Seth was looking at me with pleading eyes, which I ignored. I was tired of fighting this jungle and it would be nice to have a roof over my head for a change.
"If you say it's safe enough, that is if we behave ourselves!" I said with emphasis, as I looked at Seth sternly! "And that it'll cut time off the journey we'll go that way." Father John nodded and turned his horse in the direction he had indicated.
Soon true to his word the forest broke up into a series of grassy parks that appeared as if they were islands in the sea of trees around them.
Several hours later we could see smoke in the distance up ahead of us. That must be the village run by the women that John had spoken of. This no doubt was going to be a unique experience.
As we drew closer to the village I began to see just how unique an experience it was going to be. It was like seeing two villages instead of just one. John had told us that the men were forced to live in the lower village and take care of the children, while the women lived exclusively in the upper village and only invited the men there occasionally for procreational purposes.
Not quite sure yet of what we were getting ourselves into I followed John regretting my decision of earlier to come this way already. The lower village's condition was extremely poor at best in terms of quality of living conditions.
The men gathered around the hovels weren't much to speak of. They had the worn broken look of slaves about them, which made me uneasy. There were girls in bountiful supply running around excited by what must be a strange occurrence for them, but I didn't see any boys. That was odd.
We were coming to the end of the village, when one man caught my eye. He was staring at me intently. So intent that I thought I might have to look away from the awkwardness it made me feel. He pulled a young girl with raven black hair and skin the color of dark mahogany in front of him and made a gesture with his hands, a gesture I could see echoed in his eyes as well.
He wanted me to take the girl away from this place when I left. The whole scene had made me uncomfortable and I looked away unsure of what was going on here other than that I didn't like it.
My attention was drawn to the second village higher up off the plain and more encased in the shelter of the forest, which is when I saw the women. So had the others, if the mumbled affectations of I'm not sure what that could be heard rolling off the lips of Seth directly behind me could be interpreted as. I had never seen such women as these. Most of them were of a taller build with some being shorter, but all of them were muscular and lithe of form. Some had long flowing hair, while others had their hair cut close to their heads, but one thing was universal, none of them were wearing practically anything.