With a sense of finality, one boot-shod foot was placed in front of the other repeatedly, moving rapidly back toward the house. She'd show Clan Master Klein if it killed her. Let him wash in every river, stream, and pond between here and his destination in order to purify himself from their accidental encounter. He would have to wash, but she'd been soundly whipped with a riding crop, as the T'shasw laws dictated.

The red welts still stood out on the bronze face, crossing the broad bridge of the nose and angling down onto the left cheek. And of course, Bookkeeper knew that the clan burser had written it down as okozou. In other words, no one worth a bik got hurt. Just Freya, and she wasn't worth the mud on Clan Master Klein's boots.

Thus were Freya's silent and angry thoughts as she stalked up beside Freckles' corral and leaned upon her staff, bravely fighting the tears that crept into her eyes. She'd known she'd received this treatment, but she hadn't been able to stay away...

To see the brightly hung caravan, all dappled in green, the color of land traders, and the little bronze children playing Bookkeeper's Rewrite without her... it wasn't so long ago Freya had played those games herself, with the rush of the open sea to keep the beat...

Finally, the dark-haired girl leaned against the post of the corral, tears leaking from her eyes but refusing to let herself sob or make any other sound of fuss. The wind blew softly, and the jingling of a thousand metal-bead tipped braids echoed through the clearing...

Hallie's mare still here but no hallie. She snorted and graze though her face showed it all. She looked up towards the girl.But moved not.

The mare looked at her master, concerned. She nudged the girl as if to say: What's troubling you?

The mare let the two be. While she raised her pretty face to the sky and looked to it as if asking it to send Hallie home.She let out a whinny calling to hallie where ever the girl might be.Her tail and main blowing with the wind. What a sight.

The touch of Freckles' soft muzzle brought the chocolate eyes up to her horse, a watery smile placed there as she used the heel of one hand to brush away the wetness from her cheeks. Mah nurahl, khenemset. They beat me, as is the law... it is fair. It keeps the bad luck from sticking... it is the law of my people. She set her jaw firmly, as if to convince herself that this statement was true, but after a moment her face fell a bit, eyes dropping once more to the ground. So... why do I feel mistreated?

Her eyes glanced up to Heaven, seeing how lonely the poor mare was without her girl. Freya had been looking for Hallie when she'd run into the Clan Master... she hadn't been able to find her anywhere. The thought brought sadness and resignation back into her frame and face. I cannot even help one who needs it so badly. I cannot bring your mistress back to you. That is why. I am binheset, and thus everything I do is cursed to failure. Justify it, force it to be fair and make sense. If she lost faith in her own people, their laws, then what was she?

She snorted and came to the human and just stared at her.