Advance of Payment

originally posted November 7, 2006

"There has been ample time for a response," I said.
"I think so," Mathor replied.
It has been close to three hands since the last correspondence, mine, was sent. Tasta, normally not one to be so vocal, was quite ready to be on with it this morning. In the alleyway behind the Boarding House, her barks and growls reported off the narrow walls. It was not clandestine, truly, what Mathor and I discussed, but if it had been, the sleen would have been sorely lacking in discretion. Neighbors asleep in adjacent building certainly thought so. "Shut that damned animal up!" "It is the third hand, whore-monger! Have you lost your wits?!" She reminded me a bit of the Six Girl after being given something with sugar, literally bouncing. Of course, there is no real intent, or focus, when Six is hyper. Tasta, quite clearly, straining on the leash, had a goal. I feared for the strength of Mathor's arm, but he assured me the task was not above his tolerance. It may have been the stipend I handed him. It amounted to his salary for the next several months, in a lump sum.
"It is impossible to know," I started, "where is best to begin the search."
"You wish the slave returned?" he asked, seeking to confirm my intentions.
"I do," I said.
He merely nodded. As he turned down the alleyway toward the cross street, an eager sleen with the scent of a woman and the name of that woman imprinted on her animal brain pulling at her lead, I sensed that his tenacity was as equal to the task as that of the beast. Wherever they might find the girl, Arjentia, 'Jenny of Gor', I would not envy the fellow standing between her and Tasta or, for that matter, her and the fellow holding Tasta's leash.