The Helavite War (3 page)

Jake kept talking and Arr kept asking
questions, sometimes stumbling over a sentence, as if he was
missing a word and searching for the right one. Jake was beginning
to catch on. As he asked questions himself, he realized that the
kid only spoke words that he himself previously uttered. The boy
had a mind like a computer processing the data as it came in,
rearranging it to suit the situation and spitting it out again. It
was like he was some kind of savant.

The next few days passed quickly for both
Jake and Arr. Arr was desperate to hear and learn this new language
of Jake's. As for the mercenary, he'd never had such a rapt
audience. He talked endlessly about his adventures through space.
He honestly had to admit that it was a relief when the kid fell
asleep then he could rest his voice for awhile. During one of these
rest periods, in the second day, Jake took Kay-o back up to the
cruiser. Being left alone, the dar-dolf would probably trash the
ship, but when Arr got well enough to get out of the tree house,
Jake didn't want another episode like the last. He wanted an
opportunity to conduct a controlled introduction between the
two.

Arr steadily got better each day. He seemed
to be free of any infection, which was a lucky stroke Jake thought.
The kid's vocabulary also improved with every passing hour. Soon
the two could carry on a full blown conversation without much need
for sign language.

Arr was starved for companionship. He told
Jake everything he could remember about the battle, the Henu and
Nor. He told Jake some of Raa's stories, as Nor told him, and was
delighted to find that Jake knew a couple of the characters from
the tales.

Arr liked Jake the minute he set eyes on
him. He was like Nor who told him all those fabulous stories when
he was growing up. From what he could remember, and piece together
from Nor's tales, Jake was very much like their father too. Nor
told him that Raa was taller than all other Henu, he was very
outgoing, and entertained all at the Henu gatherings by recounting
his many travels as a trader among the aliens of the galaxy.

Jake felt protective and responsible for his
new friend. He couldn't imagine himself facing a life alone on a
planet no matter how beautiful and idyllic this one seemed to be.
He admired Arr's quick mastery of English and wished he could do as
well with Henu. At first, Arr was under the impression that if he
could learn English just by listening Jake should be able to learn
Henu the same way. He was disappointed when he found that acquiring
a language so easily, seemed to be a Henu trait only, not
indigenous to humans.

By the end of the week Jake felt it was time
to get his ground legs back. He had begun to sway when he walked
from being up a tree too long.

*****

"He's not down there. I put him back up on
the ship." Jake reassured Arr once more.

Arr still looked slightly distrustful as he
surveyed the ground below for signs of Kay-o.

"I promise its safe." Jake shinned down the
tree and whistled shrilly for the dar-dolf. "See.... No Kay-o."
Jake held his hands up, palms open as though he were a magician
proving there was nothing up his sleeves.

With the absence of the dar-dolf proven Arr
descended slowly of his own accord. When the kid got to the ground
he made straight for the water. He pulled off his clothes at the
edge and dove in swimming like a fish across the lake and back
again. When he got back to where he had started he pulled up a reed
with a bulb on the end, peeled the bulb and crushed it between his
hands. The bulb had a milky substance in it that when it contacted
the water and was rubbed between the hands created a kind of soapy
froth. That's how Arr used it. He sudsed up his whole body standing
at the water's edge, and then he dove back in for a rinse. When he
came out to offer Jake a piece of the root Jake couldn't help but
admire this unique life form.

He was a creature that spoke decent English
after only one week of listening to a human. In the same time he
had healed sufficiently enough from a dar-dolf bite to swim a lake
probably a quarter of a mile across. He stood there offering Jake
the bulb/soap. He really was a beautiful specimen. His whole body
was covered with a fine hair that shone red/gold in the sun. There
was not an ounce of fat on him. He was all muscle and those bright,
blue cat eyes held both mystery and mischievousness in their
depths. On top of all this he was just nice to be around. Jake had
almost killed him yet even when Arr knew enough English to berate
Jake, he didn't. He only asked what Kay-o was and why he had
attacked him. The loss of this civilization was such a waste.

Jake took the makeshift soap, shucked off
his clothes, and had a refreshing bath at the water's edge. Jake
wasn't much of a swimmer, in fact he'd almost drowned once when he
was a kid. To this day, he didn't like his water in any larger
quantity then a bathtub full.

When they were both dried by the sun they
put their clothes back on. Arr headed off to gather some goods for
a meal and Jake tagged along. Every object they passed had to be
named out loud by Jake for Arr's continuing language lesson.

They picked berries and dug roots for about
a half hour. When Arr began to look tired Jake encouraged him to
sit down in the shade of a tree.

The boy took what looked like an apple from
his gathering sack, cut it in half and handed Jake part. As Jake
took the fruit he once again noticed the tattoo in Arr's right palm
and this time he felt comfortable enough with the boy to ask about
it. With very little difficulty, for lack of the correct words,
Jake got the full story.

"My people are all matched at birth with a
mate. The male and female are both tattooed with their lineage.
Mine reads, 'Arr son of Raa, Mate to Mya.' There is a ...." Arr
faltered, looking for a word that was missing. "A gathering, but
more." He cocked his head looking at Jake with those inquiring cat
eyes.

"A party?" Jake supplied. Being around Arr
now, as his vocabulary was expanding, was like playing a continual
game of charades. "Or a festival?"

"What is the difference?" Arr asked.

"A party is a number of people gathered
together to celebrate something. A festival is usually an annual
gathering or celebration." Jake explained, hoping he had gotten it
right. He was learning that defining words correctly was somewhat
difficult at times.

"There is a festival at the time of
flowers," Arr went on, now in possession of the needed word, "that
when you reach your eighteenth flowering, you are allowed to join
in the...." The kid paused again searching for the right word. When
he couldn't come up with it he rose to his feet, grabbed an
imaginary partner and danced sensually to a tune only he could hear
in his head.

"A dance in the spring," Jake supplied. He
was pleased with himself that he was getting so good at this
game.

"A festival in the spring," Arr went on, as
he returned to his seat under the tree, "that when you reach your
eighteenth flowering, you are allowed to join in the dance."

Jake knew now that a flowering was a yearly
count.

"All the dance people wear masks. As they
dance they look for the other's tattoo until they find a match.
When the matching left hand of the female is found they remove
their masks as a sign of acceptance of this mate. Then they go to
the trees to build their home and start a family." Arr's eyes
glowed with the remembered tales of his brother about the
celebration and the joyous unions that came out of it. Then he
looked down at the tattoo in his open palm. "There was a Mya,
daughter of Kel, Mate to Arr." When he looked up there were tears
in his eyes. "She was younger than me by a year. I know which one
she was.

"All children between two and four
flowerings were kept by the lake. They were watched by females that
had lost their mates. Mya was one of these children. I had turned
four, so I was free to play with my brother. When
The Others
came, she was with the rest of the
children by the lake. Three days later when The Others left they
were dead like everyone else except Nor and me." Arr tossed the
core to his apple into the bushes by the tree and rose to his feet.
"This would have been my spring to dance with Mya," he said
poignantly. Without further conversation he turned and headed back
to the house in the tree with Jake following in his footsteps.

One day flowed easily into the next. Jake's leg was
getting a good rest. Arr had prepared a poultice that soothed the
ache in it considerably. The boy's shoulder was as good as well,
ah... the recuperative powers of the young, Jake thought. The only
thing left to show where Kay-o bit him was a thin line on his
shoulder where the fine red/gold hair didn't grow anymore.

It had been three weeks, now. Jake knew he
must make a trip up to the cruiser to check on Kay-o. Not only
would the dar-dolf be lonely and need a good run, but Jake
estimated his automatic feeder was probably low. If it ran out
there would be no ship to come back to. A hungry dar-dolf was worse
than all the destructive power of a Phase III Plasma Laser set on
high.

Arr left the tree early as usual. Jake found
him washing his hands at the water's edge. He was the cleanest
critter he'd ever met.

"I'm going up to my ship," Jake said,
briskly.

The boy's reaction took Jake by surprise.
The kid rose from his squat, turned and walked away, without a
word. Jake watched him go with eyebrows raised. He pulled his cap
off, smoothed his rumpled, dark hair and put the hat back on. This
mannerism was a habit he had when he was baffled by something, as
though smoothing his hair would make it easier to think.

"Oh well, back in an hour or two," he
mumbled to himself.

Arr had been preparing himself for this. He knew
Jake would move on. He'd heard Jake's stories. He knew what kind of
life he led. Arr wished he'd had the courage to ask him if he could
go with him. It would be so lonely here again. He thought back to
the time after Nor died and before Jake came. He took to talking to
himself, the trees, even the lake. He felt he would go crazy if
left alone, but he could not ask Jake to take him. He had already
decided that. Jake was a fighter. Arr didn't know anything of
fighting. Jake could pilot a cruiser. Arr knew nothing of
technology. Jake had traveled throughout the galaxies. Arr knew
only this small piece of dirt. Arr could not burden Jake with such
a useless, stupid being. Arr would go if asked, but he had not been
asked.

Even though he only knew Jake a short time
he had a desire to cry as he did by Nor's grave. Cry not only for
the loss of friendship, but for what felt like family loss again.
The young Henu had bonded with Jake. Now Jake was leaving.

Arr heard the blast of the planet pod's
thrusters, turned and saw the small ship lift off. He collapsed at
the edge of the grove of trees, watching it vanish into the sky.
Arr sat staring with water rimmed eyes at where the planet pod had
been. Jake was gone.

The condition of the cruiser was worse than Jake
could ever have imagined. The only thing left untouched was the
metal hull of the ship. It took all the restraint he had to keep
from drawing his blaster and dusting the beast. The big bozo was
bouncing around like a puppy, he was so happy to see Jake. If Jake
hadn't planted his feet squarely the oaf would have pushed him
over.

Jake spent the next four hours cleaning
house. Kay-o followed him around like a shadow. Luckily most of the
damage was repairable. All the seat cushions would need to be
replaced. It would be a hard ride to the nearest Refitting Station.
The dar-dolf had obviously thought they were edible when his food
ran low. The only serious damage was to the communications system
which appeared to be trashed beyond any repair Jake could muster.
Kay-o must have picked the portion of the viewport containing the
communications panel to sit and watch for his master's return.

Jake loaded the last of the garbage he'd
cleaned up into the disintegrator. When Kay-o crawled in after it
he was sorely tempted, but he pulled the big lug out before he
latched the door and hit the switch. He tossed a few odd things in
the planet pod and called to Kay-o to get in. They headed back down
to the surface. It would be good to have a bath in the lake, Jake
thought. He'd even settle for a cup of that herb stuff Arr fed him
in place of coffee.

Jake brought the pod down within a few feet
of where it had set before he left. He hopped out to go find Arr.
He wanted to properly introduce his new friend to his wayward
companion. He only got a few yards from the ship when Arr came
running from the grove. The kid tackled him like he was a fumbled
ball on the first yard line. When he pried himself loose he was
surprised to see tears in Arr's eyes.

"What?" he asked.

Arr just shook his head and looked at the
ground.

"You thought I left you? Think again cat
eyes. You and me, we're pals. What would I do without you to talk
to? You're the best audience I've ever had."

Jake gave the kid an affectionate shove on
the shoulder, turned and walked back toward the planet pod. Arr
heard him say as he went, "Come on, if you're leaving with us when
we go you and Kay-o gotta make friends."

The dar-dolf had on a metal harness. The harness was
attached to a chain. The chain was attached to a gun mount on the
planet pod and the pod was rocking with each of Kay-o's lunges.
Jake thought he had better get them acquainted fast before the damn
beast broke a landing prod off the ship.

Jake knew he had one major advantage in the
task. This particular dar-dolf would do anything for a treat. He
was one of the biggest munch mouth's Jake had ever seen. It just so
happened Kay-o didn't find the stash aboard the cruiser of his
favorite treat, Red Raspberry Goo Chews. These were a sickening
sweet, stick to your teeth confection, which Jake happened to find
repulsive himself though they were made for human consumption.