Spoils

"You"

"ME?" I stepped back through the doorway to feel the Central Fire once more upon my shoulders. "What do you mean .. me?"

"You." She simply said again. As she slid off the little bed in the corner and started to trot across the floor with click clacks from tiny boots.

"No!" I almost yelled as I dared the doorway again this time to catch her and keep her from going outside. "You can not go out there."

"I'm not afraid of you." Those big green eyes drilled holes right through my heart.

"You aught to be .. I am Tuchuk. I am the Ubar of the Tuchuk." It never sounded quite as hollow before. What was wrong with me? Was it the walls?

"I've been spanked before." Defiant lift of delicate chin.

"Not by me." Threatening low tone.

She seemed to digest that for a moment. "I'm hungry."

I opened my mouth to rejoin the argument .. but what does a man say to that?

Good Sky if she were any older I would be hearing the clank of the shackle as the ball and chain became permanently attacked to my ankle.

I loosed my wind scarf and tied it around her eyes .. picking her up to my shoulder I carried her through the yard of .. what I guessed ... was the remains of her family. The scene puzzled me. Not because of the blood or carnage .. I had seen enough of such to dull my sensitivity. No .. what got to me was that it did not belong. There was a mystery here. A mystery that would be shrouded and covered up by the fact that the Tuchuk had been here. Not that we would have hesitated to kill ourselves .. but getting credit for something we did not do left a sour taste in my mouth.

I put her up on the saddle and swung up behind her. She wore a pretty white dress with ruffles and pink ribbons and she wore white stockings and tiny boots with buttons on them. I was completely fascinated. Little porcelain fingers gripped her doll and the pommel. Her hair smelled like flowers and it was piled up on her head and allowed to fall down in haphazard ringlets. As she settled back against me I could feel her heartbeat. So the little thing was not as undisturbed by it all as I thought. Her heart hammered inside that small ribcage. A slight smirk curled my lip. Who knew a little dweller girl child could put on a brave front like that. It would be days before it dawned on me that she was not dressed like any village child I had ever seen. One more thing that did not belong in the picture.

Now .. what was I going to do with her? My heart still wore the scars and bled for Ani .. there was no way I was setting myself up for that kind of pain again. Of course .. as soon as she opened her mouth this little girl had divorced herself from any other comparison to my quiet Ani. But there was enough there I was not going to leave her to die of starvation or worse. Then I remembered the dweller man ... now there was an idea ... if he was still alive.

We rode away from the yard and when we were safely at a distance I removed her blindfold. Her voice had gotten a lot quieter and a lot smaller. "I want to stay with you."

"You can not .. I am a Tuchuk and you have yellow hair and green eyes."

"You stink."

"And you .. do not."

She thought for a time .. little knuckles white in their grip on the pommel .. eyes strait ahead without looking down on the kaiila. "I can be dirty."

I smirked. "It is more than that. Why are you not afraid of me?"

"Cuz.." small clearing of her through and a jut of her chin. "Because I saw bad and you aren't bad."

"I can be."

A much smaller little voice .. almost a whisper. "Not like that."

So she had seen a thing or two. I was sorry for that .. no child deserves to see that especially a little girl. I started to tell her .. I had done worse ... but the words would not leave my tongue. It felt nice to be the good guy for a change. Made me sit taller in the saddle. Fuck .. was I hooked. Precocious little shit.