Helping Hands

True to her word, the girls kasra and juneau were sent to grease the axels of the bosk singers wagons. When they arrived they were met by Birrmah, who seemed surprised to see them. It was juneau that took over as the voice for the pair, and she explained to the woman that they had been sent by Mistress Cana to grease all the axels, and to help out where they were needed, if the Mistress allowed.

The woman seemed a bit puzzled by this, but waved them off to do what they were sent to do. She continued to work around Ba'atar's wagons, her mind on all that she still had to do, not only here, but at her own wagons. The move was upon her before she was really ready, but she would get it all done somehow, she always did.

Time passed, and juneau stuck her head between the flaps of the wagon she was in. "Mistress, we have finished greasing all the axels, can we help you with other things?" Birrmah eyed the girl, assessing her. "I don't have time for chittering slaves, I have too much to do." The girls eyes widen. "Mistress, I don't know nothin' about no chitterin', mostly we just work and do what we are told." The woman's eyes narrowed slightly. "Chittering is that idle gossip that slaves seem to fall into. I don't abide it, that is one reasons I have no slaves." The girls head bobs. "No gossiping Mistress, we will be quiet as urts, all you have to do is tell us what you want done." If the truth was known, kasra did not talk much to anyone, so they were accustomed to working side by side, quietly.

Birrmah was not entirely convinced, but pointed to the baskets of laundry. "Well, you can start by carrying those to the stream. We need to do the laundry, drag all the furs and rugs out of the wagons, give them a good beating, the floors all have to be scrubbed, then we can start packing for him." Again that head bobbed as juneau moved to stack one basket of laundry on top of the other, so she could carry them both. "Mistress, if you do not mind me saying so, kasra is a fur beatin' fool. I think she gets some sorta joy outta beating furs with a stick." Quickly she moved from the wagon with the baskets of laundry, and started off towards the stream.

Birrmah stepped out onto the platform, and saw that the other girl was already gathering up the furs that rested by the fire. Some were hung on the wagon tongues, ready to be beaten. Well, this might not be so bad after all. Turning, she gathered all the sleeping furs and began to toss them out onto the platform, then these were followed by the rugs that covered his flooring. One thing about it, if she kept them separated, she wouldn't have to listen to their constant talking. She proceeded to each wagon, seeing of there were any other furs or rugs that needed freshening up a bit. A few were found and she moved them to add to the growing pile. She studied kasra for a few moments, seeing how quickly she was working. "Girl, here are the other ones. I want all of them beaten thoroughly, and hung to air, do you understand?" The girl nodded and spoke softly. "Yes Mistress" The woman's brow arched, she had been expecting this one to offer more conversation on the subject like the other one, but it did not come.

Shrugging, she moved off down the path to the stream, and found that juneau was already sorting laundry into little piles. She found she had to do little as far as instruction went, the girl seemed to know what she was doing. "Where did you learn to do laundry, girl?" The muscles in the girls arms flexed as she beat a tunic on the rock. ""My mistress taught me, Mistress." Well, that sounded promising, in a way. "So, she taught you, and now you do all of her laundry." The shoulders shrug as she twists the water out of another garment. "I help with it Mistress, as does kasra, but Mistress Cana does part of it too. And she wanted us to know how, because she sends us to help others with their laundry." Birrmah huffs a bit at this. "Others that are too lazy to do their own work?"

The girl looks up at her. "Not exactly Mistress. There is the one elder man that has lost his mate, and has no family. He has that thing in his hands that make them look like this. " She holds her hands up to emulate the twisted joints of arthritis. "He can't really do his, so we help him with his laundry, and we clean his wagon each hand." Shrugs. " In a way, it sorta makes you feel good, and he tells good stories. Then there is the old pot maker, who is now blind, Mistress sends us to do her laundry too, and we clean a little. Not too much, because we don't want to move things around, so that the older Mistress can't find them." The tunic goes into the basket of other clean ones, to be hung out later, and she begins on another.

The woman was knelt beside her, brushing some leathers, taking this all in. "So, what else do you do for her, other than laundry? Do you clean and cook, those type things?" The girl was twisting the water out of another garment. "Yes Mistress, we do help with those things too." Birrmah nods, she thought as much. Then the girl continues. "We all work together. If there is meat to be dried, my Mistress is right there with us, slicing it up, hanging it on the racks. If we are scraping hides, she does that too. We help her with the cooking, but she is a much better cook than me or kasra.

And she makes sure that the little Master is fed good meals. And we take food to other folks too." The woman was pleasantly surprised to see how well and how quickly the girl was working. "Other folks? What kind of other folks?" The girl dries her hands off and reaches for a pair of leathers and begins to brush them. "Mostly older ones. Like this is this one old woman, that has no teeth to chew with. Mistress makes sure that everyday we cook a little meat to take too her. Mostly kasra does that. She cuts it up into these little bitty pieces, then cooks it in a pot real slow, so that when it is done it is extra tender so that the old Mistress can eat it. Then when Master Rook or Master Kam bring by meat, she divides it up and has us take it to people that have no one to hunt for them, like Mistress Leaya."

She was certainly learning more about Cana today, than she had thought she would. "And who is this Mistress Leaya?" The slave gives a side-long glance to the woman. For a woman that said she hated gossip, she sure was asking a lot of questions. "Well, the way I understand it. Mistress Leaya was mated to the brother of Master Tayco. His was my mistresses first mate. Her mate, Master Tayco's brother, was killed when the Ubar Trajen was killed. After that, Master Tayco started taking care of her and her children. After Master Tayco was killed, my Mistress kept on taking care of them. We take them meat, kasra and me go and help her get ready for the move, and Mistress trades and barters around for clothes for the boys. They are growing fast, you know how kids are. I asked my Mistress one day, why she kept doing it, and she said it was her duty. Not real sure I understand that, but it is just what she does."

Birrmah was surprised to look around, to see that the laundry was all done. She stands to pick up one of the baskets, but the girl was too quick for her, telling her that she could carry them. "So, she says it is her duty. Interesting." The muscles in the girls arm bulge as she carries both baskets of wet clothes. " I guess so Mistress. The way she told us, is that by being in the circle of the first wagons, she had a duty to make sure that those of the outer wagons, that could not do for themselves, had what they need. I guess all those folks at the first wagons do those kind of things, from what I have seen. The men hunt, the women find out the other things that are needed, and they take care of them."

As they walked along, Birrmah pondered all of these things. "I see. Sounds like your Mistress likes to stay busy."
The girl laughs. "Mistress, that woman ain't ever still much, unless she is sleeping. Along with all this other stuff, she also spends ahn upon ahn every day at the kaiila pens, working with those blasted animals." Her head shakes. "You should go watch her someday Mistress. I swear, she talks to them. She just has this way with them, that is fun to watch. I think that is about the only thing about being pregnant that gets to her just a little. She can't train them like she normally does. But I will guarantee you this, after that baby is born, she will be back out there doing her work, even if it means doing it with the baby hanging off her back in a cradleboard. She is just that way."

As they approach the wagons, the woman is almost shocked to see the rows of furs hanging from the tongues, each one free of dust, and left to air. The other girl had been very busy in their absence. She had even rushed to meet them, taking one of the baskets from juneau, speaking softly. "I will help you hang these to dry, sister." Birrmah had no idea where Cana had come up with these girls, but if she were half as good at judging kaiila flesh as she was at choosing slaves, then she was a smart woman.

Watching the girls hang the clothes, she only has to make a few adjustments, and to be very honest, they were minor things. Standing beside juneau, she asks her another question. "So, you are happy being the slave of a woman, instead of a man." This to her was just an odd thing. Now, kasra's head nodded vigorously, and if she were the type to talk, she would have probably told the woman that she actually feared most men, but she said nothing.

Now juneau, she was a bit different. "Happy Mistress? I can't think of a time when I have ever been happier. She works us hard, but she works right there along with us. She feeds us, we have a nice warm place to sleep with warm blankets. She never beats us, nothin' like that. Once in awhile, she might scold a little, but heck, that's okay too." The woman watches her. "But you would rather serve a man, right?" One of the reasons that she did not have slaves around her wagons, is that she wanted to keep the sluts away from Aamon and her sons. The girl lifts her head, but she does not look into the woman's eyes. "Mistress, if you mean do I like men? Surely I do. And Mistress Cana understand that, and from time to time, she will send me to the wagons of someone that she knows, as a gift, and I will spend the night. Why heck! Last night, she sent me to the bath wagons to warm the water and help your own son take his bath. And she told me to stay with him until he told me I could leave." Shrugs. "So it works out. And sometimes I sleep in Master Rook's wagons. But for the most part, I am truly happy being where I am, and I try real hard not to mess it up."

Birrmah's eyes narrow slightly. "You are telling me that you gave my son Ba'atar a bath?" Well, bosk bells, was she in trouble? The girl looks at the ground. "Yes Mistress I did. I heated the waters, helped him wash his hair, washed his back for him, all that." She then looks up, hoping to redeem herself with this woman. "And that was all! Now Mistress, I won't lie to you and tell you that I would not have come to these wagons with him, and stayed until the sky was light. But he just didn't seem interested in that last night. That Master seemed to be doing some heavy thinking, so after I dried him off, he just kissed me, then told me to go find my furs. I was disappointed, but that is just how it was."

Birrmah pondered on this for a time. "I see." She looks around, actually pleased at how much had been accomplished. "I am going to send you back to your Mistress for now, because I need to go fix a meal for my men. But, later, if she will allow it, come back and I will show you how to fold the laundry when it is dry, and we will sweep out the wagons and put the rugs and furs back down. Then we will start packing."

The girl looked up, with an almost charming grin on her face. "Yes Mistress, we will come back later in the afternoon." She grabs kasra's hand, and pulls her along with her as they run back to the wagons of the kaiila Mistress. When they are out of earshot, juneau leans to whisper. "You ain't gonna believe all the questions that woman asked me."