Triple Strength

276 New Digs: Wiremu.

“Stop right there! This is private property, and you are not authorised to be here. Leave now!” Lieutenant Pūriri was being very aggressive.

“That's right, we haven't met yet. I am Tama Forrester of the Black Rock Mercenaries.”

“I am not going to take your word for that. Where is Maia? She will need to confirm that.” Pūriri had almost drawn her sword.

“Maia is away right now. Wai or Mayakku could vouch for me.”

That got her sword drawn and pointed at me. “You are not going any further without verification.”

I guess it was good she was not going to let strangers anywhere near Mayakku. This was awkward as every time I had dealt with Pūriri, I had been Maia. Now, nobody is around to verify that I belonged. I am pleased that she is being this careful, but it is also annoying. The Famous Five have been given a month's leave before we set out again, and they don’t know this identity yet. It is a new look, but very close to my natural appearance. Very different to Maia.

“Nobody has mentioned me to you? I am the Black Rock’s bond specialist. Animal bonds, that is, not slave. I collected most of the animals here we have that are for trade, so I am out a lot trapping them.”

“Not letting you through without verification.”

“I am the reason we have so many bonds here. Haven't you wondered about that?”

“Don’t move.”

I could sense Težka nearby, “Would you accept verification from Težka? He is just around the corner.”

“How did you know that?”

“Fairly high-level Hearing Aid,” I said, tapping my ear. “Težka knows me, and if he doesn’t, he would probably eat me.” Težka is a much greater gate security guard and deterrent than anyone else anyway. Cōmpēṟi comes close, but the sheer bulk of Težka is intimidating on its own. Pūriri was hesitating to call Težka, and I think it was partly because she was also intimidated. He takes a bit of getting used to. I called him, and he got to his feet and ambled over. He looked, took a sniff and settled back down in a sunny patch. “Happy now?” I could see she wasn’t totally happy, but she moved out of the way and put her sword back in its scabbard.

“I’ll escort you until somebody else can verify you,” she said.

At least I am in the gate. I grabbed Mosey’s reins and led him in. I was leading him because he was carrying all the carcasses. Težka looked up with interest as Mosey entered. I think this was the only reason he came over when I called him. They were already skinned and cleaned, so I said, “Do you want deer or hog? No, you can't have both.” I untied and dropped the carcass of a young buck in front of him. “A thank you would be nice.” He ignored me as he started ripping the carcass apart. I looked at Pūriri and said, “He has been hanging around Mo too long.”

Modrica was not much into different identities, so we just shortened her name a little. Umreti is unknown until recently, so he is still Umreti. I am sure the Colonel is sending to the Kingdom for information about us, and I am sure the Kingdom wants to know what we are up to. Our advantage is the length of time communication takes, even by fast Avion. It is one of the reasons we are limiting our time here to another month. That would be six weeks total from when we arrived, a month from when the Colonel found out about us.

My easy familiarity with Težka had eased Pūriri’s attitude a bit, but she still followed me around to the side where I had built a small slaughter yard and drying racks for the hides. Correction, where Maia had built me a slaughteryard. She is the one with the stone affinity. A lot of the buildings were stone as it was quick and easy for me to… for Maia to manipulate. I don’t know if Pūriri thought it strange that I knew my way around so well.

I chatted to her as I unloaded Mosey and hung up the hides to dry, “I will need to introduce you to my bond, Tāo. He stayed out hunting on his own, so it will have to be later. Have you ever thought about getting a bond? There are a lot of advantages.”

She shook her head, “I thought I couldn’t except for Monster plants.”

“No, that is not the case, and you want to stay away from monster plants. I have seen two. One was this huge acid moss, and the other was a field of bloody cactus.” I shivered, “The worst monster fights I have had. But no, many animals will lean toward plant affinities, mostly herbivores. Tree-type affinities can be found in a lot of tree dwellers, squirrels, some birds, monkeys, beetles, snakes, etc.”

She shivered, so I said, “You don’t like snakes?” she shook her head. “Well, fair warning then, Tāo is a snake.”

“I didn’t mean….”

“No, no, that is fine. We all have our likes and dislikes. No snake bonds for you. Have you had a look through the Menagerie we have in the shop in town?” she shook her head. “I caught most of them myself. We can walk through to get some idea of what might be compatible as a bond. Has anyone taught you the mental exercises for bonding?”

Pūriri was about to reply when a shout angrily rang out, “What’s he doing here? He shouldn’t be here!”

Pūriri immediately went on her guard against me as Ruku/Wai came around the corner.

“He’s not part of the group?” Pūriri questioned.

“He shouldn’t be here! Not while I am here, anyway,” Pūriri was looking very confused. Ruku/Wai went on, “All he ever wants me to do is hose down his slaughteryard.”

“You’re the one with the water affinity. Who else is going to do it?”

“Your affinity is water?” Pūriri clarified. She knew we had affinities, but she only knew Maia had stone and Mo had Earth, as we had done most of the construction. They had probably deduced Mayakku’s from her enchanting demonstration, but hers is pretty rare.

I leaned toward Pūriri and stage whispered, “I actually think he lost control of his bladder in his old age and passed it off as having an affinity.”

“I am not that old, you young upstart. Has he tried to find you a bond yet?” he asked Pūriri. She nodded. “The boy is obsessed with bonds. At least I got mine without him.”

“Here he goes. You are going to get the story of the elven princess who found the perfect bond for him and led him away to foreign lands, only to poison him and leave him stranded in the middle of Empire territory. The story grows every time he tells it.”

“It was me who left her stranded, you young idiot. You can't even get your facts straight.”

“So you say, old man, I think you might be getting dementia along with your weak bladder. Hey, any chance you can hose down the…” I dove behind the stone wall as he tried to hose me down. Then we both cracked up laughing.

Pūriri was standing there dripping wet, looking confused and like she had just walked into a madhouse. We cracked up laughing again.

“I see you have met Tama,” Ruku said to Pūriri. “He thinks he is the regular funny man here. Just a hint, You will never see him and Maia together as she hates his guts and beats his ass, so he keeps well clear.”

“That’s not… Well, not totally true.” I said.

“Just a reminder, then Maia will be here tomorrow to help Mayakku with her first trial, so maybe you ought to go hunting again or something.”

“Well, maybe. It is nice weather for it.”

“You are putting down that hangi for us, right?” Ruku asked.

I nodded, “That is what most of this is for,” indicating the meat pile.

“You know how to cook a hangi?” Pūriri asked, “I thought you were all foreigners?”

“Most of us are foreigners,” Ruku replied, “Tama here is not. He is our guide to all things local.”

“You are local? Where are you from?” Pūriri asked.

“Just a small village,” I pointed at the meat, “I had better get this to Cōmpēṟi. He gets jealous when I feed Težka, but not him. Do you know where he is?”

“Outside Mayakku’s new workshop last I saw.”

“Can you guys put the rest in storage, please? Otherwise, Težka might come looking for seconds then there won’t be a hangi.”

I hoisted another carcass on my shoulder and headed off. We only had a few visible buildings. The cookhouse was the closest to the slaughterhouse, and the original site office was now a bunkroom. We fixed the old stable area and created a new stone workshop for Mayakku. There was a buried safe room as well.

Across the quarry were some hidden storage areas that Tabitha wanted to facilitate some goods she was moving. I spent a lot of my time setting up traps and warning alarms. I could make some very deadly traps these days, and with a little bit of enchanting from Mayakku, they were even deadlier and better hidden. Combining the enchanting and being creative pushed my trapping skill to the Master level. This was my ninth master-level skill, which was way more than I should have at my age. I am pretty sure Ruku only has eight master-level skills, and he is old enough to be my father and has lived an active life in the Marines. Tabitha just calls me a freak. I guess the easy life is not for me, and it has been a very eventful decade.

When I poked my head in, Mayakku was head down with Laura, so I didn’t disturb them. She wanted everything to be perfect tomorrow. We all know the chances of it working the first time are extremely remote.

I went around the corner of the quarry and manipulated myself through the stone wall into my own little piece of paradise. Well, it was just a stone room with air vents and some home comforts. Tāoke was there curled up on a Bison fur rug. A short corridor and another wall would take me outside the perimeter fence for the quarry. I had no need of doors in this place. It was Granite Quarry. Thank you, Tabitha. I am not the only freak.