The Alternative

Cana pulled me aside. I stuffed a lot of my irritation down just to be able to talk to her without it spilling over. But she wished to talk about the very subject I was all over irritated with and that just brought it all back to the surface.

She wished to speak to me of Mayala. She wanted to tell me she had spoken to her .. was trying to work with her. So I proceeded to tell her exactly why I was doing what I was doing and that I saw no other option left to me.

When I had laid it out as I found it ... she agreed. There was very little else that I could do. I told her Mayala belonged to Saresh .. unless he for some unforeseen reason threw her back to me and then .. I would indeed collar her. There was no other way it was going to go. That was it.

Either she stepped up to her choices and performed as a free woman and kept her nose clean and made sure Saresh was damned happy with her ... or she would find herself knelt before me in a collar.

I know why that option bothered Cana. I would expect it to. It should bother a woman .. it should bother a free woman who cared for Mayala and wanted the best for her. Women do not naturally wish for each other to fall to the collar. I did say ... naturally.

And Cana is the most natural woman that I know. So I offered Cana something I rarely offer anyone .. the right and place to ask me to reserve my judgement. But given the chance that is not what Cana asked of me. Given the option to rein in the beast she merely asked a favor of me .. one that was so logical and understandable that I nearly fell in the face of it.

It was something I most likely would have done anyway. But I gave her my word that I would do it before any of the more dire consequences were enacted.

I am not sure what I would do without Cana. In the face of so much that makes no sense to me she is my friend .. and I find I can tell her almost anything without her getting defensive and caught up in what it might mean without stopping to see what it really does mean. I do not have many female friends that are not shadowed by their personal motives with me. Cana has none .. other than friendship. I am very thankful for her in my life.