Walker Ch. 01.17

Chapter 1.17

She led him south. They exited the tent filled square and headed towards the pole-barns by the south gate. The buildings thinned, replaced by processing and packing lots. The air reeked of tar and waste. The din was of male voices and clattering tree corpses as the slave women worked in silence. Two dozen slaves were crouched against the side of a warehouse, chained together by metal collars. Some were young, mostly unscarred. The older they were the more their bellies had been stretched by pregnancy, their leathery skin hardened to stone about the joints from a lifetime of hard labor. Some faces were bitter and prematurely pruned by nature while others remained fresher, more succulent. No matter their age, most were swollen or swelling with child. All were listless, most barely registered the strange tiger man's presence and those that did, did so with dull eyes that soon lost interest.

'Up! Up, ye cunts!' a man marched from the warehouse with a many tailed lash that he swung with abandon, 'Ye're sawing tonight! Move!' All jumped up in a practiced manner, shuffling hurriedly past the man. They took their blows from him as the air filled with the crack of leather on naked flesh. He noticed the Tigreni and the blonde locked girl watching him. He smiled and waved across the road. When the last slavejack had filed past he marched, forest cloak billowing behind, across the road. He had his hand outstretched to Walker, 'Oi, you's the one everyone's telling stories of.'

Walker politely shook the man's hand but remained intently silent.

When the man grew discomfited, Shuq interjected, 'My master is practicing silence. He means no disrespect.'

The logger's eyes turned coldly to her and the leather of his lash creaked in his grip, 'And ye're speaking fer him?'

'Speaking by his command, sir. The silence is some Tigreni battle ritual I do not understand.' she lied, resisting the urge to hide behind Walker.

'This true?' he asked the tiger.

Walker dipped his chin with a slow yes.

'Well, just wanted ta meet ya and see this walking tiger that slew a hundred bandits. Is that true? A hundred?'

Walker shook his head.

'No? How many?'

Walker shrugged.

'I personally saw him slay a dozen in battle, sir. But there was much I did not see. My master is a great fighter.'

'So they say.' He turned to Shuq with a bemused look on his face, 'Hey, you think I could touch him? Just feel the fur?'

'Hrrrr.' Walker trembled.

'Master Walker would not prefer that.' Shuq told the man, 'If you'd like a chance to touch him, you could come to the inn tomorrow. Master Walker does gambled bouts; if you land a blow on him you win as many silvers as you put down.'

'Oh! I'll come.' he said eagerly, appraising the tiger's bulk, 'I don't know about fightin' em, think I'd be halfway through a barrel of ale before I'd be brave enough.'

'He's very gentle.' she smiled at him, 'If you don't mind, sir, my master would like to continue his walk.'

'Oh, aye. Pleased to meet you Mister Walker.'

Walker blinked at him. The lumberjack stood uncomfortably before deciding to take his leave.

Shuq tugged lightly on his arm, 'Come.'

The gate reared up before them as they went. Pained animalistic grunts and slapping flesh emerged above the ambience as they near a fenced-in loading yard. Their view was obscured by piles of uncut logs as high as two men. Shuq found a gap and peered through, 'Look.'

Walker crouched slightly. A squad of slaves were working to offload logs from a wagon pulled by eight sturdy slavejacks harnessed at the front. Bit gags pulled their lips uncomfortably far back and the way they were harnessed forced them to lean forward against the weight of the wagon. Each of the nags had a tail of rope or leather hanging from their anuses.

Walker found the grunting emanated from the far left where two men sat drinking at a table with a fresh young slave bound across its surface; her knees and elbows were restrained in a loop below. A third was drunkenly slamming away between her naked buttocks.

He stood, 'This is what you wanted to show?'

She opened her mouth to speak, hesitated then said, 'My village is small but this,' she pointed through the hole, 'was as commonplace. I was only spared because I was promised to Batrus as a child. I would not have been his first virgin wife.' A tear formed in the corner of her eye, 'I look at Miss Meri. Then I look at these...'

'Broken spirits.' Walker offered gently as understanding arose.

'Miss Meri wants to help me stay with you.'

'I am not Norrish, I cannot be. I am Tigreni.' he insisted.

'That is why! You are not Norrish. M-Master Walker, what Batrus did to me in the forest... that would have been my life if you hadn't come.' Tears rolled freely down her pale, blushing cheeks, 'I don't know how to be like a Tigreni woman but please, please let me try to be your Norrish woman.'

She watched him inflate with low fury. A series of low, menacing curses rumbled from his maw as he begun to pace up and down. His entire demeanor had lost its calm. Instinctively she recognized the wildness and backed up involuntarily to the fence. She stood trembling quietly.

He stalked up and down, his shoulders swaying and powerful, his gait crouched forward like a cat about to pounce.

'You Norrish,' the words came out inhuman and accusing, 'the more you give the more I lose.'

Shuq swallowed her fear as best she could, 'What do you lose?'

'Walker! I walk!' he growled, 'You, this place; is like a trap.'

The Tigreni was drawing attention, she noticed. A marching line of slavejacks had lost their rhythm at his outburst. Their overseer had stopped and was watching from a distance.

'Master.' she said urgently reaching towards him, 'They're watching.'

Walker paced undaunted. She approached him urgently, shaking with emotion. Her arms reached towards his waist. Absently he tried to shove her away but she fought and grabbed the arm as strongly as she could. Surprised, the tiger stopped and scrutinized the human female hanging off his arm. 'Please,' she said urgently, pleading, 'just walk with me.'

His animalistic aspect softened and the lines of his face relaxed. He stood straight, eyeing the growing number of onlookers, then hooked his arm into hers and led her back towards the market place.

They were both quiet as they went. 'War will come.' he said to no one, 'Tired.'

She recalled his scars and how he must have gotten them, so many. Broken spirits, Walker had said. What about the bent, bruised and wounded spirits? Her eyes roamed sadly up his neck; the bright orange hues of his face were lined with stark black striping but the mask was spoiled in places by overlapping scar tissue so thick that no fur grew. Even the white of his chin hid smaller cuts that had never healed right. His eyes were fierce and deep. She wondered, if his body was this scarred; how scarred was his soul?

'If war comes.' Shuq told him, 'You take your silver and me, and then you walk out the front gate. The Tigreni and his Norrish woman.'

She dipped under his arm, pulling it across her shoulder and clasping his hand to her breast. 'You will bathe everyday.' she told him, 'With heated water, and soap, and scented oils.'

'A promise or a threat?'

She giggled, wiping her cheek with the back of her hand, 'Master Walker, all you have to do is tell me no.'

'Hrmm. I cannot win with you.' She felt the last of his tension drain as his hand relaxed in her grip. 'Some days I will bath. Some days... maybe no.'

'You won't dirty the sheets with grime.' she answered with mock sternness. She hoped he would detect the humor. A noise came out of him that she had not heard before, a rhythmic purring almost. He was laughing, she realized. Again, she looked up and met his eyes with a smile.

'I command you to purchase the supplies and clothes swiftly. I long for peace and want to return home.' he jingled the coins in his pocket, 'And milk, I want milk.'