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Nineteen
(09/06/06 0645 Colonial Camp, Clark’s Town, Tropic League)
“You’ve got that look again.” Naomi was smiling as she spoke. “Sir, I thought you weren’t going to cause trouble.”
Caradoc was watching the group of civilians mill around aimlessly. “I am the administrator, right? These people are my responsibility and do you think that if something happens to them I won’t be blamed?”
She sighed. “Of course we will. What are you going to do?”
“Only what I must. Veronica, find Lieutenant Cardenas and ask her to come here.”
“Yes sir.”
The valkyrie headed off purposefully as Caradoc turned to Shima. “We may have a fight when Hamilton decides I’ve usurped authority he doesn’t have yet, so give me Winona.”
The nightmare’s eyes lit up and she slid the onbuhimo off her back with an anticipatory smile. “Whatever you say, sir.”
“Don’t start anything.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Shima tugged her dress. “I can push it up over my hips before I transform, so I can keep it on until the fight.”
“I said we may have a fight.”
“A girl can hope, sir.”
Cardenas appeared with her sabretooth tigress and Veronica. “You wanted to see me?”
“As the current administrator, I have to get the colonists to the cache where they can be properly fed. We can make that before sundown and that’s my plan. Start breaking down the camp and send a pair of tamers to clear the route to the edge of town.”
The woman gave him a level look. “Hamilton won’t forgive this.”
“I’m screwed with him no matter what and I think you already know that.”
“What makes you think that I would know anything about that?”
“You’ve got more fighting types than random selection allows and the information I gave Commander Jordan would tell people that fighting types would have a better chance against most of my harem.”
Cardenas gave him a speculative look. “If I did know anything about a possible feud between you and Hamilton through a Tropic League councilman and if I were selected for the purpose of neutralizing any advantages you have, I’d be surprised that you are so willing to help get us to Falmouth.”
“I don’t want to be administrator, lieutenant. I just want run my farm and take care of my family. Montgomery is pissed at me because I wouldn’t hand my daughter over to him and his wife to raise as their own.” He glanced at the collection of colonists. “They’re the pawns in all of this, being sent to Falmouth before Montego Bay is ready to support a colony there. They have no idea just how much they’ve been screwed and I’m not going to make their life worse just because I know that the command elements of this colony were put together to try and punish me for not giving up my child.”
“You have a child? Why would Councilor Montgomery think he could take her?”
Caradoc turned around to present his back to Cardenas. “This is Winona, and she’s my daughter by Shima. I know she didn’t come from my sperm,” he turned around, “and I don’t care. I delivered her and she’s mine and I’ll be dead before anyone takes her from me.”
Shima nodded. “We all will.”
“Montgomery tried to take her from us because she’s a pokegirl, and therefore disposable.” Naomi didn’t sound happy.
Cardenas gave her sabretooth tigress an unreadable look. “I’m still sorry, Desiree.”
The pokegirl shrugged. Her voice was a low rumble and sounded neither sad nor happy. “Mistress, it was the best choice at the time. Unlike Master Caradoc, we have no home and there was no good way to raise them.” She looked at Caradoc, or more accurately through him to the pokekit hanging behind him, with a look of longing. “But someday, mistress, we will have a home and I will be pregnant again.”
Her tamer unconsciously touched the M on her forehead. “And then we’ll have children of our own.” Her eyes hardened and she turned back to Caradoc. “When the time comes, I won’t refuse his orders. I took an oath.”
Caradoc nodded. “I won’t give her up without a fight. I do hope that, at the end of all of this, you and Desiree are still alive. Now strike the camp and send out that patrol.”
“What about Hamilton?”
“I’ll roust him out.”
The lieutenant threw him a sharp salute. “Administrator, the patrol will go out immediately and the colonists will be ready to go in ten minutes.”
“What is your first name, lieutenant?”
She gave him a slightly confused look. “Belinda.”
“Belinda, be as gentle with them as you can, but get them moving. Let them know that as soon as they get to Falmouth, they’ll get a good meal.”
“I will, sir.”
She headed off at a deliberate pace as Caradoc turned to his ladies. “I’ll get Hamilton up. You three stay near to protect me if he loses his temper over it.”
Naomi snorted. “If he loses his temper?”
“Ok, when.” He headed for the tents as a pair of tamers and their pokegirls started north. Snores were coming from the center tent, but Bishop listened at the other two to make sure they were empty before returning to the middle tent. He flashed a grin at Naomi and thumped on the tent flap before speaking in a high feminine falsetto. “Mr. Hamilton, your breakfast is ready.”
Somebody coughed in the tent and then Hamilton called out in a sleepy voice. “Come back at eight after my alarm goes off.”
Caradoc silently counted slowly to ten and spoke again in the same falsetto. “Mr. Hamilton, your coffee will get cold.”
A beginning snore broke off with another cough. “What? Coffee? Just a minute.”
Shima had both hands clasped over her mouth to muffle her laughter as the sounds of movement came from inside the tent. Veronica’s shoulders shook and Naomi just gave Caradoc a sad shake of her head.
The tent flap was suddenly thrust open. Hamilton looked eagerly out of the tent, with his cheetaura and pia behind him, looking hopeful. “Where’s the coffee?”
Bishop gave him a wide smile and spoke in his normal voice. “It’s waiting for you at the Falmouth cache and the sooner we leave the sooner you can get some.” He looked at Veronica. “Pull the tent stakes and let’s get this thing ready to go.”
Hamilton’s eyes narrowed and his mouth twisted down. “You’re a fucking prick, you know that?”
“Not for you, I’m not. Just for my pokegirls. I’ve already issued instructions to get the civilians moving and sent out a patrol to clear the road to the edge of town. Now you can get dressed and we can pretend you gave those orders, or you can come out here in a rage and let people know you’re not in charge until you get to Falmouth and relieve me. Which is it going to be, keep your authority or look like an idiot? And before you order your pokegirls to punish me, they’ll have to go around you to reach me and Naomi and Shima will be all over them by that time.”
“You are a son of a bitch.”
“If I were, I wouldn’t be giving you the chance to save your dignity. We both know why you’re really here and having the colonists find out you’re not in charge after I had them fed is going to make you look really, really bad to the colonists and also to Montgomery, so get dressed and get out here.”
There was a grating noise as Veronica began hand pulling the stakes from the asphalt they’d been driven into. Hamilton poked Bishop in the chest hard enough to make him step back. “Your patron’s won’t protect you,” he hissed.
“That’s the difference between you and me. I don’t expect anyone to protect me except myself. Patrons have their own asses to cover and if you become too expensive to protect, Montgomery will jettison you without a second thought.” He looked up as the tent began to sag. “You might want get dressed before Veronica gets through pulling those stakes.”
Hamilton growled and disappeared into the tent. He reemerged a few minutes later. Leah and his pia followed him out, the cheetaura hauling a heavy pack. She dumped the pack and then she and the pia took down all three tents and rolled them up. In the hollow formed by the tents was revealed a phaeton road cart, a covered two wheeled cart with a sprung leather covered seat. The back of the cart had been draped with cargo netting and all three tents were quickly lashed to it. Then the cheetaura backed between the shafts and grabbed them in her hands before shifting to her centaur form.
Shima shook her head. “If carrying around that wagon with my hands was the alternative, sir, I’m glad we found the harness.”
Hamilton had been eating some bread and cheese. He looked up. “You have a wagon?”
“We did. A minotaura dismantled it in Falmouth when we were trying to get some tools for the colonists. The wreckage is still there. The wheels are still good, so you could probably build another one.”
“Why didn’t you rebuild it?”
“It didn’t happen that long ago and I don’t have the time right now. My farm is keeping me busy through all the daylight hours.”
Hamilton smiled slightly. “That’s good to hear. I’ll try not to keep you too late on the workdays.”
Bishop’s eyes narrowed. “I am a tradesman and I don’t live in Falmouth. I’m too busy to come to your workdays. Besides, I have to stay around to do radio duty every day.”
Hamilton didn’t look happy. “Maybe I’ll take the radio off your hands so you don’t have that as an excuse.”
“Please do. That thing wastes at least two hours every day that I could be doing something productive.”
“Oh.” Apparently Hamilton had been looking for another reaction besides agreement. “Then again, we’ll be very busy and I may not be able to free up anyone for a while.”
Bishop almost kicked himself when he realized he’d just talked his way out of getting rid of the radio. He shot Naomi an annoyed look. She smirked at him with amusement.
Hamilton missed the exchange as he climbed into the cart. “You take point so you can lead us to this cache you’re so proud of.” His pia climbed in and sat next to him as he pulled the cart whip from its holder and snapped it loudly. “Lieutenant Cardenas? I’m ready to go and I don’t see everyone else moving yet.”
Annoyance flickered across the lieutenant’s face and vanished as if it had never existed. “Yes sir.” She raised her voice. “Tamers, get them moving now!”
Shima pulled her dress up around her hips and shifted to her centaur form. “I don’t want that man looking at me anymore than necessary,” she muttered as Caradoc slid onto her back.
“I feel the same way,” he replied. “Naomi, Veronica, let’s go. Shima, I need to talk to the lieutenant.” She obligingly stopped next to Cardenas. “I’ll be up with the point. If there’s a problem, do you want us to help? I know we haven’t trained with your men and so we’ll keep out of the way if you want.”
Lieutenant Cardenas looked thoughtful as she watched the lead colonists heading out. “I’d prefer if you stayed out of the way,” she said finally. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.” She looked relieved at his words. “I think we’ll range on ahead of your leading element. We won’t be tied down watching the civilians and so we can move faster. If we see anything that you might have problems with, I’ll report back. That’ll also keep us out of the way of your people.”
“Thank you, Bishop.”
They headed out at a trot and quickly moved through the town and past the two point tamers in the van of the cavalcade. “Veronica, take to the air and get up to the cache. Warn the elves that we’re coming. When you get back, you’ll provide our aerial cover.”
“Yes sir.” The valkyrie summoned her wings and leapt into the air. At full speed, it would take her less than five minutes to reach the cache, so Caradoc expected her back before a half hour passed. Shima could have made the trip in two minutes but he wanted her and Naomi’s firepower available in case of trouble. He glanced back down the road. The speed of a convoy was determined by the slowest unit. A convoy of people was no different and he calculated that the expedition would proceed at around a mile an hour. There were no old people in the group, but there were several families with small children that were still too large to carry, and they would slow the group down.
“That cheetaura and ponytaur could pull wagons for the children,” Naomi observed quietly. “If they did, this wouldn’t take all day.”
“You’re thinking along the lines I am. It’s a pity the only wagon they have belongs to Hamilton. He seems unwilling to share.”
Shima twitched. “What do you think he’s going to try to do to us?”
“Honestly, he can’t do much. Jordan outranks him, so he can’t take the land or my tradesman status away from us, which means our pokegirls are safe. He might try to make it hard for us to do business in Falmouth, but I don’t see much else he can do and we can always sell our wares somewhere else. He was probably sent out to try to find something to hang us with, but we’re not breaking any of the league’s laws and we’ll be doubly certain not to do anything like that while he’s watching us.”
“I hope you’re right.”
(09/06/06 1830 Falmouth, Tropic League)
Caradoc unlocked the door to the cache and stepped inside, closely followed by Lieutenant Cardenas. The room was filled with hastily made crates and baskets made of native grasses and banana leaves. He picked up a clipboard from where it rested on the closest crate. “Here’s the inventory of the supplies and tools we put together. The numbers on the manifest match the ones we burned on the sides of the crates or baskets, so you can know what’s where without having to inventory the room again. Unless you’ve got several pokegirls who eat a lot, like snorlasses, there should be full rations for a hundred people for thirty days. By then my farm will have produced enough that we’ll be able to support the colony until it can get its own crops into production.” He smiled broadly. “I’ll even keep prices reasonable.”
Cardenas gave him a curious look as she flipped a page on the clipboard. “Who paid for all of this? We don’t have any money right now.”
“It’s taken care of.” When she gave him a suspicious look he grinned. “You’ll be happy to know that Commander Jordan already paid for it. He is the commander of the region and wants to make sure that Falmouth gets as much help when it’s starting out as possible.”
“You did all of this?”
His expression was filled with quiet pride. “My farm has come a long way and I’m happy to be able to say that we did provide all of this except for the tools, which we gathered in Falmouth.”
She looked around the room and tucked the clipboard under her arm. “You have every reason to be proud of what you’ve accomplished. We’ll probably be doing a lot of business with you while we’re getting established. Is it true you’re making beer?”
“I don’t have any way to bottle it, but I’ve got some kegs brewing right now.”
“That’ll sell well.”
He chuckled. “I hope so. Do you need anything not on the list?”
She smiled slightly. “That’s not free too, is it?”
“No.”
“Then I’m sure we’re fine.”
“I take gold and other valuables in trade. You can collect a lot of that from Falmouth itself.”
Cardenas looked surprised. “I’ll remember that. It’ll help the civilians if they want to buy from you.” She took the key and headed for where Hamilton was sitting in some shade. “Sir, we have food for everyone for about a month along with some miscellaneous supplies.”
She offered the clipboard to Hamilton, who took it and flipped quickly through the pages. He looked up. “Good. We’ll start the settling on this side of Falmouth and move north as we clear the town. Make it happen, lieutenant.” He looked at Bishop. “Mr. Bishop, you are hereby relieved as administrator of Falmouth.” He smiled broadly. “Get out of my city and don’t come back until I call for you.”
Cardenas turned and stared at Hamilton in shock as Bishop nodded coolly. “I stand relieved.” He nodded to Cardenas. “Lieutenant.” He headed for the spot where his pokegirls were standing alertly. When he joined them, he shook his head slowly. “Well, I’ve been relieved and told to go home. It’s the first thing he’s said that I agree with, so let’s go home.”
He slid onto Shima’s back. “Veronica,” he pointed upwards with his thumb, “get where you belong.”
“Yes sir.”
The valkyrie vaulted into the air as Naomi climbed up behind him. “Straight home?”
“I thought we’d stop briefly so the elves could catch up.”
She looked embarrassed. “You saw them?”
When her twee comes online, she’ll understand about motion analysis. “Yes, I did. I thought we agreed they’d leave when the colonists showed up.”
“I never agreed to that and they volunteered to stay in case we had problems with Hamilton.” She smiled at the look he gave her. “They did volunteer. Honest.”
Shima glanced over her shoulder. “Before or after you ordered them to volunteer.” She snickered when irritation flashed across Naomi’s face. “You need to try that ‘honest’ crap with someone who doesn’t know you as well as we do.”
“I’ll remember that.”
(09/07/06 1000 Bishop Farm, Tropic League)
Caradoc looked up at the strange sound that seemed to be getting louder and louder. “Dadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadada!” A small black blur came barreling around the corner of the house and jumped at him. It hit him in the chest hard enough to knock him off his feet and he curled around it as he hit.
He rolled to his feet, clutching Winona to him as she buried her face in his shirt. “You ok, little one?” She shivered as something larger pounded towards the house from the same direction she’d run.
He turned to face it as it raced around the house and skidded to a halt, snorting as it sucked air. It was Gina. The milktit kit stared at Winona in expectation and then looked up at him. She stomped a foot. “Play!” Winona trembled in his arms at the voice.
Bishop shook his head and transferred the nightmare pokekit to one arm while he pointed at the sugarcane fields with his free one. “Go find the herd, Gina, and leave Winona alone.”
Gina scowled. “Play,” she insisted. “Want play!”
“Go play with the herd, Gina.” Caradoc advanced on her. “Go!” For a second he could see her debate whether or not to challenge his authority before she turned and headed for the sugarcane at a trot.
He stroked his daughter’s back and hair. “It’s ok, Winona. She was pretty scary, huh?” He kept his tone deliberately light. “I don’t think she would have deliberately tried to hurt you.” The child slowly relaxed against him as he spoke. “Yes, I’ll protect you from the mean milktits.”
“Does she need protected from us?” Caradoc looked up. It was Bess. Her ears twisted to point at him as she canted her head quizzically.
“Gina wanted someone to play with and picked Winona, scaring her. Right now I’m just reassuring her that she’s safe.”
Bess’ eyes hardened. “I’ll take care of Gina.” Her tail lashed angrily. “Better me than Ann. Ann wants to impress you and that might make her be a little too severe with Gina.”
“She just wanted to play. She’s a kid and she’s never been anything other than feral. I don’t think she intended to hurt anyone.”
“Are you sure that’s what you want? If I don’t correct her, she’ll think she can do this sort of thing.”
“I don’t want her spirit broken, and she doesn’t yet understand about how Winona is a lot younger than she is.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, sir.” The milktit eyed Winona fondly before giving him a curious look. “Will we be allowed to have more kits?”
“Yes, you will.”
“That will be nice. I can’t replace the ones that I lost, but someday I’d like to have more babies.”
“If you stay here, you will.”
“Why would we go somewhere else? I’ve talked to Naomi and she’s told me about how pokegirls are treated elsewhere. So I don’t have a male of my own. If I absolutely need one, Naomi has promised that you’ll be available for me. Of course, she’ll make sure I need you first, but I wouldn’t want share either if I were her. In the meantime, I’m not feral anymore and I have a good home.” She glanced in the direction of the sugarcane fields. “I’ll try to explain to Gina what she did wrong. She is old enough that she should understand about scaring little ones. If she doesn’t, I’ll get Cindy to scare her and see how she likes it.”
“Thank you, Bess.”
“Ann is your lead ‘tit, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be useful. Besides, if someone does hurt Winona, Shima will skin all of us and Cindy won’t even slow her down.” She smiled slowly. “But I know that if someone hurts Gina or any of the other kits, you’ll do the same to whoever injured them.”
“I’ll hurt anyone who injures you, Ann or Cindy, too. Anyone on my farm is mine to protect.”
Bess blinked and her ears flicked. She smiled. “I was hoping you’d say that. My first male wouldn’t protect me like that. Thank you.” She turned and headed for the cane patch.
Caradoc watched her go, idly enjoying the view of her hips swaying beneath the skirt the three adult milktit evolutions had adopted. He shook himself back to the present and looked down at his daughter. “All better?”
She looked up at him and then twisted in his grip to look around before she smiled and cuddled against his chest. “Dada.”
“Don’t you dada me. I wonder how much of that was you wanting to play until Gina got scary.” He sighed when she giggled and cuddled back against him. “Let’s go find your mother and see if she knows what happened to your diaper, you little naked hellion.”
Shima was at the area that was euphemistically called the forge. She had some pieces of scrap stainless steel and was using a short jet of flame to try and learn how to braze them together. From the expression on her face, it wasn’t going well. “What do you want?”
“Why don’t you give that up for today and spend some time with me?” He held up Winona, who giggled. “Look what I caught.”
“Mama!”
Shima put the metal down and chuckled softly. “You can keep her.”
“I intend to.” He watched as the nightmare unlocked a cabinet drawer and pulled out a bar of soap. They had to lock the bars up or soap would disappear. Watching her wash her hands reminded him of something. “I want to check on the press and the leach.”
Shima looked over her shoulder at him and grinned. “As long as I’m not trying to weld what you want to look at, I’m all for it.” She put the soap away and took her daughter from him. “I thought she was playing with the milktit kits.”
“Gina scared her and she bolted for me.”
“Ah.” Shima quickly checked her daughter over. “Apparently nobody got hurt.”
“Nope. Do you know what happened to her diaper?”
“I took it off. She’s learned to hold it and where to go to the bathroom. She even has her own smaller chamber pot in the house.” She bumped his shoulder with hers. “It’s still an experiment, so I didn’t bring you and my sisters in to witness the new event.”
While he wasn’t sure he really needed to see his daughter pee, if Shima invited him to, he would see it, and he’d pretend it was the event of the century. Still, he was impressed with her progress. “Her development is extraordinary.” Caradoc shook his head in amazement. “I wonder if all kits are as precocious.”
Shima shrugged. “We’ll eventually find out after the elf kits are born and Naomi gives you an elfqueen or four.” She smirked. “And some milktit kits and avariel and valkyrie kits. There will be more nightmares, too.”
Pokegirls typically give birth to between two and four offspring.
“Sounds like I may accidentally end up with a pokegirl ranch. We’ll need a school.”
“I’ll tell Naomi so she can add it to her lists and agonize over it for a while.” Shima didn’t sound concerned. “It’ll do her good to worry about something else.”
They headed for the edge of farm closest to the river, and just inside the sugarcane belt. Here a sat wooden barrel that had been placed up on bricks so that it stood a good three feet off of the ground. A hole had been drilled into the side of it about an inch above the bottom of the barrel and then plugged with a wooden taper. Inside the barrel, the bottom six inches had been filled with tightly packed hay and tamped down before adding more hay until the mass was almost solid. Trimmings from the fruit trees had been burned by themselves in a cook fire and the ashes had been dumped into the barrel until about three inches of ash rested on top of the hay plug. Rainwater had been added until the ash was the consistency of thin mud and the process repeated over and over until the barrel was almost full. Then the lid had been put on it. The ash would steep for a week, during which time the soft water would leach the potassium hydroxide or KOH from the ashes. At the end of the week, the plug would be removed and the water drained. The hay would act like a filter, keeping the ash in the barrel while letting the lye filled water escape to be collected. Lye was a powerful caustic base and had a lot of uses around a farm, including bleaching, a future biodiesel project Bishop was kicking around in his head, and soap making.
The ash mud would be dumped to dry and then spread around the farm as fertilizer.
Soap also required oil or fat to make oil, and typically animal fat was used as a supply. Unfortunately, after the Red Plague, the number of fat producing animals had dropped precipitously and so to make soap would require another supply. However, one was already at hand.
The visit to the Appleton Estate had scared up a small fruit press that they’d been experimenting with for making wine. Caradoc had cheerfully appropriated it from the vacant complex and it now sat near the lye barrel.
One of the fruit trees in great abundance around Jamaica was the avocado, or as the locals called it, the alligator pear. While most fruit and vegetable oils came from pressing seeds, avocado oil came from pressing the meat of the avocado and so a fruit press would work for this. They’d already processed about a ton of avocado and the oil was stored in a shed to keep it cool and out of the light. The inedible cake formed in the press had been dried and crumbled into pellets of high protein material that was fed to the fish in the river to bring them around the traps. It also served as a lure for water pokegirls and regularly feeding them would make them easy to capture.
Milktit could also eat it, but Caradoc was beginning to think the bovine pokegirl could metabolize tire rubber if the situation demanded it. So far he hadn’t seen anything they couldn’t eat, although each of them did evidence different preferences in what feed they consumed. He even suspected that, in fact, they could eat the soap, too.
To make the soap, the alligator pear oil would be heated in a cauldron and the lye water would be slowly added in a rough ratio of one part lye water to two and a tenth parts oil or around thirty two percent. The resulting mixture would be then slowly boiled while being stirred until it thickened to the point that a line of soap dripped across the top slowly sank back into the mix. Then the soap would be ladled into lightly oiled long rectangular wooden molds and put in the shed to cure for a couple of weeks. After being cut into bars, any extra soap would be sold on their merchanting trips.
After being used on the avocados, the press had been carefully cleaned. Later it would be used to press fruit juice for drinking and sale. The juice would also be used to flavor some of the rum if he could ever get the kinks worked out of that project.
Shima bit her lower lip as she stared at the press. “I’m sorry about the distillation column.”
“It’s ok. I think we’ll drop the idea of using stainless steel and focus on copper tubing instead. That should be easier to braze. I’ve heard that the bauxite mine here on Jamaica will be producing brazing rods, so we can go that route instead and see what happens.”
Caradoc had wanted a stainless steel distillation column, but without access to modern welding and brazing techniques, he had to make do. In any case, copper would work almost as well and a lot of buildings in Falmouth had copper pipe in their walls, making acquiring a supply of pipe for the construction process easier than stainless tubing.
“What about Naomi’s winter wine idea?”
Bishop shrugged. “If nothing else, we will go that route, but quality control can be kind of difficult if we use your ice beam to freeze the water in the beer to concentrate the alcohol and make ice beer. Although, I’m beginning to think that may be a good way for us to produce medicinal alcohol.”
A crimson eyebrow shot up. “We’re living on a farm in the middle of nowhere and you’re concerned about quality control?”
He gave her a slightly huffy look. “I see no reason to make crap just because we’re living on a farm. We happen to be establishing our personal reputation as well as the farm’s reputation right now and one for making substandard products is not going to be a part of either of them.”
She blinked. “I hadn’t thought about it that way.”
“You need to. It’s your farm, too, and you’ve got as much to lose as anyone else does. If we don’t establish a reputation for honesty and quality goods from the beginning, Hamilton will eventually find a way to tear us down and, when he does that, I won’t be able to protect anyone, much less you and Winona.”
Shima looked shocked. “I,” she broke off and looked down at her daughter. “I’m sorry.”
He stroked her cheek. “I’m not upset about it, Shima. I just don’t want to lose you or anyone else that I’ve given my protection to.” He stared at the barrel without really seeing it, his hand dropping away. “I lost my entire family before coming here. Brothers, sisters, mothers and both of my fathers all died in a single day. We’ve built a family here, and for me it’s a new chance, even if this time I’m the one in charge and I never realized just how much work my mother did.” His head turned and he looked at her with a hint of desperation in his eyes. “I don’t know if I can lose this one and survive it. I really don’t want to find out if I can.”
“You won’t have to.” Shima slipped his arm around her waist and pulled it tightly against her body. “We are not going anywhere without you.”
“I want that to be true. You have no idea how much I want that.”
“It is true, Caradoc.”
(09/07/06 1400 Bishop Farm, Tropic League)
Lithop shaded her eyes and picked up her bow. “Sir, we have strangers coming up the road from the direction of town. I’ll warn the others.” The elf glanced at him and stepped deeper into the sugarcane before vanishing from his gaze.
Caradoc shook his head. “That’s a neat trick. I would have sworn there wasn’t enough cover for her to do that.”
It is likely a part of the magic that elves can wield. I’m contacting Naomi through the pokedex she carries.
“Yeah, that’s what I think, too.” He began jogging in the direction of the road and cursed silently when he saw the cheetaura pulling the cart towards the farm. Just like before, Hamilton and his pia rode in the cart. This time, however, a tamer Bishop didn’t know rode the ponytaur behind them. “Vector her in to me.”
It’ll be a couple of minutes, but she and Veronica are on their way.
He stopped in the middle of the road and waited for the cart. “Good afternoon, Administrator Hamilton.”
Hamilton was looking around what he could see of the farm with a stunned expression. “You did all of this?” For an instant, undisguised greed shone in his eyes. Then he gave Caradoc a wary look and it vanished.
“My harem helped,” Bishop said dryly. “We’ve been very busy ever since we got out here.”
“I want a tour.”
Bishop frowned mentally at the tone which brooked no dissent and then nodded. Maybe it would help. “Have Leah pull the cart up to the house and we’ll take a walk around the farm.”
Hamilton shook his head. “I want to stay in my cart.”
“If you’re not going to walk then you don’t get a tour. I’m not going to have you digging wagon ruts in my crops. I can show you a lot from here, though.”
Hamilton gave him a cool look. “I am the administrator and you will call me sir, or I’ll have you horsewhipped.”
Do not provoke him! Caradoc took a deep breath. “I’ll keep that in mind, sir.”
“I’m glad to see you can be taught.” Hamilton turned to the man on the ponytaur. “Brett, stay here and get an inventory of the farm. I’ll want it first thing in the morning.”
“Yes, administrator.”
Hamilton pulled the whip from the holder and tapped the cheetaura on the back. “To town, Leah, and don’t spare the cats.” He laughed as the pokegirl turned the cart around and headed back towards town at a brisk walk.
Brett slid off of his ponytaur. “I’m Brett Warner. The lieutenant told me to treat you with respect and said you do the same for me.”
“I’m Caradoc Bishop and I will.” Caradoc spotted Naomi headed towards them at a dead run. “My elfqueen is about to make an appearance, so don’t be surprised or attack.” He nodded in her direction and Brett and the ponytaur turned to look.
“Damn, she’s in a hurry.”
“It seems like every time I’m alone and meet a strange pokegirl, I get hurt. She’s tired of it.” He waved and look of relief crossed her face as she slowed to a trot. “What’s your ponytaur’s name?”
“Corrine, turn back to human.” He smirked at Bishop. “She’s a good girl, both to have around and in the sack.”
“That’s good to hear. Naomi is my alpha.”
Brett nodded. “I heard you had more than one pokegirl.” He gave Bishop an expectant look.
“I’ve got three. Naomi the elfqueen, Shima the nightmare and Veronica the valkyrie are my harem. I’ve also got a daughter out of Shima. Her name is Winona. Are you done yet, or would you like to keep fishing for facts you already know.”
Naomi halted next to him. “Is this our visitor, sir?”
“This is Brett Warner. I’m afraid you missed the administrator. He wanted to find the ranch and then return to town. Mr. Warner here is supposed to take an inventory of the farm.”
The elfqueen’s eyes narrowed. “I see, sir. What you see is what you get.” She gave him a quick glance.
He nodded to let her know he agreed that Warner wouldn’t get to see and inventory the other pokegirls. “That’s right. Why don’t you go on up to the house and get the key for the radio room while Mr. Warner and I start here and work our way around the farm counterclockwise. We’ll have Corrine to watch out for us.”
The elfqueen’s emerald hair moved in counterpoint to her head as she nodded. “I’ll take care of it. Veronica will be along in a moment, sir. Please try not to get hurt before she arrives.” Suddenly a smile bloomed on her face. “Afterwards, either, if you don’t mind.”
“I’ll do my best.” He turned to Warner as she went running towards the house to instruct the other pokegirls as to where to hide. A flash of white zipping through the air towards them informed him that Veronica would indeed arrive in seconds. “Shall we begin with the outer defenses?”
Caradoc Bishop - Tirsuli human
Naomi - elfqueen
Shima - nightmare
Veronica - valkyrie
Winona - nightmare pokekit