No one looked hostile though, just curious. After half an hour a boy, one that looked about ten or so, ventured over with a basket of fruit and offered it around. It wasn't poisoned and seemed to be free, so Tor took a funny looking banana that was all red, large and very fat compared to the ones he’d seen before and ate it. It was wonderful. Anything edible not from a jar would have been of course. Austran food sucked, hard, and after day three in that little pot of a vehicle, everything had started tasting like sweat and body odor anyway. Gross.
Burks quickly thanked the boy, who spoke to him for a while, in a language that Tor didn't understand at all. He listened as closely as he could, hoping to catch on. The language was pretty, and a few of the words were really close to Noram standard, so that gave him something to start from, the word endings were different, but there seemed to be a regular pattern to it all. More than what he was used to even.
The boy left them, still just standing, and other people came by to look, openly staring, which with their four days of beard growth, strange colors and bizarre, meaning more than a short skirt, clothing had to look out of place. They kept just standing and waiting though, and finally sitting and waiting, as dark fell. Tor wanted to sleep but didn't know if it was safe. He and his grandfather had shields, but Denno didn't, and if something happened it would be hard to protect the man if Tor was off dreaming of hand pies.
“Don't worry Tor, it's safe here. Violence is unheard of, like in Afrak, except that here it was a purposeful choice that everyone agreed too and a change of culture over thousands of years.” Burks sounded slightly bitter.
Probably over Afrak, where peoples fields had all been changed using “genetics” to make violence nearly impossible. Not bigotry or sexist behavior, just the ability to fight back against it. The idea still bothered Tor too. Of course that his own grandmother had been the one to do it made the whole thing even worse. For him at least. The people there probably wouldn’t care who did it. Honestly, he wasn’t sure they could.
She wasn't exactly a pleasant person, not if you were a man at least. Identical to his mother and possibly his little sister Tiera. But harsher somehow. It was a situation that could end up going horribly wrong. If Tor became Burks, well that wouldn't be too bad over all. He was an alright person as far as that went. But if his mom became Lara? God, that would be bad. The short answer being that he didn't think the world could survive two of her.
Possibly in a literal sense.
They slept in the craft that night, but with a side made clear, so that they could see out if anyone came to visit or needed anything. The back was close enough to a large stone pyramid that no one would try coming that way, the other way faced a road. It was only about eight foot across, but all the traffic seemed to be on foot here. Again the whole thing was made of massive stone blocks.
They kept waiting and waiting. People brought more food, and water and finally some wash water too. Tor cleaned completely, scrubbing up self-consciously as people stared at him doing it. He didn't get naked, washing in a skirt like the natives wore, one in red, the most popular color on men. Tor hoped it didn't mean he was agreeing to be sacrificed or anything, or if he was, someone would tell him about it first. If he was going to be sacrificed he at least wanted to know why. Wouldn't do to say the wrong words and ruin it for everyone else or anything either, so maybe a class in it would be good first?
Thanks to those buckets of water and the fact he had a bath heater as one of the sigils around his neck meant they could all wash with warm water. Finally. Denno kept staring at him, but didn’t speak, just stripping and using the warm water himself.
Not that it was cold out, but the extra bit of comfort was nice. The bucket wasn't really one at all, but a large fired clay pot instead. It worked to carry water, but a handle would have made it easier to deal with.
Tor got to be clean again, shaved and even had nice smelling breath when White walked up. The other two straightened, subconscious behavior on their parts most likely, and smiled when the woman came into view.
She was more than pretty, she was exotic. Even that word didn’t capture her beauty exactly. It went beyond what was normal at all.
Her skin wasn't just light colored like his, but a gentle pearl color. It glowed as the soft sunlight hit it through the lush green of the trees and tall bushes all around them, and her eyes were a crystalline blue, like chips of deep and old ice. She ran the last few steps to meet the others, her breasts small, but still firm, Tor could tell, because she wore no top and promptly pressed them against him in welcome. His arousal was instant and complete. That was pretty normal. At eighteen, no, nineteen now, he was pretty young, and in his world a half naked hug from a pretty girl was still notable. After all, she looked about his age, his real age of nineteen, not what he looked to be, which was younger.
That the others were responding the same way was the tricky part. No scent should have passed his shield, and her field wasn't putting out anything extra alluring, so it was probably just her looks, rather than magic. Had she been designed to be physically perfect that way? It seemed likely. It could be a mental effect though. One he just didn’t know how to block yet. It wouldn't hurt for him to be careful that way.
“You brought a new brother for a visit? And he's Green! Only no? May I meet him, do you think?” She said this softly, the sound gentle and lovely to the ear, but Tor didn't trust it or her. She was just a little too perfect and it would be too easy to rule him using her allure. Tor grimaced and put up his bumpkin mental barriers.
“Julie, this is Torrance Baker, also just called Tor. He's my grandson and as you already guessed, me.” Burks looked almost eager to please the woman, it was strange and off putting in its aggressive nature.
Tor smiled and bowed to her, but she hugged him again.
“Julie White.” She made no move to let him go at all, as if she was trying to imprint him with her body, her image, so that he'd like her.
“Please, call me sister.” She said melodically.
“Alright sis, if we’re going to be family, would you kindly back the hell off and stop trying to use whatever your trick is on me?” It was blunt and from the men’s reaction almost scandalous. Julie just laughed, a sound like bells and moved back suddenly.
“Oh, was I doing that again? Sorry about that, old habit. Get people early and make friends before they can decide to be your enemy, you get the idea, I'm sure.” She sounded a lot more matter of fact, but stood and watched him a bit nervously.
Was it because he'd broken her stride? Probably not. Again with the “so old that she'd probably already done everything” concept. Nothing he did would really fluster someone like her. Still, he was a Noram Ambassador, if not the one for Soam. He bowed and spoke quickly, trying to be a little more diplomatic.
“Don't worry, I'm friendly. I just need to keep a clear head with this crowd. I don't have vast experience to fall back on, you know?”
Julie chuckled.
“That shows wisdom. So, to what do I own the pleasure? Did you just come to let me meet the new family member? That would be a wonder. We need to have reunions every ten years or so like we used to. I haven't seen anyone in over fifty, except you two now.”
They weren't invited in anywhere, and weren't offered more refreshments either, instead they all sat on the ground, Julie's short emerald green skirt flaring enough to show she didn't bother with anything underneath, meaning he had to lock onto a deeper meditative state not to look.
Tor let the others talk unless asked a specific question, not getting everything spoken of anyway. Most of what they said was in short hand or foreign languages, that or the words had been lost over time. Julie didn't get angry over the Larval situation, but was concerned. At least she sounded that way, it was hard to tell, because she kept petting Burk and Denno in an extremely creepy fashion for a sister.
Yes, Tor got that they weren't really directly related, their genetic “gifts” were vastly different, and probably their parents were too, if they even had them.
Tor hadn't asked how that all worked yet. But still, they grew up thinking of each other as brother and sister, enough so that Burks had gone to rescue Denno thousands of years later because of those family ties. That meant that Julie was being inappropriate. Then again, given what he could piece together about her, she might not be able to help herself. She kept her hands off Tor however. Not because she wanted to, she kept reaching out to him, but he'd turned his shield on and left it. She giggled at that, but Denno largely ignored it like he did anything magic.
“Oh, I need one of those! Does it keep insects from biting?”
Tor nodded.
“As long as it's on it will. A regular insect biting you won't force it to turn on though. Are they a problem here, insects? I could make shields just for that, I think… It could take a bit. This Larval thing will probably come
