Brian's Adventures Ch. 07

"I'm sorry." I said with a sad sigh and paused; once again I felt like a fish out of water. "Where I come from women don't work much outside the home. There are so many new and different things here." I said in an apologetic tone and paused for a moment to collect my thoughts. "I was only trying to understand this place that I find myself in. After all I can't go home ever again. Tania is now my home for better or worse, and there is so much I don't understand." I finished and we both fell quiet, not looking at each other for a moment. The only sound that was heard was the chopping of vegetables for a long moment.

"It's alright." Urealla said calmly after a moment. "I didn't think of how this would effect you. Of how Tania might seem to an Outsider." Urealla said understandingly as she put her hand on my shoulder. "Everything must seem so odd to you, mustn't it?" She asked with a curiously understanding look about her. "Its so easy to forget that you come from a distant place, given that you speak Tanian so well and all." Urealla finished with a curious look of wonder on her face.

"Well, actually we both are speaking English, the language of England where I came from. The land that I come from is also the place that Augustus and his band left from about six hundred years ago, as best I can recon." I said with pride for quoting the correct history of her people.

"I don't know about that. The homeland that Augustus left was destroyed soon after he left. We have been fortunate that those destroyers have not found our little island as yet. As for us speaking the same language, perhaps some others of the homeland also fled before the destroyers came. Perhaps they settled in the area that you hail from." Urealla said with uneasy and shaky confidence. I knew better than to press it any further, clearly she believed what she was saying and there was no need to shatter that belief yet.

"Perhaps, but I'm just glad to be able to have a nice chat with a friendly lady as nice as yourself." I said with a warm smile. "Tell me more about Tania won't you?" I asked nicely.

"Only if you tell me about where you come from, . . . England is it?" Urealla asked inquisitively.

"That sounds like a fair trade to me." I replied with a smile.

We ended up chatting away the rest of the day, I even picked up a few cooking tips along the way. I found out a great deal about Tanian life and the culture of these people. I told her as much as I could about English life, and in truth there was not that much difference between the two lands. The obvious differences centred around women and marriage. I started to understand the people of Tania, and everything did not seem that odd and bizarre to me anymore. I was starting to see things from their point of view and everything made an odd kind of sense.

Late in the afternoon I got an odd visitor, someone that I hadn't seen in quite a while. After hearing a knock on the door I got up and answered the door because Urealla's hands were busy. Standing there in a long conservative grey dress was Shelea, the healer's assistant. She was the first person that I had seen when I awoke in Tania. I had not seen her in some time and it was nice to see her again. She stood there looking quite nervous and looked over her shoulder expecting someone to be there.

"Shelea!" I cried out in pleasant surprise as I threw my arms around the small woman and hugged her tight. "Its so good to see you, my dear! What brings you here?" I asked as I looked into the happy yet confused face of Shelea.

"I . . . I . . . I had to see if you were alright after what happened yesterday." She said with a sad tone in her voice and a hurt look on her face.

"C'mon in luv, it'll be alright, I promise." I said as I guided her inside with one arm around her waist.

"You should be in bed resting, after the whipping you received." Shelea said as she guided me to the table to sit down.

"We've got a visitor I see." Urealla said with a bright smile to me. "Hello my dear, what brings you round today?" She said to Shelea as we sat down at the table.

"I'm the healer's assistant and I wanted to check on Brian." Shelea said with a nervous smile as she sat there at the table with her arm around me.

"She was the first person I saw after my time drifting at sea." I said with a smile and a squeeze of Shelea. "When I saw her face, I honestly thought I was dead and in heaven already." I laughed and Urealla laughed with me but Shelea blushed and remained silent.

"I took care of him from the time he arrived to the time he woke up, about two weeks." Shelea said with a shy, bashful smile. "There were a few times when I thought he wouldn't make it." Shelea said with a downcast look and a painful look of remembrance.

"But I did, thanks to you." I said with a cheerful smile and shaking her shoulder until I got a smile and chuckle out of her.

"I thought you'd be still in bed with the whipping you received. Let me have a look at the wound." Shelea said as she turned to me and started to lift my shirt.

"That's alright dear, Felleona is taking good care of me. No need to trouble yourself. " I nervously chuckled as I brushed her hands away from my shirt.

"But I'm a healer, I should take a look at it to see if it is healing properly." Shelea finished and looked me in the eye with a confused and hurt look.

"I appreciate your concern luv, truly I do but it isn't necessary." I said in my most reassuring tone as I held her by the shoulders and looked in her eyes.

"I'm not supposed to be here, and it took a bit of doing to find out where you were. All I want is to make sure that you're okay." Shelea said with a hurt tone as she walked a few steps away from the table and stood there, facing away from me.

"I'm fine, really I am. I'm glad to see you, but I don't want to reopen the wound by removing the bandage every five minutes." I said nervously. Urealla motioned me to lean in closer to her and I did.

"It's not my business, but she is a healer, why won't you let her look at it, are you that shy or something?" Urealla asked in a whisper.

"No, I have my reasons." I replied in an equally quiet whisper.

"Well, suit yourself but I don't think this one will let your secret out. After all, she had to sneak around to get here." Urealla said plainly. "She doesn't strike me as a spy either. Too smitten to knowingly do you any harm." She finished.

"I really can't show anyone, I have good reasons to keep it under wraps." I finished with a concerned look.

"I know this type and the young thing will worry herself silly if she doesn't know you're alright." Urealla finished with a nod indicating Shelea. "Probably just poke around some more until she gets a satisfactory answer anyways." Urealla finished and I paused to look over at Shelea for a moment.

"Listen Shelea, the bandage was changed this morning and Felleona said it looked better. I just don't see the sense of opening it up any more than I need to." I said firmly as I stood waiting for her to face me.

"I don't understand." Shelea said as she turned to face me. "I had to do a great deal just to find you." Shelea said indignantly while shaking her finger at me. "All I want is to check the wound to see that it is healing properly." She said with a perplexed look. "If you need my silence for some reason, then you shall have it. Please Brian, I must know that you're alright." Shelea said as she took a step closer to me with an imploring look.

"But I am fine, as you can see." I said taking a few steps closer to her. "It's nothing personal Shelea." I said as I put my hand on her shoulder, her teary eyes almost broke my heart. "I just don't want to expose the wound any more than I absolutely have to." I said with a reassuringly warm smile. "I'm glad to see you and would dearly love to hear what you've been up since last we met." I said as I held her head in my hands. "I appreciate all that you've been through and I'm glad you're here." I said with my best charming smile and kissed her forehead and she broke into a smile.

"Fine." Shelea said with a frustrated sigh. "If that's the way you want it, so be it." Shelea said with a slightly perturbed tone. "But you swear that you send for me the minute anything looks amiss!" Shelea warned with a shaking finger.

"I promise luv." I said as I walked her over to the table and once more we sat down.

There was an uneasy tension that soon melted as we chatted and caught up with each other. In truth it was the first time we had a chance to talk as friends like this. I found out that she had been the healer's assistant for five years already and had started assisting when she was twelve. Apparently it's a prestigious trade to be in that takes years of study and apprenticing to learn. Mostly though, it's watching and observing Herulia and other times it's wiping the brow of patients. Before long however, Shelea was looking nervously at the door and I knew that the time had come for her to go.

"I've been here long enough, I can't stay any longer or I will be missed." Shelea said with a nervous look to the door.

"I understand, I don't want to get you in any trouble. Come back to visit when you like but please keep my location to yourself." I said as I walked her to the door.

"Alright, well goodbye Brian." Shelea said and leaned in and gave me a peck on the lips before rushing out the door.

"Goodbye Shelea, take care." I said and watched her bounce down the road before closing the door.

"Well, I'm about done here." Urealla said as she wiped her hands on a towel and tossed it on the table. "It should be done in a bit, keep stirring it every once in a while and it'll be fine." Urealla said and walked over to me and gave me a hug.

"It's been grand visiting with you Urealla, see you tomorrow I suppose?" I said with a bright smile as I hugged her tightly. She then got a mischievous look in her eye and winked at me.

"You wouldn't want to do an old woman a favour and throw a good fuck into her would you?" Urealla said with a wide smile. "After all, I am married to an old man, not a handsome young stud like yourself. His performance leaves me . . . lacking most times." She finished with a raise of the eyebrow.

"The operative word being 'married' my dear Urealla." I said while shaking my head with a chuckle.

"Oh bother, you are learning quickly aren't you?" Urealla said with a false dejected look. "Ah well, can't blame an old gal for trying can you?" Laughed Urealla as she smacked my ass before walking out the door with an exaggerated saunter.

I had only straitened up a bit when the door opened up and in walked Felleona, Pellenica Valencia, Jealile and Yeoline. They all looked a bit tired from their shift at the barracks but I was happy to see each and every one of their tired faces. I greeted each lady with a hug and kiss and one by one they removed their armour, placing it around the edge of the room. Felleona naturally went into the trophy room to put her armour away and when she emerged she had a small keg of some kind.

"Got to have something to wash down the meal with." Felleona said with a broad smile as she put the keg down on the counter in the corner. She tapped the keg quickly from a tap that was stored in one of the drawers and soon everyone had a mug of ale in hand. "Ah, that'll cure what ails ya!" She finished with a smile after taking a sip of her ale.

I looked around the room and smiled at each lady as she sipped her ale while looking back at me. Each pair of eyes had a story to tell, a story that the owner would rather tell me in private, that much I could see. Felleona walked over to the stew and gave it a stir and inhaled the smell.

"Ah, smells delicious! God bless that woman." Felleona said as she started to dish out five portions of stew.

"Where's Treabilla?" I inquired curiously; it didn't seem right to celebrate without her there as well.

"From one meeting or party to another." Yeoline informed me.

"Her Father keeps her quite busy these days. Has her in all kinds of official engagements." Pellenica added calmly while also seemingly displeased with the turn of events.

"Trying make the best deal for her I bet." Valencia said with a twinge of disgust.

"Excuse me? Deal, what deal?" I inquired curiously and a little confused.

"Sometimes a Father will make marriage arrangements for his child prior to the Harvest Festival." Pellenica explained calmly. "With a quiet word to all the bidding men usually a man can usually come out with the results he likes."

"Since she's the daughter of the Director, naturally all the power-hungry types want their son to marry her. Lochel should get a fair price for that privilege; I hear there's a bidding war going on now." Valencia said with increasing disgust.

"Why doesn't someone else just bid higher for her at the Harvest Festival?" I asked curiously.

"Nobody would dare cross the Director! However in some cases that has happened, and legally there is nothing that can be done about it." Pellenica finished with a curious look and a twinkle in her eye. "Don't even think about it, it would put you on his shit-list for sure." She chuckled and we all had a laugh over it as I nodded my agreement.

"How are you feeling today Brian?" Jealile asked softly as she put her hand on my shoulder.

"I'm alright dear. A little sore still and every so often it reminds me it's there but mostly the wound leaves me alone." I said with a smile as I looked into her beautiful eyes and stroked her cheek tenderly. It was a quiet moment that we shared and for a brief moment all I saw in the world was Jealile.

"Probably shouldn't have kept you so busy last night eh?" Felleona said with a loud, proud chuckle as she put her arm around me and shook me by the shoulder.

"Rest would be in order for him to recover properly." Jealile said with a twinge of jealousy in her voice.

"He can rest when I'm on shift." Felleona said with a bright smile, raising her eyebrows a few times in a sexy manner.

"Yes, you'll take good care of him, I can tell." Valencia said with a sarcastic smirk and a light scowl.

"Perhaps someone else should take care of him for the next while. You're liable to fuck him to death!" Pellenica said with a low growl and a thinly veiled perturbed look about her.

"While I can't see him complaining about that, Pel's right, he needs bedrest." Valencia said to support her Fellowife and friend.

"You've had your turn, someone else should care for him for the next while. Someplace where he would be cared for and allowed to get the rest he needs." Pellenica argued as calmly as she could, while trying to hide the anger that she was not proud of.

"Like your place for example?" Felleona said with a sarcastic snarl.

"Why not, he'll get the rest he needs and be well taken care of. There's plenty of room at our house." Pellenica snapped and leaned in toward Felleona.

"And I'm not taking care of him am I?" Felleona snarled as she stepped closer to Pellenica who didn't back down an inch.

"You're more concerned with your libido than his health is what it is." Valencia quipped in as she stood beside Pellenica.

"Enough, All of you!" I said loudly as I stepped into the middle of things. "I'm alright, and I wasn't exactly raped last night you know." I said in a perturbed voice. "Felleona did take good care of me last night, both before we went to bed and afterwards." I said to Pellenica and Valencia in a calmer tone as I put a hand on both of their shoulders.

"Sorry." Pellenica said calmly with a tear threatening to leave her eye. "I lost my head for a moment." She finished and turned away to gather herself together, not looking me in the eyes.

"Yes, sorry Captain." Valencia said and fell silent along with Pellenica and there was a brief, tense calm.

"C'mon! We're here to celebrate aren't we! Brian's free and we've won!" Jealile said with enthusiasm and joy as she looked at all of the faces around the room. "Who will raise a mug with me to cheer the freedom of our new friend!" Jealile said loudly and raised her mug with a proud smile.

"I'll drink to that! Who's with us?" I asked with equal enthusiasm as I raised my mug to join Jealile's.

Slowly a smile crept across the faces of all the ladies there and one by one they all raised their mugs. One by one they clinked their mugs together until we all had our mugs raised.

"To freedom and friendship." Jealile said proudly.

"To freedom and friendship!" We echoed and everyone took a swig of ale.

"C'mon let's eat before it gets cold." Felleona said with a smile and nodded in the direction of the table.

We all sat down and ate the hearty stew and washed it down with ale. There was some dinner conversation but mostly it was the friendly discussions of the humorous happenings of their days. In short order the mood turned festive and we were chatting like old friends not new friends that fate had brought together. It was sometime into the meal and dinner conversation that Valencia brought up an interesting story. It managed to spark a most intriguing conversation.

"You should have seen The Captain today Brian it was positively comical!" Valencia chuckled and tried to regain her composure before speaking again. "She was in a good mood for the first time since I can remember. She was pleasant, fair and easy to deal with!" Valencia said with chuckling astonishment. "I even caught her sauntering and chuckling to herself a few times!"

"You did not!" Felleona indignantly replied with a guilty smirk on her face.

"Yes I did! A few times in fact." Valencia needled with a chuckle.

"I also saw it, it was quite cute Captain." Pellenica added with a smirk and Felleona turned red.

"Well, maybe once." She said trying her best to hide a smirk. "Listen, when we're alone and not on duty, call me by my name." Felleona said calmly yet firmly and there was a silence as the other ladies looked at each other and then at Felleona.

"Um, Captain." Jealile said after a bit. "What is you're name?" She asked politely. There was a quiet moment as all of the ladies looked intently at the Felleona for a response. Felleona shook her head and looked at me with her eyes full of laughter and we both shared a chuckle in amidst the straight faces of the other ladies.

"What did I tell you, when I became Captain of the Guard I gave up my name." Felleona laughed as she spoke directly to me and shook her head as she looked over the expectant faces. "Felleona, my name is Felleona." She said with a hint of shock as the smiles told her that they honestly had no idea what her name was.

"Well Felleona, the only time we've seen you is on duty and nobody dared ask you something as personal as that. After all, you are our boss, and all." Jealile said as politely as she could.

"Sometimes you're not exactly approachable when you're on shift Felleona dear." Pellenica said as tactfully as she could trying to tell her boss something necessary but difficult.

"Not quite the warm ray of sunshine that you could be." Valencia said in her usual style with a cheeky smile to boot.

"You try worrying about a bunch of brain-dead Guards day in and day out and see how pleasant you become." Felleona said gruffly, looking a bit ruffled.

"Awe C'mon Felleona dear, you can't be that angry with us? After all, how many of your Guards brought you a man for the night, hmm?" Valencia said with her trademark cheeky / inquisitive smirk blinking a few times for added effect.

"Don't think that'll get you anywhere on shift!" Felleona warned but a smile refused to disappear from her face and that lessened the menacing look about her.

"That brings up an interesting point that we need to talk about." Jealile politely said before she took a sip of her ale.