44 Protest (2)

"Let's go somewhere more private. We can't trust anyone here," Lael said.

The men walked back to their tent and sat down. Uri motioned for Lael to continue.

"Our little lady is being forced to complete hard labor for this tribe," Lael said in the low voice that couldn't be overheard. "Her finger was cut and her hands are filled with numerous scratches. I even saw that some of her tender skin is unnaturally red. They are forcing her to stay in the sun for too long."

"What are they making her do? Clear rocks from pathways?"

"Are they making the little lady pick out the thistles from the undergrowth out from clothes?"

"No, nothing like that yet. They are making her weave a basket." A long pause ensued.

Uzzi then continued for Lael, "Last night they had her doing the cooking and serving men, and after I saw her picking up after them. Who do these people think they are to make the little lady do these things for them?"

"Ara is too delicate for tasks like this. If she was already injured from a blade of grass who knows what will happen when they give her more work," Lael said.

"But how can you stop her?" Uri asked. "The little lady is stubborn and will do the tasks that the villagers ask of her."

"We can make sure she can't do anything," Launch said.

"What do you mean?" Uzzi asked.

"Well we just have to make sure that there is nothing for her to do," Launch explained. "Since we left the capital, we have done all of the chores and looking after her. So why can't we just keep doing that? That way we will be sure that nothing happens."

The others thought this over and thought that it was doable. There were four of them, and it was only for today. Tomorrow they would get Elon back and leave this place.

The four large grown men marched their way into the village, making the women all turn their heads in surprise. They were not used to seeing the men at this time of day. The four of them found where A-Narah was sitting. Uzzi bent down and snatched the unfinished basket from her hands.

"I will finish this for you little lady," Uzzi said to her.

With her jaw hanging open A-Narah looked at him incredulously. "What?"

"Let me do something for you as an apology," he said.

A-Narah reached out her hand to grab more grass to start another basket, but before she could touch it, the grass was all snatched up by Uri.

"I have an interest in learning this too. Ara, maybe you could guide me?"

"Okay?" Feeling confused A-Narah did as her friends asked and taught them what she had learned earlier that day. The sight of Uzzi and Uri, two gruff large warriors, weaving baskets was extraordinarily odd. It was as out of place as a duck walking into the desert with a cane and hat, and then speaking fluently in the tongue of man. It was inconceivable. A-Narah felt like she had entered another dimension as she watched them, a bit horrified.

"Ara, do you mind getting the laundry? It will need to be hung soon," one of them women asked when she saw that A-Narah was free. Agreeing to the request A-Narah rose and headed off in the direction of the pool. When she got there to get the laundry, she found that Launch was already there and holding all of the baskets.

"Launch, I can take those. I was asked to do it."

"That's alright little lady," he said. "I got it. You don't need to worry about it." Before A-Narah could say more Launch had already sped off with the baskets of clothes.

"What is going on?" A-Narah whispered to herself. The rest of the day anytime. She went to pick up something or do something. One of her four friends would beat her to it and already be doing it.

When she went to go help prepare for lunch, Lael had shooed her away. He had already finished all of the prep and she knew nothing about cooking so she would be no help there.

When she was asked to help feed the animals, Uri had come by and said that he would do it. He had to take care of the horses anyway.

When she had gone to help change one of the dirty nappies that one of the children was wearing, Launch had run up and told her that this wasn't something to do until she was married. No changing boy's diapers until she had one of her own.

The entire say was spent in this way. The string of coincidences of the men taking her tasks had put her in disbelief and suspicious. Finally, Feme pulled her aside and sat her down. "It doesn't happen often that the men will do the women's tasks. So just sit back and enjoy it while you can. It's a nice break for us."

"But why are they doing it?"

"You shouldn't question such things. When a beautiful apple lands in your lap, do you ask why it is there? No, you just eat and enjoy it. So let us enjoy this juicy apple to our content."

"If you say so, but all of this is perplexing," A-Narah said sitting back.

"If you really must, question it later. Don't ruin it yet. I'm sure that they will stop at some point."

For the rest of the day the men were too busy completing the chores that A-Narah might do, that they had failed to notice that she had stopped doing any at all. In fact, many of the women had stopped doing the chores. They waited for one of the men to come by, and then handed off their work to them. The women found this amusing and the men were doing good work, so they just sat back and let this be.

By the end of the day the four men were more tired than they would have been from one of their training sessions.

"My God, women do all of this? If women were trained in combat just how strong would they be?" Launch wheezed out.

"What do you mean? The only reason they don't join is because if they did there would be no survivors. You got to give both sides a chance," Uri said as he laid down on the ground.

Uzzi moaned in agreement besides them.

"I don't think even Ira could stop them," Lael grimaced, rubbing his sore muscles.

The view the men had of women had been completely overturned. Women were much more formidable than they had thought before. What they hadn't seemed to realize yet was that the four of them had done an entire day's work for a village. Which, numerous women would usually take their time throughout the day to accomplish. They had yet to realized that their plan had worked against them and that they had been unapologetically used by the women of the tribe.