by Louise Wise
Fly smacked the hand away, and Bo looked chastened.
The all-black honnard looked from Fly to Bo and back again. He chuff-chuffed then turned and disappeared into the dense undergrowth. Bo’s yellow eyes glanced at Fly before following. Fly’s curiosity was piqued; the dead female wasn’t what they’d wanted to show him. With a final glance over his shoulder for the cub, he followed the honnards.
The forest thinned out with wide patches of lush green grass in between. In front of him was a familiar mountain range where he knew, nestled in the rocky gaps below, were the warm caves.
Fly followed them across the savannah where it lead to another part of the forest, from there he saw that they were heading right towards the mountains. As they grew closer, the crags separated from one another, and he was taken between them and into a hidden glade.
Fly could see a spiral of smoke from one area, and it soon became clear where the natives had brought him—another settlement, but with members who looked at him with suspicion. Fly tensed, and readied his venom as Bo and the all-black honnard walked ahead into the vale. Two burly alpha honnards came to greet them; they weren’t as hairy as normal natives, but Fly had seen this before so wasn’t too surprised. He could smell the antagonism from them though—and it wasn’t for Bo.
His old group, for reasons known only to them, had joined up with this new one. He looked around for members from the other pack, but his eyes fell on a carving of Jenny instead. It stood knee-high and had been cleanly carved from wood and polished with some substance until it shone. The ‘hair’ was a tangle of dried twine. These natives were evidently more advanced.
‘Che-ler,’ one of the alphas said. He was looking straight at Fly. Fly dropped his eyes to the small effigy of Jenny around its neck.
‘Ji-ji,’ Bo said, and stood next to Fly as if to protect him. Bo chuffed and then smacked his own cheek several times before gesturing to Fly’s ruined face. He then tugged on Fly’s clothing and revealed the necklace around his neck.
Seeing this, the alpha came over, eyeing Fly mistrustfully, and circled him; sniffing with his long thin nose. Fly remained still. Then the alpha, chuffing to himself, went over and hunkered down by a fire.
Fly had been accepted for now, and the natives from the old group came out to greet Fly with lots of chuff-chuffs and wide teeth-together smiles.
This camp was larger than the original. It had burrows, but there were also caves in the hillside—probably why this particular settlement was chosen. There was a group of natives sharpening stone and bones. Another group was rubbing something into an animal hide, while another was gutting a skinned animal from which the hide had probably come from.
As he watched, a group of four-legged wolf people came in dragging a carcass of a steaming animal. Two honnards took the carcass from them, one patting a wolf on the head as if to praise it.
It was all very civilised, and brought home to him how advanced the honnards actually were. Why Bo brought his people to join this group was a mystery though. The only reason that Fly could think of was that it contained more honnards.
Bo chuffed at Fly, and then pointed his spear towards the sky once again.
Fly looked up. The sky, apart from mist, was empty. He stepped back. On the top of the hill stood a honnard. He was peering around at his surroundings as if keeping a lookout. A short yap drew Fly’s eyes down to the caves, and he saw a young pup poking its head out of a small hole in the wall of the cliff. It peered at Fly from its solemn yellow eyes—eyes that were similar to Jenny’s. Although Jenny’s were a beautiful green, and larger.
For some reason, Bo had wanted Fly to know about their new home, and Fly could only assume that the honnard didn’t want him to think that Fly had been abandoned once they moved away completely.
That thought amused Fly. It was as if he were the inferior presence that they wanted to befriend. No other clan of natives had been as friendly, so Fly felt privileged albeit amused. He placed a hand on Bo’s strange sloping shoulder before leaving. As soon as he left the glade, his thoughts returned to Jenny.
If he forced her to terminate the embryo, it’d ruin their delicate relationship. He was aware of Jenny’s deep scrutiny of him when she thought he wasn’t looking, as if she was trying to work him out or maybe wonder how he’d react about something she had to tell him. He didn’t think she was still afraid of him. He hated that smell of fear that used to encircle her whenever he was around, and the way she nervously fiddled with her glorious red hair. He couldn’t sense her fear now, and neither did she play with her hair. But she did fix him with her large green eyes where her thoughts, so evident on her face, were unmistakable.
What they were about was anyone’s guess.
Chapter Four
She wiped her nose with the back of her hand feeling headachy.
‘Jenny—’
She jumped.
‘Too busy crying to hear,’ he said. He came over, kicking off his boots and sat beside her, dangling his feet in the water as she was. He didn’t attempt to touch her. ‘I will fix this,’ he said.
She rubbed her eyes, hiding momentarily behind her hands. She brought them down onto her thighs with a slap. ‘I want this pregnancy, Fly,’ she said. She looked at him, and searched his all-black eyes. ‘I want it.’
He looked away, and stared into the amber water. He was thinking hard. She could almost hear his thoughts.
‘I am venomous,’ he said.
‘And? What’s that got to do with it? How can you want to kill our baby? Our baby!’ She sounded hysterical and realising, she stopped and turned back to the lake. She took several deep breaths and rubbed her nose. She felt him move closer, and his arm slipped around her shoulders. He pulled her to him.
‘Don’t cry, Jenny. I will look after you.’
She stiffened, then let herself relax, and began to cry great hulking sobs that shook her body. He put his other arm around her, circling her and she pressed her face against his chest.
‘I’m sorry, my hormones are a-all over the p-place,’ she sobbed, and tried to control herself. No wonder he thought her species were weak!
He stroked her hair. ‘You do not understand because I have not explained it to you,’ he said in English. His English was excellent, but the pronunciation was a problem to his Jelvian tongue. He switched to Jelvian. ‘There didn’t seem a need to tell you as our bodies didn’t appear to be compatible.’
‘I had an implant to control my periods,’ she said. She struggled for an Itor word when he looked blank. ‘It would have worked to stop any pregnancies too. It runs out after ten years. I guess it’s been that since I had it injected. I’m pregnant, and I’m happy about it,’ she added.
‘And I’m venomous. That means if the baby is a boy, he will be venomous, too. The toxins leak in pregnancy. With Itor women, it doesn’t matter, but you are human.’ He didn’t need to say any more. Jenny had seen his venom in action, and how it can kill in seconds.
She was silent for a moment, broke from his arms and said, ‘It might not harm me.’
‘We can’t take the risk. I wasn’t angry at you, Jenny, I was angry at the situation.’
She rubbed her face. ‘I thought you were jealous again.’
‘I probably deserved the doubt,’ he said.
‘Do Jelvian women go full term?’
‘I was talking about how it used to be. We stopped having natural births many years ago. Our children are grown in incubators and raised by the state. They are bred for certain roles. The strongest and most intelligent women are selected for their eggs, the rest are made infertile and, like men, have their roles chosen for them.’
‘A world with no expectations,’ she said. He’d told her about his nation but she was always shocked when it was repeated. It seemed so sterile and against nature.
‘But a land of roles. We all had our place.’
‘You miss it?’
‘I dream of it. But not because I miss it. It wasn’t a life, it was j
ust an existence. People are born to be servants of the custodians. You know what my role was. I was shaped to be an assassin and I accepted it because I knew no different.’
‘You don’t have to explain yourself to me.’
‘I’m not. I just want you to understand I’m not that same person. I’m not Flitespinter the assassin. I’m Fly.’
‘I know.’
‘So when I say we must destroy the foetus it isn’t because I am him. It’s because I am scared the pregnancy may harm you.’
She was silent for a long moment, then, ‘It might be a girl. And even if it is a boy it will be part human. It may not even be venomous.’
‘We don’t know how this pregnancy will evolve. But we cannot take the risk. We need to destroy the embryo before—’
‘Even if I agreed with you, how would we, you know, how would we do it?’ She couldn’t bring herself to even say the word. Human mothers and their young have a prehistoric connection that Fly didn’t—wouldn’t—understand. Jelvias moved away from it centuries ago, but humans still nursed their offspring.
‘I don’t know.’
‘Deep penetration with a knitting needle,’ she said. ‘That’s how they did it before medical science. Either the baby kills me or…’ She sat forward, staring at the ember lake as it bubbled with geysers. ‘I’d rather risk my chances with the baby.’
‘I have been stupid,’ he said, and she looked at him in surprise. ‘I should’ve protected you from this. We’ve been together now for years, and because it didn’t happen I thought it couldn’t happen.’
‘I’ve explained that,’ she said.
‘I know.’ There was a long silence between them. ‘I’m not going to force you,’ he said. ‘I could never do that, but just please, think of me.’
She looked at him with raised eyebrows. ‘You?’
‘All alone again.’
They stared at one another. A nerve twitched in Jenny’s cheek. Then she pulled her feet out of the water and hugged her knees against her chest. ‘You’re doing it again!’
‘What?’ He placed a tentative hand on her back. ‘Jenny?’
‘Making me choose. This time between you and the baby.’
His hand squeezed her shoulder. ‘You do not understand. If you become ill, it’ll be too late to abort the embryo. You’ll die anyway. I couldn’t live without you, Jenny. I’m prepared now though. If you become ill we will kill one another.’
She jerked round to look at him, her mouth falling open.
‘I couldn’t live without you, Jenny. Not now I’ve found you.’
Chapter Five
She’d been silent after his statement. He hadn’t planned to say it, but as soon as it came out of his mouth it seemed to make sense.
They drove towards their home and parked the buggy in its usual place. Jenny scrambled out, and Fly slowly followed. She seemed keen to get home and put a distance between them. He knew she was thinking about what he’d said. He meant it. If she died, so would he.
‘Oh no!’
He swung round at her strangled cry, and circled the buggy to see what she’d seen. She looked at him, her green eyes swimming in tears. ‘I saw that little cub earlier. It was with its mother. Oh Fly.’
He looked over her head and saw nothing at first, then a smell hit his nostrils: blood. He stepped towards it and saw the cub half buried in leaves, a skinny arm, or rather a stump of an arm was poking out. It was covered in blood. Its hands had been severed. But why? It didn’t make sense. The honnards stuck to their own territory and never killed senselessly.
‘I saw them too,’ Fly said. ‘The mother wasn’t from my group of natives. She was scared of me.’
‘Do you think the natives killed her cub so they could take her—’ her words were interrupted by a whimper from the lifeless body of the cub. ‘It’s alive!’
Fly stepped towards the heaped leaves, and gently pulled them away. A pair of blue eyes stared up at him. The face and body was almost hairless, normal for its years. The cub opened its mouth and squealed, baring gappy teeth.
He felt Jenny behind him, and turned. Her eyes were on the cub. They were full of empathy and compassion; something he was still learning.
He looked back at the cub. Its chest was rising and falling in quick succession as if panting.
‘It’s hyperventilating,’ Jenny said. He hadn’t a clue as to what she meant. ‘We’re scaring it. Come away.’ She stepped back, pulling him with her.
He circled her shoulders with his arm and took her to the river and their boat. ‘Get in, and go home,’ he said.
‘We can’t leave it there.’
‘I’m not.’
‘I mean we have to help it,’ she said. They stopped at the riverbank; their house was hidden from view from where they stood. ‘Take it back to the native’s settlement.’
‘The mother and cub weren’t from that settlement, Jenny,’ he said. ‘I don’t know why she was away from her home, but she’s dead. I saw her just before I came to find you in the cave. She’d been killed and pinned to a tree with spears. I looked for the cub, but obviously it had been left here.’
‘Why are the honnards killing one another?’
‘I don’t know. But I’m sure it’s one of the reasons why my old group have joined with another.’
‘Safety in numbers,’ she said. She was chewing on her lip, and made no movement to climb into the boat. ‘We could look after it. Nurse it.’
‘It’s in shock, Jenny. Dying already.’
‘You’re going to kill it, aren’t you?’
‘I have to.’
‘Your answer to everything?’
‘It’s in shock and bleeding to death. Even if it does survive, with no hands, the new settlement wouldn’t accept it. And how would we feed a cub? How would we nurse something so badly injured?’
She swallowed. He could see she understood, but her empathy for the cub was corroding her rational thinking. In a way, human emotions were disabling. But slowly, as if it was an effort, she climbed down the bank and stepped into the boat, then, without looking at him, she took up the oars and began to row herself across.
He felt she was angry with him. Feeling ashamed, but knowing killing the cub would be the kindest thing, he stepped towards it. It had fallen quiet, probably already dead, but Fly didn’t want to check in case he scared it again.
He pursed his lips, felt venom bubble up in his throat and fired toxic pellets at the cub. Then he stepped forward and picked up the body; it was no weight in his hands. Limp and still warm, its humanlike eyes stared up at him sightlessly. Fly took it into the jungle, and welcomed the low mist to obscure his way. Guided only by his senses, he walked the path to where the mother lay buried beneath leaves and twigs. She was still there; the forest animals hadn’t found her yet. He uncovered her and placed the cub on her chest, and crossed her still limp arms over its body. Then he covered both their bodies over with earth, leaves and twigs until there was no sign of them.
***
Jenny was stoking the fire in their living room when he arrived back. He leaned against the doorframe, watching her. He could watch her all day without tiring.
She straightened saying, ‘You’re dripping all over the carpet.’
He looked at the bare floorboards. ‘Carpet?’
‘It’s Persian,’ she said. It was a joke, which he still didn’t properly get. She’d pretend they were on Earth and talk about things as if there; Bodie and Matt had understood and joined in laughing uproariously at one another. It was usually done to “lighten the mood”, which was another strange human trait he didn’t understand. ‘Go and dry off. A movie is just about to start on the TV.’
He’d heard that joke before. He smiled, stepped into the room and picked up a cushion. She’d made two from the foil-like covers that had covered the cabins in his old spaceship. He tossed it over, which she caught. ‘There’s the remote.’ He left her smiling, and went to the bathroom to dry off and change into dry
clothes.
‘I’m going to order a takeout for dinner,’ she called. He could hear her in the kitchen. ‘What do you fancy? A curry, Chinese food or a pizza?’
‘Pizza,’ he called back, as he always did.
‘Right-o.’
When he returned to the kitchen, Jenny was dicing graddy leaves and sprinkling them into a bubbling broth. ‘Pizza’s almost ready,’ she said as he came up behind her.
He slipped his arms around her middle and pressed his cheek against her hair. ‘I’m sorry you had to see that,’ he said. ‘Your eyes shouldn’t see any death or decay.’
She turned in his arms. ‘I’m not a piece of fragile china, Fly. I was just shocked, that’s all.’ She sighed. ‘I knew you had to kill it, and I’m sorry. I’m such a girl, sometimes.’
‘I took it to its mother and buried them together,’ he said.
She reached up and kissed his scarred cheek. ‘That was a lovely thing to do. Reunited in death. But why were they so far away from their home, and why were they killed like that?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe there’s a war going on between the different species of honnards?’ He stepped back as she pulled from his arms towards the bubbling pan. She tipped the thick broth into clay dishes. Jenny had carved their initials into the clay long ago, and they were prominently on display on the side.
‘Pizza,’ she said, indicating the broth.
Fly picked up the bowls and took them into the living room where the fire blazed. Jenny followed with a plate of homemade bread.
They sat together on the old settee, and tucked in to their food.
‘How long before we’re a target? We’re outnumbered by a huge amount,’ she said, resuming their talk.
He answered carefully, because he still wasn’t sure of his role with the honnards now they’d disbanded. He thought of the carving of Jenny, and of the effigies pinned to a cave entrance and surrounding trees.
‘You’re not in danger,’ he said. ‘They see you as some kind of goddess.’
‘What?’ She dunked a piece of bread in the broth before eating. ‘You’re kidding me, right?’