Chapter 8: Chapter 7: Reaching the Republic

I was awake as soon as there was some daylight and the bird start singing. Freya still lay on my lower body, hugged me tightly, and snorted.

Who was cute, now? Although I was hugging her warm body as well with my front paws ...

I fished the last carrot from the bag and blew off the ants. I ate it slowly, enjoying each bite while listening to the bird songs. Nothing to worry about. There was a light mist between the trees. It was a fresh spring morning out of a tourist ad, or rather out of a fairy tale.

Still, Freya's overgrown teddy bear needed to go. I gently rolled her on her coat via my good left side. She slept on, certainly not an early morning person.

Then I stand up very carefully. The skin on the right hind flank was tight, the blood had formed a lump with the fur. It hurt but much less than yesterday. Moving the few steps to relieve myself, washing my face in the creek and drinking something was no problem. The pain did not change, it was still very noticeable but not ripping.

When I came back, the sudden lack of Kiara had done the trick: Freya was awake and called something incomprehensible to me. She shook her head again and went also to the creek for the morning wash and to drink.

I had tried the leaves of a nearby bush, but these were bland. No other low branches with leaves around but only dry beach leaves on the ground, and those were tasteless, cardboard-like. (Not sure how cardboard would taste to me now. Could I tell, oh, freshly made from northern firs, or uh, three times recycled wobbly trash?) Lacking something else, I munched half of the second bread. I don't think dieting will become ever an issue in my future, I was still hungry.

When Freya came back, I put on my cutest face with a big smile. "Freya, Good Morning. Coming, riddening big cat wait."

She giggled and patterned my back. "You are impossible. Wound first."

She did a long inspection. "Ok, seems really much better. But I would not mind walking."

"I thinked you more hugging fur loving?"

Freya blushed deeply.

"Come here, big cat riding!"

She got up. "Please, tell me you are just mocking me."

"Sorry, I no speaking well?"

"No, and you know it!" Thus, the language lesson continued, successfully distracting me from the pain in the hind flank.

* * *

This sun was already past noon and it was hot even in the woods when we came again to vineyards. A hot wind was blowing uphill from another wide valley, which curved from west to north.

Freya's spirit was high. "This is Ratern valley, Republic. We can reach Ratern tonight if we can keep this pace."

"Only me walking", I pointed out.

"Sorry. But I really look forward to it. A big town, you will like it."

I had no issues with the village and the outdoor camping so far. For an ex-city dweller, I had grown rather fond of nature in the last few days. Untamed, fresh, unspoiled, pleasant, at least in this season. Not sure, if I will like the towns. Especially medieval towns with open sewers, rats, the Plague, burning witches and other pleasantries. Yes, the urban middle ages needed urgent work on its appeal if they would be like back in my world. And now, I must be careful with this huge body, not to step on someone's foot or clear a shop display accidentally with my tail.

"You worry about going downhill? I will walk, so you can rest the leg a little."

Well, I had not thought of that, but she was right. Downhill put quite some strain on the legs, although mostly the front legs. But braking on the occasional gravel patch required full traction effort and sent a sharp pain up the right hind leg.

Hence, we descended slowly the sandy paths along the side of the vineyards until we reached the upper end of a village. It was very different from the villages before, it felt almost like a town. It was much larger, with more than fifty houses, stone houses, or wooden framework second level on top of a ground floor with stone walls. Most of them with two levels or more. A big manor was looking over the village, clearly heralding the wealth of its owner. Or, as Freya explained, the wealth of the vineyards. Most villages belong to one family. Republic did not mean a lack of nobility, as I had falsely assumed. Thinking harder, wasn't even antique Rome a Republic, despite having slaves and an emperor? At least this Republic had no slavery, which was outlawed and no bondmen either.

The roads in the village were narrow, maybe fitting a cart at best. People gave way when we approached. But I would do as well in their situation, when a huge cat taur with her rider faces me in a narrow way, with dried blood on her hind flank. After some turning left and right, we came to the market square. It was triangular with a gradient even across the paved area. At the valley side at the tip of the triangle, there was a temple, no questions, eight columns in a semi-circle with a dome above. But it was way too small to fit more than a few citizens, just the size of a house. A few stalls were open in the afternoon heat,

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More important for me was the large fountain with stone basins at two levels. Since the "do not drink" signs were yet to be invented, we drank our fill. The water was fresh, with a metallic aftertaste. Of course, travellers were an attraction in general, and some taur like me in special, who was currently drinking and drinking. They made some amused comments, like the mount and its rider drinking together. Freya shouted something at them, and then introduced herself and me. I could understand this, I was proud. Although, I blushed because she used the 'swift as a horse, strong as a tiger and gentle as a squirrel' line if I heard correctly.

But it did the trick. They came closer, first hesitant. I invited a child to pat me. It came, and then hugged my good hind leg. That loosed the air, they started to ask questions. All at once, all too fast. "Slowly," I stuttered and backed up until I reached the fountain rim. Freya was no help, she was at a stall buying lunch.

"Please, slow!" I shouted. That kept them silent for a moment. "Child first."

And they let the children come first. I had never been a children person before. But since I arrived here, with so many young people around, something had changed. Well, apart from my body of course. And the children were open, no truth already set in stone, no taur warrior woman is frighting because just being taur. Soon, I was surrounded by children petting this big cat. A sweaty big cat with a bloody leg who enjoyed the attention. When I tried to tell how I get the wound and from the highwaymen, everybody looked at me in awe. They did not mind my lack of language. After all, grown-ups explained to them stuff all the time, so why not explain stuff to a big cat taur woman?

After a while, Freya came back with a loaf, cabbage and two bottles of wine. She pushed through the children and put the foodstuff in the bags. "You are really a child person. We should charge for petting."

"Next walking children."

"You are incorrigible, your cute cat! I want exclusive cuddle rights."

I blushed. Luckily she used mindspeak. Still, her definition of cute must have a very different baseline if sweaty big bloody cats are included.

"Only children cuddle now!"

"You ok? We need to go," she said slowly. Even if I had not understood her, the children's faces would have told me.

"Sorry. Here, getting sweet!" I passed out two copper coins, which let the children run off quickly to the sweets stall.

"Let's go now."

Freya nodded. Apparently, my first perfect sentence. Progress, yeah!

* * *

The last houses extended to the bottom of the vineyards where the valley flattened and fields started. The wagonway soon merged with a larger cobblestone carriageway that run close to this side of the valley. It was a real road, with cobblestones, and in not too bad condition. Unfortunately, it was in the plain sun through the fields and just occasionally a tree or a hedgerow provided some shade.

My hard hoof-like plates embedded in the palms of my paws made a horse-like clopping sound on the stones. But it was uncomfortable. The small uneven stones did not go well with the large size paws, the plates in their palms slid down and bent the digits upwards and sidewards. In the end, I walked as close to the sandy sides as possible, brushing the high grass and occasional thorns. I would have rather walked a long detour through the forest.

About every three miles was another village and between them, the hilly ridge came close to the road with a stretch of forest separating the vineyards. All villages were overlooked by a big manor, sometimes even two. Very few had instead more modest structures but with temples: monasteries. Two times the manor had a nearby fortress. All these were the residences of the vineyard's owners. Ownership changed over generations by marriage and passed by inheritance. Honestly, rich passing down their wealth was not unheard in my world; but a change of class or becoming new nobility seemed even less likely than back there. Freya also explained a bit more about the Republic. I was not very democratic: Only the head of these villages, be it a lord, Baron, or Count or a Senior Cleric could vote and then just for the district assembly who voted upwards and so on. Since normal citizens could not vote, they did not care much about being a republic. Formal parties were unknown but there were progressive and conservative leaders. Since we were still close to the border and this region was settled aeons ago, it was one of the most conservative areas of the Republic.

One thing, of which the Republic was proud, was equal justice for everyone. The judges were elected but they report to no one. Even leaders were not immune, and ending a reign by a trial had happened. Even though that explanation was entirely in mindspeak, the different aspects needed several iterations for proper understanding. Mindspeak was not as universal as I had thought, the more abstract, the less meaning it carried.

Time for language lessons again, but with a more impactful vocabulary for basic life.

The other side of the valley had faded in the haze and we were baking near its bottom in the late afternoon heat. The sweat stung in the wound but Freya urged me on. To her credit, she got down and walked beside me. Distracting me with some obscene words for cursing. I tried them immediately on the cobblestones. My mangled pronunciation must have gotten a different meaning because Freya laughed so hard that we had to stop. Finally, she touched me and corrected with mindspeak. "You said, these stones should kiss your balls with yellow flowers." Then she repeated the right one. But somehow this sounded too lame a curse, there was no rolling R and no hissing or strong K clicking or any of these other relieving noises. The next time I cursed my way, it was very relieving. Freya though jumped half a meter aside. Now I was laughing, and then we laughed together.

There was little traffic on the road. Every half an hour we passed a cart. Those were either loaded with barrels, bringing the wine northwards, or almost empty with just some sacks with whatever they traded back. We passed also two merchants with big wooden backpack stalls with their goods. Each stopped and chatted with Freya, my contribution was just a greeting. One was selling sewing tools and the other had a grindstone for sharpening knives, sicles, and whatever else. But Freya kept the talk short since we wanted to reach Ratern tonight.

She explained that the travelling merchant moved each day to the next village because demand for these specialized goods was low and so early in the year there was not much trade. More often they rather traded stories since they were coming around. The local newspaper, spreading news and rumours. Soon everyone in the valley will know that a taur had passed through their valley.

Finally, a small creek came running down between villages, unspoiled water. We could drink and fill the empty water sacks. No reason left to climb up to a village: We stayed on the main road where some distance away one could see larger buildings at the bottom of the valley through the haze, Ratern.

Closer to Ratern the hills to the side became steeper, too steep for vineyards. They were covered with forest and more and more red cliffs shone through between the trees.

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