Chapter 285
Kein bounded back to us with a dead animal slung over his shoulder. We would eat it the way they enjoyed it tonight, roasted on a spit over the open flame. I watched curiously as my men prepared the carcass and set up the fire.
“I only camped outside a couple of times when I was younger,” I told them as the fire started to gain momentum.
I remembered staying at a camp ground a couple of times with relatives. We’d stayed in a trailer, so we didn’t even really stay outside. We brought canned food and cooked it over the electric stove inside. There were bugs outside, so we sat inside and watched television. It was really like staying at home, only more cramped.
My men experienced my memories with me and grunted in amusement. The idea of a traveling lodging was funny to them. They’d never seen anything like that. The rest of it was just weird Earth culture. Sitting and talking around the fire was so much more enjoyable than what I described.
“This is much better,” Christof said coming to sit beside me.
I grinned at him and pushed at his shoulder with my own. Christof grinned and pushed back, bumping me against Bane. The physical contact was always reassuring. No matter what we were doing, we preferred to be together.
“You’re missing the stars,” Bane Laughed pointing up.
He was right the sky was slowly darkening and the first glimmers were appearing in the night sky. Leaning back I watched as the first of the three moons rose. Material © of NôvelDrama.Org.
“We won’t see the ringed moon start it’s journey into the night sky Evan told me. “It happens beyond that mountain over there. It will appear in the sky above that ridge after a third of the night has passed,”
From their minds and memories I had a sudden knowledge of the moons. My men timed the night sky by them. When they kept watch, they used the progress of the different moons to know how Late it was. It was the setting of the ringed moon that woke Evan up every morning. They were so in tune with them, they felt them even when they couldn’t see them.
I thought about the moon on earth, it hadn’t been nearly as predictable. The sun was useful and we timed our days off of that.
“Weird,” Kein commented wrinkling his nose.
The meat was cooked and we ate heartily. They told me about the patterns they watched in the speckled blackness. Evan knew it better than anyone and his mind guided mine. I watched with fascination as the night sky unfurled before me.
Eventually, we ended up on our backs. My men set up their sleeping pallets so our heads were all together in a circle. I watched as they pointed out all the interesting things they knew about the glittering blackness.
The way the stars looked and the way they moved in the sky was predictable to my men. They told me all about it. Evan had spent hours learning the sky.
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“I wonder,” he said, “where my breeder came from, the slave many generations back?” he whispered.
We all wondered and none of us knew. I wondered what had happened to her.
“Why do you think she tasted things?” he asked.
“What was the purpose of my gift where she was from?”
Evan’s mind was full of questions. He couldn’t imagine a world where they were all Like him.
“You sound Like Ciara,” Bane teased Lightly, but he didn’t mind.
The questions were valid and they all wished they knew more about their Brother.
I lay quietly watching the sky. Bane had stretched out on one side and Christof on the other. After a Long while, I drifted to sleep. Vaguely, I was aware as the blankets were pulled over me and I was snuggly wrapped.
When we slept outside like this someone always kept a watch. They each took a turn during the night. Through the eyes of my men as they protected their family, I saw every subtle change in the shimmering stars and changing moons. It was like I watched the sky all night.