THE THORIAN SAGAS: 1. THE TRADER. (Completed).

Teach us!

This had been an evening filled with many strange lessons, but Monique could not let it just die away.

There were other opportunities here, and she must grasp them.

Monique reached across and touched him on the hand as he stared dreamily into the fire, startling him out of his momentary reverie.

He was regretting; yet not regretting anything. He could not undo what had happened this evening; what they had seen and learned about him.

He rationalized it.

He had been challenged. She had challenged him and set this in motion. He could not have refused that challenge. The rest of it had followed on from that.

He would be denied entry to their city after this when they thought about it. That was the only possible outcome.

She did not hesitate to ask something he could not possibly have expected.

"There is so much we do not know about... so many things. Would you, teach us what we need to know about combat? As though we would be going into battle for our lives?"

He looked at them, not entirely sure what he was hearing, but soon waking up to it. Was this not why he was here, why he had done this? It was, though it had gone in a slightly different direction than he had intended.

It seemed that his position here, was not about to be taken away.

He could do as they requested, even if it was against so many of their rules. Who would know? He could teach them how to defend themselves properly against the upcoming revolution.

That would be one way to upset the old order of things, though the final consequences could not be foreseen.

It was not so unthinkable. Why should women not know how to fight properly, and take on whatever was thrown at them?

He would teach them. It could not harm.

"If that is what you want, I will, and I will add to it each time I come if you promise to follow faithfully what I tell you, and say nothing of me, or what you have learned about me, tonight, to anyone else in the City."

"We promise. We will say nothing." She looked at her companions in the light of the flickering fire and saw their eager responses.

They all agreed.

They'd never had such a skilled wrestler, or a warrior like this one anywhere near them, so why would they want to lose him now?

Women warriors had taught them... but the interest; the necessity, the urgency for anything truly violent had not been there. Now, they could have a proper teacher. One who had defeated the legendary Thorians in wrestling, and in combat, and knew about war, and facing death each day. What better teacher could they have? It had taken them three years, and a 'challenge', to learn that he was not a Yunk, but a man, and he had not harmed any of them in that time, so it would not happen now.

Monique, added to her list of needs, wondering how much she dared ask of him.

"We need weapons training, too."

He knew they did. The future ramifications of what they were asking him to help them with could not be known... but the system that had survived for millennia; punctuated by episodes of rebellion and short-lived war, needed to be changed. He just hoped he would be doing the right thing.

"I can teach you all that a proper warrior from that outside world should know, already knows, and with proper weapons; the weapons of men. But first, we will start easily, working on your strength, and stamina."