Munkustrap left the two Terrans in the front room of Cazondra’s home. The room had only one piece of furniture, a low sofa with an ornate throw and pillows spilling off of it. There were other, larger pillows strewn about the floor in a manner to suggest that each one was exactly where it should be. A large round mirror made of some kind of silver-colored metal hung on one wall—Eliot and Jabez could now see just how awful they looked.
Eliot’s long blond hair was tangled and matted with the blood from a gash on his left temple, his left eye was rapidly developing an impressive bruise, and his nose and mouth positively throbbed from when he had hit the console with his face. Gingerly he wiped some of the blood from his mouth and gums with the tail of his shirt. He wasn't particularly afraid of finding loose teeth. His front four incisors had been replaced with steel ones (which were much less likely to come loose) after he had gotten his face smashed in a bar fight. But the metal roots made the gums hurt badly whenever he got hit in the face. He grunted painfully as he sat down on the smooth wooden floor.
He gazed thoughtfully up at Jabez, who had fared little better in the crash. The big black man had cuts and bruises on the right side of his face where he had been thrown onto the console. He was supporting his right arm with his left hand, bent at the elbow.
"Hurt your arm?" Eliot asked.
"No, my shoulder," Jabez winced. "Feels like maybe a torn tendon; at the very least I popped the joint." He looked down at Eliot and, lowering his voice, asked, "Do you think we can trust them?"
Eliot shrugged again, "I don’t know, but they seem friendly enough. If they’ll just give us food and shelter until we can repair the Phantom…"
"Repair the Phantom?" Jabez half-laughed. "Do you really think you can make her space-worthy again?"
"I can probably get her to hold out until we reach a repair station; I’ve done it before."
"Do you even know where we are?"
"Not yet," Eliot replied in an exasperated tone. "But I can find out easily enough. There are plenty of star charts in the Phantom’s computers, and if these guys will just tell us what planet we’re on…"
We call it Coricum. Alahnso’s mental voice said as that tall, black and white creature came into the room.
Eliot scrambled to his feet and faced him. "Oh, hi," he said weakly. "We didn’t hear you come in."
Alahnso nodded. Your friend… He stopped, and making a conscious effort, spoke aloud, "Your friend will live. He's very…lucky." Like Munkustrap, Alahnso’s speech was a little halting, as if he were searching for the words, but each syllable was carefully pronounced.
Jabez and Eliot exchanged glances, then Eliot asked, "Can we see him?"
"Of course," Alahnso said, and beckoned for them to follow him.
Down a hallway and into another room, and there they saw Pavel lying on a simple white mat covered to the shoulders with a sheet. The burns he had suffered were covered with bandages, making him look somewhat mummy-like. But he was asleep and seemed to be breathing easy.
As they entered the room, a tall, brown and cream-colored female (at least Eliot judged her to be a female from her shape) rose smoothly from Pavel’s side. "Are you Cazondra?" Eliot asked, trying not to gape.
"Yes, this is Cazondra, our healer," Alahnso answered for her.
Cazondra moved closer to the Terrans, studying them intensely. Then she came over to Jabez, and taking his right arm, firmly worked it back into place, eliciting a surprised yelp from her patient. But the pain was brief and was soon replaced by a warm, tingly feeling as she gently massaged the shoulder. As she moved away from him, Jabez tried moving his arm and was surprised to find that, apart from some stiffness and a twinge when he raised it too high, he had full range of motion.
"Damn, Eliot, she’s good!" he whispered.
"She was channeling," Eliot said under his breath. He had felt the familiar shiver of the channeler opening herself to her power.
"Hmmm?" Jabez murmured. "Sorry, El, I didn’t hear you."
"Never mind," Eliot said quickly as Cazondra came back to them. She had a damp cloth with which she wiped first Jabez’s, then Eliot’s face, carefully going over their cuts and bruises and even reaching into Eliot’s mouth to wipe his bleeding gums. The cloth had a strange, sweet, medicine-y smell and left their battered faces feeling warm, and maybe a little numb.
You are tired; you should rest. Cazondra told them, and they suddenly realized they were, indeed, very tired. The healer bedded them down with Pavel, then left them alone.
Alahnso met her outside the sick room as she quietly closed the door behind her. "You must rest as well, my love," he said in the Coricus tongue, caressing her face and neck with a paw-like hand. Cazondra, weary from ministering to the three off-worlders, closed her eyes and purred, allowing Alahnso to fully embrace her. After a bit of extensive petting, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her into the room they slept in. As he laid her down on their favorite pillow, he heard a light rapping at the outer door.
"I’ll be back," he whispered as he nuzzled her cheek with his head.
"Don’t be long," she implored, playfully flicking her long, cream-tipped tail at him.
Alahnso hurried out to the front room and opened the door to Munkustrap. The grey and black Coricat strode right into the room, and after sweeping it with a glance, turned to his second in command. "Where are the off-worlders?" he demanded.
"Cazondra has put them down to sleep," Alahnso replied, "and now she sleeps herself."
Munkustrap nodded and got straight to the point, "Old Dutironomy is intrigued by the newcomers and wants to learn more about them."
Alahnso nodded, The Old Wise One welcomed any opportunity to add to his already vast knowledge, especially in things pertaining to the stars and what was beyond them.
"Therefore," Munkustrap continued, "you will bring them with you tomorrow night if they are well enough." His voice sank to a menacing growl, "In the meantime, they shouldn’t be left alone for any period of time. Even if they are hurt, even if they have asked for and accepted our help, they may still turn out to be treacherous. You remember what happened last time."
"All too well," Alahnso snarled at the back of his throat.
"Then guard them closely," Munkustrap instructed. "Till tomorrow then," and he was gone.
Moments after his departure, Alahnso’s youngest kitten, an all-white female named Vyktorea, arrived, having been escorted home by her older brother. She slipped into the front room quietly and looked around, her little pink nose twitching as she tried to catch any unfamiliar scent. She had heard Munkustrap telling Old Dutironomy about the three aliens who had crashed their space ship into the forest, and she was hoping to catch a glimpse of them.
When she observed her father watching her from the hallway, she smiled and asked, "Papa, where are the off-worlders?"
"They're asleep," Alahnso told the female kitten, adding pointedly, "and you should be, too."
Vyktorea ignored the last bit. "May I see them?" she inquired, coming toward him.
"You shouldn’t disturb them," Alahnso said, following her down the hallway. "Why are you so interested in them?"
Vyktorea turned to him, excitement flashing in her pale green eyes. "I heard Munkustrap say that they're like Mozu," she said.
"They seem to be of the same species, yes" Alahnso agreed. "But they're all male, not female."
"Then they're something new!" Vyktorea cried, and she started to open the door to the sick room.
"No, Vyktorea!" Alahnso grasped her firmly by the shoulder and pulled her back to face him. "Don’t bother them now."
"I just want to look at them," Vyktorea pouted.
"There’s time enough for that later," Alahnso told her. "They’ll still be here tomorrow, after all. Now come on, it’s a time for sleep, not talk." So saying, he drew her into the sleeping room and closed the door.
©1999 Delilah