A Place To Bloom

As Your Captain

Borel had a big chin.

It was wide. More than wide, it was just big. And meaty. And he held it up high, so that even though we were the same height, he still looked down his nose at me.

Tobi from Kylen's unit came to see me, along with one of the guys from the Wolf-clan captain's unit. He didn't wear any ink, but his bow had etchings from Bear's Song. "Borel's looking for you."

They led me to a small shed beside the mill. Around the corner, I heard sounds like slapping flesh. He'd had that same lithe young woman who'd sat on his lap bent over a wooden railing as he fucked her quite vigorously from behind. When he saw us, he pulled away from her and laughed. "Oh, shit!"

She looked up into his face and scolded, "why stop?"

Borel chuckled and kissed her lips. "Business, love. Gods, you're a nice one!" And he slapped her bum as she walked off.

She pointed a finger at him, "finish later!" and disappeared.

Borel turned to me, "gods, I love this place!"

I laughed lightly at that. "I can see that!"

He popped his eyebrows and elbowed up close to me. "Heard you was in the spire the other night."

I blushed. "I've heard those rumors."

"Right," he chewed his meaty chin and ran his fingers through the braids of his hair down to the ends where some of the braids had begun to come loose. "About that."

Borel glanced between Tobi and the Bear clan guy, then continued. "As your captain, I need to make sure all of my men are on the up-and-up."

That gave me pause. "Not sure what you..."

"Your girlfriend used to be an enemy scout. Recently, I'm told. Apparently she switched right before we got here."

Tobi added, "she used to hunt the road down from the pass. It got so bad, we nearly lost everything. Ahmi had to deal with her personally."

I shrugged. "And now she's on our side."

Borel bent over to a nearby trough and shoved a goat out of the way. He dipped his hands in the water and splashed it on his face, wiping himself clean. "And you just accept that without question."

"Ahmi told me..."

He leaned in and grinned, "I think we all know why you trust her."

Tobi edged a word in. "Today, she took us out and led us over to a ledge on top of a waterfall, tells us to wait there. She goes off and has some hour-long conversation with an enemy scout. Like what the hell was that about?"

I shrugged. "They all know each other. Maybe they were talking smack, maybe they were trading cheese recipes. Did you ask her?"

Tobi reeled from that, then the Bear guy added, "Yumi said she used to be a true believer. Despised our kind. She didn't come to Carthia out of some love for the place."

"Yeah," I nodded. "Anywhere else they'd have killed her and her people. She literally had no choice."

"You know," Borel slapped his fingers around my arm like a vice, "you're only confirming my suspicions."

I pulled my arm away. "I think grass growing would confirm your suspicions."

He huffed.

"Wait," I said. "You're still upset about being called a fly on shit, aren't you? Is that what this is about?"

Borel chewed his chin for a moment. "I've been called much worse by far prettier girls.

Then he poked a finger into my chest hard. "I'm keeping an eye on your girl."