Colonies of U'u'kata

Chapter 23 - Always a Soldier

"Being tired makes me clumsy," Ezra said with a yawn.

Delleth glanced back at him appreciatively, but didn't say anything until they were out of earshot of the Tilith.

"An Uu'k'asht male would have blamed me for the mess so the others could make fun of me to teach me a lesson," Delleth said quietly.

"And what lesson do you feel you learned from those males when they did that?" Ezra asked as they moved around the bowl of a huge tree with snaking roots.

The boy shrugged. "I don't know. To be more careful so I don't get made fun of?"

"So, you learned to be more careful so you don't get made fun of. You didn't learn to be more careful so that you didn't have to repeat a task... what were you doing with a bucket of mud anyway?" he asked as the sound of running water came to his ears.

Delleth shrugged and hedged before saying, "Bakoh told me to... collect mud so we could use it to, uh, put fires out."

Ezra narrowed his eyes at the kid's back. "Delleth," he said slowly, "why did that sound like a lie?"

"It's right here. Just down this little game trail. It's really pretty, you'll love it," Delleth said, completely avoiding the question.

"Delleth," Ezra said warningly.

"See? Look!"

Ezra sighed and looked around the kid to see the river ahead and a series of waterfalls coming down a short cliff face that filled several potholes the size of hot tubs. As the river lead away from the falls, he could see a few cutoff meanders and a narrow oxbow lake.

It was absolutely beautiful.

"Wow, Delleth. How did you find this?" Ezra asked as his eyes roamed over the blue and purple-leaved trees at the far shore and the pools near the falls. As he watched, a bunch of flowers detached from one tree, and drifted to the next. A phenomenon that still tried to twist his brain when he saw it. Self-pollinating flowers!

"Bakoh brought me and... uh, mom. That's the word, right? Mom?"

Ezra nodded. "Yes, kid. She's your mom. I'm glad you remembered! I'm proud of you!"

The boy absolutely beamed at the praise before continuing. "Well, he took me and mom here just after Rhythm took you away last night. He wanted us to help him gather buckets of water."

"So, water. Not mud?"

The boy's smile dropped and he glanced to the left, then shrugged a shoulder. "Well, he didn't need the mud yet," he said lamely before walking toward the river.

"The water's not too cold. Since I messed up your clothes, I'll scrub them for you while you wash up," he said without looking back.

Ezra narrowed his eyes at the kid again. Why did he feel like Delleth was up to something?

But his eyes were drawn back to the beautiful river and he realized he hadn't actually bathed in a few days. He must stink pretty bad. Maybe Delleth's bucket of mud was his way of getting Ezra to take a bath without telling him he stunk.

With a sigh, Ezra made his way toward the waterfalls, pulling his shirt over his head as he went. Delleth took his shirt, following him as he stepped out of his boots and pulled off his socks. The kid gathered each piece of clothing and Ezra was aware of his eyes roaming over the tattoos on his flesh and he expected the kid to pepper him with questions. Instead, he just quietly took his clothes and went to one of the pools and started scrubbing the mud out.

Ezra watched him for a moment before dipping a toe into the water and moving to the waterfalls. The river ran shallow over the stone here and seemed to only be waist-high at its deepest point so making his way along wasn't difficult as the current wasn't strong enough to drag at him. Taking a deep breath as the roar of the water filled his ears, he stepped carefully into the depression under the gentlest of the falls. One that burbled over a stone shelf. The cool water hit him with a jolt and he shivered as it washed over his body, rinsing away days of grime and travel dirt. He scrubbed his fingers through his hair before moving to the backside of the fall and taking a deep breath.