The night had ended simply after they reached the campsite. The Albright family had set their spoils off to the side, deciding to sort them out in the morning, and had retired to a dinner of re-heated canned things that, to Seeker Tempest, remained some of the best food she had ever eaten in her life. So flavorful, so filling, so… more than the carefully rationed nutrient intervals back at the Community.

It still had a feeling of unreality to it, but near as much as last night, when her entire worldview had been stood on her head and shaken up and down until it near fell out her ears. Here she was, sitting and supping with Sojourners while they treated her as an honored guest. She was not even asked to join in the chores afterwards, cleaning the pots and disposing of refuse, but instead was allowed to remain by the fire and chat with the father Matthew Albright.

And the talk…

They were so free, so unreserved. The first night, she had been reminded of pleasant evenings around the fire, talking and joking with her cousins. But even that comparison fell short, for never were she or her cousins so open and free with their words. The Sojourners–No, the Albrights–wielded their words without care or concern. They bickered and fought, they joked and japed, they spoke of the high things with reverence and in the very next moment made flatulence jokes.

She tried imagining Lucas Albright making his crude jokes in the presence of elder Creator Gems, and the idea actually made her laugh out loud right in the middle of supper. It had come at the worst possible time, too, right in the middle of a pause during a serious moment of conversation.

And no one had cared.

She had gone to bed that night confused but… warmed. The Kel'Darshein's branches had embraced her and protected her from the soft rain that had started to fall, the sound quiet and lulling to her ears. These Sojourners were not what the stories claimed they should be. But after only a day in their presence, she was coming to realize that was not a bad thing.

She realized, just before sleep claimed her, that she was looking forward to the morrow.

* * *

It was still raining when Seeker Tempest awoke. The soft fall of the rain against the Kel'Darshein's branches sounded like breakfast frying in her gran's pan, and roused her gently from her slumber like an old friend. She felt rested and refreshed, and stronger and more capable than she had been in all the days since she'd been forced from the Community. She felt renewed energy humming in her limbs, thanks to the Sojourners' good food and kindly treatment. She sat up and marveled at how her limbs did not ache nor her belly shriek for sustenance for the first time in months.

It was a nice feeling.

"Good morning," the Kel'Darshein–Billy–whispered to her. "Most of the family is already awake and preparing for the day. Consul Matthew has instructed me to tell you that you are free to choose your activities today, or leave if that is your wish."

"Thank you, Kel'd–No, it's Billy, isn't it," she said, stretching. Her borrowed clothes were soft against her skin, her old leathers having been destroyed when Matthew Albright had cut them away to heal her injuries.

"It is, but you may call me either one. I don't mind. Are you ready to rise, or would you like to stay in bed for a while longer?"

The idea was tempting. It was safe and warm within the nest-bed the Kel'Darshein had made for her. And those were two things she had not been for a long time prior to waking up in the presence of the Albrights. A part of her wanted to just snuggle back into the soft branches, put her arm over her eyes to block out any trace of light, and just sleep and sleep and sleep until it didn't matter if things in the waking world made sense or not.

"Go away, I don' wanna hunt, I wanna sleep more"

"Nuh-uh bubba, you asked to come, so you're comin', now stop hiding behind Billy and come out an' pick up your gun like a man."

… Okay, so her natural curiousity just wasn't going to let her go back to sleep with that going on outside.

"I will rise," she told Billy, who made a noise of assent and with surprisingly little motion drew back the canopy from over her bed and lowered it to the ground.

It was still the time of the not-dawn, where the sky was light and one could see but the sun had not yet risen over the land. Soft rain fell overhead, mostly blocked by Billy's canopy but just enough getting through to cause drops and drips to fall all around the campsite. The Albrights, one and all, were awake and bustling around the campsite, preparing food and gathering the gear they would need for the day.

Well, almost all. To the side she saw the one called Dinah reaching into a nest-bed and hauling on a pair of young pale-skinned legs, while from within the bed came Lucas Albright's childish wails of protest.

"You didn't tell me we'd be starting at friggin' five in the morning," he hollered from within his bed. "That's cruel and unusual! I wanna sleep!"

"Five in the morning is prime huntin' time," Dinah said, laughing and adjusting her grip on the boy's ankles. "Come on, it'll be fun!"

"Who wants to have fun at five in the–ack!"

Dinah, apparently having found her footing, cut the boy off with a mighty heave that tore him from his nest-bed and yanked him out into the morning air. But the girl's footing was not as sure as she might have thought, and with a sudden squawk she slipped on a wet patch and went over backwards. Both young ones wound up on the ground, tangled up with one another in a flurry of limbs.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Seeker Tempest had no choice but to chuckle at the sight. Such frivolity was not unheard of back in the Community, but it was so often relegated to the youngest members, not those who had already ostensibly begun to enter their maturity.

"Oi! Gettoff!" Lucas Albright was still caterwauling and struggling against the bigger girl, who now had the boy in a kind of headlock and was grinding her knuckles into his hair.

"Nuh-uh," Dinah laughed, "Not until ya say it! Say yer comin' huntin' with us! Say it!"

"Would you believe," the masculine voice of Matthew Albright said from beside and behind her, "that a week ago Dinah was the quietest thing you've ever seen?"

Seeker Tempest turned and made sure her disbelief was mirrored on her features plainly. "No," she said. "I would not."

"Me neither," Matthew Albright said, grinning. "But it's true. She was quiet as a mouse, almost like she was afraid of putting a foot wrong around us. And now look at her."

They both turned back to see Lucas break free of Dinah's hold. For a second Seeker Tempest thought the boy would flee, but then he stepped in close and his hands and legs performed a complex set of manuevers that even Seeker Tempest's eyes could not track, and suddenly Dinah was the one squawking as she was flipped through the air to land unceremoniously on her butt.

"What was that?" Seeker Tempest asked, leaning forward intently. "What just happened?"

"Aikido," Matthew Albright said. The syllables were foreign and buzzed strangely in her ears, and she turned to look askance at the bigger man.

"A martial art from my home world," he explained, seeing her look. "All the kids took it. It's a style of hand-to-hand combat that emphasizes throws and locks," he continued, probably still noticing her confusion. "Lucas was a first kyu–a high-ranked intermediate practitioner–and would have tested for his first Dan–the first rank of the 'experienced' practitioners–sometime next month probably."

Seeker Tempest pondered that for a second. "But he is using it in a playful way."

"He is. One of the things the art teaches is self control. It's why we enrolled the kids in it. It's good for discipline, and also for teaching them control and self-respect. He could go all out if he wanted, and in the right circumstances he could hurt Dinah pretty badly. But he knows how to control himself–"

He cut off as Dinah stood up, a fierce grin on her face, and started advancing on Lucas Albright with purpose.

"Wait, Dinah, I didn't mean that," Lucas Albright babbled as he started to back away, his hands held out defensively. "Hey, c'mon, truce, okay? Please?"

Seeker Tempest watched as Lucas Albright's pleading ended for naught, and the boy went sailing through the air to land heavily on the earth where Dinah threw him.

"You are all well-equipped for battle and slaughter," she said after a moment, more to herself than to the other man. "But you use those tools for play and fun. You could end me with a thought, but you expend energies and give of your limited supplies to make me comfortable and bring me back to health. You show me the secrets of your technology as if it were nothing, all because you want to make me comfortable around you."

She turned to face him finally, looking up into those clear honest eyes. His aura flicked and rose around him like a fortress, fierce, imposing, but a thing of protection and not of destruction.

"You truly are not like the Sojourners of the histories, are you?" she asked, knowing already the answer.

"I can't speak about those people," he said after a moment's consideration. "I've never met them, nor have I read your histories. But I know about Caesar, and no, me and my family are nothing like that monster. And we never will be, if I have anything to say about it."

She nodded. It was the answer she had been expecting. "I believe you. I would not have, a day ago. But… You are not careful with yourselves. You show who you are by action, deed, word, and simply by existing. At first I thought it a trick, but now…"

"Back on my world," he said, "we called it 'transparency.' This is who we are. We're not going to try and hide it. Life is too short for that." A small smile quirked the corner of his mouth. "Of course, it took us a little bit to figure that one out, I think. We're not perfect, we've got our troubles and our failure points and our bad habits and thoughts… But we try."

She nodded again, pondering his words. The elders of the Community would be aghast at what she was considering right now… But she also believed that, upon meeting and understanding these Sojourners, they would come around.

She had spent the last months seeking, desperately, for something she could bring back to the Community to atone for her thefts, to force them to undo the banishment they had inflicted upon her for her crimes. She had imagined, at that time, that she might find some forgotten piece of Tech she could bring back and add to the altars, something that would prove her worth once more to the Community so that she could be with her family again, and reside within the safety of its walls.

She had not imagined finding this.

"Matthew Albright," she said formally, and the change in her tone made one of his eyebrows raise. "I have a request for you."

"Lay it on me," he said easily.

"I… I come from a Community," she said slowly, haltingly, still not quite believing she was saying the words. "Far to the east."

"Yeah, I figured," he said.

She stutter-stopped and blinked at him. "You did?" she asked. "How?"

"Well, you had to come from somewhere, and we're about as far west as you can get. Plus, y'know, you did mention it a couple of times."

Seeker Tempest blink-blinked, and then felt her cheeks heat up. By all the technological marvels… She had, hadn't she? When he was showing her how to take apart the solar panels. Her tongue had slipped. More than once, now that she searched her memories. But…

But he had never once mentioned it to her. He had waited for her to bring it up. He had never once pushed her to reveal more of her secrets.

The realization firmed her spine.

"Yes, I guess I did," she said, plunging forward. "Well… I would like to introduce you to the elders there, if you are willing? I believe they could be staunch allies for you, once they know of your character and–"

"And the amount of cool gadgets we could show to them?" Matthew Albright asked with a knowing wink.

Her cheeks burned. "Yes. That as well. But not only that. They could be trading partners, teachers, a place of safety in times of trouble. I believe that, once they come to understand you, it could be a very beneficial mutual relationship."

The big man was silent for a time, considering her words. "Well," he finally said. "I don't see a down-side immediately… I'll have to talk it over with Allie, and bring the kids in on it too. But tentatively, I'd say that we'd be more than willing to open up a line of dialogue with them, if nothing else. Although," he added, eyeing her, "you'd probably need to come clean about why they kicked you out first. And what you'd get out of bringing us into the fold, so to speak."

Seeker blinked again, and her cheeks colored anew. Ah. Yes. She had never told him that, had she? Not yet.

Well. She was asking them to put themselves at risk. It was only fair she put the same consideration into the flame.

So, with a deep breath, she began to speak of herself, and her story.

And when she was done, there was no judgement, no condemnation, only understanding.

"We'll talk about it," Matthew Albright said, clapping her on the shoulder. "And in the mean time, let's see about getting you some breakfast, eh? Then we can hunker down and figure out what we're doing for the rest of the day."

And so another day in the presence of the mad Sojourners began.

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