The Central Fire was so bright that it almost hurt the eye, and it heated the damp ground to the point that a layer of steam seemed to be lifting from it. The good thing was that it dried the earth and made traveling easier.
As they rode along, the wagon jostling her on a regular basis, she became a way that a rider had ridden up on the side nearest Gabe. It was the bosk singer in all of his glory. He had Gabe pull up for a moment, stepped over into the wagon box and urged the young man off telling him that walking was good for him. The kaiila, who she had found out was named Tone, ambled along beside them as he picked up the reins, clicked his tongue and urged the bosk into movement again.
They rode in silence for a time, then he asked how she was feeling. She told him big and pregnant, which caused him to laugh. Reaching a gloved hand over, it rested on her belly as he asked how the child fared. Again he was told that all was as it should be. Removing his hand, a curt nod was given and he asked about her family.
What did he want to know. Everything. Well, that was odd and it could take some time. She mentioned Trilok, who he had met, and was given another nod as he watched the backs of the bosk laboring along, and asked who else. Shifting, she tried to get comfortable and told him that her parents were gone, but she had five brothers, four elder and the youngest, Gabe, who he had just thrown off of her wagon. It was these brothers that the warrior seemed the most interested in. No, they were not of the first fires, none of them ever having a desire to do such. She told him of Ephrim and Hiram who were twins. He asked the oddest question, wishing to know which had been born first, and she told him Ephrim, by about three ihn, from what she had been told. She had then told him of Enos and Dorian, then of Gabe who walked just ahead of them, and how their mother had died giving birth to him during one of the migrations. He gave her a sidelong glance and it was not a question, but a statement of fact when he allow that this scared her. She had nodded, then used one of his own sayings........it was as the skies had deemed. Was that a smile?
They rode along in silence again for a time, and he asked her about her work, and how she had ended up working with the fanged beast. He was told of how her parents had at one time wished her to be a healer, and had sent her to the healer's fires to study, which seemed to surprise him, and he asked how she got from studying to be a healer to working with the animals. She had smiled, and asked him how he had chosen the way of the singer, to be told it was what not only had the skies gifted him with the voice and the ability, but that he also followed the path of his father. Laughing softly, she told him that the skies had given her the ability to work with the animals, and that she also followed the path of her father. Another glance was given to her, then he nodded satisfied.
He asked where her family's wagons were situated in the line, and she turned to look back and pointed to a group of gaily painted wagons, most of them with kaiila cavorting on the sides, telling him that they had drawn their wagons closer to her because of the impending birth. Again he had nodded, and commented that was what family was supposed to do. He whistled for Gabe, stopped the wagon, then moved across to settle onto the back of his kaiila. As Gabriel climbed up to take the reins again, he cautioned him to keep a close eye on her, to make sure she had something to eat, then to make sure she napped. Then without another word, he wheeled the kaiila around and rode back down the serpentine line of wagons.
Gabriel looked at her and asked, who in the name of skies that man was. She had laughed and answered him as simply as she could. He is Ba'atar, the bosk singer.
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