Signed .. Sealed ... Delivered

I was making my way down to the stream. The thoughts in my head were scattered and far away from anything I should have been concentrating on. That seems to be a reoccurring theme with me. The energy to contemplate being completely wasted on things that did me absolutely no good at all.

I like to think of myself as a relatively patient man. I put up with a lot of things from people .. over and over. There are men and women at the First Fires I do not even like and yet I tolerate them rather well. I do not form a prejudice against them nor keep them from succeeding because of my personal opinions of them. I allow many low levels of insults to pass by without targeting them for destruction. I think .. yes ... I am a very patient man.

However .. there is a limit to that patience. This great well of maturity does have a bottom and it can be reached. Sometimes much faster than people foresee. Sometimes much faster than even I can foresee.

Today was one of those days. Perhaps my levels of patience were all ready dipped into. But if there is one thing I have a rather large issue with it is people being careless with what belongs to me. Like my name .. my honor .. my word .. my position ... my burdens to the Tribe.

I do not know Mayala well. She has not entered my personal space much either in conversation or in time. But the scene I came upon that morning caused a direct and instantaneous desire to enter her personal space in a hands on kind of way. But being that patient man I sat down and told Mayala it was probably time she and I had a good talk.

She told me some things I was concerned about. Concerned to the point of asking her why she had not spoken of these things to me previously. She said it was not the kind of thing one spoke of to their guardian. My response was swift and solid. Her guardian was the ONLY one safe enough for her to speak of these things to and certainly speaking to the slaves of it was the WORST idea she could have chosen.

As we spoke she let something slip ... something she had done the night before. Sky preserve us both ... she should have kept her blooming bloody mouth shut. But .. she did not. Then she proceeded to dry up my patience with avoiding the answer to my question of whom. It was important .. this whom. I had visions of explaining this to Saresh and I was one hot motherfucking Tuchuk about it. I discovered that Mayala is a passive aggressive shitass. This too contributed to my loss of patience and I finally grabbed her by a wealth of her braids and drove her to her knees before me demanding an answer. Mayala does not in her entirety wish to be a slave ... for she answered me.

She told me .. it was ... Saresh.

I lost it .. no not my patience ... my amusement bubbled up and I could not stop laughing. Saresh? It was Saresh? The relief was felt through every funny bone I have. That pissed her off. I did not care.

I told her this was easy enough to fix. I would simply not take the bride price for something that was no longer ... tradable. She screamed at me that nothing had been lost. I disagreed for it had very little to do with a piece of skin. I was not going to stick my finger in there and find out if she were still a virgin. But none of it mattered to me at this point .. and though I was displeased with them both for cheating the Tribe out of the bride price ... taking something that did not belong to either one of them ... it would not be the first time two people got the wagon before the bosk and things would work out fine considering it was indeed Saresh she had compromised herself with.

She screamed at me some more .. said she was not worthless. I said .. not to Saresh. I thought she would try to claw my eyes out of my head .. which only made me laugh more. I knew only relief at this moment. But she was furious .. incited beyond sane for the idea that I would take no bride price for her. I will not begrudge a woman this materialistic view. For am I not as protective of my name and scars that speak of my worth and honor as a man? A woman strives to earn her worth as a good Tuchuk woman by learning the skills and ways that she may enrich and teach. By keeping her reputation as a free woman as clean as possible. I understand that a bride price is set according to this woman's success in doing just these things. But I had not caused Mayala and Saresh to be irresponsible with other's property. I was not all bent out of shape about it .. but there was a direct natural consequence to their actions. And the negated bride price was it.

I told Mayala she could consider herself .. signed ... sealed .... and delivered.