What Tribe Really Means

I got a gift from Jaella today. The saddle blanket that she had started with Mayala and finished despite Mayala leaving the Tribe. It was a patchwork of pieces brought together to form a great vista of the Tuchuk people. It was an impressive bit of leather work and I was honored that she gave it to me. I told her it was so going to get dirty .. she said leather can be cleaned. I asked her if she would show T'z-boots how .. and she got this look in her eye. She said she would be willing to do so and even had some things she figured that the slave could do for her. Well that look in her eyes had me take a few steps back and wonder what it meant .. I am not sure I will be sending my boots to her. At least not until I know what that look means. Lately I have had to retrain a couple of the slaves after people make their preferences sound like all encompassing laws. I have no desire to go through that any more than I absolutely have to. And considering how often the men of the First Fires offer their personal slaves for service? I do not feel I have any need to do so.

I asked Jaella to make me a vest .. I can count the clothes I have on two sets of fingers. It would be something out of the ordinary to have a new one .. I liked the idea.

We continued to speak though .. of Tribe and what it means. How many different people come together with different ideas and how it all melts into one big people and one bigger understanding. I think this is true for the most part .. in theory it is the way of the Tuchuk. As with all theories it has flaws here and there but I honestly believe in it. I keep trying for that .. even when I get angry and frustrated with people who do not.

There are times when I bow my head and hunch my shoulders and ask for it to be taken from me. This great responsibility. To let it go to someone else. But those moments do not last .. I gain some bit of energy .. some spark of something from someone ... like Jaella ... that remind me why I do it. Why I am who and what I am and that I can take another step ... and another .... and another.

To those people during those times .. I am very thankful.