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Casnar rollicked in the hara with three drellahnas giggling at his play…The sight made Tetonbaum's skull hurt. "You may fool with the hara—but you may not choose one to lay in," had been his warning to the false one….Casnar did everything short of that.

Tetonbaum turned down a drellahna's offer to pleasure him—he wanted Casnar in his sight. "Why do you not join him?" The drellahna did not leave Tetonbaum after he had declined.

"I am not allowed to sample the hara, little one," Tetonbaum whispered, not looking from Casnar deep in the folds of one drellahna with his lips, hands playing with two others paired either side of him…."Go to your chores and leave me to mine…." He glanced at her and smiled with politeness.

"You are the papir-aia's son."

"You shouldn't say that out loud." Tetonbaum glanced between Casnar and this drellahna at his teness—his sapphire eyes settled upon her…."Mu'kalien whips those who mention me as his seedling, little one." She had oval eyes and pink scales along her lower jaw.

She stood away from him…..her pink tebral folds were slightly dilated what with the elixir they gave the drellahnas of the haras to be ready whenever the sereds were to choose among them….Tetonbaum was indifferent to its effect….He had been fed the same elixir many times. "You look like him though."

"So I know this." Tetonbaum folded his arms and turned to her. "What would you like me to tell you?"

"Why does the sered not wish to recognize the beauty of colors in his son?—Colors of his own making?"

"The sered has a mi'tancela." Tetonbaum's voice was quiet. "He loves her and knows he made a mistake…I remind him of it."

She blinked at him, perplexed by this explanation. "What happened to your mother when you were born?"

"She was sent away."

"That is not the truth," the drellahna said, nervously looking up and down at him.

"That is the truth as you should know it, little one."

"I heard a rumor your mother was murdered." Her voice dropped in fear as she crumpled the silks hanging loose from her thin frame below orange folds of tebris shimmering along each side of her waist. "Murdered in cold blood….She was hara like me….Will that happen to me if the papir-aia or his hiriwa chooses me to lay with?…..But not claim as mi'tancela?"

Tetonbaum touched her chin with his conjoined fingers and smiled. "No, little one…" His voice confided to her as he lowered his brow to her level.

He turned back to Casnar enjoying the attentions of the drellahnas rubbing his arms and thighs…He folded his arms behind his crests and looked to Tetonbaum from a bed made of hide and feathers stitched into the pillows…"Tetonbaum, you must relax…You should enjoy yourself here."

"I am relaxed."

"If you were relaxed," Casnar leaned forward, curling up gold pleats of muscle over his abdomen and supporting his elbow on a muscular leg, "…You would be pumping into one of these beauties and rendering your future among Mu'kalien's own."

"I am a th'ane," Tetonbaum resettled against his corner in the haira'lar, "…I do not pursue the pleasures of the master."

"You are a master, Tetonbaum."

"Sered," Tetonbaum tossed his green chin, "…your attentions are desired elsewhere." Casnar laid back with the drellahnas now applying oils to soften his scales.

"You think too little of yourself, Tetonbaum," Casnar placed his hand on a rosy shin and rubbed along its length as the drellahna glanced admiringly down at him, "…Come spread some legs for a while instead of looking like such a bore over there."

"I would not be doing my duty if my eyes were someplace else other than where they are."

Casnar smiled and laid his crests back, exposing his violet tebris and throat to the ceiling…Oiled fingers moved into the folds, expanding the blue and silver linings for all to see. Tetonbaum sighed. "When you are through serving yourself," he turned aside to not stare straight-on as the drellahna applied her lips to Casnar's tongue, "…you must get some sleep…Sered."

"How maternal of you." Tetonbaum snorted quietly.

He turned some more to see where the drellahna who had spoken to him had gone off to…She was alone in a corner, peering at him. He gazed back at Casnar, still taking liberties with the hara drellahnas.