They knelt to her level and one hugged her, another stroked her hair and yet another lightly kissed her on the lips. The others people that came close... in said nice job and such. A few comments were spoke in a language I didn’t recognize. This was the first time we had “performed” for a crowd together. I told the few still around that we’d be doing more soon. I checked her pulse, color, and breathing and decided Amy had recovered enough to stand and I helped her up. One remaining submissive. “I must warn you now, my dear, of something which will sooner or later crop up. I am sure you are of an age where you will understand this. It is not uncommon for a gentleman of a certain age, say mine, to have accompany him a young lady, typically his niece or cousin, who, shall I say, is not a blood relation at all. A young lady who works on commission, perhaps? Do you see my meaning?”I blushed slightly but smiled. “Perhaps the relation is more than a friend but less than a wife? Please,. I was once again being stared at but this time it was for another reason. They looked at me as one would an equal. I had to see whose side they were on. ?You heard?? I asked. ?Jackie, I hope that you carry out your threat to them. They have been giving us hell for as many years as we all have been here. If it were not for our second jobs, we would be living in the street. Those old farts in there would not know a good employee if they had one. You were a great employee and they know it.. There the prey would come to drink. This line, the wind. It must not carry the hunter's scent ahead. A heavier line, rising and falling. The land that upheld hunter and hunted alike. This row of dots, the footsteps of the hunter. That one, larger and more solid, the hunted.Now the rows of dots came together - but the light was fading fast. Fading, as the day would fade if the hunter ran too slow. Ee-La stirred the coals, coaxing a last flicker of orange against the dark. He worked faster,.