets," Matron Weeli said.
Ryder stared at both of them, then craned his neck to look inside the wagon. He could see glowing lights hanging from ornate chains, roof support beams that seemed to glow faintly for some reason. Twisting glass and copper piping with multicolored liquid bubbling through the twisting piping and into beakers and other things he didn't understand. There were five smaller of the little brown people moving around inside, along with three larger ones. Ryder couldn't be sure but it looked like two males and a female.
"Tell your mother I need lemon sweet and sours and something sweet and chewy. Human sized candies. I'll be using them as a reward for one of the Xue'nghozi we captured last night," Matron Weeli said.
Ryder slumped slightly at the reminder of his captivity.
"Right away Matron," The young Phaelani said. "My mother will bill the Grand Matron."
Matron Weeli nodded and the young girl turned and went inside.
Ryder looked down when Matron Weeli tapped his leg.
"If you behave yourself, curb your natural instinct placed in you by the Elder Gods, then I will reward you with sweets. If you misbehave, I have ways of punishing you, but I would prefer not to," Matron Weeli said, "Do you understand?"
Ryder nodded slowly. He idly wondered what she would do if he did break a rule, but so far, all the rules were just "do as I say" and little else.
The door opened again and a different young Phaelani poked her head out, holding two cloth bags. "We're heading to Alben so my mother and fathers are making candy for sale. Is that all right?"
"Yes. It'll be fine," Matron Weeli said.
"All right. Blood lemon sweet and sours are in this bag," The Phaelani handed it over. She then handed over the other one. "Sugar melon chewy twists in this one, Master Stannam is adding a chewy blood peach stripe for Alben."
"Thank your mother for me, little one," Matron Weeli said. She tucked the bag with chewies in it into one pocket, then unwrapped the other one enough to reach inside.
"Xue'nghozi, try this, tell me what you think," She said, handing a large ribbon of chewy candy coated with salt and sour-mix crystals.
Ryder rolled his eyes, sighing, and giving his head a toss to move his bangs out of the way, then squatted down, opening his mouth for Matron Weeli to pop the candy inside. It reminded him of girls in high school offering him gum at their desks while he was standing.
Matron Weeli noticed he had pouty lips, smouldering eyes, and his hair was tousled in a way that seemed to attract the attentions of young human maidens. She tore off a chunk of the chewy and put it in his mouth. She could sense his arrogant confidence and expectation as he sighed again and closed his eyes.
Human maidens may find you attractive, little Xue'nghozi, but I am fat too old for such foolishness, Matron Weeli thought to herself, snorting slightly.
Ryder was startled by the sweet taste, with a slight salty taste, of the flat piece of chewy candy. It tasted of strange fruit, with an odd copper tang that grew on him the longer he chewed it.
Smiling, he let himself be led back to Matron Weeli's wagon, chewing on the sweet gummy candy.