'How did you know I would accept your use?' I asked.
'I knew it,' she said. 'I sensed it.'
'When?' I asked.
'As soon as you had me kneel before you,' she said.
'Interesting,' I said.
'I am a woman,' she said. 'We can tell such things.'
'Interesting,' I said. How subtle and deep was the intelligence of women, I thought. How much they know. How much they can sense. How simple and crude, how naive, sometimes seems the intelligence of men compared to the ineligence of women. What deep and wonderful creatures they are. Who can truly understand the emotional depths and needs, eons old, of these flowers of nature and evolution? How natural, then, it is, that hte truly loving man will concern himself not with her distortions and erversions, ultimately barren, but with her emotional and sensous truths, ancient and deep within her, with what might be called her biological and natural fulfillment. Then I shook such thoughts from my mind, for she was simly a slave, and was to be treated as such.
'Oh!' she said.
I cinched the strap closely to her body.
'Master is rough,' she said.
'Be silent, Slave,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said, smiling.
'What, now, is our destination?' I asked Cuwignaka.
'We will go north,' he said. 'We will then proceed north and west of Coucil Rock, into the land of the Casmu Kaiila. There is a place there I know. It is a camping site favored by Kahintokapa.'
'I wonder if he survived,' I said.
'Let us hope so,' said Cuwignaka.
'What sort of place is this?' I asked.
'It is secluded,' said Cuwignaka. 'There is wood and water. Game is generally available in the vicinity.'
'Do Kaiila, generally, know of this place?' I asked.
'Yes,' he said. 'We are generally familiar with one another's camp sites. This is important if we wish to gather the bands. It can also be important in the winter. Sometimes there is food in one place and not in another.'
'Various survivors, then,' I said, 'might possibly have gone to this place.'
'That is not unlikely,' said Cuwignaka.
'Let us then be on our way,' I said. I picked up the other strap, the rigged harness, the trace, and slipped it over my shoulder, about my body.
'It is we who will pull the travois, is it not?' asked the girl.
'Yes,' I said. 'We are slaves.' Acually I wished Cuwignaka to rest. he was still weak from the dance. Four times in the last five days the wounds on his chest had begun to bleed.
'I am pleased to be harnessed with you, to pull with you, Master,' she said.
'Do not slack,' I said, 'or you will be severly beaten.'
'I shall not,' she said. She looked behind herslef, uneasily, at Cuwignaka. 'Master,' she said, 'I am bare.'
'I am well aware of that, my lovely harness mate,' I said.
'Will he whip us?' she asked, in a whisper.
'He will if he wishes,' I told her.
Sh swallowed hard.
'When I give the signal,' I said, 'lean forward and step out with your left foot. Lengthen your stride somewhat, and I shall shorten mine. I shall set the pace. If you cannot keep it, beg for its reduction.'
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'Now,' I said, 'step forward.'
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'I love working beside you, pulling with you, Master,' she said.
'I, myself,' I said, 'would prefer for this work to be done by four or five slave girls, naked, and under whips.'
'Yes, Master,' she said, looking down.
We continued on our way, northward, drawing the travois through the tall grass.
She was doing very well. Either she did not wish to slaken her efforts or feared, mightily, to do so. Such a slackening, of course, would have been instantly detectable to me, her harness mate. She would then, of course, have been whipped, and made to draw more then her share of the weight.
'Master,' she said, after a time.
'Yes,' I said.
'Am I to be permitted clothing?' she asked.
'Not for a time,' I said. 'Perhaps, later. We will see. Perhaps by your performances, if they are sufficently superb, you may, in time, be adjudged worthy of a scrap of cloth.'
'Yes, Master,' she said, happily. 'Master,' she said, a little later.
'Yes,' I said.
'I do not have a name,' she said.
'That is true,' I said.
We continued to draw the travois through the tall grass.
'Am I to be named?' she asked.
'Perhaps,' I said.
'I would like to ahve a name,' she said.
'It is probably a good idea for animals like you to be given names,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'Perhaps we should call you 'Ahtundan',' I said.
'What does that mean?' she asked.
' 'Something to be spit upon, ' I said. 'It is a fitting name for a slave, it is not?'
'Yes, Master,' she said, her head down.
'Perhaps we could call you 'Cesli' or 'Cespu',' I said.
'What do those names mean?' she asked.
' 'Cesli',' I said, 'means dung.'
'Oh,' she said.
'Either of men or animals,' I said.
'I see,' she said.
' 'Cespu' means 'wart' or 'scab',' I said.
'I see,' she said.
'Let us save those names,' said Cuwignaka.
'Oh?' I said.
'Yes,' he said.
'Very well,' I said. I smiled. In Cuwignaka there was a warrior.
'Is it all right with you,' I asked the girl, 'if we save those names?'
'Yes, Master,' she laughed.
'What about 'Turnip'?' I asked.
'Oh, please, Master, no,' she laughed. 'That reminds me so of the Waniyanpi.'
'Your life has changed considerably, as you will soon learn,' I said. 'That name, thus, would no longer be appropriate for you.'
'I am pleased to hear it,' she said.
'Perhaps I should call you 'Wowiyutanye',' I said.
'What does that mean?' she asked.
'Temptation,' I said.
'Master flatters me,' she said, head down, smiling.
