“If the younglingwishes to see the gorjas, then I will take him for a ride,” Yanzu says, climbing over the rails to stand in front of Tansey and her son. Tansey lifts Ethan into her arms and turns sideways, protecting him from Yanzu, who is trying to use the boy to gain favor with Tansey.
He thinks because Tansey has left my quarters and moved in with the other females, that she no longer belongs to me. The fool.
“The boy will only ride with me,” I announce. “No one else will touch him or his mother. No one,” I repeat with a growl.
“Don’t vekking think you can threaten me, Verig. I’m neld now, not you.”
“Yes, you are neld. Which means I follow your orders. But this is my female. Not even a neld may come between a male and his female. And Tansey is mine, Yanzu. She and her son are under my protection.” I jump over the rails and insert myself between him and my female, making myself clear that I will fight him if he attempts to touch her or her youngling.
Yanzu storms off. “Get back to work, vekker, or you will be sleeping with the gorjas tonight. And you, female, be gone by the time I return.”
“Or what?” Tansey asks.
“Tansey,” I reprimand. I’ve pushed Yanzu enough, and I do not want the male taking his anger and frustration out on her, especially when I’m not around to protect her.
“Fine. We’ll stay away from the pen from now on,” Tansey says as she puts Ethan down.
I bend down to the youngling as Yanzu storms up the path toward camp. “I have not seen you in days, Ethan. Do you like my home?”
“Yes.” He pinches his nose and scrunches his face. “You smell.”
“Ethan!” Tansey scolds him, but I hold up a hand to quiet her.
“I’m sure I do. Cleaning the gorja pens is dirty work, but it is important. We have to take care of those in our care. People and animals.”
“Will I have to clean them, too?”
“You are too young to handle the gorjas on your own. That is the first step. Guiding them out of their pens so I may clean.”
“But the orc by the campfire yesterday said that’s all I’d be good for. Cleaning the gorja stalls.”
I lift my eyes to Tansey for an explanation.
She nods. “One of the warriors…made some comments.”
I see the truth in her eyes. The comments were worse than the youngling understood, but he heard enough. This is what Tansey feared, what I did not recognize in my own people.
A prejudice I myself once held before coming to know Paloma and then, later, Tansey. Many of us have accepted that we need the human females, but in focusing on them, we fostered a prejudice against the males of their species, one that will be used against the most innocent of humans…their younglings.
I cup the back of Ethan’s head as I stand. “You will be good at many tasks. Cleaning gorja stalls is but one task you should learn. A warrior learns all the tasks in a settlement, because he never knows where he will be needed. Take pride in your work, Ethan, no matter if it is cleaning out gorja dung or guarding your grak.”
Eyes wide and wholly focused on my every word, he nods his head. A new pride sweeps through me. One I haven’t known in years. The ability to teach a youngling, to guide him and make him stronger.
“Today, when I complete my duties, I will give you your first riding lesson, and then we will groom and feed the gorja, so you understand the animal better. Yes, Ethan?”
He looks up to his mother. “Can I?”
She hesitates, looks at me, and then says, “Only if you promise to behave for Verig.”
“I promise!”
I turn to resume my duties.
“Verig?” Tansey calls out, halting me. “Thank you.”
“For teaching your youngling?”
“Yes, that too, but mostly for respecting him. For giving him a chance.”
