M39

Morgan was watching the Ardeni herders as they played a game that was remarkably like horseshoes. They had three stakes in a triangle outside their longhouse, and one Ardeni would stand at each stake, trying to throw loops over the other two. It seemed like there was some allowance for blocking your opponents’ rings, but only on certain throws. Morgan tried to figure out the rules for a while, but they also hollered out strange phrases like, “Red outside,” and it seemed to affect where the others were allowed to throw on the next round. Morgan couldn’t figure it out, so he shook his head and wandered around the side of the building where Allender was grilling a large haunch of meat over a stone firepit.

“Smells good,” he said, walking up to the yellow-haired man.

“Oh, aye, roladii good for riding and good for eating,” he replied in that slow, measured way of his. He grinned as he spoke, slicing off a bit of meat. He cut it in half, popping one portion in his mouth and handing the other to Morgan. His mouth watering from the odor, Morgan didn’t hesitate, following suit. The coppery tang of red meat accentuated by the salty rub the Ardeni had used to season it only served to make Morgan’s stomach grumble all the louder.

“Good, but don’t you feel bad about eating your mounts?”

“Pshh, we won’t eat our mounts. We eat the older, untrained roladii. Never enough to endanger the herd.” Allender looked at Morgan like he was an idiot, but then he took in Morgan’s strange appearance, and his countenance softened. “But you wouldn’t know that, being new here. You should go join Teric and your companion. Pick a roladii to tame.” Morgan looked around, startled.

“Did they start that already? I thought Olivia was napping!”

“Oh, she came out a few minutes ago, said she couldn’t sleep, and Teric took her to the herd. They’re just a bit south, over that rise.” Allender gestured past the other end of the longhouse.

“Alright, thanks,” Morgan said as he started walking that way. He was a little annoyed that Teric hadn’t called him to join them, but then, he hardly knew these people. Suddenly Morgan had a surge of panic. They really didn’t know these people! What if Teric meant some harm to Olivia? He quickened his pace, jogging up the low rise. He could already see some of the herd, and he scanned furiously from right to left, then he heard a high-pitched laugh and saw Olivia. She was sitting in the grass; one of the roladii had its face close to hers, and Morgan could see its big, fat, gray-pink tongue dripping saliva all over her. Teric was standing off to the side, laughing.

Morgan’s heart stopped racing, and he felt rather foolish. The Crucible and the System had turned him a bit paranoid, maybe. It seemed like it might still be possible to meet plain-old good people. He strolled up to the duo as Teric helped Olivia to her feet. “Hey, I think that one likes you, Olivia!”

“Oh my god! Teric gave me a treat to feed it, and the bugger really liked it!” Olivia’s face was red from laughing.

“Oh aye, they love tuntun root. It’s how to make friends with one, and then you just keep being friendly with it, and if you’re lucky, the System will give you the basic taming skill.”

“Really? Does it take a lot of luck, or does the System eventually give it to pretty much anyone? I’m asking because I can’t figure out why I got some skills when I got here, and I didn’t get others.” Morgan hadn’t intended to turn this into a lesson about the System, but the idea of learning “taming” by being friendly with a roladii just got his mind working.

“You folks really are that new to the System? Huh, well, the way the System gives you skills is based on some factors. You definitely learn skills faster when you’re below the level to take a class. You also learn skills faster if you feel like you need the skill while trying to do it. You really need to feel it. Do you get me? Some people have an innate aptitude for some skills. No other way to explain it; we’re all unique. Hmm, of course, you can learn skills directly by buying skill scrolls and the like.” Teric spat another long stream of brown saliva, and, grinning at Olivia, he took out his tin and put some more brown powder in his cheek.

“He already explained it to me, Morgan! Just because you’re late to class, you shouldn’t make him repeat himself!” Olivia winked at Morgan while speaking, laughing. She was such an upbeat person. The way the scar on her eye crinkled when she laughed was endearing, and Morgan felt happy that she was traveling with him.

“Alright, alright, you coulda warned me that class was starting!” Morgan chuckled.

“Ha, okay, students!” Teric played along, “Olivia take that root I gave you and pull that little blue-feathered bugger over by the longhouse, and be sure to talk real nice to it while you give it treats. Try to make it follow you around in circles and start and stop ‘fore giving it a treat.” He gestured toward the longhouse. “Morgan, let’s pick you a bird. Follow me.”

“Are they? Birds?” Olivia asked, backing carefully away with the blue-feathered roladii in tow, sniffing at her closed hand.

“Hmm. Nar, but they have feathers! We call ‘em birds to be funny sometimes, I guess.” Teric shrugged, gesturing for Morgan to follow him. Morgan nodded, following Teric in among the herd. They seemed very placid and not at all skittish.

“How do you tell the males from females?”

“See that guy there? With the little crest of feathers on his head? That’s a male; the females have longer feathers on the tail end.” Teric spoke in such a way that Morgan wasn’t sure if he was messing with him. He looked around, and true, only about half the birds had little crests on their heads, and the ones without it did seem to have longer tail feathers. Morgan shrugged and followed as Teric looked closely at one roladii and then another. Finally, he settled on a fairly large roladii with gray and yellow plumage. “This fella is pretty young still, has lots of running left in him. Big enough for a big guy like you, too.” Morgan stepped up to the roladii and started to reach out a hand. “Hold on, now. Let me give you some of these roots. Just give him one nibble at a time, and lead him back over by the longhouse away from the herd.” Teric reached into a little sack that Morgan was pretty sure was a dimensional container and pulled out a big handful of tiny cubes of the tuber. He handed it to Morgan. “Keep one piece in your feeding hand and the others closed up in your other hand behind your back.”

“This is called tuntun root?” Morgan asked, following Teric’s instructions. Teric nodded, and Morgan cautiously held out one little bit of root to the big roladii. Its wide, flat muzzle huffed air out and used its big, pudgy tongue to scoop the root out of his palm. Morgan reached behind his back and slipped another little piece of root into his hand, holding it out to the roladii and backing away toward the longhouse. He repeated this process a few times and was almost to the flat area around the longhouse when Teric called out to him.

“Remember what I told Olivia! Make him work for the root!”

“Right, right,” Morgan said, smiling. He used the root’s scent to get the roladii to bob its head up and down and follow him around in a circle. After that, Morgan held the root close to the ground, so the roladii had to lean down and forward, then he backed up slowly, and the roladii scooted after it, its long neck and chin an inch from the ground. Morgan smiled and gave it the treat. “Good boy!”

The roladii wasn’t hostile at all, but it resisted doing anything without a treat to encourage it. Morgan spent the next hour working with it, Teric eventually giving him several large handfuls of tuntun root to keep in his own storage pouch. Morgan was pretty sure he did the same for Olivia. He felt like he was making progress, getting the beast to grunt with pleasure as he scratched its wrinkled gray skin above its eyebrows. Morgan enjoyed looking into the glossy depths of its amber flecked eyes, finding them to be quite expressive. He felt good about the connection he was starting to establish with the beast until Olivia shouted out, “Yes! I got the skill!”

“Really? In one afternoon? Showoff!” He groused. Teric heard him and laughed.

“Well, it happened shortly after I gave her a name. Isn’t that right, Blue? Try naming your’s, Morgan!”

“Blue? How imaginative!” Morgan led his roladii a bit further away, so no one else could hear him talking to it. “Let’s see; you’ve got yellow and gray feathers. I’m not going to name you after a color, though; Olivia will say I’m copying her. Hmm, are you fast? Should I call you something like Lightning?” The roladii grunted. Morgan fed it another piece of root, and the roladii gobbled it into its seemingly bottomless gullet. “You sure munch these down, don’t you? How about Munch? You like that name?” The roladii grunted, sniffing at his hand. “Good boy, Munch.”

Morgan worked with Munch for another hour, and then the herders called them in for the evening meal. Teric gave him and Olivia a long length of rope to keep their roladii in training away from the rest of the herd. He said it helped in the process of taming them. Then Morgan and Olivia joined the rest of them sitting on some low wooden benches around the firepit. They ate a satisfying meal of seasoned meat and roasted root vegetables that reminded Morgan of sweet potatoes. The sun was going down, and the orange-red highlights on the sea of purple grass and red chebli blossoms filled Morgan with a calm wonder at the beauty of this world.

“What a beautiful view!” He gestured to the sunset.

“Oh, yes - we tend to take it for granted, being out here all the time,” Teric replied, producing a stack of short glasses and a bottle of light-brown liquid. “How about a drink to celebrate our guests?” He asked the group, and all the herdsmen enthusiastically agreed. Teric lined the little glasses up on an empty bench and poured a generous helping of the liquor into each one, then he took his time, handing a glass to each person sitting around the fire. Morgan took his drink and gave it a good sniff. It reminded him distinctly of whiskey, and his mouth started to salivate.

Teric held his glass aloft, and the herders did as well. Morgan and Olivia took the hint and lifted their glasses. Teric said loudly and rhythmically, “Bordu, bordu, bordu,” and then the herdsmen, in unison, loudly chanted, “HEY!” Then they all took a deep drink of their liquor, and Morgan, without hesitation, did as well. It burned a little going down, but it was surprisingly smooth. Olivia sputtered a little, but her cheeks were red, and she bore a huge smile.

“Cheers!” Morgan said, and Olivia echoed him. The herdsman looked around at each other, then they all said “cheers” as well, and the whole group downed another drink.

“So, your people are from another world, huh? Tell us the story!” Forn said. Morgan looked at Olivia and shrugged. She smiled and started the tale, talking about Earth and their Arkship and how the System brought them down to the planet. Morgan interjected now and then, and when she was finished, he told the tale of his time in the Crucible, leaving out most everything other than the highlights.

Morgan had a warm buzz going from the glass of liquor Teric had given him, and the camaraderie around the fire made him feel relaxed to the extent that he almost dreaded getting back on the trail. He was glad that the herders would be staying here an extra day. “Hey, Teric, what’s that liquor called?”

“Oh, that’s cheb-cheb. It’s distilled from the seeds of these chebli blossoms. It’s a pretty long process, but if you ever visit my ranch, I’ll show you how.” He smiled and produced another full bottle of the liquor, handing it to Morgan. “For a rainy day.” Morgan smiled broadly.

“Thank you, my friend. I wish I had some good Kentucky bourbon to share with you. If I can find something like corn here, I will reverse engineer it. I swear!” Teric smiled as if he knew what Morgan was talking about and sat back, staring up at the stars.

“We’re having problems with Urghat near our settlement. That’s one of the reasons we’re going to visit Morgan’s friend. We’re hoping to get some help - do you think that’s likely?” Olivia spoke up, suddenly serious.

“Depends on what’s going on with Tarn’s Crossing,” Roylo spoke up. “If they have a fight going of their own, they’ll be less likely to spare some hunters. They often have conflicts with the Urghat from the Deep Down. If nothing is going on, though, they’ll probably send a couple of hundred hunters, if only for the combat experience and Energy gains.”

“That would be great!” Morgan chimed in, “We just need some help keeping our foothold secure while we learn the ropes of the System and levels and classes, and…” he trailed off, finding it exhausting to list all the things they had to come to grips with.

“More allies are always good,” Beyli added in a hushed voice. Morgan realized it was the first time he’d heard the magenta-haired little Ardeni speak.

“Ya, right! Let’s drink to that!” Teric walked around with his bottle of cheb-cheb, and Morgan felt the warm glow in his stomach start to expand.