I settled next to Rose and shut my eyes as the tears fell. What had I gotten us into?

The next morning I woke to the flurry of the men getting ready.

“It is still long before the time the sun rises," Thom said as I stood and stretched, “but we do not wish to stay still in these caves for long. Other creatures would make a meal of us if they found us. The longer we stay, the more at risk we are. Were we to camp Long we would have to fortify the area."

There was no day or night here. The caves were lit by our small fires and nothing else. If he said it was early, I believed him. It certainly felt very early.

Thom showed Rose, Fuji and me how to tie our pallets up. We were given some of the same thing we ate Last night. He also helped us get our fire put out and the pit cleaned up. The men believed the land remembered them. If they treated it well, it would welcome them back. If they treated it poorly, they would suffer on it next time.

“It is the Great Harmonious Spirit," Thom explained. "ALL things on this world are part of the Spirit. We Live on the world and only take from it what we need, as all creatures do. By respecting the rights of others, we reinforce our own rights."

I'd heard religious people get very pushy, but Thom wasn't. He just seemed to want to educate us.

"I've never heard of this," I said, as Thom directed Rose, Fuji, and me to a transport.

“The Great Harmonious Spirit is not taught in the compounds," he said as he and his Brothers loaded things up. "How could they tell the men of a Great Harmonious Spirit when they know only suffering at the hands of the women? They do not know peace, only beatings, division, and forced coupling. Once we free men, we always teach them this fundamental concept."

The transports around us roared to life. I chanced a glance around and saw Damien and his Brothers on a transport. It relieved me that we were all being taken. I feared these angry men would just leave my Loves here.

We took off down a passage across from the one we'd come from. I was just as scared today as I had been the day prior. These machines roared through the narrow tunnels.

I focused on the things I'd seen at the corners of the transport. Thom noted my attention.

“These are weapons," he told me proudly.

“I cannot show you how they work right now and you may not understand. They project powerful focuses of energy. The energy can tear a hole in rock walls. We developed them in case we ever have to fight the slaving women."

They'd developed guns. I smiled at Thom and marveled at what the men had done. Sneaky Little devils were free to do anything they wanted and they built weapons. Men would be men on any planet.

We traveled a long way and suddenly one of Thom's brothers started to pace. He touched his head and his teeth were down.

"Sit, Brother," Thom demanded guiding the man to a stack of pallets. "We will be out of the field soon enough."

"That field?" I asked watching the man continue to cringe.

“The women have something at the far edge of the mountains designed to stop us from crossing out of them. It disrupts our bond with our Brothers. We could never walk through it above ground. In the tunnels only certain men still feel it. My Brother is one of them," he said wincing slightly himself.

I watched the men and soon surmised we had left the field when they all relaxed again.

We flew for a long while in the twisting tunnels. The men seemed to know this route well and flew through it confidently. Often we came to splits in the tunnel and the men never hesitated which direction to go. This was a well traveled path.

Abruptly the transports came to a halt. The call came back and the men were instructed to switch the transports. I was confused as I watched the Brother doing the driving start moving levers around.