was a slave?
It must then have been early in the afternoon.
The sunlight was bright where it fell between the trees. There was a mottling of brightness and darkness. Sometimes the trees were separate and tall, and there was little but a leafy space between them. At other times, they were more closely set, and brush was much about them. I avoided such thickets. One did not know what might be within them. Once I was very frightened, for I thought I saw a beast’s head peering at me, large, and broad, but it did not move. I dared to move to one side, and regard it with more care, and found it was no more than a mixture of brush, branches, light and shadow.
I began to grow weary, and hungry, but I did not wish to stop.
I had not dared to conceal food in the basket this morning, even had I been permitted in the vicinity of the kitchen, where I might have stolen some, and the storage sheds were chained shut. On the other hand, I had no fear of starvation, at least for many days, until the onset of winter. I knew enough of the forest within the wands to recognize many things outside them which might be eaten; leafy Tur-Pah, parasitic on Tur trees, of course, but, too, certain plants whose roots were edible, as the wild Sul; and there were flat ground pods in tangles which I could tear open, iron fruit whose shells might be broken between rocks, and autumn gim berries, purple and juicy, perhaps named for the bird, whose cast fruit lies under the snow, the seeds surviving until spring, when one in a thousand might germinate. I saw a small, purple, horned gim flutter away from the bush. It startled me, for I had not seen it there. It is strange how close things may be, and yet not be seen. Its coloring deepens at this time of year. It molts in both the spring and autumn, and in the autumn its coloring is much like that of the fruit and leaves of the bush itself. It is not truly horned, but the feathering about the sides of the head suggests horns. The berries are tasty. They do mark the tongue and, if one is not careful, the mouth. When one is sent out to pick them one is not allowed to eat them, even one. The mouth and tongue are inspected. One does not eat one, even one. The lash is not pleasant.
As the Ahn passed, I grew more and more confident.
I was sure I was now well beyond the range of the larls. And the larls, of course, nearer Shipcamp, roam about, and may, or may not, pick up a scent. They are not put on a scent, as might be a sleen. I had little fear of sleen as there were few in camp, and I had put my blanket to the laundering, so they would have no scent to follow.
How little I knew of sleen!
I had fled camp, of course, moving west, beyond the dock, along the northern bank of the Alexandra. At some point, I knew, to move south, I must cross the Alexandra. I hoped to find a small boat, and make use of it. I might steal one near a river village. If necessary, I might cling to a log and float with the current, or construct a small raft of branches, bound together with wild Tur-Pah vines. There was little to fear from river tharlarion at this latitude. Had I been on my former world, I supposed one might conveniently petition aid from some worthy, understanding fellow, a kindly sort who would be sympathetic to my situation, and might be depended upon to assist a woman in need. On this world, however, I was not sanguine about this possibility. These were not men of Earth, conditioned for years, for political purposes, into devirilized, malleable weaklings, males taught to deny their blood, taught to pride themselves on their lack of manhood. What was wrong with them? Did they not understand what was being done to them, by those who bore them no good will? Could they not hear the voices of their own blood? But males here were not males of Earth. Males here were Gorean. I would not be coddled, shielded, protected, and concealed; my flight would not be abetted. I would be looked upon as what I was, a loose animal, a possibly