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Travel across the Saval ocean had taken days. The girls slept on sandbars during low tides. Ra had taught Hannah to catch and eat things in the sea. Hannah had found savage revenge in eating the tentacles of the fleint. They had feasted on those many days.
Across the ocean was slightly different, but not much. The women on that side of the world were great builders and mathematicians. They designed and built the space ships that ran on their ore. Most of the industry was centered on the ship building.
Hannah discussed how they had the raw materials delivered from other planets. The women worked massive forges and built the space crafts. Other women did the engineering work to make the ships run.
Men on that side of the world did some of the work for the women. Materials were delivered to the compounds and the men there built the delicate electronics. The men had no idea what they were making, but they were good at it. Hannah commented that Kein’s son had ended up over there.
Kein would have ended up there, too, Mama, she wrote. They tried to put him with families of builders. That is normal for men of T’vailk Mountain heritage. He wouldn’t stop fighting with them, though. I talked to his mother one day. She said he clicked with Bane and then they clicked with Damien. She had wanted him to be a builder like his male breeder, but he was obviously a Warrior.
I looked up at Kein and he looked shocked. They had probably never thought about their female breeders. Evidently the mothers still watched over them, though.
The letter continued and Hannah talked more about Kein’s mother. They had spoken for a long time. The other woman had been upset when she heard about the violence the men had inflicted on one another. At the time she had reprimanded Nu-reeh strongly for not watching her son better. Now that the men were happy and back in the compound, she was keeping a closer eye on him.
“She still watches me?” Kein said sounding shocked. “She knows me?”
I paused and watched the men. They looked beyond amazed. In fact, they started to look stressed.
“I’m sure it’s nothing invasive,” I soothed setting the letter down.
It scared me when they got anxious. I was never sure exactly how much stress it took to break a bond. That was something I never wanted to witness.
Bane raised an eyebrow at me as I petted Kein on the back. I used the same voice I’d used to calm Hannah as I talked to him.
“Relax and focus on your Brothers,” I advised Kein, “don’t get too upset.”
Bane snorted openly and then spoke, “We are not weak men, Ciara,” he reminded me. “It would take more than a simple surprise to break us.”
Kein looked at me and now he was irritated. He shook the hand off his back and muttered.
“I will not break apart again,” he said. “It’s just very strange.”Property © NôvelDrama.Org.
“Read more,” Christof encouraged handing me the letter.
Hannah told me about the strange animals she had seen and usually eaten. She admitted my weak stomach had been passed on to her. There were certain things native to this planet that Ra could eat, but made Hannah violently ill. Lucky for her Ra understood nausea and vomiting. Hannah’s stomach was a secret they kept.
The letter got back to the men and Hannah’s irritation showed.
The way the men were kept now wasn’t to her liking. Long ago on this world the men would be protected and used by only a few groups of women that they chose. The men were happier and freer then.
In the past, men would have been permanent companions of the women that protected them. They would have set up camps and taken care of their own young. Families would have included the women and the children they made.
It was a dangerous existence for the men, though. Men had always been powerful creatures, but still needed protection from some of the things on the planet. The women got sick of finding them dead, so they swept the equator clean and put all the men there many generations ago.
Men were farmed now by women like Nu-reeh. Sons were sold to women who would care for and protect them. If something happened to a man, there better be a damned good reason.
“Your tutors, Mama, the women had given them explicit instructions not to harm you. It wasn’t the first time those men went against their orders. They did whatever they wanted. The women like the men feisty, but obedient.”
I looked up and the men didn’t seem upset, so I continued to read.
The women made good use of the natural boundaries of the planet to keep the men contained. Hannah seemed to think they had found a way to make boundaries. She had seen huge, wide rivers that separated the men’s land. They didn’t look natural.
“Oh,” Bane said surprised, “we’ve seen a place like that, the Great River beyond the barren stretch.”
Hannah hated it. The men were kept weak and stupid, she stated bluntly in the letter. They weren’t companions anymore. Men were pets.
I faltered and stopped reading. Glancing at the commentary I tried to skip over it, but Damien wouldn’t let me.
“The women keep us here, we know that. Hannah is right. We will know if you lie and there are no secrets in the family,” he stated.
I looked down at the letter and continued to read.
Hannah kept on her tirade for a few more paragraphs. I was so relieved when she switched topics.
Since Hannah was new to the world, she and Ra traveled extensively. She’d been to the North pole of the planet and planned to go to the South pole. It was important to her to check on me periodically, though. During her travels, she planned to stop by this set of mountains regularly.