Page 544 ~ Eggs-actly

"What the heck are you talking about???!!!" I looked at the slave girl like she had two heads and an extra eye right smack dab in the middle of her two foreheads. For a moment.. I thought she might turn on a heel and run. My looks never did settle slaves. But... this one held her ground.. at least for the ehn. her name is onna. I tipped my head.. intensifying that look more and she explaned that she had come from Earth.. captured in one of the raids and brought to Gor. Great... I thought. I had little patence for slaves and even less for a barbarian one. onna.. was close to her Earth name of donna... but the slaver just couldnt grasp her full name so she was stuck with the shortened version. Ive heard worse.. she had heard worse.. so I suppose there was no arguement.
onna then expanded on my original questioning of her way out idea for things to do. You see.. there I was.. with my gaggle of children... flustered and needing some peace and quiet.. when onna stopped by with some supplies from the outer wagons. she wondered if I had ever... colored eggs. Errrrr... huh? I sat to the wagon steps and she began her tale. "It was a day in the early Spring.. when the warmer air came.. when flowers emerged from their winter nesting. We would sit around the table and color eggs for the Easter Bunny. Bright.. beautiful colors.. pink.. orange... yellow... blue... green..... " Both brows lifted and I asked.. "The... Easter Bunny?" onna smiled.. chuckled and nodded. "Yes" she said.. "A big bunny came around and gave all the children candy and the eggs we colored the night before... well.. He hid them and we all had to search for them" Again.. I looked at her and those two heads and extra eyeballs. But.. by now.. a few of the younger children had sat down and were entangled in the slave girl's story. A few oooooooo's and ahhhhhhh's were passed between them. "Bosk shit" I said.. and Wily gave me a nudge as the little one's chuckled to my exclamatory remark. "color eggs!!!" shouted Bull... and I groaned. First off.. this seemed like a girly thing to do.. and I wasnt so sure that Ash wouldnt hang my ass in a sling for letting His son do such a thing. "yes ! we want to paint eggs Momma!!" next came the chorus of plea's from Vee and Ess... and even Mia wanted to paint. I could only slap my forehead with my palm. onna smiled "Mistress... i'd be happy to do it with them... " but before she could finish.. the little one's jumped up and were running around in a happy dance.. singing the praises of... coloring eggs. How could I say no to that??? So... I gave in. I was pretty sure my ass would be painted red by Ash for letting such a ... a... non Gorean thing to be learned... if not participated in by the children... but... I was never one to hide from such a thing. onna began to gather some paint... or what she called dye. she said on Earth ... the eggs were dipped in a color and the shell held it.. mostly without staining the yoke or the white inside. But sometimes it seeped through.. and you got to eat a hardboiled pretty colored egg. "Hardboiled?" I asked... and onna nodded. "We need to boil the eggs first" she said. I nodded... ok.. so no waste of good eggs.. so far.. this wasnt all... that bad... was it? Two children... Vee and Ess... shot off like arrows to the vulo coop. Nothing but a dust trail. Mia.. Sonny and Bull were helping onna set up cups. Starr was boiling water. It was like watching a well oiled wagon traverse the grounds. onna put color in the cups.. making one red.. one green and one purple... I assume from juice of berries and herbs. When the twins returned with the eggs... there were enough for two each. Now.. started the fighting. Mia wanted one of each color... and began to barter things off with another child for an extra egg. Bull wanted three red one's... Vee wanted two green and one red.. Ess wanted two red and one purple. And so it continued till someone was crying... someone was screaming.. and another was shoving this one. I stood up and quickly announced that there would be no eggs if this continued. My patence and my nerves were already frazzled.. I wasnt about to let this go on if they couldnt settle it. Eventually.. they did... and I would never tell them how cute they look when they pout. Sonny quietly gave His twin sister one of His eggs so Mia could do three. Vee and Ess teamed up so they would have two red.. one green and one purple. Bull.. was just happy to make a mess. onna helped the children to boil the eggs and Starr oversaw the whole thing.. setting up a table and stumps for the kids to sit on. They eventually got down to coloring the eggs. Dipping and soaking... with very little fighting. Each child gasped as an egg was removed from a cup.. brightly colored. I was rather amazed myself.. but didnt let on. The eggs dried quickly and then onna said they could paint things now on the shells as they wished. Now.. we were getting into more of a mess and it was already late. The children were all finger stained in various colors and I wasnt to happy about having to scrub them. As the light began to fade in the Sky... I announced that we were done with this and it was bath time. To my amazement.. not a word of protest came. The children all smiled... even thanked the slave and gathered up their colored eggs. With Starr in the lead.. she took them all off to the bathing wagon... leaving me with a gaping jaw as they filed off. I set my mouth back in place and looked to onna who was cleaning up with a smile. "Thank you girl" I said quietly and she nodded. "It was my pleasure Mistress" I nodded then myself and reached into my satchel.. removing a small tin of peppermint candies... turning.. I handed it to the girl. "If your owner allows... a token of my thanks for your caring" I said. she smiled and tucked it into her rope belt. "Thank you Mistress" she said "I shall ask Him this evening" and with that.. she finished cleaning and was gone.. back to the outer wagons.
I checked on Jax and the fire.. making sure both were fed... then headed back to my wagon. The first thing I noticed was the quiet. No screaming.. no fighting.. bickering or whining. The second thing I noticed was... No Ash. I sighed loudly and found myself rather tired. I called out to Jax that I was heading to bed... He asked if I was alright.. if I felt ok. And I told Him.. I was just tired. I lied... but He didnt notice. I mean really... what more was there to do when you were alone... but sleep?
As much as I hated the noise....
I hated the silence more.
And I got alot of that... lately.