Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 13, 2025
Put that way, the answer was obvious. He did not. Hovan had given him that answer, before either of them knew the question, the day they'd landed on Homeworld. Tarlac remembered asking, surprised, if the unworried-seeming civilians knew how the war was going, and the reply was apt here too: "Such things must in honor known be."
"At that period the Filipinos, loving order, having been deceived of the emancipation promise, changed by the Katipúnan into crimes and attacks on the municipality of the pueblos, discontent broke out in all parts, and, although latent in some provinces, in that of Tarlac was materialized in an ex-sergeant of the late Spanish civil guard.
Tarlac tried to sit up, refusing Hovan's assistance, noticing only then that he'd been undressed and was on a sleeping mat laid atop a platform instead of on the floor. He made it upright, but the effort brought on a wave of dizzy sickness, and standing up didn't work. His knees buckled, forcing Hovan to catch him and sit him back on the bed. "You should in bed remain," Hovan told him, concerned.
Tarlac frowned, then understood with a sinking feeling. "Oh. The Scarring. I won't have the recovery time Hovan planned for me, then." The Scarring, by tradition, took place early the second day after the last of the other Ordeal segments which was almost never wilderness survival.
The first one Hovan introduced was Sandre, mother of the twins and the only open-shirted female Tarlac had seen. She had Honor scars identical to Hovan's, which surprised Tarlac for a moment since he knew she couldn't have taken the Ordeal. He decided and later learned he was correct that they must be because she'd borne the twins.
Instead she bowed to him, formally. "Your courage and success in returning unaided bring much honor to the clan, ruesten. Let our thanks for that welcome you home." Her gesture and words were formal, but her tone held warmth and true pleasure. Tarlac returned the bow, answering with equal formality and just as much warmth. "It is good to be home, Ka'ruchaya.
He could sense their apprehension, their carefully-fostered self-confidence, as the hatch cycled open and the ramp extended. "Take it easy," he said softly. "You'll do fine." The Supreme smiled at him. "We will do our best, Lord." "I know." Tarlac, accustomed to the imposingly massive beings, still found them impressive. To anyone else on Terra, the effect would be even greater.
His words brought a moment's silence, then a babble of astonishment and doubt that sounded more like a human kindergarten than a group of adult Traiti. Doubt? Of a Cor'naya's word? Tarlac shook his head, not ready to believe that. Was it the speed of his Ordeal, then, which surprised him too? Or was it that a human had been given Kranath's Vision?
"Welcome, Ruhar," said the one Tarlac recognized as the presence which had brought him here. The voice was as clear and pure as the light. "And welcome to your place in the Circle of Lords." Tarlac recognized him from the statuettes and from his Vision. He took a deep breath of the sweet, vital air before he spoke. "My place, Lord Kranath? I'm human, not Traiti."
To ease your mind, though, as long as I am carrying and nursing her, it would be dishonorable for me to fight and the need to care for her will keep me alive, even as a captive, until she no longer needs me." "That helps, some." It wasn't perfect; Tarlac didn't want anyone to have to die, and he hoped the invasion never happened . . . but what she said did help.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking