Arissi knows what she is doing and gave his permission, but in a way it is as if he did not, for how can he anticipate and know of the changes he will have to live with forever?
It is four days later and all of us teased Goldi today. After projecting Arissi into a young man, what does she do with him most of the day? They float around our skies, zooming up to the spaceships, speeding across land and river and diving as if meaning to test the abilities of Freddie, Vincent and Robbie to protect them! Since he can’t see as well as he used to, he must be wondering why he had to be changed and he finds it very strange to be flying without moving his wings - he does forget now and then and start to flap his arms. At least he enjoys lamb on the spit - Robbie did it especially for him. Next we’ll do a suckling pig and then maybe a leg of beef, chicken and goat so that we know what he likes, but we will not try feeding him fish or seafood as his species don’t touch any life coming from oceans or rivers. All the meats we provide come either from butchers on Earth or from some fairly big food machines, never from any life in Freddie. That reminds me, after we gave food machines to everyone on Earth, those religions that have strict rules about how foods are slaughtered, prepared and mixed, objected to certifying meals the food machines copied from already certified meals. The fact that many of their believers found this illogical and used the machines anyway could have been part of the reason the imams took such a strong stand against us for a while, since they must have apportioned all the blame for the corruption of their flocks and especially the resultant loss of income on our heads.
Goldi knew who would have the strongest influence on Arissi, so she avoided them for as long as she could. She did not ask, even indirectly, for the Akiards to stay away and on the ninth day they came to the taverna and waited for us to finish our breakfast. Arissi stared at them wide-eyed with wonder, for he could sense the power and see the savagery of the spikes and blades of certain chitinous parts of the bodies. Even to him they must have looked like machines of war, their every innocuous movement giving the impression of enormous power held back, but still a cold and vicious threat.
Meli looked up with an almost startled smile and spoke to Arissi, “We’ll start the tellings tonight.” She then turned to share in the conversation between Alice and Jess. Goldi flushed with pleasure and pulling at his arm she explained once she had his full attention. He laughed.
“It is as the telling of my dream to the elders by Sovia?” Goldi grinned but refused to answer.
When Sovia had told his tale, we had heard a cry made by some, male and female, that sounded to us like cries of pain. As the telling started, Arissi gave the closest imitation to that cry that he could with a Terran throat and we sensed it expressed his amazement. With a grin, from the stage, Cassie mumbled in our minds that maybe amazement really is painful in some ways as it forces our minds to open to new ideas and possibilities. The moment Jade was free to send a thought, she asked her whether, since she was amazing at times, did it mean she was also painful for us. All Cherinians could sense our amusement without the reason and they must have wondered what it was about the telling that was having this effect on us. Maybe some of them actually paid closer attention to the girls after that, but I doubt it, I’ve never sensed anyone not totally absorbed by the tellings, even if they hate us and wish to destroy us.
As Robbie has been told, the telling by our loves can be considered a very potent weapon by those who stand against us. With Arissi, it was not fair. The age difference between Robbie and us meant nothing to him since it is not possible to become a female unless they are old enough for sex. There was much that made an impression on him and we did discuss them to some depth, but the one fact that he continually returned to and could not seem to adjust to was the way we speak of love. Among their people there is love, but it is never spoken of and there are no words to describe the emotion. The male loves his females and his children, but he would never dream of mentioning it. The same with the females, they do not even speak of love to their children. Their voice, their gentle ways of handling the young, the warmth as they huddle over them at night, these all speak of love and yet, they do not have a word to describe what they are feeling. Arissi confirmed they have a word for hate, but otherwise, as is common with the language of people who have a warrior or hunter mentality, their lexicon is very limited.
Robbie thought to tease him the next morning. “Seeing females fight like hunters, did that upset you?”
He hesitated, perhaps not quite certain how to reply tactfully, so Gilli got in first. Her petite pixie face frowned earnestly as she spoke, “Arissi, as you now know, I am not of the same species as the majority of my family. However, I have lived with them a very long time and we have shared our minds to the extent that I believe I have also acquired certain of their Terran instincts. A number of my sister daughter wives also have an alien to the Terrans background and they have also had to make the same adjustments. It is very confusing having more than one set of instincts. I’ve heard scientists of various species theorise that because all species acquired most of their instincts when they were non-sapient and most of those instincts belong to the class of survival instincts, our instincts should be very similar, differentiating only in details. I can tell you, they are wrong. For example, those of carnivore and omnivore class are very different from the herbivores. They are what create the class of hunter and prey on your planet.” She then explained in more depth why it was so and answered a few simple questions Arissi asked. We sensed she had arrived at the point of her lecture as she continued.
“The Terrans are of the least honourable kind of creatures that exist within any universe. As hunters, they are not satisfied for their quarry to be among the prey species only; they are hunters who mimic prey so as to hunt other hunters and turn them into prey - more often than not, not for food or survival purposes but for the sport of killing. Your people did not recognise what they saw, but their instincts served them true and they did not allow themselves to be duped into losing all that gives their lives a purpose and dignity. Arissi, why do you think they have extended such effort on your behalf, is it not because you are a youngling and easier prey for them?”
We don’t know whether Arissi, our friends (of all species) or us were the most stunned by what she’d said. Goldi just stared at her without anyone sensing any emoting from her, as if her mind had frozen. Gilli has a good sense of timing and she remained silent, looking as if she were waiting for questions, until she saw that to delay any further would cause damage she had not intended. She burst out laughing. Like all of us, Robbie stared at her, but then he realised what she’d done and laughing, he pulled her to his lap.
“You’ve grown very sharp little teeth, my love.” She saw the love in his eyes and it dampened her mirth for a moment, but then we all sensed how the words of Robbie had confused Arissi even further and she burst into fresh peals of laughter.
Robbie explained that Gilli is to a certain extent correct in all she had told him as her people do not eat meat and they never take life. He then explained that she was able to make her joke without hurting our feelings because all she claimed about us belongs to the past and we have moved on to become more like her people, even if we still eat meat. A few Terrans showed by their emoting that they were not convinced by the arguments put forth by Robbie and still resented what Gilli had said, so he was forced to speak on the subject in greater depth. Dommi saw that Robbie was not persuading anyone and it is important to us that nobody resents our Gilli, she is sensitive and will wilt if she has to keep on sensing their resentment for a long time.
“Arissi,” she said, and Robbie stopped speaking, “what Gilli said about us is to a smaller degree true of your people, otherwise hunters would not have attacked farmers. However, you are also nothing like us. We have always had, throughout the generations, those who saw that it is wrong of us to kill each other, but the truth is, we did tend to go to war for the most ridiculous reasons and once bloodlust took over, our hunters not only killed each other but often also females and children. At the time Cherine was born, there were an average of ten same-species hunts taking place every year. Many of those hunts were what we considered small and local, only affecting a certain part of our world. Other hunts were huge with millions dying over a few years. Each generation tried to develop weapons that were more effective in killing thousands and even millions with one blow, until we reached the point where we had weapons that could kill our entire planet, leaving few, if any, survivors.
Days went by, then weeks, yet Arissi did not ask to revert to his body even once and we did not sense any anxiety about returning to his family. As we’ve mentioned, all of us, when we are in Freddie, know that we can stay away from home the equivalent of decades and be back on the same day we departed, yet most of us cannot seem to avoid that nagging feeling that time is passing back home and things are going wrong because we are not there to deal with any problems that come up. Since this contradiction between logic and our inner voice is fairly universal, affecting most species, we expect it of new guests/species. Without Arissi knowing, he was studied by all the species that could do so unobtrusively as they tried to work out in what ways he differs from all of us. His privacy was never invaded, but computers are good at learning the slightest changes that show our emotions. Most of the evidence of emotions with Arissi in his own body would have centred on his lower beak (lip), his forward eyes and, if angry, his back legs as they tensed for a strike. That meant his emotions while in a Terran body were affected in an equivalent manner and made him seem to have a tic as his upper lip tried to remain rigid and his lower twisted and turned. Luckily his forward eyes are fairly represented by his Terran eyes so that part of exhibiting his emotions physically was normal to us.
He has his favourites among us and other species and they seem to change according to the latest telling, but the one who has remained his prime favourite all the time is Robbie. Watching him being tortured had horrified him, he had not ever imagined one human being could treat another that way, as a matter of fact, he could not imagine any of his people treating prey that way. He believed that it would dishonour the hunter to such an extent that he would have to move away from the rest of the nest.
“There is a prey that especially appeals to our people. They form groups of fifty to sixty, depending on the number of young. All have the same colouring as the land around them, making it difficult for even our hunting eyes to see them if they do not move, but there are often those who move before it is safe. If even a newborn moves, as tiny as it is, it betrays its entire nest. We are not the only form of life they have to fear, there are other species that also live on the land that are hunters. Their strengths are not much greater so if the nest sends out three or four defenders, they can cause enough damage to force the hunter to leave. It is very rare for land hunters of any species to gather in groups so the strategy of the nest works for them often enough for them to survive. To keep their family secure, the prey nest always have a few guards slightly apart from the nest. The guards serve another purpose. They protect their nest from our hunters.
We can swoop down on them at many times the speed they can run and our weight and talons are beyond the ability of an entire nest to protect themselves, so it is a wonder that they have found a way to protect themselves is it not?
When one of our hunters is seen and they realise an attack is imminent, the nest flatten themselves to the ground while one guard runs. As it runs, the colours of its fur change so that the hairs become brighter while also forming contrasting stripes. This is meant to attract our eyes so that we lose any sense of where the nest is. These prey are named by us, for we admire them. They are called shtiéry and the striped guard that sacrifices its life for the nest is named asié shtiéry. The fourth son of my father is often called asié shtiéry by his brothers, despite his young age, as he is braver than many hunters.
When our hunters see the asié shtiéry, they will first search for another prey. If none are available, they will accept the sacrifice of the asié shtiéry. Dommi, many times the nest will see or sense the death of their asié shtiéry and they will move out of fear or their young will cry out. No hunter with any honour would attack them, even when hungry for flesh. Their lives have been paid for and they will not be searched out.”
Allan looked up and shook his fist at the sky. “Damn you Arthur! Why didn’t you give me the imagination to think up characters like these asié shtiéry for my stories!” It broke the melancholic mood Arissi had created for us as empathy forced us to sense what it must be like to be an asié shtiéry and we laughed, teasing Allan about his bland lack of creativity. He always responds to our teasing by pointing out the same fact - he points at Eleni and demands to know whether any other artist could have given her such beauty. Once we agree with him (wholeheartedly) that none other could have, he then mutters softly but just loud enough for her to hear, ‘the truth is I did not create her beauty, it was inside her’. Even hearing him for the umpteenth time, Eleni’s heart still floods her being with love for him. Jessie adores Eleni, so, sensing her, her little heart also floods with love for her Allan. Feeling the two girls, our hearts flood with love for Allan - and Robbie has a good laugh at us for being so credulous and so easily swayed emotionally. His laughter is mostly a macho reaction to hide the fact that he also has been emotionally swayed.
We have had more than enough evidence that they, as a species, are not adaptive. When we return to their planet, we intend watching a few other youngsters, for Arissi has puzzled us. It is amazing in how many ways he has adapted to being with us and of our species (physically). We are not certain how much of his adaptability comes from the changes Goldi is making to his mind. A possibility suggested by the Inguel is that meeting Goldi in dreams had not triggered his instincts that protect each of us because he knew it was a dream.
He should have felt like a deracinated outsider in Freddie and homesick for his world and people, but in some mystical (or so it seemed to us) and alien way of adjusting, perhaps, by allowing himself to find ways to become comfortable with the Terran body he has, he grew to genuinely feel he also belongs here, with us. We could sense that to him some of us are closer than friends and because of the limited range of relationships among his species, he categorised us as being like family; family that has weird and odd ideas of how life should be lived, but that he is growing to love despite our strangeness. One of the weirdest aspects he has had to adapt to is our intense focus on love. To him, love is - it just is - and it is not something to be commented on or made more important than the feelings being felt. (We do strongly dispute the implied accusation by him).
Another enigma. Species that evolved from prey do not usually like those evolved from hunter. Some will even go to extremes to avoid us despite Robbie having brought them back. Why is it they all like Arissi? It is these questions that are finally forcing us to go back and read what Arthur wrote and ponder on why he made certain decisions. For instance, surely it would have made more sense for Goldi to go to the dreams of Sovia instead of Arissi? Could it be that Arissi has evolved and is meant to help his people grow in new ways or was it his youth that made him more pliable and open to new ideas? Arthur? I just knew he would not answer.
Goldi asked Arissi whether she should return him to his own body for a while. We are close to the end of the telling and she thought he might like to sense it with his own eyes. Arissi shook his head. “When a hunter flies on a hunt, he does not grab only the sky close to him, he fills himself with all the sky so that he is part of it. I am not ready to return to my nest.” His answer might have provided us with a clue as to why or how he has shown himself to be so adaptable, but I believe it is not the sole answer; he has to be something like the Cherine of his world, a sport of nature that might have gone unnoticed if we had not arrived to change their lives. Now that I think of it, his grandfather, so it seems, was abnormal as far as his peers were concerned. His father, Irasbit, proved himself to be very different and once they are Cherinians and the girls have taught Sovia and those who wish to join him how to do a telling in the manner they do, I’d like to see the full telling of his life.
“That is not how it is with us Candy,” Arissi said, in answer to her question. “When the father of a fofor family dies, the mothers do not choose or create another father. If they have young ones, other fathers will bring a small part of their hunt so that nobody suffers hunger. Once the young ones leave to become part of new fofor families, the mothers share the task of hunting as fathers will no longer bring them food. They are not always successful as they may not hunt where the fathers do, but they do catch smaller prey often enough to survive.”
“He will have his own family to take care of. Candy, the mothers get their share of grain, fruits and other farmed products and will not grow hungry for flesh until they are all too old to hunt for themselves. Once they do, why should they want to continue living? It is the same for the fathers. Life must always look forward, not backwards.” Candy did not argue, but she spent much of that day deep in thought. She did confide that she wondered why this species does not venerate their elders and the experience they can offer the young. She was reminded that the Inuit used to have the same custom, the elders would be left to die once they felt they could not contribute to the survival of their family.
As Arissi transferred his admiration and hero-worship from one individual or species to another, the apparent reasons for such transfers were carefully noted. However, when the pattern suggested he should be transferring his admiration but he did not, it sometimes taught us more about him than the transfers did. For instance, it was expected he would admire Noname when he learnt of Noname and of how he tenaciously chased after Robbie for an impossibly large span of time and then his attacks when he found our home planet. Arissi found it all too alien since the concept of revenge and the need for it, are not a part of their mindset. As for Noname finding the courage to admit he was wrong and join us, Arissi thought that it was only supremely logical of him to do so. He did not admire the original Akiards, their need to destroy all sentient life being abhorrent, but he admires our Akiards and their devotion to proving themselves the supreme Warriors of Love of Cherine. The girls did not skip the mating habits of the original Akiards but they did gloss over them so that the facts were lost in the multitude of more important changes. I do not know what his instincts are with regard to sex, but I suspect he would not have respected the idea of hunters using prey for propagation purposes.
I am quite annoyed with Rosie. But then I’m also grateful to her for showing me I’d misunderstood. In direct response to my writing, she asked Arissi how his people would react to cross-species sex. Perhaps he thought she was asking because of our loves, but his answer suggests he is not as simplistic in his attitudes as I’d expected him to be, even though he did not refer to the Akiards.
“It is said in stories that a very long time ago, before there were farmers, both males and females were hunters. In those days the land and skies were filled with prey and the hunt lasted only a small part of the day, giving them time to think of other things and bring up their young ones. The sun grew angry at us for not trying to fly high enough to keep our promise and it sent us balls of fire that tore the land and destroyed a great number of our homes. The young ones in those homes were all killed and the grief that took hold of our people was terrible enough to darken our skies for three generations. We came out of that and back into clear skies a changed people. No father dared leave his young ones alone and the mothers had to stay home. Over the many generations when hunting was still easy, the fathers worried, no longer satisfied with a family of four mothers, for it was seen that many families did not have more than one or two young ones, some not even that. It was a frightening time, for nobody understood what was happening. A few increased their females, but they were scorned as not having honour. Then the hunters saw that with each generation there were less prey. Some of the elders decided to walk on the land to find out what was happening. They discovered that the prey are not giving birth to the numbers they used to and many of their young were dying at birth, just as with our young ones.
It forced them to examine what was happening to our people and to face the truth without allowing the sun to blind them. They saw that we were growing less and that many families were losing their young ones because the fathers no longer found it possible to return with full claws. They saw that young ones were growing up weaker and smaller than their fathers.
Two of the most important changes were decided at that time. Our diets had mainly consisted of flesh with some chewing of leaves or roots to aid in digestion. It was known that other roots and fruit could take the place of flesh on the odd occasion when claws returned empty, but to do so and remain without eating flesh for long periods weakened us. However, it was reasoned that a smaller diet of flesh and an increased amount of foods of plants would ease the strain on hunters while keeping us healthy. Until that time, the only plants grown by us were those that grew from seeds dropped around our homes. It was reasoned by the elders that we could do the same with the seeds, but in an organised manner so that we would have enough to feed all of us. No hunter could be expected to farm, so the family structure changed. We grew into the fofor family so that some mothers could remain with the young ones while the rest farmed.
In each generation there are a number of hunters who suffer loss of their keen hunter sight or their wings grow stiff or they are crippled by accidents or illness before they are elders and have a number of young ones to care for. Many chose not to stay at the nest with the young and went into the fields, for producing no food held less honour than the loss of honour in working with the mothers. Then a few new families born of those with fathers no longer hunters, chose to become farmers as their fathers were. Some even decided it made sense to farm with some of the prey held in enclosed areas so that they could eat flesh without having to hunt. Because of that, our people split into farmers and hunters.
Originally, the farmers had farmed on behalf of all. Then they saw that hunters gave preference to their own families, only making available any flesh left over, so they held back their produce and demanded flesh in return. As the farmers began to farm their own prey two new problems grew like dark clouds in our skies. Some hunters refused to respect the rights of the farmers and hunted the farmed prey. Farmers then paid with produce and flesh for other hunters to protect their farmed prey and so the interests of hunters was split, weakening them. With time, farmers asked for other items instead of flesh. Certain kinds of stones or new plants that were edible or could decorate their nests. New things were created by the farmer families and they were traded. Some of the farmer families built their nests away from the farms so that they could concentrate on developing and making new things the other groups would want and trade for. Rosie, we were beginning to take the same path your species did but, unlike your species, we are not suited to such a splitting of our people. After hundreds of years, the hunters gathered in frustration and anger and destroyed those places where things were made and then they attacked the farmers, killing many. There was only that one attack, but it left both sides stunned by shock and they both retreated. Since then, no hunter willingly contacts a farmer, considering them a different species and the farmers consider us destroyers and killers of humans and avoid us - despite no further attacks over the last few hundred years. I can see that our original people changed so that the various groups have become aliens to each other - and yet, where any wish to leave a group, such as a crippled hunter joining the farmers or any throwbacks from them returning to us, it is allowed without comment, as happened with the mothers our father brought back with him. The proof that they were accepted is shown by the fact that they were allowed hunter family females for growing their core family into a fofor family.”
Rosie nodded. “Your father arrived as a youngling close to death and the farmers learnt of how a hunter had killed two fofor families - confirming the worst of their beliefs about your people, and therefore the contempt and hatred shown for you when you went to search for Feifoa?”
“I had not thought of it, but I now see it is true.”
“How important are the decisions of your elders? Are they always obeyed?” Robbie asked.
“Elders are very important Robert. If I should become a hunter and have my own fofor family, would it not happen that at least one of my young ones would become a hunter? If I am strong enough to continue surviving, I would then be an elder. Should my son not respect me when I give my opinion?”
“But he will not have to obey you?”
“Does any son among your people obey his father at all times Robert?”
Amused by the thought of Michael sharing from us, he grinned as he replied, “No, not among my people and maybe not among most species.”
Robbie was just as impressed as the rest of us by the new ability of Arissi to see and understand truths in what had seemed to be only stories or myths to him. His heart also went out to him when he foresaw what a lonely and hard life awaits the youngling, for the changes in him will set him apart from his family and nests. He could only think of one way to help strengthen him during our absences. “Arissi, we can take you back in time for you to see the truth of all you told us. We’ll also use our knowledge to find out why your species changed, losing the ability to have as many young as they used to. I have a feeling that the burning rocks that crashed into your planet are responsible in some way, but we’ll go then and there to find out for ourselves. Arissi, it will be exciting learning and seeing the story of your people, but it will also be very painful. There will be many times that you will ache desperately to save lives, but we must not interfere. The story of your people must not be altered in the slightest way - not even by you secretly feeding on a small prey without being seen by your people. Taking that one prey out of the story could change the story of your people. If you agree to my terms, we’ll go back in time.”
We thought the lack of reaction, I’m speaking of emoting broadcasted by Arissi, reflected a numbness from shock. We forgot to take into account that he might not have defences against so much death and pain of his own people. We were also guilty of mainly concentrating on Robbie, as it is still as destructive of his own psyche seeing and sensing so many children being killed. Luckily most of the children and adults died too quickly for them to feel much terror and they had too little time to experience much pain. Dommi and Goldi were the first to sense that something was wrong with Arissi. He had not moved, as if frozen by the scenes on the screens, but once we made an effort to sense him, we realised we were reaching out into an absence of personality. Arissi had withdrawn into a hidden world where sanity barely still reigned in an attempt to evade the insane world of death and destruction his unseeing eyes seemed to watch without blinking.
We had to split ourselves into two groups; those who rushed into the mind of Arissi and those who used their love for Goldi to hold her back from collapsing from guilt. Haven sternly told her off, annoying some of us, and demanded she concentrates on Arissi instead of her own feelings of guilt. Her severe admonishment worked and Goldi soon joined the others as they searched for the hiding place of the personality of Arissi. His mind is still totally alien to us so nobody knew what is safe for him and us. Luckily it was not urgent that we find him quickly so we did not hurry the search and make mistakes - and when Rania found his internal world, it was a delight to sense him. He had reverted to a newly born chick and was happily stuffing himself with seeds that are used by their species as sweets are by us. He was not frightened by our appearance and allowed Goldi to touch him. When she did, he leant against her and reassured by her warmth, he fell asleep! It took some doing managing to avoid giggling. Those of us who were free to do so changed so as to enjoy his internal world as chicks of his species. We nibbled on the seeds that were delicious and I know that I was not the only one who made a point of noting how it felt being an immature male. I was very surprised to find that the maleness of the body was not accompanied by any male sexual feelings. It was almost as if I was in a neutered body.
When Arissi woke up he was embarrassed when he found out where he was. Goldi told him to stop being silly and enjoy it. Once she got him started, he was happy to nibble at all the seeds he could find.
When we returned to our bodies, we found Arissi had stopped projecting without realising it. We encouraged him to stay as he is so that he experiences the rest of the history of his people in his natural form. Robbie warned that the deaths he had seen were not the worst he is to see; the first generations after the catastrophe are bound to suffer through starvation and plagues, with entire families dying as the climatic upheaval affects plants and animals. That was when our isi spoke up, bringing happiness to Arissi, his people and us.
“Robert, where such deaths are not witnessed by others, could we not collect those families for transporting to the time of Arissi? As Arthur said, their population at that time is too low and they could slide into extinction. Those we take from now might be enough to help them stabilise as a healthy population.” Her feelers waved with her excitement. “Our scientists have already noted which animals exist at this time that are not present at our time. If we return once more in time to just before the asteroids crash into the planet, we could collect enough lifeforms from the areas of concentrated destruction to help the present without affecting the past. I am told that the loss of the nutrient of their bodies is too small to cause a split of realities - that is, if this reality can split.”
We had thought that Arissi and all of his species cannot weep tears like we do, but he proved us wrong - weeping from his front eyes, not out of misery, but out of the shame he felt his people had earned by insulting us because of our wish to save them. We set Goldi and Empathia on him, to convince him that he should not speak to his people of his feelings, that we had not felt insulted and that if nothing was said it would make it easier for his people to accept our interfering now. When we saw the girls fail, we knew nothing would change his mind, so we tried to think of ways to lessen the feeling that they have shamed themselves.
When we know that what we are doing is going to have a positive result for another species so that they are no longer threatened with extinction, no number of hours devoted each day to making it happen are too many and we never weary. Our healers can prevent our bodies from tiring, but only the excitement of knowing we are doing something good for another keeps the eagerness of our hearts and souls perpetually fresh. This kind of operation does not have moments when awe inspiring deeds happen, but is filled with countless tiny details that mount up to upsetting the unbalanced spiral into entropy that had been achieved; restoring the entire planet, not just one species.
The families already dying that we rescued did not come to Freddie. They were taken directly to a Sparkler World, to an area especially prepared for them. We taught the first ones, explaining the reasons we had interfered and what we hoped to achieve for them and the future of their families. I don’t know whether they were more shocked by our existence, our rescuing them or being taken to the future of their world, or, by the concept and actuality of fofor families being the norm at the time they would be taken to. They all protested that they cannot mimic those they will be joining, but we did not always get the feeling they were being honest with us or themselves. What would have upset many Terran females was that we sensed it was mostly the females who liked the idea of having more wives. Among them, each family does tend to exist as a tiny community, as happens in some extreme cases among our people, so it can become very lonely for the females if the family is small. I wonder how or why it is they do form friendships, but never truly grow close to each other.
Robbie was distressed to find that there were no works of art to save. We asked Arissi and he confirmed that his people do not draw or paint (he had not shown any interest in paintings he saw in our home and elsewhere, but he did like the vine-like decorations sometimes seen on picture frames or cloth made for dresses, sheets and curtains). However, they do have a singsong style of chanting poetry, very stylised and always devoted to stories about hunts that were important. Many of such chants spoke of hunts from ages that were distant in time when there were other creatures on land and in the air that were bigger, stronger and more dangerous. It is important that the chanter knows all the right movements, stamping of feet, swaying of body and sharp half sweeps of wings with head and beak stabbing to bring the chant to life.
Imagine an Earth where mankind only inhabits an area half the size of Greece. This was the equivalent situation locally and there were a number of factors that explained why the rest of their planet was ignored. The area they live in is surrounded by deserts and for as far as their sharp eyes can see, there are only the odd grouping of boulders and dunes, no water and no signs of life. Before the collision and destruction by the asteroids, there was no desert surrounding this area. We don’t know whether the changes in climate caused the desert to grow and trap them or whether their period of farming, trading and building cities was responsible. What does matter right now is that they are trapped within a small area and it presents us with an opportunity that will save us having to carry forward in time fofor families of the present (the greater nest of Arissi and the farmers). As we know they will not willingly allow us to do so on their behalf, their isolation means we can begin to heal and restore the planet a couple of centuries before the time of Arissi. Our teams are spreading the lifeforms we are bringing from the past onto all the continents. We are using our mental gifts to cause rain to fall where it is needed with our healers encouraging growth and as we slip forward in small time jumps, we see the alteration of the landscapes are changing the weather patterns as pre-calculated by the Inguel teams and our intercessions are no longer needed as often as they were.
During one of our visits into the past to collect more of a delicate species of plants which beneficially affects other plants that produce grain, by the chemical it leaves in the soil, we saw a species of herbivore that are bigger than any animal in the future. It is very fast, it can twist and turn suddenly as it runs at full speed and it has horns over it entire length, from head to tail. It is slightly larger than a cow but has only a third of the width, giving it a very odd look to us - I keep expecting them to fall over. Arissi was fascinated by them and asked us to reinstate them within the ecology of his planet. Happily, we did so, Meli having pushed for it more vociferously than any of us. Cassie teased her, claiming that by us doing so there will soon be new chants created about hunts, bringing back to life the only art form this species has, thus making her happy. Her not so subtle hint that Meli had supported Arissi for reasons of her own did not disturb Meli and she only gave her a smile, but refused to respond otherwise. Still, Cassie did want to make us laugh at a time we needed it and since Meli was not upset, we allowed ourselves to enjoy her wit. What made it easier for us to treat it as funny was that Jade also made herself the butt of the joke alongside Meli.
Last to arrive, a golden elder approached them, trying hard to pretend he could not see Goldi. “You are Arissi, a youngling from our future?”
Respectfully, he replied, “I am, great father.”
“The beings that brought us here explained about you. It is true that our nests grow less each generation?” It was easier this way for Arissi, he had worried about having to stand before them to tell a tale they would not believe whereas answering questions helped him see clearly what they already believed and what they found impossible to accept as being true. To his relief, it was obvious from their emoting and the fact that not one of them had left their seats, that they believed Arissi and saw no loss in honour in what he had done. After numerous questions, the elder glanced at Goldi and then asked Arissi, “This is the Golden that came to you in your dreams?” Arissi introduced her and the elder gravely but politely gave his name.
“Sousri, brought here by others of your kind. Those who name themselves Sparklers have told us much about your people. Golden, would you expect us to spend an entire day hunting and then to bring to you all we caught, returning to our families with empty claws and bags?”
“I would not.”
He peered at her short-sightedly from his front eyes. “Would it be expected of us by others of your kind?” Again Goldi confirmed none have such expectations. Elder Sousri looked distressed. “It is what you offer us and what you offer, should we accept, must be offered in return. How do we do so?”
Goldi floundered as she tried to answer and was very surprised when Arissi interrupted her and asked that he be allowed to explain. “Great father, in your time, you had days when the wind blew clouds of seeds across the nest? If I caught one such seed and offered it to you, would you feel my offer has shamed you? Would you not accept it as a gesture that leaves no one beholden because it cost me such small effort to catch it and offer it to you? All that Golden and her people have done for us took less energy than I would have spent in catching the seed, for all they have done was simply by a thought.” With wonder, Goldi listened as he argued that they should not feel shamed by all we are doing for them and that, instead, they should consider us indebted to them. “We give meaning to their existence great father, for they are very old and have little left to dream of.” He made gasping sounds (of amazement) that forced all who were watching him to tense. “They have so little to do that when they tell a story, the telling can last five times four days!” It was obvious from the sounds they made that this was truly amazing to them. They all peered with great curiosity at Goldi and she tried to guess what their emoting meant. She took a guess.
“Would you like my family to tell you such a story?” Their excitement was evident and after arrangements were made, Goldi and Arissi returned to us. Arissi put up his feet on the rungs and emoted his glee to us.
“When we departed, they were telling each other that hearing such a story will be something the next one hundred generations will speak of to their younglings with awe.” He tried to make the sound of a Terran laugh. “Being brought back from death and carried to another world is less wondrous than your story telling!”
Since I never am part of the telling I could not resist teasing them and called out a warning, “Careful Arissi, you’ll swell their heads with pride and then they will be impossible to live with.” He, in all apparent earnestness, explained that with his people it is the chest that swells first, releasing oils that give a metallic sheen to the feathers and if the feeling is extreme, then their head feathers grow stiff in what is named the sunrise glory - which can actually be shameful if seen when it is not justified by an extremity of emotions, as it is not considered modest.
We could not shoot through the past at any speed, we had to watch for families facing death in isolation and it was amazing how many there were amongst hunters. With everyone starving, they had little interest in what happened to their neighbours and if a family suddenly disappeared and their absence was noticed, they thought they had moved away in hope of finding food elsewhere and they were gladdened, for the less mouths there were to feed from within their own area, the more likely it was they’d succeed at feeding their own family.
Arthur, it has taken seventy years of dancing backwards and forward within the same era, but not the same area, but we now have over one hundred thousand families in total, which comes to about half a million individuals. Don’t worry, we have not aged by seventy years. We stayed that length of time because it just happened that we, all species, joined to form seventy groups, with each group staying in a big platform for six months, twice, while Freddie skipped forward and backwards in six month leaps while travelling around the planet. Therefore, we have each ‘aged’ by about one year only. We would have returned to the present to start delivering the families to their planet, but we have been asked for one more telling. Their enthusiasm and loud exclamations seem to make a difference in how all other species experience the telling, for it seems that Freddie will be empty during the tellings.
The Sparklers are very considerate hosts, which meant we could not visit their World for the telling of that day and leave. They transported millions of people from the species living in their World to the area of the tellings and created platforms for all species to see and hear and afterwards there was food and drink for everyone. By the time we had the last telling and Cherine had done a golden circle of love, we all returned home exhausted, not just the girls who’d done the tellings.
Arissi waited for us to finish our breakfast. “I think that seeing and meeting so many of the species living in the Sparkler World that are mentioned in the storytelling brought it to life for my people - I know it has done so for me. The eyes that are for looking at friends and family, they could barely be kept open when I heard how many of them speak of your family with anger and some with hatred. When I asked whether you had not told the truth in the story telling, they admitted you had, but claimed you should have done more! Saving their species is not enough? I am too heavy to fly Robert.”
Robbie felt Goldi needed to answer him, so he waited for her to speak. “It is not just species who have different ways of viewing life, it is equally true of individuals within each of those species. Since the first species we met, there have been those of both extremes - those who wish to worship us and those who hate us. For us it is more difficult dealing with those who want to worship us, for we can find reasons for those who hate us; we can say they are greedy, selfish, small-minded and so on. Those who wish to worship us make our hearts want to weep so that our skies lose all brightness and colour.” She reached for his wingtip ‘hand’ and he let her take hold of it. “Arissi, to me you are a very close friend, like family is to you, please do not allow yourself to fall to either extreme.”
“You misunderstand me Goldi, I do not fear for myself, but for my people. If those who wanted you to save them can be so ungrateful, what hope is there of my people accepting you as hunters or farmers instead of prey?”
“You may be correct. Arissi, as long as you see us as family, friends who care about you, then I am happy.” Robbie saw to it that Arissi had another ten days with us, teams being taken to prepare in the future, before we returned to his time and started to transport his people to various parts of their planet, to areas where homes had been built for them and farms readied, with the first harvest already in their bins. We will not be giving them food machines - they would only be a curse to the people of this planet.
“It is still important we meet Feifoa.” We explained why. “How do you want us to go about it this time Arissi?”
