I had no right to survive Jungle. I'd climbed with broken ribs halfway down a cliff with venomous snakes snapping at my fingers. Dusk waned, and I was still hours from Carthia. One vita'o above dropped rocks and branches to knock me down while the others gathered below for the feast. Then…
I understood them. Clicks, chirps, squawks, and whistles came to my ears as if I'd been born speaking the language, and I made a deal that brought me safely back.
I hadn't understood a word from those lizards ever since.
Ranía said she knew how I did that. She'd said that if the wrong people found out, I'd be burned at the stake. She'd promised to tell me later.
It's later.
Renou, Ta'o, Bilal, and I stepped across the wooden drawbridge into the castle at the Lake of Doom somewhere between late afternoon and early evening. Hot air greeted us like a furnace. It hadn't been so bad beneath the dense jungle canopy, but the castle's high stone walls trapped the heavy humidity and it lingered there.
The mat of grass runners across the ground was shredded in some places, and in the center of the courtyard it was worn through exposing dry dirt. The important-looking native woman I'd seen the last time I came through was shouting at some men who all lowered their eyes. The older Herali man in charge of the place was among them; his eyes were the lowest of all. To our right outside the kitchen, a line of older Na'uhui men faced against three recruits, everyone waving fists and shouting obscenities.
Ranía stood in the center of the sitting area being drooled over by young conscripts. She was a textbook beautiful woman—generous curves, plush lips, doe eyes, with an air of deep contentment behind a wide, warm smile. Like Bilal, she was Goloagi; dark green hair cascaded behind her back in curls, and on each arm was a brand, 773-614.
"Caleb Jungle-Tested!"
The recruits all looked at me. Her voice perked up for each of us. "Bilal of Shonemai! Renou of Kyoen! Ta'o!"
"You know those guys?" The recruits asked her.
"Oh yes!" she exclaimed. "I'm so happy you're here!"
Today she wore a light-blue cotton dress that had a frill around her shoulders and skirted her knees. She opened her arms for Ta'o, who held her tight for a while. Then she released him to embrace Bilal and Renou in turn, before coming to me. I was afraid at first of the cracked ribs that still hurt, but she was gentle.
When I pulled away, she lifted her emerald-green eyes to me with a warm smile.
I gave her a smile of my own. "You owe me a conversation?"
She giggled lightly and looked around the castle grounds. Outside the kitchen one of the native men looked as he was about to lunge at the conscripts. Beside the mud huts, several local women had gathered with knives, and I could smell the mold in the barracks from here.
Her eyes were sullen. "Hoden asked me to come and help… domesticate these… men." She looked up at me with a sly grin. "I wonder how a good captain would handle this situation?"
My stomach tightened. Did she just…
"Excuse me!" The important-looking woman in red silk elbowed her way between two others beside us. She came to the center of the gathering and held up her hands, looking around. "I have an announcement!"
"Wait!" I held up my hand. What, exactly, would a good captain do in this situation? "We'll gather everyone together!"
I checked Bilal, who nodded back to me and directed Ta'o towards the mud huts. "You check down there. Renou…"
"I got the stalls."
Ranía chirped, "I'll check by the armory!"
I called Bilal over to me. "You and I deal with this shit."
Outside the kitchen, a ring of men stood around as one recruit straddled a Na'uhui man who had to be well into his forties. The youth raised his fist in the air, and the old man beneath him held his hands up as a shield.
"Yo!" Bilal shouted. "Let's go! There's an announcement!"
The Herali looked up, then stood and stepped towards us.
"No," I said, "help him up."
The man sucked his teeth and sneered. "Fuck off!"
When he tried to step past me, I blocked him. "No, you need to help him up."
"The fuck?" his hands were still balled into fists, and he had a line of blood on his lip. His chest heaved, and he stepped closer to me.
Bilal stood beside me with his hand up. The Herali clenched his jaw, and his brow was furrowed. The other recruits pointed and sniggered at him, and he glanced between me and Bilal.
My fingers trembled. I wasn't Father Yewan. I could never fill his shoes, but if there was a page I could borrow from him, then perhaps God would find me worthy of reading it. "What's your name, man?"
He sneered and stared at me. "The fuck?"
I tried to appear calm. I wasn't, but I tried to look that way. "Tell me your name?"
The man watched his friends file off towards the sitting area for the announcement. His skin was a shade lighter than mine, but not by much, and his ears did stick out a little bit. With his fists still ready, he shifted his eyes back and forth between me and Bilal. "Scree."
"Come on, Scree." I smiled. I tried to reach for his shoulder, but he pulled away from me. "You won the fight. Didn't you?"
"Huh?" He looked back at the other man, still on the ground.
I turned to the handful of people who still lingered. "You all saw it, he won. Didn't he?"
Bilal translated for the natives. "ɣʊ væŋize ʃa fæ'ibiwe. ti 'o vʌ?"
They all nodded.
I asked Scree again. "Did you win the fight?" I turned to the man on the ground. "ʒɪ væŋizesa?"
The man nodded, "ti."
I turned back to Scree. "Did you win?"
He shrugged. "Yeah?"
"So… help him up."
Finally he gave a reluctant shrug, and reached a hand out for the man on the ground.
The side of the old man's face was swollen, one eyelid was half-open, and he had blood trailing down from his nose. He looked at Scree with a confused expression at first, then checked me before taking his hand.
"Now," I decided to have some fun. "For the next two nights, each of you will apprentice under the other. Tomorrow night, you will apprentice under him. You will be his sous. You may ask questions, but you may not disobey anything he says. The following night, switch. I am a captain, and that is a direct order!"
Scree opened his eyes wide. "You're a captain?"
Bilal's eyes watered and he tried to hide a smirk. "That's right, he's a captain—you'd better listen to him!"
After that we split up. Scree went to the gathering area, Bilal checked by the gate, and I went to the barracks.
The mold had gotten worse by order of magnitude since I last came through here. Half the beds were covered in fuzz, and in the corner it had eaten a hole in the wood wide enough for a raccoon to fit through. In the other half of the barracks, bedrolls were crammed together three to a narrow cot, with many more crowded together on the floor so dense you couldn't walk through without stepping on someone's things.
And in this punishing heat, three men sat on some of the cleaner beds in a smoky haze with that undeniably sweet bouquet of happy cabbage.
"Come on," I said, "There's an announcement!"
They got up and left me alone with that smell. Smoking in the mountains with Faren, Ales, Davod, and Geraln was now a memory only I carried. How many more?
We gathered up all the recruits under the covered area at the end of the courtyard. There had to be at least seventy of them sitting on logs or standing in the back. Several Herali men dressed as the natives, and a good number of Na'uhui women were also in attendance. Ranía stood beside me in the center and held my hand. I didn't see Miyani.
The important-looking woman, herself wearing a red silk yithi embroidered in gold and silver interlocking waves, made her announcement while some of the recruits watched her breasts. "The next one of you who takes anything from MY storeroom, I'm going to skin you alive, dump you into THAT lake, and have tea and cake while the alligators rip you apart! That is all."
And she walked off.
"That's it?" The recruits looked at one another. "That's the announcement?"
Several of the natives laughed.
As they started to get up, I remembered I'd promised to help. A good captain follows through with his word, and this was the perfect opportunity. I stepped into the center. "I have another announcement! I am a captain, and I order you all to do chores!"
"What?" One man spat. Others laughed and started walking off.
"This is a direct order!" I said. They kept leaving.
"And who the fuck are you?"
Ta'o looked confused. Bilal stood beside me. "That's right! Choose a chore now, or one will be assigned to you!"
A recruit waved us off. "Fuck off, man!"
Another added, "we don't have to follow orders. We haven't been processed yet."
I was stuck. Bilal gritted his teeth. Ta'o furrowed his brow. Some of the recruits had already left, and the rest of them were getting up. Ranía tightened her fingers around mine and gazed up at me with a knowing smile.
"WAIT!" Renou shouted, waving his arms and strutting around the center. "Don't leave yet! We came down from the mountain just like you! Just listen!"
Some of them sat back down. Others stood with their arms crossed.
Renou continued. "We sat where you sit! Yes, you, come back and sit down. All of you. You're going to want to hear this. You too. I'm Herali. Orca, born and raised. I grew up in Kyoen, I got my summons to come here, just like you did. I heard the same stories. This place is a death trap. I know you heard them, too. Just sit down and listen. Yes, you too…"
I glanced at Ta'o and Bilal. He had everyone's attention, including ours.
Including Miyani's. She stood beside Blue in the back behind everyone else, and gave me a big smile with a wave.
God, how was this possible? I'd never experienced a rush of pleasure so powerful as the sight of her face. Her white-yellow eyes smiled back at me, her cute nose, she entranced me harder than the day we met.
"Let me show you!" Renou took off his boot. "I fell into a foot trap."
Several recruits leaned in to see the scars.
"We went out on an op. Our scout didn't check in, and we were all scared. I fell in, and I was stuck. There was a huge, barbed knife sticking right through here. It went right through my boot. There was blood everywhere. I screamed."
The big one in the center of his foot would stay with him for life, the three around his ankle would fade in time.
"My scream alerted the enemy to our position, and soon, all of us would be killed. What do you think happened next?"
He looked around. The recruits looked at one another.
"Any ideas?"
They all shook their heads. I had to admit I was enthralled, and I was there.
His voice turned somber. "They left me behind!"
The recruits all looked at one another. Some of them shifted in their seats, and a murmur ran through the crowd.
He waited a moment. "They left me behind. All of them," he pointed at me, "except this man!"
Mumbles swept through the crowd. Ranía smirked up at me. Behind the conscripts, Miyani beamed, oh she was gorgeous.
Renou waited for his audience to quiet down enough to continue. "He stayed with me. When all the others left me to die alone in the jungle, he stayed with me. He got me out of that trap. I'm alive because of him. I still walk, because of him. Now let me ask you this. Would you rather have a man like that as your captain, or roll the dice when you get to Carthia?"
Half the recruits were silent. A lot of them looked around, and there were murmurs. Bilal leaned in close with his brow furrowed and his eyes wide, and he whispered. "Is any of that true?"
"Yeah. All of it."
He raised his eyebrows and gazed at me in astonishment.
Ta'o stepped forward to stand with Renou. "They call him Caleb Jungle-Tested, because he survived out there. Alone. Twenty miles he went through that jungle, through terrain so fierce the enemy was afraid to go after him! He can see vita'o in the forest. He speaks with the birds. He knows when a jaguar is stalking you, and can count a pack of wild dogs by touching the soil…"
It was ten miles, not twenty. I faced him with my eyes wide, then pulled back. I had to keep a straight face.
"... a snake tried to eat him, he ate the snake!"
I didn't actually take a bite.
"One time, an alligator got too curious, and he made that alligator give him a ride across the water!"
Ok, that's just…
"Is true!" Miyani shouted from the back. Oh how her high-pitched voice sent a delightful tingle over my skin.
Blue squawked and jumped through the crowd. Several men moved far out of his way to make room for the lumbering throat-ripping lizard. He rushed to the center and rubbed his face on my cheek on both sides while I stroked his neck. Then he stood tall behind me, wrapped his tail around my body, rested his foreclaws on my shoulders, and addressed the audience with chirps, clicks, and squawks.
The recruits glanced at one another. Some of the men in the back uncrossed their arms and stepped forward, while others leaned in.
Ta'o's voice grew elated, and he challenged them. "The mɪwe'iʃi couldn't kill him. The sewu'oŋi couldn't kill him. Jungle couldn't kill him. Who do you want for your captain?"
"Man got me out of prison!" Bilal joined us.
Two recruits looked directly at one another and watched him in earnest. Others murmured.
Bilal continued. "This man has a personal relationship with the Marquis's daughter. He's got so much clout down there, if he says he wants you on his team, you are on his team. And right now, Renou, Ta'o, Miyani, Blue, Caleb, and I, are here to decide who we want on our team. And… he gave you all a direct order to find a chore and do it. Dibs on laundry!"
The recruits looked around at one another. Some of them looked around the courtyard.
Then I had another idea. If the game was to make them win our favor, how bad would they want it? "What's the worst chore there is?"
"Pig sty?"
"Shit pit?"
"SHIT PIT!!!" another yelled, and a chorus of shit-pits followed.
"OK!" I said. "I call shit pit!"
With that, men started calling out chores, and everyone got up to do something. Amid the mass of movement, Ranía stood beaming in my direction.
Miyani made her way through the throng and came up to me. She saw me looking at Ranía and pursed her lips, squinting her eyes.
"What?" I grinned.
"I see you look!" She pointed two fingers at her eyes and back to me. "I watch you!"
"Did you see me leering at your arse?" I grabbed her shoulders and lost myself in her. Oh, how soft her skin felt in my hands.
"I see this!" she giggled. "You like!"
Before I could lean down to taste her lips, she jumped into my arms and wrapped her thick, muscular legs around my waist. With my body reacting to the sensation of her, she grabbed my head and yanked me in for a kiss.
Hoots from the conscripts disappeared into the world at that moment. It was me, mɪyaŋi, and some blur of men moving about in the background. I wanted to be one with her. Complete with her. Everything with her. When those vita'o were about to eat me, before that thing Ranía was supposed to tell me about, hers was the image in my mind.
Standing with Davod in the frigid mountain pass overlooking the lush valley below, with a silver ribbon for a creek and the wind toying with a lock of hair on his shoulders. Rocks and snow all around, and breath coming out as puffs of white. He looked at me and he said, "if I die in this war, I don't want to fade away thinking I shoulda made love to that girl."
I pulled away from Miyani and saturated my vision with her beautiful face. "I don't want to be chaste anymore."
Her eyes gaped and she pulled her face back in astonishment. A smile curled her lips. "Are you sure?"
The sensation of her legs squeezing my hips left no room for doubt. "I'm sure."
"OK," she nodded. Then she giggled. "I want! But first," she peeled the sweaty shirt from my chest and sniffed. "Ehh… I bath you!
I wanted that. Dreams of rolling my hips in her round, soapy arse tickled my mind. I wanted that very, very badly. A few of the conscripts watched us with wide grins. I tried to shoo them away.
"May I talk with him, please?" Ranía stepped in and addressed my girlfriend in Uhuida. "You know I don't have much time."
Miyani checked the sky. The sun had long dipped below the outer wall of the castle, and daylight was waning fast. "OK. I watsh chores. I tell you good recroots!"
Then she pointed at me, fighting back a big smile, and went to go supervise someone.
Ranía stepped up to me. "Are you ready?"
"You're going to tell me what supernatural magic trick I'm capable of?"
She laughed lightly and led me towards a tower along the western wall. We ducked beneath a low archway and climbed a staircase that spiralled up on the left through a dark corridor. As with all of them, the stairs were horribly uneven, but I'd come to expect that by this point and didn't trip at all.
Until I did. I fell forward thinking the step would have raised up more and jammed my fingers trying to not smack my face on the hard stone. Agony rippled throughout my still-healing ribs.
"Sorry," Ranía helped me up. "I don't know if it will help or hurt your cause, but they'll all see the young captain having a private conversation with the witch."
That made me laugh. "The witch, huh?"
Her voice smiled. "If I see a man sit around and eat too much and I predict he'll get fat, does that make me a prophet?"
"I suppose not."
"If I see variables others refuse to see, what's the difference?"
"I understand, but what does this have to do with how I spoke to those vita'o?"
We came out at the top of the rampart overlooking the lake. At the western horizon, the sun was a pale circle shrouded in mist inches above the forest, and a gust of warm, moist air buffeted us from across the water. We climbed another small staircase to the circular crenelations of a tower. On one side was a view of the courtyard below where several recruits carried crates and barrels for the important-looking woman, and on the other was the lake with trees cauliflowered over black water on all sides.
We were alone.
"Alright," I said, "how did I do it?"
Ranía smiled. "When I was six, my mother sold me to our lord to pay her rent."
"What?" My whole face was scrunched up in shock.
"He bought me for his personal entertainment."
"What, like you sang and danced for him…" I still couldn't wrap my head around that. "I'm sorry, but your own mother?"
"He raped me."
Her face was still and calm, and the words came out with the ease of any other breath. But I was in shock. I had no words. I couldn't grasp what she was telling me. "You were six!?"
"There's a dark side to slavery no one talks about."
My eyes were wide. "Slavery is dark! It doesn't need a dark side!"
"At the time, I didn't understand what he was doing to me, but I knew it was something his wife was unhappy about. I thought she would protect me. She hit my face with a bookend. She thought if she could make me ugly, her husband wouldn't want me anymore."
"Stop!" I couldn't handle any more. I rested my trembling hands on the stone between crenelations overlooking the lake. By the shore, something splashed, and one alligator chased another across the water. "Why…" I had to breathe deep. "I'm so sorry…"
"I don't need your sympathy. I'm in a good place, now." Ranía watched me through emerald-green eyes that seemed to glow in the sunset.
I tried to change the subject. "I thought you were going to tell me about how I spoke to those vita'o. Why… why all this?"
Her voice was calm as if she were narrating a children's story. "I was broken, destroyed, desperate for some way to tell when they were going to hurt me again. I thought if I could predict when they wanted to hurt me, I could hide away. It worked."
"It worked?"
She nodded. "I discovered something within myself. I could pay attention to little things. A raised eyebrow. A curled lip. A slight twitch of a finger. Muscle spasm. When she was anxious, she took shorter, quicker steps. He left more food on his plate. I learned to avoid them during these times."
"Well, that's good," I said.
"But then I started noticing other things. I picked up on a host of minutiae that showed me things I never imagined possible. By the time I was nine years old, I knew from his face in the morning if he would be out drinking that night. I read in his face that I'd gotten too old and he wanted to buy a younger girl."
My heart started racing again. "You were nine?"
"I ran away. And somehow… I knew where to go. I didn't understand how or why, but I knew which route to take and found my way to Oldelia on the coast. I was reading people. I knew who would offer me food and who would let me sleep for the night. From tiny influxes in their voice, mannerisms. Better than I ever imagined possible. Street children crowded around a man's house for food, but I saw the loathing on his face. By morning, two of them were dead, and the rest very sick. A priest offered me shelter, but I saw how he intended to return me to my master. I found a ship's captain. His uniform said Imperial navy, but he secretly brought runaways to Carthia."
"You read that on his face?"
"Yes," she nodded.
"But what does all this have to do with me?"
She smirked. "I love your impatience."
"Huh?"
Down below, Bilal stood among several recruits discussing the moldy end of the barracks.
Ranía continued. "Right now, there are thousands of young girls and boys throughout the Empire in the same situation I was in. Everything he did to me was legal. Running away, helping me, that was illegal."
I huffed. "Legal or not, it's still disgusting."
She smiled. To the north, the darkening sky cast the Terbulin ridge in deep purple. Beyond those mountains, treating a child like that was legal. Beyond those mountains was my home. If I hadn't grown up in Heralia…
Ranía continued. "It wasn't until I came here when I realized how unique my talent was. I could speak and understand languages I'd never heard before."
That grabbed me.
"Yes," she said. "You have the gift."
"The gift?" I said.
"It was the first thing I noticed about you the day you came down from the pass. Some of your enemies also have it; a lot of them are far more attuned than you are."
"But I don't understand—"
"Davod told me that while you were in the mountains, you made a house out of snow. Tell me, where did you learn to do that?"
"Well, I…" I probably read about it in a book somewhere.
"He said you told him you'd done it before. Was that the truth?"
I wrung my memories for some idea where I'd learned the technique. "I knew it would work; I didn't know how to explain it."
She smirked. "And Davod grew up with you. He knew."
"But…"
A horn bellowed out from the front gate. She immediately skipped over the floor and dashed back down through the dark staircase.
"Wait," I tried to run after her.
I couldn't rush down the irregular steps, not as quickly as she did. When I came back out to the courtyard, she stood by the gate while a flock of goats was herded in. She watched me with one eye on the gate as I came up.
"If you're right and I have some sort of gift, how am I supposed to use it?"
Her smile widened. "As with any skill, you practice, and you get better. I wish I could explain it better; all I can say is that it feels… normal."
"What feels normal?"
"It's hard to explain, but there's a… normal feeling when it's there."
I was getting more questions than answers. "When what's there?"
"Sometimes it's strong, and sometimes it's weak, but there's a normal feeling when it's there."
Wheels creaked and chains rattled. Outside, the wooden beams that spanned the water gave a loud crack as the chains pulled taut.
Ranía rushed across the bridge and stood barefoot in the grass with darkness encroaching on Jungle behind her. The wall of the Terbulin ridge glowed dim red beneath a dark blue canvas of awakening points of light, and the Wandering Star drifted lazily across the sky. And as the wooden span split and folded upwards, she called out, "We'll talk again!"
Rattling chains and creaky gears pulled the bridge upwards, and it folded itself against the stone archway of the gate, closing us in for the night. One of the recruits stepped beside me. "I thought we wasn't supposed to be out after dark?"
"That's a rule," I nodded.
"But she's out after dark."
"Yes, she is."
I looked around the deserted courtyard. "Where is everyone?"
"Back this way," the man said. "I'm Rolon of Kyfe, by the way."
"Kyfe…" That was a county in the North, in the central valley next to Heralia City. "Bear clan?"
"Yeah, man," he nodded effusively. "Born and raised. We not diamond-tree country, but I got eupin and I can shoot. My dad taught me to put meat on the table far back as I can remember. I can track good too. You need bowmen? I got you, man. Whatever you need."
"That'll be useful, thank you Rolon." He was on the shorter side of average with a slight build and the broad shoulders of a longbowman. He was Herali, but his hair had a light wave. He had a sharp nose, and yes, his ears did stick out a little.
He led me past the mud huts, past the moldy barracks, past the laundry where I first met Rock.
The last time I saw Rock alive, he was describing what he'd build on the grounds surrounding the Tower if there wasn't this war going on.
"So, I did shit pit for you tonight, OK?" Rolon spoke enthusiastically with his hands. "And tomorrow, you and me, we going to do it together, OK? And I know a lot of guys here, so I tell you all about em."
He led me to a back corner of the castle grounds where a loud ruckus filled the air along with glowing lights that echoed off the stone buildings from around the corner.
Conscripts, native women, Herali veterans, the men from the kitchen, and sekiwa had all gathered together in a circle to cheer and whistle as one. Rolon led to the back and tapped on a man's shoulder.
The crowd parted for us. Ta'o stood at the side of a stone circle and held his hand out to me with a big smile.
Blue squawked and plowed his way through the crowd towards me. He rubbed his face in my cheek, and I rubbed my fingers along his neck. He chirped, then led me to where Miyani sat on a small log near the center of it all.
Across from us, Iyemi sat behind Ta'o with her red-and-black striped lizard's neck draped over her lap. "Get on top of him, Ta'o!"
He laughed and turned to her. "pʊ vʌ yaxesedu!"
She wiggled her nose and winked at him with a big smile.
Across from him, a thick, burly man nearly half a foot taller paced his end of the stone circle. His back was to me, and his hair didn't fall past his neck, showing a tattoo of Orca in red and black across both shoulderblades. His body was thick with muscle, and he rolled his head around. He turned to me and Miyani, bowing low with a big smile.
"Get him, Dax!" another man called from the audience.
He pointed to him and smiled again.
Ta'o rolled his arms out and waved them forward and back as he studied his opponent. Behind him, Iyemi was taking bets and placing them each into one of two bags while a Na'uhui woman next to her wrote names down.
Sitting with Miyani, feeling her presence, just being next to her lit me on fire. She smiled up at me and bumped her shoulder into mine. I kissed her, and everything became clear. All there is, all there was, and all there ever shall be, was her. Never had I felt so sure of anything. It was her. It was just… her.
She looked at her shoulder where she'd bumped into me and wiped herself off before looking up at me with a wicked grin.
The fight began with the two men pacing the perimeter. Each went around the circle keeping their eyes on one another, slowly watching each other. And they watched. And they paced. Around and around they went, watching for the slightest hint of advance.
And then they kept pacing and watching, and then they kept keeping at it.
And… they kept at it.
"Come on!" came shouts from the crowd.
An old man from the kitchen echoed. "ba pimesu!"
A young Herali standing next to him echoed. "Yeah! ba pimesu him!"
Ta'o tried to shake off a smirk.
Dax stopped and stood up straight, facing Ta'o with laughter of his own, and reached out his right hand. "Right or left?"
Ta'o cocked his head and smiled, "let's go!" and took the man's right hand.
The man didn't wait. No sooner than he had Ta'o's right hand, he swung low with his left fist. Ta'o dodged that by weaving in and bringing his right hand low to swing him around. The big man let go and staggered off to one side, readying himself while Ta'o slammed a shoulder into his tree-trunk of a belly.
The big man didn't move. He wrapped his arms around Ta'o and tried to lift, but Ta'o jumped into his arms and dove through before the Orca could get hold of him. As Ta'o scrambled to his feet, the big man crouched low and tried to land a fist across his cheek. Ta'o dodged that one, but Dax gave him a solid right undercut to the gut as payment.
The crowd erupted in cheers.
I thought he'd be winded, but Ta'o turned right, twisted his whole body around and snuck in two jabs to the Orca's kidney.
Dax stretched his back and chuckled. "That'll hurt tomorrow!"
Ta'o grinned back and rubbed his stomach where he'd taken that punch.
Miyani leaned in close to me. "I tell you good recroot, OK? Then you need bath. This one," she pointed at two Herali men to our left standing next to several native women on one side. "He smart."
I couldn't tell which one she was pointing to. One was about my age, and the other was a few years older.
"He very smart. Over here, I don't like him."
She pointed out a Herali who sat at the front of the fight and leaned in close with desperation in his eyes.
Blue rested his haunch against my shoulder, and I stroked and massaged his neck in my lap as the fight progressed.
Ta'o ducked low and swept a leg around to try and take the Orca giant down. His foot smashed against the pole that was his leg, and Ta'o hopped back up, trying to rub the pain out of his foot.
The crowd erupted in cheers and jeers. "Come on, Dax!"
"Get him!"
The big man dominated the center of the stone circle while Ta'o shifted around him, dodging punches.
Except he didn't dodge that one.
"What can you tell me about that guy?"
"Dax," she nodded. "Yes. We are OK with him."
"We…?" He didn't dodge that one, either.
"'eʒuθoza."
"The Na'uhui are OK with him?" Or that one.
"ti, ŋa'uxuwi. Eh… he has a lot friend."
The two men in the ring locked shoulders and pushed against one another. Ta'o's muscles bulged sweat poured down his body. He was incredibly strong, but the much bigger man had physics on his side.
Ta'o's foot slipped. The big man forced his toes over the edge, and suddenly he dropped down. The giant with the Orca across his back tried to adjust, but Ta'o got underneath and pulled the man to roll over his back and out of the circle.
The crowd erupted in cheers. Iyemi started counting out coins, and Ta'o helped up his opponent.
Miyani leaned close to me and smiled. "You need bath!"
Yes, I did.