Paws and Planets Read online

  As every wise husband knows, discretion is the better part of valour so Saru tried to ignore his secret excitement about what Dakaru had told him and agreed with her, spending an increasingly uncomfortable night atop the eggs whilst Sanua slept in comfort on her leafy bed, her half-grown ltsctas clustered round her.

  Incidentally, not only was Saru physically uncomfortable enough for it to disturb his slumbers but his brain couldn’t rest either, so filled was it with dreams about talking Lind.

  So it was a sleep-deprived Saru who with due courtesy declared his presence outside the daga of Dakaru the next day.

  “Come in, come in,” called out the hospitable Dakaru, “Adua is out teaching our three the rudiments of hunting, there’s a kura herd migrating north and she thought it too good an opportunity to wing by. I’m here and so are Andei and Taya. Was a bit difficult keeping them here, they wanted to go hunt too but I explained the situation to them and they decided to stay and see you. They are terrible show offs and they feel a great urge to demonstrate their latest accomplishment.”

  “Accomplishment?” enquired Saru, obeying Dakaru’s winged invite to enter.

  “Andei said my name!” Dakaru looked as if he might explode with pride.

  Saru had to laugh, why Dakaru was looking too comical for words. As his eyes grew accustomed to the dim interior he caught sight of the two Lind.

  Andei and Taya was sitting almost directly in front of him, their eyes gleaming and their tongues panting with excitement.

  “They know this is an important moment,” said Dakaru. “Settle down over there Saru and whatever you do keep quiet, just listen. They’re excited and I don’t want them to get so excited that they forget everything they’ve learned.

  Saru subsided into the indicated spot and waited. He still only half-believed Dakaru and was still inclined to think Dakaru was imagining things to be what he wanted them to be and not what they actually were. Talking creatures indeed!

  Dakaru glanced over at Saru and hid an inner smile. His friend was about to be utterly dumbfounded by what was going to happen now. Dakaru was not stupid, he knew Saru was thinking he had been spinning a tall tale.

  Seeing is believing!

  Dakaru stepped over until he stood in front of Andei and Taya and being very careful not to spoil Saru’s view.

  Two alert and furry heads followed him. The male Lind, Andei, began to wag his tail, ever so slowly. Andei’s eyes, Saru noted, were indeed gleaming with latent intelligence and he found himself hoping against hope that what Dakaru had told him was true. Not for the first time Saru thought, I like these creatures, there is something very appealing in their make up, why, they even mate for life as we do!

  Dakaru grinned at the two Lind and they grinned back.

  Saru watched every nuance in their behaviour.

  Dakaru’s first words were a command.

  “Come here.”

  The two Lind immediately got to their paws and walked over to Dakaru.

  Saru sighed, this was not a demonstration of intelligence. His two Lind, Aei and Aya also obeyed basic commands like this one.

  This is training, nothing more. They are obedient, which is good but that is all it is.

  “Are you ready,” Dakaru asked them and to Saru’s great surprise both Andei and Taya nodded their heads.

  Dakaru could have trained them to nod. Saru was still not convinced

  “This is Saru,” Dakaru told them, “he is my friend.”

  Two grinning furry faces glanced over to where Saru sat.

  Why, he thought, they’re laughing at me! The female, Taya at this point opened her mouth even further showing off a set of exceedingly white and tremendously sharp teeth. Like a complacent smirk, the intrigued Saru was thinking. He leant forward so as not to miss what came next.

  “What is my name?” asked Dakaru, trying not to sound anxious. He knew that the Lind were very sensitive to verbal nuances.

  Andei looked at Dakaru who looked back with what he hoped was an encouraging face.

  Taya gave Andei a nudge with a sideways look over at Saru which he interpreted as look at me, I’ll make him do it. Her action was so like what Sanua might have done that Saru chuckled and Andei jumped.

  “I told you to keep quiet,” hissed Dakaru as he turned again to Andei. “What is my name?” he asked again.

  Andei’s furry face took on an expression of intense concentration. He opened his mouth. Saru held his breath.

  “D … d … kru.” The sounds emerged from between his lips and teeth, something part way between a growl and a whisper.

  Dakaru looked triumphant.

  “Say it again Andei.”

  Andei rolled his tongue around in his mouth and concentrated again.

  “Da … kru,” he said, clearer this time. Then he spoilt the effect by wagging his tail, with a pleased look. Taya stared at him in admiration.

  “Taya isn’t there yet,” Dakaru explained, “but we’re working on it, aren’t we?”

  Taya whuffled and in amongst the whuffle Saru thought he could distinguish an attempt at the word for ‘yes’. “Well,” he said at last, “I’m daiglaied, absolutely amazed. Are you sure they understand what they are saying though? I mean, does what comes out from their lips make any sense?”

  “Yes it does,” answered Dakaru with a wink in Andei and Taya’s direction and Saru got another surprise when Andei solemnly winked back.

  That action was enough to rock Saru’s composure even more; right from the ends of his talons to the ends of his wingtips. He sat there mesmerised as Andei and Taya touched noses before turning to face him.

  Andei’s face took on that look of concentration again and his next word took the last vestiges of Saru’s control and flung it into the wind.

  “S … ru,” he said and sat back to watch the effect.

  For almost the first time in his life Saru found himself bereft of speech. However, being Saru, he recovered almost at once.

  “Andei,” he greeted him, “I, Saru, am very pleased to meet you,” and Andei nodded, his ears cocking forwards and backwards nineteen to the dozen.

  “S … ru,” he said again and turned to his mate, “T …y… ,” and he nudged her with his forepaw.

  Saru chuckled, “and I am most pleased to meet you too Taya.”

  The syllable ‘s’ hissed out of Taya’s mouth and Saru understood that she was also trying to say his name.

  He looked at Dakaru, “I’m almost convinced,” he said. He couldn’t wait to get back to his own daga and begin to talk to his two Lind. “What an amazing thing,” he said and laughed aloud.

  Andei’s eyes were full of mirth, no, thought Saru, they are saying, we are not creatures like the silly kura , the fast jezdic and the humpty zarova, we are Lind and our brains are every bit as good as yours! Now we can talk and you will be surprised at what we can do and what we think.

  Saru returned to his daga and as he reflected ever afterwards, it was a wonder he reached it in one piece! So lost in thought was he that he flew dangerously close to a tall copse of trees at one point, tilting his wings just in time to avoid an accident.

  Not yet knowing about the telepathic abilities at this point in time he was surprised to see his family’s two Lind waiting for him. As he glided into land they began to jump about, obviously in high good humour.

  His and Sanua’s half grown ltsctas were watching them open mouthed. Young Lind would often play games, gambolling around, but here were two adults dashing here there and everywhere and generally acting like a pair of crazy idiots and now that Saru knew to listen he thought he could discern some attempts at speech.

  By the eggs of my ancestors, he thought as his talons hit the dirt, not the tidiest of landings which was not surprising, so preoccupied was he, I am a part of a tremendous thing, a great leap forward for any species. No doubt they would have learned to talk anyway, in the future but what a blessing our advance party didn’t interpret their curiosity and behaviour for what it was
. If they had we’d still be travelling around the universe in the Limokko and would have missed all this!

  By the time he had gathered himself together, he found that there were many more Lind around him than his own Aei and Aya. There were around twenty of them, all jumping around seeking attention. Every heartbeat or two one would stop for a moment and concentrate hard and try to speak. Saru thought it was funny how their eyes became half-lidded as they did.

  How long have they been trying to talk and I have never noticed?

  He responded to their greetings with wry good humour, speaking slowly and clearly and enunciating each syllable and they were listening he realised, listening hard, ears cocked as the assimilated each new sound.

  Maru, Velua and little Belu came pounding over, simply bursting with questions.

  “Father, what is happening? Come tell Mother. She can’t leave the eggs but she wants to know.”

  “Mother says you’ve to come to the daga immediately.”

  “Mother says now and not a tvan later.”

  “Quieten down all of you,” said Saru, raising a wing for silence.

  Both Lind and Lai ceased their tumult.

  “Go tell your mother that I will be there in a tvan or two,” he told Maru, “you can tell her also that our little furry friends here are far more clever than we thought they were.”

  “How’s that Father?” asked Belu.

  “It seems that they can talk. At least Dakaru’s Andei can and I’m sure the rest won’t be long in being able to as well.”

  “But Father,” said Velua, rolling her eyes in exasperation, “we three have known that for ages!”

  * * * * *

  EPISODE 5 – DAGAN

  FIRST LESSON

  There is a mix of Lai and English words for numbers in this story as it was far too confusing not to do so. It’s not that important anyway, it’s the story that matters.

  In Lindish dun is one, vad is two, lok is three, san is four and rak is five.

  Before he had left the triumphant Dakaru, Saru had extracted his promise not to mention his findings to anylai else until he, Saru gave him leave. He extracted the same promise from Sanua, Maru, Velua and Belu. They all promised readily enough.

  Before ‘it went public’ so to speak, Saru wanted to test it all out for himself.

  Now get your brains to work my Lai, how am I to do this? He was sitting on the eggs in a brown study, aware that Aei and Aya were seated nearby and staring at him in an expectant manner. After some thought, he decided on a possible avenue of approach. He would attempt to teach them their numbers! That would separate the truly intelligent from the merely well-trained!

  Ltsctas copied their parents with actions and words. During their early xanus they had no real conception of what the words they were uttering in their squeaky voices actually meant. They merely repeated them parrot fashion (of course Saru did not know what a parrot was but back on Daiglon his ancestors had kept as pets bird-like creatures of a similar type who had spoken words that had been repeated by the Lai in their hearing. Like the parrots of Earth, these creatures had no real understanding of what they meant). Perhaps the Lind, despite what he had seen were the same.

  Saru meant to find out, not before he was much older, but that very day.

  If the Lind could be taught a few numbers and could make the jump between the spoken word for these numbers and the numbers themselves he decided, that would prove whether or not they possessed the power to reason or not.

  As he waited impatiently for Sanua to return and take over the eggs he made his plans and when she did he took only the time to say a few pleasantries before he escaped with Aei and Aya, leaving her wondering why he seemed to be so preoccupied and what on Dagan was he carrying in the receptacle?

  In actuality, inside the receptacle were five wooden balls, culled from the ltsctas play box. Marua, Velua and Belu were getting a bit old for playing ball anyway and Saru was pretty sure they would not notice they were gone.

  He led Aei and Aya deep into the trees that surrounded the daga. The allsts (the Lai word for tree) were tall and dense here, providing a leafy canopy under which he could conduct his investigations in private.

  At last they reached a spot with room enough for his purpose and Saru placed the receptacle on the ground.

  “Right you two,” he said to Aei and Aya, “time for your first lesson.”

  He picked out the first ball and held it up

  “This is a ball,” he said and Aei and Aya looked at him then at the ball.

  “We’re not going to play with it.”

  They looked at him with uncertainty, balls usually meant play, their gazed turning into puzzlement as they watched him place it before them.

  “Don’t touch it,” Saru ordered as he placed a second beside the first then added a third.

  Three in a row, he hummed to himself, quoting a well-known song. Three is enough to start with.

  “There are three balls here.” He pointed at the first and said “one.” The second he called two and the third he called three.

  “One, two, three,” he said then, pointing to each in turn.

  He took one away.

  “One, two, there are two balls here.”

  Aei and Aya wagged their tails.

  He took a second away.

  “One ball.”

  He added another.

  “Two balls.”

  He added the third.

  “Three balls.”

  They watched with no obvious reaction.

  Saru repeated the process six times more and then another six times until he began to observe the dawning comprehension in their faces.

  He sat back, having placed two of the balls in front of them once more.

  Here goes.

  “How many balls are there?” he asked, not really expecting a reply.

  Aei looked at Aya and his lips quirked.

  He tapped his paw on the ground twice and Aya nodded.

  Is this a fluke?

  Saru tried again and got the same reply, two distinct taps of a paw.

  He added the third ball.

  Aei didn’t even wait to be asked. He tapped his paw three times.

  With rising excitement Saru took the two remaining balls out of the receptacle and placed them with the others, enunciating carefully the words for four (san) and five (rak).

  This time it was Aya who tapped, five times.

  Saru spent the next fifty tvans removing and adding balls and the Lind never got it wrong once. He sat back to think it over then to his surprise Aei came over and nudged him with his cold, wet nose.

  “R … k blls,” he said very slowly as he pointed at them with his paw and not really expecting an answer Saru asked, “and how many balls would there be left if I took one away?”

  Aei considered for perhaps half a tvan.

  “San,” he said at last, “san blls eft.”

  Result? One speechless Saru!

  He had no doubts now. Dakaru had been right. The Lind were extremely intelligent and in possession of reasoning powers that made them most definitely sentient.

  Now what were the Lai to do? Remain and teach them or try to find an isolated spot in order to leave the Lind to develop their new abilities on their own? As he looked at them, pleased and triumphant expressions on their faces, he knew what the answer would be.

  The Lai would stay, at least for a while, stay as teachers and guides, until the day when it would be time to leave.

  Saru was about to embark on a new career, as a teacher of the Lind and he would carry out this self imposed task for the remainder of his long life.

  Within a Lindish generation, speech was common place amongst the rtaths the length and breadth of the continent. The Lind adopted many Lai words and some of their grammar and invented some of their own.

  * * * * *

  EPISODE 6 – DAGAN

  LEAVE-TAKING

  Six hundred xanus later …

  “Maru,” said
Belu to his brother, “it is time for us to go.”

  “Not yet,” Maru replied, “they are not ready.”

  “The Lind are as ready as they will ever be, it is time for them to determine their own destiny.”

  Maru shook his head, “not yet awhile. The attitude of the Lind Largei worries me. He and his rtath are warlike and unpleasant in their attitude to the others. He needs guidance still.”

  Belu shook his head with regret, “have you forgotten our own history so soon brother? Do you forget the Dglai?”

  “I do not and remember Belu, they might still be out there, how can we protect the Lind if we are hidden away in the west?”

  “We will think of a way,” Belu promised, “but go now we must. The destiny of the Lind is no longer our concern.”

  “Their destiny will always be our concern,” said Malu, “and that is as it should be. We shall watch over them still.”

  “We shall watch but shall not interfere,” agreed Belu and left Maru to make his arrangements for departure to the wooded mountains of the far west.

  * * * * *

  The centuries passed and the existence of the Lai passed into legend except for a few, those whose ancestors had decided to share the exile with their Lai friends. These Lind and their descendants remained with the Lai on the other northern continent, keeping their secret and waiting for the day when all could be revealed.

  * * * * *

  THE LIND - THEIR PREQUEL

  * * * * *

  KOLYEI (AL-20 to AL0)

  Kolyei and Tara Sullivan were the very first Lind and Human to make direct inter-species contact and to become life and mind-bonded. Kolyei erupts on to the stage in ‘Wolves and War’ as a fully-fledged adult Lind but what of his upbringing? What was it like to be a Lind before humankind arrived on their planet?