Several months had passed with the two couples who arrived from the East now settling in fully to their original and inherited community. It was strange to Tsudros and Moshtok how this new society, where Zaria and Branka had been born, seemed to be ruled by laws which seemed to pertain to everything. There were strict procedures followed when someone was accused of an infraction of these social rules. And that resulted in their being brought before the Archon and his elders. These wise advisors would sit as judges of the evidence presented to them. It was then mandated that they would make a decision of guilt or innocence of the perpetrator by the time of the sunrise on the following day.

In addition there were a series of punishments meted out for guilty verdicts ranging from supervised work to assist the victim and his/her family, all the way to a death penalty for the most serious of crimes—including murder, rape, the abduction of a child, or the stealing of a man or woman's goods and belongings if it amounted to more than half of what they owned in total.

At the other end of these unwritten social contracts, taught to all citizens while still children, were certain joyous institutions which the villagers followed and anticipated with great mirth. These included festivals associated with the planting and harvesting of the crops, fertility rites performed for young adults—initiating them into the essential duty of procreation, and the social contract of marriage, highly sacred to the Slavic villagers.

This last custom was seen as a joyous celebration between lovers who planned to live together exclusively to raise children and carry on the customs and culture of the land. It generally involved the whole village, where gift-giving and many wishes were bestowed upon the young couple. It was, however, not an institution practiced by the nomadic Pazyryk people. For in those lands, males and females would be joined at first casually, and as a couple chose the union as a matter of strong impulse. This arrangement could manifest itself into children or not, but the arrangement also could be annulled at any point where serious discord hampered the couple's—usually the man's happiness.

Naturally the two girls, who had brought back from the East with them the loves of their lives, wanted to follow the ritual of marriage and plan for a future of respect and one day children to contribute to their clans. Zaria and Branka knew that the approval for this, due to the origin of both men who were still seen by some in the community as potential enemies, would have to be at the discretion of the Archon and his associate elders. For it was that the Archon himself had already early on told the girls privately that if this was their intentions, it would be better to let time pass with the men in the village before publically showing such desires of a formal marriage. If not, he warned, it was sure to be disapproved of by some if not many in the town.

But it was not this joyous social convention which gripped the girls presently and so profoundly. It was rather one of a penal-criminal nature when four young men were brought before the village tribunal for public display. The unfamiliar men were believed to be from another Slavic village entirely, but were hunted down while on the run from a series of thefts perpetrated against a particular family of Wahlesh. As the trial got underway in the square, with the accused tied and bound, being identified by the families who claimed to be their victims, both Branka and Zaria realized with horror that these were the very four men who had sexually assaulted them outside the village some months before!

When this observation was brought to the attention of Tsudros and Moshtok—both of whom had silently sworn to kill the men should they ever see them again, it was all the girls could do to restrain them from irrationally doing so in front of the gathered crowd. As the hearing progressed with the family who lost so much of their goods, animals and property, testifying in front of the magistrates, the girls cautioned their men witnessing the public spectacle with the others not to react. They told them of the vulnerability they themselves had. How it was due to the potentially hateful sentiment the girls 'people might be harboring for them. This they feared, would be brought out into the open should they act out violently towards these men now in custody.

It was Zaria's prudent feelings that to even make an accusatory claim against the men as their former attackers, as they rightfully could—the witnesses to the rapes would have to be only each other. She knew that further questions would certainly be asked of Tsudros and Moshtok. And though they were lethally held at bay during the act, this placing them in the limelight of questioning would only further put their presence into the minds and consciousness of the villagers. It was the concerns also of Branka that the public hearing would in some way backfire upon their lovers within the community due to their origin. For though the girls' original abduction by the Pazyryk warriors was clearly more than two years in the past, and they were now returned, feelings were still raw and sentiments never forgiving of the nomadic men who had raided their village, killing many and stealing the three girls—only two of which had made it back safely.

Still, their affectionate men were seething to procure swords and run up to the Slavic strangers and slay them for what they did to their women.

"We must be patient," Zaria whispered to both men as they struggled with her and Branka to break free. "There are other ways to seek our justice," she told them emphatically. Harming these men now . . . here in front of my people will not be good for any of our futures."

Reluctantly, the two disturbed men realized the wisdom of what Zaria and Branka were telling them. There would be further opportunities, the girls assured them, to seek revenge, and not with the entire settlement as witness to it. For Zaria and Branka also knew that once the men were found guilty of their thievery and a suitable punishment involving restitution and heavy labor was delivered to them, they would later be released and banished from the village on threat of their lives to ever return. There would be then time to act in a suitable and measured way, once they were no longer in the public's prying eyes.

As everyone in the town returned to the square that evening to hear the Archon's august words proclaiming the men's verdict and punishment, Tsudros and Moshtok had had enough time to temper their revenge—at least to a later time when they could then strike out in some revengeful way. For it was both men's recurrent dream to someday satiate in blood their anguish and outrage against the violators of their women.

In accordance with all agricultural settlements, the laws developed over time for theft among the people of Wahlesh was severe. And it dictated that these men, even though from another village, had to serve the family they stole from with hard labor for one full cycle of the moon. And this was to be supervised closely by male volunteers of the community who were armed and promised the men physical harm if they resisted. Lethal injury if they tried to escape. At the end of the convicts' day, they were shacked and kept in the crude shelter with the family's domestic animals—sheep or pigs, until morning where they were brought out again to continue their penance in the form of constructive labor.

Had it been revealed that these men were the actual marauders who had committed rape upon the two former village women, Branka and Zaria—and following a formal hearing and confirmation by credible witnesses, they would have been by law bound with ropes and drowned in the river. For it was this means of a death penalty which was handed down for the offense.

As the weeks passed and Tsudros and Moshtok saw the men each day working in the fields, they could only fantasize about how they would eventually serve them with their own punishments. And as the full month was almost passed and it was revealed they would be set free to return to their own village soon, the two couples met over a communal dinner, as they were now in the habit to do every several days, to discuss a viable plan.

While the two men were adamant about making the miscreants pay for their crime with their lives—just as the village would have dictated, both women felt a certain shame in wishing death upon anyone. They too wanted the men to pay heavily for the humiliation, pain and terror they endured. Yet, as the girls reminded their lovers, they could have all been murdered by these men, were they even more evil in their nature.

"They were all young . . . brutish and foolish," Zaria explained. "Yes. They were horrible to do what they did to us, yet we were at the end of it all . . . set free. And you, Tsudros and Moshtok . . . You were not killed as we had feared you could have been. Is this not worth some consolation to spare their lives?"

This gave some pause to the other three to think. For they had on that evening set about finding an appropriate personal punishment which they could agree upon. And soon, prior to them being set free by the village. Branka, too, agreed that though they suffered, they came away with their lives. And lived to see the two men they truly loved allowed to go free, as well.

Moshtok and Tsudros were naturally not happy with this mitigating position. And argued at length that the brutal dogs should be put to death. Yet finally, late that night, and out of love for their women and a respect for their admirable value of life, they agreed to come up with a suitable punishment amenable to all.

* * *

As it was just the day before the convicted four young men were about to be freed, Zaria and Branka went to the village family which had been victimized by them and requested a confidential discussion. This was granted by the man and woman whom Zaria and Branka had known since children. It was explained to them the terrible act they had endured from the very men they were harboring. And that in a day's time they would return to spend their last night with the animals. It was in this context that they asked the couple for a great and secret favor.

For this was a plan which the girls and their lovers had designed to be put in place prior to the prisoners' being released from the village. It would be carried out with the couple's assistance while the men slept. Hearing of the deplorable act the men had committed upon Branka and Zaria, and trusting their credibility as former child neighbors, they naturally gave the girls assurance that what was planned was indeed a just and fitting punishment for these men. It would involve their simple participation of lacing the men's nightly meal and large container of water with the powerful crushed roots of the Night Flower—a mountain herb known to the villagers for its property to put someone into a deep and unconscious sleep until the next day.

All was planned accordingly when the men were brought back from the fields that last evening and placed back into their uncomfortable ankle and wrist shackles. As usual, they were given food and water—their only meal of the day, which with difficulty the men were able to eat and drink with desperate gusto. When the guards had left for the evening and after the men had eaten, it was soon determined that the four were presently in the deepest state of sleep. Due to the herb they were unable to feel pain and would remain in a paralyzed state well until morning. 

Tsudros and Moshtok arrived as scheduled sometime later that night and entered the animal shelter. They came prepared for a long evening of work. Moshtok carried two bright torches while Tsudros produced several bags of the now famous tools of his trade—an array of sharp needles, knives and a vessel of black ink to create indelible tattoos.

That next midday the men were awakened with great difficulty,. They were then collected by the armed guards to be escorted to the edge of town—never to be seen in Wahlesh again. Upon immediate inspection, each carried on his forehead a stark and telling stigma of his character and past actions. For it was a striking and permanent depiction of a brutal donkey raping a beautiful and innocent deer.

The images were without doubt a series of Tsudros' most memorable and emblematic sets of body art. For he had designed and executed them on the young men's faces with intent and fervor—to be looked upon all across the land with both shame and wonder.

* * *