Anarchist Knight:Apprentice

"Ok", he said, but was already thinking about kidding Rafe and went looking for him.

Tobal roamed the gathering spot talking and mingling with his friends and other clansmen. Everyone seemed friendlier then last month. He spent time talking with Wayne and separately with Char.

Wayne was a burly salt of the earth type that was friendly and open. He and Char had been the first one’s to welcome Tobal into the clan and make him feel wanted. He always made a point to speak with them and see how they were doing. Wayne had one chevron because he had trained Char. They had stayed together over the past winter and summer but there were growing problems. They both needed to train newbies and didn’t want to loose each other as romantic partners. Char wanted to leave and train someone else over the winter.

"I think she’s tired of me and doesn’t love me any more", Wayne complained to Tobal. "She wants another boyfriend. If she thinks she can do that, I’ll rip his head off." Wayne stamped his foot on the ground in anger. "I don’t want to share her with anyone else."

Tobal didn’t really know what to say since his own track record with girls wasn’t that good. He patted Wayne on the shoulder and tried calming him down.

"Hey, things might not be all that bad", he said. "Tell you what. I’ll go over and talk with Char and see what’s up. Will that help?"

"Thanks Tobal, I’d really appreciate that." "I owe you one", he said.

Tobal went looking for Char about the same time Tara walked by with Nick. She was getting him pumped up about his coming solo. Tobal thought he knew what was on her mind but it wasn’t any of his business so he kept his mouth shut. He remembered going up to her one night after seeing her dancing naked at the drum circle after ritual. There was no doubt she was hot and liked to have men look at her. Under ordinary circumstances he might have been inclined to take up her offer to spend the winter. Nick was old enough to look out for himself.

"There you are", he called out as he caught up with Char at the roasting pit where she was cooking a monstrous venison roast. Char was a stout round faced blond and the best cook in the entire camp. Her cooking was legendary and this roast was no exception. It looked and smelled wonderful. A roast that size took several people to handle and there were five or six others taking turns watching the roast, turning it as needed and coating it with spices and sauces. There were three fire pits with different things cooking in each one. The cooks kept an eye on all of them and helped each other as needed.

"Need any help?" He asked with a smile.

"Sure, turn this for a quarter turn and hold it if you would. It’s not balanced right and that spot never gets cooked enough."

Tobal did as directed and levered the roast around. She had been right, it was not balanced properly and wanted to fall back to it’s original position.

"There’s got to be a way to hold this in place", he complained. "Do you have any rope around?"

He let the roast drop back to it’s original position and rummaged around for some lashing material and a long pole. He set the pole up with the lashing material so it worked like a very long handle that would spin the roast. It was not pretty but it did lock the roast in several new positions for more even cooking.

"I talked with Wayne", he ventured cautiously.

Char sighed, "I’ve been out here for one year and I still haven’t trained anyone. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life living in a teepee. Wayne doesn’t understand that. He’s like a big child yet. He thinks this Daniel Boone stuff is fun." "Well, I don’t",she said". " I’d like a regular bath with warm water and soap, nice clothes and both of us leading a normal life, even having kids some day. I love Wayne and want to spend the rest of my life with him, but I don’t love him enough to spend it out here. We both need to train six people and get to the next level of training."

" I understand", Tobal told her. "I’m trying as hard as I can to train people. I want to be a citizen and don’t have any intention of living this way the rest of my life."  He added, "I’ve often wondered when the two of you were going to start training newbies. I knew you were in love but it seemed like it couldn’t just go forever without training people. Maybe you can talk to Wayne like you did to me and let him know how important it is for you to start training. Winter is a hard time to train anyone though."

"Yes, I suppose I’d better try talking with him again", she sighed "but he is slow as an ox at times. He’s a Taurus you know."

"So am I", Tobal grinned at her. "Well I’d better be going. I think circle is about to start and I want to be there."

He gave her a hug and a kiss and walked back toward the circle. If she was talking about kids he didn’t think Wayne really had much to worry about.

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