#yesisaid

The man looked atShi, and smiled grimly, a cold, warning expression. Shi alreadythought of it as his biting smile, and knew it was meant to scare.

He was notafraid.

Shi had beenbitten before. He’d been clawed open, whipped, burned, branded.He’d been flayed. He’d had fingers cut off, and toes. Sometimesthey were reattached, other times no. He’d had his head bashedopen, his eyes scratched, his throat slashed.

Even by themeasure of those surviving the wasteland, his had been a violentlife, rough and hard. As a freeman, he had been so many things.Doctor, gunman, mechanic. Advisor. Protector. Son, father, brother.He committed himself to every role he took, and no one word definedwhat he was to the communities he visited and sought to help.

As a captive,he’d been treated harshly by some, like a prize by others. Dependedon what they wanted out of him and how much they valued what he had.His back was a legacy of a dozen captors, mapped with scars andhealed-over brands. Sometimes they made him a mechanic, and he wasgood with his hands. Sometimes they made him their medic, and he wasbetter still. Always, though, they promised death if he ran away, andhere he was best, for he escaped every time.

The secret camein not caring.

Now though, ohnow he had the boy to worry about.

When he’d foundDowel, the plan had been to get him out of the wastes and droppedinto the next suitable settlement he could. Attachment was not Shi’sstrong suit. Good way to end up dead.

He’d doneplenty to keep himself from getting attached to anyone. He was gruff,impersonal, stoic to the point of frustration. He’d sharpened histeeth to ugly points, the better to highlight what came first –survival, not friendship. In the wasteland, people needed help, andhe, uniquely trained and willing to travel, gave it. He did not makefriends.

Making friendsmeant making people suffer when something inevitably happened to himout in the wastes.

But the boy…

He hadn’t beenable to make the boy leave. Now that small voice called him Pa, andhis heart tightened brutally at the sound. He didn’t want thatconnection, but neither would he rid himself of it. Dowel trustedhim, which was clearly rare for the boy, and he would not spoil thattrust.

Somehow, he wouldget the boy out of here. They would heal first, and work at whatevertasks were set for them here in the great fiery elephant, and Shiwould plan.

The thought, ashe meets the eyes of the bastard with the metal in his throat, puts asmile on his own lips. The smile bares his own sharp teeth, and hethinks for a fleeting moment it takes one to know one. Thereis similarity here, a certain like calling to like.