Chapter 22: In the Forest

I was a little unsure where I should start. Figuring that it was best to be safe, I decided to walk Lorraine through the process I had followed to get to where I had. I started out by explaining a little bit about my background and how I had gotten to War World, just in case there was something there that was important, and then talked her through the process I had followed. Lorraine picked up on it pretty quickly. It took her four attempts, but she managed to get a Sword Dance of her own started on her fourth attempt. She didn’t keep it up for long; just long enough to be sure that she could do it.

"That’s pretty amazing Cy," Lorraine said as she flopped down onto the grass.

"Ja. I thought so too," I answered with a smile. "I really wasn’t sure that what I had done was anything really out of the ordinary, then everyone made a fuss, and now you picked it up within half an hour... so I am really not so sure."

"I had a quick mental chat to Hand Evans after your demonstration earlier and he told me that I can explain some things to you that you couldn’t know."

"That sounds intriguing?"

"Yes," she smiled, "it’s not that interesting. Just that you are comparing your abilities to the people you have interacted with the most, your finger members and the various leader types. Not everyone is as talented. You and other members of your finger were identified by Marek and his crew as having a high aptitude, which is why you were grouped together."

"An aptitude for what exactly?"

"Maybe potential is a better word. Potential or aptitude for leadership, which in this place implies mental ability more than anything else. The physical is easy enough for the Sidhe to rectify."

"OK. So what exactly does that mean?"

"Just that there are not very many leader types. Very few have the mental aptitude. You’ve been taught about the structure we use. Why do you think we have no Officers and NCOs?"

"I had wondered about that. It seemed very strange to me. The Finger/Hand/Fist leaders seem to be a strange combination of the two. Half Officer and half NCO. Finger Roberts wouldn’t go into much detail about it at all."

"Yes. In your second phase training you will learn a lot more about the practicalities of how things work at the levels above a Finger. The problem is that people with the ability to lead are scarce. Contrary to what you would know about a traditional army, we have only warriors. Everyone fights. What support we need we provide ourselves. The ‘tail’ functions are generally provided for us by the Sidhe in training, and by the local population out there in the world. You should know that everyone in your finger has been ear-marked for a leadership position. There are another two or three fingers in this group marked as well, although your finger has the members with the highest potential. The rest are most probably going to be warriors only. I think you will find that it is a lot more difficult to teach the Sword Dance to those without the same potential, and pretty much impossible to teach them what you have taught me today."

"That bears some thinking about. Do you think that someone without the mental aptitude could have the pace of their fighting training speeded up by the Sword Dance?"

"I think so. That we will have to find out."

I was thinking about this when I noticed Lorraine was looking at me slightly differently. it felt as if she had switched mental gears.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"Do you remember I made you a promise when we were in the shower?"

"Umm. Yes. You said that you would teach me about the more private aspects."

"Exactly." Lorraine stretched and it drew my attention to her body. "The finger you are in," she said, "is like family. Sex within the Finger is absolutely taboo. Worse than incest. We have found that it decreases a Finger’s effectiveness and cohesion almost without fail. Other than that, there is no limit. No taboos except ones that squick the individual." Lorraine moved closer to me and reached out to touch my leg.

I found my body was reacting involuntarily to Lorraine. I had not been with any other woman since I had married my wife over twenty years before. Before I could say or do anything about what she was doing, she kissed me. I started to relax and return the kiss and brought my one hand around to caress her back and run my fingers through her hair.

"[{Amusement}]

"What? What was that?" Lorraine shot up, looking around for a threat. She had grabbed up her sheathed sword and drawn it before I had even had time to draw breath.

"I think there is something that I haven’t told you yet Lorraine," I said, struggling past the frustration I felt at having our kiss interrupted.

"Oh?’ Lorraine managed to pack a world’s worth of sarcasm into that one syllable.

"Yes. [Lorraine, this is S’Alor {image/taste}. S’Alor, this is Lorraine {image/taste}.]"

I could see Lorraine’s shock on her face as she processed what she had just learnt.

"S’Alor? A Smilodean? Sentient?"

"[{Amusement} Why should this surprise you so much Lorraine?]" S’Alor spoke to us both again.

"[My apologies S’Alor. Nothing we have heard has suggested that your kind was anything more than what you appeared. I did not intend to offend. Will you forgive me?"]

"[Sheath your claws Lorraine. I would like to come closer.]" said S’Alor.

Lorraine sheathed her sword, then swung to glare at me. "I nearly had a heart attack. I suppose you have been chatting to S’Alor all this time?"

"Well, yes. Shortly after I discovered the Sword Dance, I discovered that S’Alor had been watching me. He has been very friendly, but I have never actually met him." As the words left my mouth they became untrue as I spotted movement in the bush at the edge of the clearing. S’Alor moved into the clearing and I was amazed at the way that he seemed to ooze out of the undergrowth as if he was some dream made real. I had a particular love for cats, and had thought that my domestic pets were a poor substitute for the large cats. My favourite character in any story when I was growing up was Bagheera from the Jungle Book, followed in short order by Shere Khan. S’Alor seemed to be a combination of both. He had the bulk of Shere Khan combined with the elegance and grace of Bagheera. He was big though, probably a meter and a half at the shoulder, and about four meters long.

"[Greetings]"

Lorraine and I almost stumbled over ourselves to return the greeting. I felt mesmerised by S’Alor’s presence. It seemed to me that he was the epitomy of steel gloved in velvet and I had an almost irresistable urge to run my hands down his coat. He had stopped about two meters away from us.

"[You can touch me Cy.]" S’Alor said.

"[Can you read my mind without me sending?]" I asked him.

"[No. Just emotions and desires.]"

I moved forward and reached out tentatively to touch him. He was covered in short fur that lay flat against his skin. His fur was coloured in green and yellow stripes that swirled all over his body. I could see that he was superbly camouflaged for the jungle. As long as he stood still, it would be impossible to see him. He was warm to the touch, and when I stroked him, I felt a deep rumble in his chest. I couldn’t believe it, he was purring.

Lorraine approach tentatively and asked "[May I?]" and waited for the affirmative before starting to stroke him on the other side. We looked at each other across his body and I could see my awe and amazement reflected in Lorraine’s expression.

"[This is very nice. Thank you. It is not why I came here though,]" said S’Alor. "[I wanted to meet you properly and talk about some other things.]"

"[Sorry S’Alor.]"

"[No need to apologise, that feels wonderful.]"

"[OK. What did you want to discuss?]"

"[As you know, I have been watching you and I have decided that I want to be a part of what you are doing. We have had enough of being treated as vermin, and I have volunteered to start a relationship with you humans to see if we can’t change that.]"

"[Ok. I am not sure how it will work, but I would be very happy to fight with you S’Alor. We will have to see how this is accepted by the guys in charge though.]"

Lorraine laughed. "[This is something I would not miss for the world. I can’t wait to see the faces when we go waltzing in to base with you S’Alor!]"

S’Alor turned his big green eyes to look at Lorraine. "[I can {taste} that you want this almost as much as you wanted to mate with Cy a short while ago... should we wait for you to do that first?]"

Lorraine and I both blushed bright red at that.

"[It might be better if we left the meeting till morning, now that you mention it]," I said.

"[{Amusement} In the morning then,]" said S’Alor and bounded off into the undergrowth.