World of Ranicke Bk. 02 Ch. 04

Sheeha always got some amusement value out of waiting for him to say 'pounce' before she got him. Once she had him down she gave his face a good tongue bath and kept purring. Once done she curled up on his chest and snuggled. Sheeha knew that it was going to confuse him big time but after last night he deserved it.

By this time Farion was back and Allie turned and pulled him into a hug. "Oh god I am not sure I can deal with this." Her voice was a whine but it was all she could do not to die laughing. Jim's expression was priceless and she had a feeling this wasn't normal for Sheeha.

Farion barely managed not to snicker. "Let's go and get something to eat and let the adults be adults." He wrapped an arm around her and led her out of the tent. Ana followed as well and once they were away all three started laughing.

Back in the tent Jim looked up at Sorrel and looked really confused. "I have no idea why she is acting this way." They lay there for a few minutes before she rolled off and wandered away. He looked at her as she was leaving and she looked quite content. "Darn cat is going to drive me to drinking and she doesn't even have a hot rod Lincoln."

That got a snort from Pam but left the others looking confused. Jim sat up and wiped his face off and grumbled. "Well I am hungry so why don't we go to the food tents. After that I will take you to the Artists Pam." She nodded when he spoke.

"Shall we?" He stood and grabbed his rain cloak and waited for the others to grab theirs. Out of habit he slung his axe and shifted it till comfortable. He offered his arm to Nasha and Sorrel before heading out to the food tent.

Eventually they finished eating and he had to smile since he was feeling content. Jim knew that the girls would be with the rest of the kids learning the daily chores. "Shall we Pam? Everyone else is busy at the moment meeting their respective peers."

Nasha leaned forward and gave him a good kiss and nuzzle. "I will see you later love. It is time for the babies to be fed." She leaned against him and inhaled his scent to help relax. She was still upset about his vanishing though she was doing better.

Jim wrapped his arms around her and lightly nuzzled her neck and nipped at her lips. Even though she was his second mate she was by far the most emotional. "I will see you later as well Nasha." He stroked her ears and held her tightly. "I know love, I know how worried you must have been but I am here now." He licked her muzzle and stroked her ears and hair for a while longer. "I think we will need to have a quiet meal this evening."

She nodded at his suggestion. "I would like that Yimmy. I was so scared that we would never see you again." Nasha had known she would be taken care of as well as her children but he was the center of her life.

Sheeha came out of nowhere and wrapped her arms around Nasha. "Come lets go and feed the babies and I will give your coat a good brushing. It will help you relax Nasha." She had long since realized that Nasha was very sensitive emotionally. She felt that was why Nasha was so good with the children.

Nasha looked up at the taller woman and gave her a shy smile. "Thank you Sheeha. That sounds lovely and thank you for the offer." The two of them slowly walked away from the others.

Jim rubbed his face and turned to one of the servers. "I need to talk to the manager for a few minutes please." The male nodded and hurried away.

A few minutes later an older male came up. "Good afternoon Yim and how may I help you?" He had served enough special meals over the years that Jim had been with them. He had a feeling that there was another special meal in the works.

"Afternoon Agnon and yes I am looking for a special meal. I would like a meal full of Nasha's favorites." He gave him a sad smile. "She is still very upset about my vanishing not that I blame her. Also please have a plate of nibbles for Sheeha and myself ready to be delivered this evening."

Agnon nodded. "I will personally make sure that both are taken care of." He patted Jim on the shoulder and left the table.

"Let's go Pam and introduce you." He stood up and straightened the rain cloak and axe before leading her off. "Please keep in mind all my artistic ability is totally music based and the one time I tried to draw a cat..." He sighed. "I was asked what sort of demon dog it was."

She snickered at him and then laughed. "Oh man that is funny. It is okay Jimmy we all have our talents." As they were walking along he was giving her little snippets of information on the camp. She had to admit that she was more than fascinated. He obviously wasn't in a hurry and was enjoying renewing their friendship and she was enjoying catching up.

Eventually they reached the artist's tent and he called out before walking in. This sort of tent or even caravan was considered public property. As long as you called out a greeting and stayed in the public areas you didn't have to be invited in. He smiled as Pam released his arm and started looking around. Hanging on the walls were samples of art with sigils of the maker as well as their rank.

She had been looking at one for several minutes when one of the senior artists came out of the caravan. "Good afternoon Jim how are you doing?" She was human and didn't have a problem with his name.

Jim smiled. "Afternoon Harmony and I am very pleased to be back home." He turned and shook his head. Pam was very close to one of the silk paintings and appeared to be checking out each and every stroke. "Pam would you come here please? I would like to introduce you to one of the senior artists."

She twitched a bit and stood up and moved over next to him. For some reason she was pleased to see what she assumed was a human. "Good afternoon and my name is Pam. Jim offered to show me to the artist's tent since I do paintings and illustrated stories in my world."

"Pam this is Harmony and Harmony this is a good friend of mine." Since she had already introduced herself he didn't bother. "She is a very good artist though she is used to working with a totally different medium than you use. I don't know how long she and the others might be here. I decided that not knowing I was going to introduce them around. While they are here it will give them something to do and share knowledge which is always good."

Harmony nodded and smiled. "Well Pam why don't we go and have a discussion on what you use to paint with. Jim has other things he probably needs to take care of. I would hate to keep such a busy man from his work. Besides he would probably go nuts listening to us discussing pigments and surfaces to paint on."

He rolled his eyes at her. "I think I am starting to feel like chopped liver again. I am an assistant chief and should be treated better." Jim stuck his nose in the air and walked out. "Just for that I am going to leave in a huff..." Jim didn't get to finish before Sheeha took him out again.

As she was lying on top of him she had a smirk on his face. "Chopped liver is good so why are you complaining?" Sheeha sat up and grinned at Pam. "Nasha is taking a nap so I thought I would find Yimmy and go with him when Dan meets the warrior master."

Pam was trying really hard not to laugh at Jim's expression as Sheeha tackled him but wasn't able to. She had to turn away and really tried to muffle the howls of amusement but couldn't. "Sheeha just try to return him to his mates in one piece. They might be upset if they had to wait for him to heal before they can pounce on him."

Harmony was trying to keep a straight face as well and turned away. "Now let's go and have a warm cup of tea and you can tell me about what you do." Once they had walked into the caravan the sounds of laughter quieted down.

~~~

Harmony was smiling as she walked inside with Pam. "Ah youth, keeps old people like me feeling young." She settled at a table and offered Pam some tea. "Well either that or we can look at them with a hint of amusement and wonder if we were ever that silly."

Pam snorted. "Knowing that the turns are different for you than us as well as the aging progress I don't know. I keep wondering if I am young or old or if I am here long enough what age my body might settle on." She still had to look at Jim and remind herself it was him. "In my world Jim would look what we would call early adult hood. Maybe 28 years old in our terms." She ran a hand through her auburn hair and sighed at the traces of white she had in it.

Harmony simply shrugged. "Age is different to all of us. Some mature early and others never really grow up. Jim is sort of both. He has grown into his responsibilities as a chief in training but has maintained his playfulness." She was fixing her tea as she was talking. "So anything in particular you would like to know about his time here?" There was a hint of a smile on her face.

Pam adjusted her tea to something close to her taste. Everything was just a bit off and she was going to have to relearn what was good. As she was doing that she contemplated the question and finally shook her head. "No but thank you I am sure Jim will tell us parts of his story as time passes. I think right now I at least am still in major shock at being here." She took a sip of the tea and decided it was decent.

Harmony nodded. "I understand completely. I will have to say that he definitely stood the tribe on its ear in the first few months he was here." She had to shake her head when she said that. "First his showing up, then taking three mates, and some of the orphans." She was smiling when she said that.

Pam snickered at her. "That describes Jim and most of the team he worked with. They always had a way of falling into a pit of muck and coming up with a cold beer." She couldn't help but smile a bit though it was a wistful smile. "I wish my husband was still alive. He would have been eating this up like it was going out of style. He was an author and wrote many stories while he was alive." It had been long enough she didn't hurt too much but still.

Harmony reached over and patted her hand. "Maybe this is his way of showing you what he saw in the world. His way of taking care of you even though he has passed on." That was sort of a depressing subject and she gently turned it away. "So what sort of art do you do and can you describe the media you used? Did you grind your own pigments?"

Pam appreciated the change of subject and her face seemed to light up. This was her life and joy they were going to be talking about. "I would have to say a bit of everything. I tend to look at the world and sketch an image or scene that speaks to me. I take that drawing home and depending on what I want to do I might use colored pencils, water colors, or oil based paints." As she was talking she was looking out an opening in the tent and was smiling.

"Sometimes it is portraits of people though I prefer what I call slice of life portraits. Those are images where someone is caught looking out a window, children playing, and all of life's emotions. Other times I will look at a mountain that is covered with fog and do some sort of fantasy picture." As far as the question of pigments she shook her head. "We had suppliers for that sort of thing. I would pick and choose what I wanted but it was pre-made."

They talked for a while longer and Pam agreed to come over the next day and start showing Harmony what she could do. In a way she was looking forward to it since she loved learning new styles. She also felt like she was going back to school and that was rather annoying. Pam understood that they were simply trying to judge where they would fit in but she was content with her position in life. She didn't need a number of people poking and prodding to see what rank she might be.

~~~

Jim glowered at Sheeha and narrowed his eyes. "We are going to have a talk later about the appropriate times to pounce on me." Just for good measure he leaned forward and licked her nose before rolling her off him. He helped her up once he was standing. It really didn't help that she was smiling at him as she snuggled close.

He sighed. "You are ruining my reputation Sheeha. Having three mates was bad enough but since you started becoming more expressive it is destroying me." To be honest he really didn't mind that much and she was fun to play with but he really didn't want it to become more than friends. Jim knew that she wanted a puma warrior as a mate and was doing his best to keep everything on the friendship level.

She simply leaned against him and gave him a contented purr. "Yes Yimmy we will talk about it later, probably right after I pounce on you." Sheeha didn't have any idea that Jim didn't know what he had done the night before. It was something she had never experienced before and it was really impacting on her.

He had to shake his head and settled for walking quietly to the tent. Inside he found Dan and Thomas and got a grin from both. "So Dan you ready to go and spar? I figured we could spar together at first to show them our style and go from there."

Thomas had to tilt his head as the two of them walked in. He could detect the change in her scent as well and had to grin. Jim had done something that had seriously excited her. Later he might ask Jim but not while Sheeha was around. "I know that I am looking forward to it. I was talking with Dan and we were discussing what he had trained you with." He stood up and waited for Dan to stand as well.

The four of them headed out of the tent and finally made it to the warrior's caravan. "Master Jaksos I have Dan here." Everyone knew why he was there so Jim didn't bother mentioning it was for testing. When Jaksos came out Jim gave him a nod. "I figured unless you decide otherwise I will start sparing with Dan first. This will give you an idea of how two from my world fight."

Jaksos considered the suggestion and then nodded. "Go and get two training swords and return." He settled in a finely carved chair and waved for Thomas to have a seat as well. It only took Jim and Dan a few minutes to come back out and Jaksos pointed at the training circle. It was in the rain which would make it far more interesting. The mud was slippery and footing was bad. It would really show their training.

Jim rolled his eyes. "Just for that you get to explain to my mates why I am muddy and getting mud all over the place." He pulled his axe and rain cloak off since he didn't want to get them damaged. He had grabbed a shorter sword than Dan had and a long knife.

The two of them walked out into the rain and after a bow of respect they went to work. "Let's start with the basics Jim and work our way up. Right now this will simply be blade work." Dan told him before they started.

Jim nodded and after the bow's they went to town. It was a muddy mucky mess to work in which was obvious. They slipped and slid around as they tried to get strikes in. By the time Jaksos called the current round the two of them were covered from mud from their feet to their faces. They were also panting since it was a very difficult work out trying to keep standing in the mud.

"Not bad at all though you definitely have a different style than we do. I would like to see some unarmed combat now please." Jaksos was sipping on a hot cup of tea as he was talking just to be annoying. It was a way of testing the potential new warriors though with these two it really wasn't needed.

Jim gave him a bow and handed his weapons to Thomas and waved Dan to as well. They entered the ring and essentially repeated the same process. This time though when they delivered a killing blow they would state that.

Jaksos finally called a halt to the sparing and nodded. "As I expected you are very good Dan and you have a goodly amount you can teach us. Unless you object I expect you here in the morning and you will start training. This will familiarize you with how we do things." He gave both of them a slightly evil grin. "You might want to get clean or your ladies might object."

Jim shook his fist at him. "This is your fault and I am going to place all the blame on you." What hadn't gotten muddy or soaked in the sword fighting had been taken care of with the hand to hand.

Thomas grinned at the two of them. "Since you are already wet you might as well just walk back to your tents and get some clean cloths. I will meet you at the hot springs. There is a small one that I can kick everyone out of so you can relax for a few."

Both glowered at him but took the rain capes and their weapons and headed their separate ways. Once Jim reached the caravan he called out. "Could someone bring me a clean change of clothes in a bag?"

Nora walked out and stared at him and then snickered. "I won't ask how many times you fell down to get that dirty." Several of the kids came out and looked as Nora was speaking and had to go back to their tent to snicker.

Jim sighed. "At least they didn't laugh in my face." He grumbled as he waited for Nora to come back with cloths and a bucket. "Thanks I appreciate it." Jim yawned a bit and then gave her a warm smile. "How about a good kiss before I go?"

She yipped at him in Kitsune which made him laugh. "I love you to Nora. Back eventually. Oh, I am having food delivered for a quiet meal with Nasha. If none of you mind I am going to relax with her in the adults tent." He gave her a warm smile. "Tomorrow I figure I will do the same with Sorrel and our little girl. You and Tonya will be the next night. I want some time with each of my mates." For a brief moment his fear showed in his eyes, the fear that he might not have gotten home.

Her face softened and gave him a comforting croon. "That sounds lovely Yimmy and I will talk to Sorrel for you and schedule it. I was scared myself and almost cried my eyes out when you vanished and then again when you were brought back." Nora decided it was a good idea he had about the having a quiet meal with each family. "I will also schedule you for a meal with Alon and Sheeha as well. Love you Yimmy now go get clean."

He gave her a warm look and blew a kiss at her. "Back soon love. I am going to soak though or Sheeha is going to have a mass of knots to work out. With my luck I would fall asleep and annoy her." That had happened once and she had been very grouchy for the next day or so.

The three of them met up at the hot springs. Jim stripped down and looked at his dirty cloths. "I almost feel sorry for whoever has to clean this mess up. I might find out who it is and send them a bracelet." The three of them scrubbed down in the cool tub and made sure all the mud was off before they moved over to the hot springs.

Jim lowered himself in to the warm water and sighed. "Oh man that feels good." He was facing the entrance to the bathing area. "For the moment I feel safe from the pouncing and can relax." Jim leaned his head back and rested it on the edge of the springs.

Dan laughed. "You seriously have the oddest family I have ever come across. It doesn't even have anything to do with you having three mates of which none are human or the dozen or so kids. How you manage to stay sane I am not sure. I thought it was bad with two girls hitting puberty but you?"

Thomas snickered at Dan's comment. "I really want to know his secret since I would love to have a couple of cuties like he has hanging off my arms." He had to needle Jim a bit even now. "Ah well I have a lovely kitsune lady I am seeing and she has some lovely tails."

Jim had to smile since he knew the lady and she kept Thomas on his toes. "She is good for you though you do realize she is going to let you chase her till she catches you. I have seen it before and there is a glint in her eyes when she looks at you." He glanced at Dan as well. "You have a lovely mate as well Dan. Nang is a hell of a woman and you got lucky catching her."