Aftermath

ATTENTION: There is a new oneshot up on my site. ayatostales.net and under stories, then oneshots, titled Raya/Una, including therein the events between the last chapter and this one.




I got to writing this and as the ending came up and it went the way it went I was somewhat puzzled. I'm fairly certain Una knew what was going on but was trying to keep a straight face. I know that sometimes he does it by accident and then when he finds out that he has done it, he finds it highly amusing.

Anyways.

Read, Review and Enjoy.




It was almost dark before Raya joined them in the trailer. The cousin made no excuses and simply stripped and washed with the water Tah offered. He dressed in the clean clothing offered to him while Tah murmured about washing his dirtied clothing.

“We leave tomorrow morning with the troop, heading north,” Raya said as he patted himself dry, “Durth, you have to travel with Una, there isn’t enough room on the trailer for the three of us to ride together.”

“There’s plenty of room,” Durth responded, puzzled. He and Tah had checked every inch of the trailer, familiarizing themselves with their new space.

“You ride with Una. Talk to him, see what information you can get out of him. And by the gods, try to entertain him. You can’t sing or dance or heal, you’re just another mouth to feed in this troupe and when you’re just a mouth to feed a use is found for you.”

“I’m not a whore.”

Raya paused, one arm in his shirt, “no, no one is implying you are a whore, however, there are several gay men in this troupe, apparently, who need entertaining. Una can and will lend you to one of them for a given amount of time.”

“That would make me a whore.”

“That would make you a companion to a lonely man,” Raya shot back, “and if you do your job and entertain Una, you won’t have to do it, so.”

Durth sighed and leaned against the little fold down table of the trailer, “entertain Una.”

“Exactly.” Raya pulled his shirt over his head and looked at Tah, “how long?”

“Before I can conceive, or before I let you touch me?” Tah said in an acidic tone, “you said-”

“I discussed this with you-”

“You promised me!” Tah snapped, jabbing a finger at the floor of the trailer, “You promised me! No more males, no more males until I conceive the second child and there you are, off with him and flaunting it when you get back. Bragging for all the world to see that I can’t keep a man.”

“This has nothing to do with your ability to keep a man,” Raya said quickly, “and we discussed that as well. You are not keeping me, you cannot keep me, Tah, this has to end eventually, you have to move on and find someone else to rely on.”

“You slept with him!”

“Of course I did!” Raya shouted back, “what were you expecting? Me to meet him and not sleep with him? Una is a notorious lover, like I’m going to pass up on that opportunity!”

“Well. Since he’s such a notorious lover, you won’t mind if I go over there,” Tah snarled.

“Go ahead, he can’t get you with child.”

“Neither could you, until I fixed you,” Tah said, folding her arms across her chest.

“Tah, he can’t get a child on anyone, he’s tried in the past and others have tried to ‘fix’ him, none of it’s worked, so go ahead, lay with him. Like I care. It might improve your mood.”

Something about the way the woman tensed made Durth take a step backwards. He didn’t want to be in the middle of this argument. Hells, he didn’t even want to be in the trailer with them.

“Durth, leave,” Tah said quietly.

“What about the babe?” Durth asked.

“She isn’t in danger,” Tah responded, “her sexual organs are on the inside.”

Which made Durth cringe away from her. He slid around the woman and Raya a sheepish look as he left the trailer. Nothing to do, and not wanting to be close enough to hear whatever Tah had to say about males, Durth walked away from the trailer and towards the tree. The sun was beyond the horizon and everything was a bit gray, small pockets of fires lit between the trailers showed him the other members of the troop. He walked around the tree, looking up at the leaves.

It was a fairly decent sized tree, old enough to no longer be a sapling, it must have been growing before the end of the world.

“Oak,” Una emerged from the shadows, hat in place, cane in hand, the man limped towards Durth, “stands for strength and resilience, this tree was struck by lightning three times and survived, and so the people came around it and built their village with the tree at the center of it.”

“Ah,” Durth said as if he cared.

“Why are you out here?”

“They’re fighting,” Durth responded bluntly, “because you and Raya had sex.”

“Oh, if I had known he had been claimed or had promised something to her, I would not have touched him,” Una muttered, “last thing I need is an angry female on my hands.”

The other man stepped up beside Durth, close enough that with any other man Durth would have been able to smell him, would have been able to feel the heat of the other’s arm by his. Una seemingly had no smell, gave off such little heat that Durth couldn’t feel it at all.

“Yeah, angry females,” Durth muttered in response as if he knew.

Una stood quietly for a moment before he said, “have you eaten yet?”

“No,” Was all Durth could say, “not since. Well, about this time last night.”

“Come to my fire, there is meat cooking and I have some cheese and bread. Get some flesh on your bones, you look half starved.”

“Not half,” Durth responded, “only a quarter or so.”

Una smiled at him and motioned back towards his trailer, leading the way. Durth followed, more out of hunger than anything else. By the fire several other young men were tending food. Each glanced at Durth and then back to what they were doing as if uninterested. Una settled on a log across from the young men and motioned to the log beside him, for Durth to sit on.

“So Raya said that he was your cousin,” Una said quietly, “he also tells me that you have no entertainment talent whatsoever.”

“That’s right,” Durth said quietly, “I’ve no actual skills, was a servant before Raya got me out of my contract. We’ve been looking for a place to settle since. Tah and Raya have a bit of an agreement between the two of them. As Raya is gay and Tah seems a bit upset with males.”

“I know her type,” Una muttered, “no doubt she was abused in her past. Well, I know a few males that might suit her tastes,” the man paused as Durth gave him a questioning look, “I am a bit of a matchmaker. Happily paired couples are easier to manage and cause less trouble for me and mine.”

“Well. Not everyone would appreciate being paired off like cattle or dogs to be bred as you see,” Durth growled.

“Of course not, and they are not dogs,” Una muttered, “if it was about breeding I would pair Seesho here,” the man motioned to the eldest of the young men, “with Tah, I think that perhaps their child would not only be gorgeous but intelligent and useful.”

“I am not here for breeding,” Seesho snapped.

“No, you aren’t here for breeding, I was only making a point, Seesho,” Una muttered, “Tell me Durth, what can you do?”

“Nothing, I have no skills. A bit of adding but,” Durth shrugged, “most can.”

“Well, you’ve at least got a strong back. Quite a few of my troop, they were in their prime when the world ended but now, well, now they’re getting on in years and they could use a good, strong back to help them do the heavy lifting,” Una paused a moment and looked at Durth, “you’ve a strong back, haven’t you? Good, strong legs?”

“Yes,” Durth saw the looks the other young men shot him and wondered if perhaps there was some sort of double meaning to that all.

“Good and you don’t mind breaking a sweat or bending over for a bit of work, do you? Heavy lifting does require lifting, can your back handle that?”

“Handle…” Durth’s head snapped around, “handle what?”

“Bending over.”

Durth made a choking sound as the young men suddenly found the sky very interesting. He didn’t know what to say to Una. If he said yes, was he implying that he… was that really what it was? Or was Una simply asking Durth if he was certain that his back could hold up under heavy lifting?

“Uhm…”

“Uhm? You aren’t certain you aren’t certain your back can handle bending over? Then we can’t have you doing heavy lifting, what if your legs give out as you bend over, then where would we be?”

One of the young men snickered. Una looked across the fire at the young man, a puzzled expression on his face for a very long moment before realization dawned on him. The other man rubbed two fingers over his lips.

“I’ve done it again, have I?” Una muttered. The young men burst into laughter as one, receiving a deathly glare from Durth as Una smirked, “You will have to excuse me, Durth, for I am a simple, perverted old man and I tend to say things like that without meaning to and sometimes I even miss the meaning in my own words.”

“You aren’t old…” Durth said, confused. To which the young men howled louder, “and it’s not really perverted if you don’t know you’re doing it.”

One of the men toppled off his precarious seat, rolling on the ground laughing.

“Oh no, trust me, Durth, I am a perverted old man. Any chance I see to get you, I take it.”

“Uhm, you…”

“Just did it again,” Una sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

.