Pinny, Slaying
Part Seven
by Eric Jablow
Synopsis: Pinny, first Slayer for Flatland, has just
fought her first battle. The blow she struck would
have killed any Flatland poly, but her monstrous
opponent simply shrugged it off. What does she do now?
Will she have another uncanny dream to learn from?
Unfortunately for her, she has to learn the facts of
life before she learns the facts of unlife.
Rating: PG.
----
Pinny moved at her fastest speed through the streets of
Thinton; she didn't consider the possibility of any
constables seeing her at all. She made it to her house
purely on instinct. "What was he?" she wondered.
She slipped in through the Women's door and quietly
entered her room; no one had been in the halls. With
the door safely closed behind her, she let out a weak
sigh. "If transfixing it won't kill it, what will?"
She thought about it for a few minutes, but she had no
ideas. Finally, she fell into a fitful sleep.
---
Penfield tapping on her door awakened Pinny, though she
still felt exhausted and drained. She didn't want to
face anyone.
"Miss Pin, breakfast is served."
"Penfield, I feel unwell. Please express my regrets to
my parents."
"As you wish, Miss Pin. May I prepare you something
after the meal?"
"That is kind of you, Penfield. Please do."
She waited for the next 20 minutes listening with her
new hearing to the conversations in the house, but all
she heard from the dining area were assorted slurps and
mumbles; evidently, the house was much quieter when she
was not around. Soon, she heard Penfield tell the
polys it was time for work and school, and then all she
heard was the clatter of the dismantling of the eating
frames. This part of life was boring, just as her
marriage would be boring. Would she forever alternate
between boredom and terror?
A few minutes later, her mother knocked on her door.
Pin sighed and let her in.
"I trust you will not continue to sulk. It is quite
undignified behavior."
"I'm not--" Pinny thought for a moment, and concluded
that if she admitted to sulking, her mother would not
investigate what she had done the last night. "I'm
sorry, mother."
"I do hope you won't cause any problems for us."
"No, mother. If Father wants me to marry Declan, I
shall marry him. If only he were not so terribly
boring."
"Why do you think I have my friends like Vicky, Rae,
and Dot? You have 'Lil'."
"It's always like this, I guess."
"Yes, daughter. And now I have a final and unpleasant
subject to discuss."
Pinny sighed again. What new humiliation would be in
her future? "Please tell me, Mother. Let's get this
over with."
"Well, daughter, have you ever wondered how little
babies are born?"
"Why no, Mother. I thought it just happened when you
were old enough."
"It's one of the duties of marriage. Daughter, after
you marry, there will be times when your husband will
come to you, or when he will summon you to his room.
And then, he will he will rub one of his vertices
against a dot on your right side. Eventually, some of
he will secrete some of his humours onto you. It is
called 'sex'."
"No."
"I'm afraid so, daughter. After that, you may be with
child, though you will not know for about a month."
Pinny nodded her tip. "How undignified. I would wager
that they enjoy doing that too."
"They do, daughter."
"And how often does this lead to the woman being with
child?"
"I understand that for isos it happens about one time
in ten, but for high-gons it happens about one time in
a hundred." Mother sighed. "I think it has too do
with the shortness of their sides."
"So, if my husband really wants a child, I will need to
accept his attentions continually."
"I am afraid so, daughter."
Pinny thought for a moment. "Tell me, Mother. Polys
enjoy this. Do we lines enjoy it too?"
"Whatever would give you that idea, daughter? You
aren't supposed to enjoy it. You need only accept it."
"I shall not enjoy marriage. Mother, I should like to
be alone for an hour, and then I shall visit Lil."
---
Pinny was in Lil's room watching her dripping some glue
onto one side of a long curve. "What are you doing?"
"I was thinking. If you are going to be fighting, I
would like to be able to help. This might work." Lil
pressed her left side against the tip of the curve and
let the glue harden. After a minute, she pulled back
into the center of the room. "Get on my right side."
She jerked forward and then backward; the rest of the
string whipped out ahead of her and struck the wall
lightly. "This will take practice."
"Let me help. Pinny pressed the curve tip to the wall,
and Lil pulled back until the curve was taut. They
reset themselves at the correct distance, and Lil
snapped the thread at the wall. This time only the
last two inches of the curve heavily hit the wall. Lil
adjusted her position and tried again. The very tip
hit the wall with a loud snap.
"That's great. I don't know whether that will damage
anyone."
"It certainly hurts prisoners when they whip them."
Pinny lowered her voice. "The things I'll be fighting
are much tougher than you think."
Lil looked carefully at Pinny. "We'd better go back to
our park to talk." Pinny shook her tip. "One last
time though."
Lil snapped her curve again, but this time the glue
holding it to her side failed, and the entire thread
floated off into the wall. Lil laughed. "Perhaps this
wasn't the greatest idea."
"Keep thinking, Lil." Pin swung around and lightly
kissed her.
---
Pin and Lil rested on a picnic line at the park they
had been at two days before. Mothers were rocking baby
polys and lines in L-carriers, and some youngsters were
playing follow-the-leader. No adults were around Pin
and Lil, and Lil felt free to speak.
"You look like you've been busy. Did you actually
fight someone?"
"Yesterday was the most embarrassing and painful day of
my life."
"So, what happened?"
Pinny told Lil of her dreams of the hex-monster, and
how she discovered that the first dream had been
prophetic. "And when the workman turned on me, I ran
like a scared line!"
"Years of training, Pin. Years of training."
"Then, it was dinner with Norris and Declan--deadly.
They measured me with their eyes; I hate being
put on display like a specimen iso."
"I dine with Tredegar tonight. I think it will be the
same."
"And then, I waited in my room until the rest of the
house was asleep and I could go hunting. My hearing
has improved too, and I heard the men talking about us
women. Whatever you have heard of their opinion of us,
it's worse."
"Tell me." They looked around; no one else would hear
Pinny's report, and so Pinny recounted the parlour
conversation. Soon, Lil was vibrating with anger.
"Low cunning, they say. And Declan is spying on all of
us."
"We'll just have to spy back."
"If they want war, I'll give them war."
"We will, Pin."
Pin sighed. "And then, to dot the line, I had my first
battle. I sneaked out of the house and went to the
district I had dreamed about, and I saw that hex
confronting a square. I managed to fast-talk the
square into leaving, and I confronted the hex.
Suddenly, it turned into an irreg monster, and charged
me. I nearly got past it, but it batted me into the
walls."
"I'm surprised he didn't fracture you."
"So am I. I learned though; he didn't. He charged me
again, and I slapped him the way I did that thief. We
made a few more fighting passes, and then I figured out
what to do. He charged at me, and I slapped that
package at him. I hit him right in the spike, and it
came apart. But it had some glue on it, and so part of
the package stuck to him and blocked his vision. I
sped past it and backed up hard."
"Ooh."
Pinny shook a bit in memory. "My aft was nine inches
deep into him."
"You killed him."
"No. No poly would have survived that, but he only
howled in pain. And when I pulled out, the wound
simply closed."
"Oh, circle."
"I fled home; no one saw me, and I finally got to
sleep."
"I'd have been up all night."
"In the morning, Mother finished my embarrassment.
Father has affianced me to Declan, and so she told me
of my 'wifely duty'. She even told me that men enjoy
it." Pin looked at Lil. "But, you knew of that
already, I see."
"Mother told me last year."
"And you didn't tell me?"
"I didn't think you wanted to know." The two friends
are silent for a moment. "At least, Pin, you can
soothe yourself with the thought that your husband
won't want to do it often; polys are so reluctant to
feel anyone that Declan won't touch you much."
"I hope not. I wonder though."
"Pin?"
"I asked Mother if we lines enjoyed it too; she was
indignant. I really liked our kisses; do you think we
might try--"
"Embarrassed?"
Pinny shook a bit.
"I've never heard of such a thing; the older girls
never said anything like that. I'm game if you are."
"Thanks."
"What will you do about the fight?"
"I don't know what I can do; perhaps if I sleep on it
I'll dream up a clue."
"Let's relax and pong for a while."
--
Respectfully,
Eric Jablow
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