Good Eating

Writers: Devin, Cali
Date Posted: 6th February 2010

Characters: Talmina, Zanen
Description: Talmina is adjusting to caravan life
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 7, day 4 of Turn 5

"That's two more." Talmina replied, surprised as she unhooked the two
small wherries off of the runner Zanen was using. He'd brought three
back with him when he'd returned at lunch to check on her. "Errva
will be pleased. She was worried there wouldn't be enough to go
around and she'd have to turn it into a stew."

"We'll eat good tonight." Zanen smiled. He loved to feel that he was
earning his keep in the caravan.

The two walked over to the cook wagon, Errva already setting up to
feed the caravan for the night. Talmina had been staying with the old
widow the last two sevendays, keeping her perceived honor respectable,
and had to admit she'd learned much from the woman. She wasn't the
nicest of people, but Talmina knew she wasn't either, and the two of
them had come to an unspoken agreement that they wouldn't speak to
each other unless it was work related. "Are you done for the day?"
Talmina held up the additions to Errva, then went about quickly
de-feathering and cleaning the avians while turning most of her
attention to Zanen.

"Yeah. I'd call five wherries a good day's work." He watched Talmina
prepare the animals. She'd done kitchen work back at the hold, so he
hadn't been worried about her ability here. It was the culture, the
harder way of living that concerned him. She'd done well on the trip
to the Weyr, but she'd known that was temporary. Now she needed to
prove she could live like this indefinitely.

"If I went with you, we could bring in more." Talmina replied
offhandedly as she deposited the debris in a large bucket. She'd
mentioned it before, learning to hunt, but nothing had come of it.
She wasn't going to give up though.

"I think it would be better if you stayed close to the caravan for
now." The area had bandits, and he didn't want Talmina out in the
open, even if she was with him. "But maybe when we get closer to the Hold."

Talmina just nodded. It was always like this, he was trying to
protect her again. She was just so lonely. He didn't notice how the
children of the caravan looked at her scars. He didn't notice how
people made polite conversation with her when he was around, and
ignored her when he was gone. At least with Errva, Talmina knew it
wasn't personal. Perhaps this was part of his test though, to see if
she could handle being around people that hated her? If so, it was a
wasted test. Ever since her attack she'd been around people that
hated her. She could survive it then, a another month or two of
isolation was nothing. "I mended your jacket today." she pointed
with her head to the back of the wagon where it hung. "I hope you
don't mind, but I added a couple inside pockets. It'll be useful
while you're hunting."

"Pockets! How thoughtful." He had to admit, if she wanted to impress
him, that was a point in her favor.

She shrugged it off, though she had been trying to think of something
nice to do for him, and walked over to Errva with the prepared birds.
The woman looked them over, approving the job she did with them, and
stuck them on spit poles with the others over the fire. "I heard that
Carney took his hand wrap off today. He wants to try his mended
fingers with his pipes tonight."

"Ah! It'll be good to hear him play again." Zanen smiled.

Talmina wouldn't know. Carney had smashed his fingers while mending a
wagon a few days beofre Zanen had kidnapped her and brought her to the
caravan. Everyone said the fires at night weren't the same without
him, and they planned on dancing the night away tonight now that they
had a proper pipes player again. Talmina just hoped they wouldn't be
too loud as she planned on turning in early that night. "I've got to
help finish for dinner. You smell like a runner. If you expect me to
sit with you tonight, could you please do something about that?"

Zanen laughed. "I make no guarantees, but I'll try!"

Last updated on the February 5th 2010

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Good Eating