What would you do for Love?

The things that we all do for love
We compromise it just because
We want the best that love has got to give
The that that I will do for love
Is basically I'd make it all with you
This is what I'd do
Tell me
What would you do?
Would you send me roses?
Would you send me kisses?
Would you send me your love?
Or would you bring it to me?
Nona Gaye

Within the harigga, we are used to patrols that prevent strangers from wandering up to our fires. It is a margin of safety we take for granted. At the Love War's camp it is different. There is a time of peace between the four tribes of the wagons peoples and between them and Turia. This does not automatically alleviate the hatreds, the prejudices or the defensiveness we feel upon the wandering of strangers to our fires. At the same time there was this curiosity to meet some of them and see what they were made of, to probe what is inside their heads and their hearts. I would take this opportunity to learn more of the enemies of my own people .. get to know a few or at least the few that braved walking to our inner circles.

Today that was to be a woman of the Kataii, who was to stand at the stakes and a Paravaci warrior named Kwan Ti Timujin. There was something I liked about Naala from the first moment I met her. It may have been how she handled one of our own women who was to stand at the stakes. Naala carved up up in to little pieces armed only with words of When the tuchuk woman said that all they had been raised for was to be the whim of the warrior's that won them, they were freed or enslaved as simple as that. The Kataii woman disagreed very quickly that no, it was far more than that. That they were to do what other women could not, they were groomed to aid their warriors in proving themselves. To their own Tribe, to the whole of the Nations of the Wagons. To Turia. The warriors fought for "them" and for their honor and for pride. For our honor and our pride. Her words swelled inside me and I found greater purpose of being a part of it all. There are many things in our lives we learn we have to accept. It is how we handle that acceptance or even denial that makes us who we are inside. The Paravaci walked up about that time adding his cup full to the barrel of opinions. "Any chance to tweak the nose of a Turian ... "

Like I said it is not easy to put away prejudices even for a tradition, I was reaching for my quiva instinctively. He said he had more important things to do than to steal women. I am a woman of caution but I greeted the man then shrugged while I let my hand ease away. "Maybe I was protecting the chocolates" Naala gave him reason for our tensing with his presence. Paravaci have stolen women before, Kataii women to be precise. I couldn't remember our losing any Tuchuk women in my lifetime but then I am young and still don't know a lot of histories yet. I merely added that I was spoken for, like that was going to matter to a marauder. Didn't say by whom, that would be name dropping wouldn't it? There may just be a few perks to liking that warrior of mine. I was far more content to sit back and listen as the woman and the man spoke.

He wanted to know which woman of the Kataii she was referring to and thus began the tale of a young beautiful woman with satiny chocolate skin and silky hair. The Paravaci warrior had caught sight of her and known he wanted her for his own. He loved her with a passion from that first sighting and sent many bosks to her father .. bosks whose horns dripped with riches of jewels and gold as a payment for her. Each offering was sent back ... a refusal. The warrior had waited and watched, planning and plotting until the time was right. There are tales told in two Tribes of the warrior and the maiden .. one that laments the loss of a favored daughter .. the other that hails the courage of a determined warrior. He was crafty and cunning, when the Kataii riders were in just the right position he rode in like the wind to capture the girl and rode away with her like a thundering cloud. There had been more Paravaci laying in wait to drive the Kataii back, but the woman Lisin was gone.

Naala had witnessed the abduction when she was just a girl but it had stayed fresh in her memories. She had told the story a thousand times but still you could see her heart race, feel the excitement and smell the fear in the air as she told it again. The woman had been friend of her family, she had been friend and a sister of her tribe. She had kept her alive with hope that one day she would see her again. She said she had heard rumor Lisin was still among the warrior's tribe and I think maybe she was hoping to be given word ... some small gleam of chance that she was still alive.

Kwan's expression changed as he sat back chuckling. He nodded that he knew of the woman Naala had spoken about. There was this quiet smile and a light in his eyes when he told her the woman was still among his people. In fact their son was fifteen turnings now. He had been the daring warrior that faced the wrath of the Kataii nation for the woman he loved. He told us that it had not been easy on Lisin. She had faced the hardships of adjustments. She was treated as an outcast and had born the disgust and cruelty of the Paravaci women but had stood strong and earned not only her freedom but a place among the Tribe. In the beginning the Kataii woman had thought he was insane, that he had taken her on a whim as just a prize to be shown off. It had taken him time to make her understand that it was because he had loved her. In the end, he had taken her as his mate and the two had made a life together ... raised a family together.

He was a story of love and I asked his permission to be able to tell my children of him and his woman. He granted me this and told us that his son would fight in the next Love Wars. He hoped that he would find a woman that he would love as much as Kwan loved his mother.

I found something in the woman as well that touched my own sense of honor, courage and pride, I was pleased to have made friends with her.

There was a moment where we met on the plains of a Thousands Stakes ... a Paravaci Hunter, a Kataii Story teller and a Tuchuk Haruspex.