Episode 48

In the meantime Noot had ideas of his own. He had set off down the road running parallel to the spinal column in the centre of the valley, his heart torn between duty and loyalty to the Ahram, and his debt of gratitude towards the humans. He knew by instinct that a grim fate awaited them, and he knew only one person in the world who might be able to help them, if he could only get there in time. He had his doubts about his own abilities but he kept his face pointed resolutely in that direction, his plodding feet following on behind. Noot limped and loped on as fast as his crippled back allowed. The few Ahram that were still awake watched him go by with puzzled expressions on their faces. Ahram never really went anywhere at night and were never in a hurry unless it was a matter of life or death.

Noot wondered if the person he was going to see still lived in the same place. Garm had been his tutor when he had been in infant school and had been very kind to him. Noot’s disability had made him a scapegoat for the other boys to take their frustrations out on, and Garm had always defended him and stopped them from bullying and teasing him. Noot was not without his misgivings about his quest though. In those days Garm had been his friend and teacher, but now he was an important person in the Administration and one of the advisors to the Seesh, the most frightening figure amongst the Ahram. The Seesh had ruled the valley and the Ahram race for more than four hundred years it was told. His age might have been a myth; no-one knew for he rarely appeared in public. And those few who had seen him didn’t say anything, being too afraid to speak of him lest he should somehow hear them, for it was rumoured that he could cross death’s divide and defy the laws of place and distance. This was the man that Garm worked for. What if he couldn’t help him? What if he was duty bound to report him to the Seesh? Was Noot merely putting the humans in more danger by coming here? But he didn’t know what else to do. He had to take the chance.

Pondering all this and plodding along with his head down, he was surprised to find himself, after only some ten hours on the road, in the sprawling city surrounding the Cantave, the Cathedral-like structure which now towered high above him. All around, and stretching out for miles in every direction, was a veritable maze of makeshift dwellings. His heart sank when he saw how the slum had grown and become an unfamiliar place. A smoggy haze now hung over it. Open fires burned here and there, twinkling in doorways. This was extremely dangerous, but the workers were forbidden to own any bone artefacts for heat or light, so they had to resort to these methods. These rudimentary shacks were where the workers and builders of the skyscraper lived out their miserable lives. Here they slept the few hours allotted them before going back on the job. Even now, in the middle of the night, a shift change was in progress and the dog-tired men slouched off home, while the others, eyes blurred and red rimmed from too little sleep, went to take their place.

Only children, old men and cripples like Noot, enjoyed the delights of dwelling in the rural countryside. All the able bodied young men who came of age were forced to labour long and hard at the Cantave – the Seesh’s palace. The worker’s huts were often no more than a hole in the ground with some sticks or cloth as a roof. They were fed on the job, usually only just enough to see them through.

Noot guessed there were something like half a million workers in that hell-hole now – often ravaged by disease caused by the offal and refuse which ran in the ruts between the hovels. Or else fire, which would decimate large sections of the slum before being put out. A place of misery and pain. He took another wrong turn and found himself hopelessly lost. Garm’s quarters lay just inside the Wall opposite the North gate, among the more luxurious housing schemes set aside for the overseers, architects and designers. But it was such a long time since he’d been there, and the slums had grown so huge, that it was long after midnight before he finally found the gate he wanted. Soon he was standing at the door of the neat little hut belonging to Garm.

It was open when he arrived, so he hooted and waited anxiously.

“Who is there?” came a voice from the darkness within.

“It is I, Crouch – an old pupil of thine.”

“Yes, I remember,” said the smiling face that appeared at the door.

“Good greeting to thee Garm.”

“Greetings Crouch. What a pleasure to see thee again. I have missed thy company. Come in.” He practically pulled Noot in by the arm and plumped him down on the couch.

“For that I am glad. It has been a long journey”

“And would thee like some refreshment? I have some nectar…..”

For a while the two of them talked and chattered easily with one another, happy to be in each other’s company again.

“”What brings thee here? Some desperate circumstance I vouch.”

“Indeed I have a pressing problem and I need thy help. A little while ago our patrol returned from the forbidden zone where we had captured some strange creatures.”

Garm’s lazy lidded reptilian eyes flickered upwards in interest

“What kind of creatures? What do they look like?”

“Ugly – beyond words ugly and obscene – with pink pig skins and arms and legs like a tree-rat. They also have hairy growths on the top of their heads. Oh and worst of all, they have no snouts. Truly they are terribly deformed.”

“Just dumb animals then? Perhaps a species that survived out there in the nether-lands unbeknownst to us?”

“Nay – not dumb, for a fact they speak with one another – albeit it crudely. I have been able to communicate with one of them through thoughts. I…” Noot didn’t quite know how to convey his involvement with them.

“They saved my life. And they are in need of help. I feel it is my duty.”

“Indeed.”

Garm’s interest was definitely piqued for his big legs were now thumping about the room and his hands clenched behind his back in thought.

“Are they dangerous?”

“Absolutely not; they have such spindly legs they can hardly walk much faster than a grob, though they have strong arms and hands.”

“Where are they now?”

“In the tree-rat stockade at the end of our village.”

Garm stopped his pacing for a moment and pulled his thoughts together.

“This does not bode well for them, but I shall try to help as much as possible. Is the Counsellor there? What does he do?”

“He is in residence at home – finding them no more interesting than a five minute perusal, for they do no tricks or acrobatics and are as dull as dirt-water for the most part.”

Garm put a finger to his snout and roused a faraway look to his eye.

“Good. Then he thinks them of no import. I need to see them right away. Thou canst rest here until thou feels fit again and I…”

“I feel fine and ready to go. No, I will accompany thee”.

“Good. We must see what we can do for the poor creatures, before the Seesh gets wind of them.”

Noot nodded seriously, glad that he now had someone who could help him.

 

The two Ahram scuttled down the road, kicking up a cloud of dust with their sweeping tails. Quietly they wound their way through the sad slum and away from the citadel. Noot shivered at the thought of the Seesh. Not a place he’d want to visit too often.

Garm too was wrapped up in his own thoughts. He had known from the moment Noot had mentioned the aliens that they could only be Earthlings, and a strange excitement rose in his chest. There had been rumours about an earthling being hidden by the women in the caves after they had rescued him from the moon-rock. Although he had not seen him, he had heard stories of how ugly the creature was and this fitted with Noot’s description of the newcomers. Probably they came here to look for their compatriot, but Noot had mentioned no space-ship or weapons. Garm thought of the Seesh and involuntarily increased his pace even though Noot was going at top speed, for the Earthlings were in great danger. True, being an advisor to the Seesh gave him a certain amount of freedom and access to the court, but in truth he held no real power. No-one advised the Seesh. All the Advisors and Viziers were merely cosmetic and purely for show. The Seesh ran the place at his own whim. Garm could just imagine what he would do to the earthlings.

His mind ranged back as his feet ran on automatically, and he remembered when he had first met the women…or the woman, long ago when he had been very young. His mind went back to a lazy sunny afternoon lying in the grass watching a giant Batasaur circling on an eddy of up-draughts, the wind tugging at its stretched-skin wings, its heavy jaw hanging low under its body, piercing eyes searching for prey. Some people say they’d seen one take a baby Ahram in its claws and fly away with it over the mountains; but that was just an old wives tale designed to scare naughty little boys. But still, he kept a respectful eye on the soaring creature.

After a while however, as is the wont of all little boys, he got bored and went scrabbling amongst the stones near the river. He loved collecting pebbles, especially the brightly coloured ones which he used to draw on rocks and such surfaces as could be found. He had collected a good pocket-full of these wandering along the riverbank when his eye caught sight of the perfect canvas for his creativity; a gleaming white wall, standing higher than he would ever reach, and as long as you like. With great excitement he scrambled over some rocks and bushes till he stood facing it, hands trembling with anticipation. Taking out his coloured stones he carefully laid them out in a row at the base of the wall so he could easily choose the one he wanted. Then he stood for at least a minute staring at the blank wall. Who knows what goes on in the mind of an artist when he stares at his Tabla Rasa for the first time? Whether some full-blown vision presents itself to his mind to be translated into a picture, or whether he can see it in the wall in front of him in the vein of shadows and intimations? One doesn’t quite know; but whatever the process, he suddenly bent down, full of purpose, and selected a bright ruby red pebble. And then the sky seemed to fall on his head and knocked him to the ground. Scrambling to his feet rather unceremoniously, he found himself face to face with a creature of similar size and form.

Four beady little black eyes peered at each other for a long time, sizing up the situation. Neither child moved for fear of startling the other. It wasn’t a little boy; that he knew for sure, so it must be a girl. He had never seen one before and his heart raced with excitement for these were forbidden creatures.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“Do not be so rude. Thou has to say ‘thee’ because I am a woman.”

“No you are not. You are a little girl.”

“Well, thou art not a grown man either so I shall not call thee ‘thee’ or ‘thou’.”

All this thee-ing and thou-ing was starting to make his head ache.

“Where did you come from and why did you jump on my head?”

“I jumped down from there,” she said pointing at the tree-branch sticking over the wall. “I did not know thou wast there.”

They looked at each other for a while, and then glanced around them, not quite knowing what to say next.

“Where are you going?” he asked, hoping she had some interesting place in mind.

“Nowhere, I just wanted to see what was on the other side of the wall. We are never allowed out, and the women are always talking about it, how wonderful it is….and how dangerous.”

The boy pursed his lips. “Not really dangerous. I mean, there are no wild animals or anything like that. I suppose you could fall off a rock and hurt yourself but you would have to be pretty stupid to do that.”

The little girl’s eyes compassed the landscape.

“It does not look much different from inside; only bigger….and more untidy.”

Silence again as the boy surveyed his dirty domain.

“I know a Cawl’s nest with eggs in it – and a Sith-hole,” he said proudly.

Her eyes came back to him and travelled up and down his body. He was no surprise to her, inasmuch as she’d seen a man before…but she had never seen a boy.

“Alright,” she said and the two of them set off at a lope.

 

Many fun filled hours later they were back at the wall, tired, scratched and dirty.

“I must return now before they miss me. Here, help me up so I may grab the branch.”

“Will I see you again?”

The girl thought long and hard, weighing up the afternoon.

“Yes,” she said eventually. “I had an enjoyable time.”

 

They arranged to meet every few days at her convenience and spent many an idyllic hour together discovering new adventures, exploring as far as the distant hills, but always taking very good care that they were never seen; not up close anyway where the girl might be recognized as such. This went on without a hitch for many returns of the moon, the two of them becoming firm friends and companions.

“Why dost thou not kiss me?” she asked him one day.

“What is that?”

“I have seen my master do it to his handmaidens. Thou puteth thy mouth against mine and we rub them together.”

“Sounds silly.”

“Does not.”

“Does.”

They had come to a stalemate.

“I will give thee these,” she said, removing a leather pouch she wore around her neck and opening it. Inside there were some carved bone counters from a game that the women played inside the compound to while away the time. This game was all he knew about life on the other side of the wall, for the little girl was very tight lipped about what happened there. This much she had shared with him. She had taught him to play the game and he had become quite good at it. He surveyed the counters suspiciously, and then looked at her snout as if weighing the one against the other.

“Alright,” he said finally. “But not long.”

Truth be told, kissing was a pastime he grew inordinately fond of, and soon it was she who had to refuse his avalanche of requests; and he the one who had to find more and more exotic gifts to win her over. Then one day, with just one such rare treasure in his pocket, he waited for her as she climbed over the wall.

But something was wrong. When she arrived, tears were streaming down her face and she was sobbing and hiccoughing uncontrollably, hardly able to speak.

“What is wrong?” he asked, but she was a long way from talking coherently. So he put a comforting arm around her and sat them both down to ride out the tide of her distress.

“It is my birthday tomorrow,” she said finally.

This wasn’t much of an answer for him and he remained looking non-plussed.

“It is my THIRTEENTH birthday,” she said meaningfully.

Still no light came on in his brain. How dumb can a boy be?

“I will not be able to see thee anymore. I will be going away.”

“Where?”  was all he could manage to say.

“Where all girls go on their thirteenth birthday; well most of us anyway. I am afraid I am not pretty enough to remain here and become a handmaiden.”

“But where?”

“To become a Worm-bride,” she said mournfully and collapsed in a heap of sobs again.

Vague legends and stories circled in the back of his mind, and he remembered whispered adult conversations late in the evening about the great Worm ceremonies that took place every year, but of which he was still too young to know.

“I know it is an honour,” she said, “and I know I should be proud, but I do not want to go. I have heard terrible stories – how a monster comes out of the ground and ravishes the girls.” She paused to let this sink in.

“What is ‘ravishes’?” he asked.

“I do not know, but it sounds terrible. I just do not want to be a worm-bride.” After which she was inconsolable. In the end, Garm began to fear for her health; he was sure she was trying to cry herself to death.

“I have a solution,” he said in her ear; at which she ceased the waterworks immediately.

“What?”

“You could escape. I know where you could hide and no-one would ever find you.”

“Where?” she asked hopefully.

“The caves.”

She was no stranger to the caves and it’s labyrinth of tunnels leading deep into the mountain, for it was their favourite haunt. There were many little caves and caverns where she could hide quite safely and comfortably. They had even furnished a few of them for their games, with knick knacks and bone lights and moss matting for the floors. The cave entrance itself was a small crack in the side of the mountain well hidden from view and very hard to find unless you knew what you were looking for.

“You can hide there and I can bring you food and water. We can even still go on adventures as long as we are careful.”

 

The breeding dens, where she lived, were where specially selected women lived with the sole purpose of procreation. Men, specially chosen for their merit, were briefly introduced to inseminate them and then removed. Male children were removed after they had been weaned and given to the care of the old men outside the walls. Only the most gifted and beautiful female children were allowed to stay on and become breeders; the others taken away. The beautiful ones remained prisoner until they could breed no more, then they too disappeared.

There were many of these dens dotted around the countryside. The high walls kept the women in and the men out. That is except for that little girl, and the subsequent women who got in touch with Garm from time to time as his reputation spread and it became known that he was the person to contact if you wished to escape. Since then he’d helped more than forty girls to disappear into the subterranean tunnels. They led a reclusive life, but none more than what they were used to. They fetched their own food and water from the valley when no-one was about, and were generally self-sufficient. Over the years he had spent quite a lot of time with them and had come to know them and their ‘dream-walking’ talents very well. They had told him stories of their extra-terrestrial travels to Earth and the things they had observed there. He also knew that, from their contact with earthlings, the women had grown very fond of them and would be more than happy to help hide and accommodate this little band.

His mind drifted back to the present and he concentrated his efforts at getting to them quickly.

 

 

 

WILL GARM AND NOOT BE ABLE TO RESCUE THE EARTHLINGS? DON'T MISS NEXT WEEKS THRILLING EPISODE.