AKLESH (Under Strange Skies) (20 page)

“Let everything else become a blur,” she continued as he focused. “Organize your mind and let the world around us wash over you.” The sides of his vision blurred and he went through the processes she had told him about, sorting out his feelings and the trivial thoughts that floated around his mind. He was still very aware of Kai’s presence mentally, but as he continued the exercise the tribesman began to fade away.

She’s really funny about those shells.

You’re lucky. I’ve had to deal with them for
years.

The thought pierced his brain like an arrow and it showed on his face.

“Keep concentrating,” she encouraged.

“Wrap the blanket of your mind around yourself.” Gar did so and once again the world grew hazy around him. All his concentration was on the shell.

All he let himself see was the shell. All he thought about was-You know what has a shell, right? A nut! What
does that tell you about Zaela?

Gar couldn’t help but snort. This time Kai got the thump from the Healer, annoyed that they weren’t taking the exercise more seriously.

“Try again,” she coaxed once they had calmed down.

This time Gar pulled all his focus down and put away other extraneous thoughts. As he stared at the shell he pictured himself underneath it, with the whole of creation on the outside, unable to get in.

It was a quiet place. A place of solitude.

Somewhere, on the outskirts of his mind he became aware of a strange sort of mumbling, but it was unimportant. All that mattered was staying inside his shell. The mumbling became more insistent, but it was as if he was hearing someone talking underwater and so it was easily put aside.

“I think he’s done it,” said Kai at last.

Gar looked up.

“That was you?”

Kai grinned at him.

Huh! Not bad,
the Aklesh warrior thought.

Gar smiled at his achievement, till Kai added…

…
For a nut.

***

The Healer’s parting advice to Gar was simple.

The mind was a muscle that needed as much exercise as any other part of the body and to learn to control it would take time and discipline. Only then he would be able to create the mental privacy he so longed for.

Her instructions were for the two of them to meet every day and work together to help Gar gain more power over his new abilities. She admitted that the territory they were trying to chart was out of her depths. He and Kai had to learn more about the bond between them. It was likely their connection was much different than that of other Joined people from the tribe. Until they totally understood how it worked they wouldn’t be able to change it.

When the lesson was over the two of them sat alone on a log outside the school area. Neither of them spoke. It was the most time they had spent together since the beach when Kai had saved Gar’s life. It really hadn’t been that long ago, but in that moment it seemed like forever.

There were so many things Kai longed to ask Gar about. Images and feelings he didn’t understand from the stranger’s world that invaded his mind and his dreams. Gar’s home in the sky was strange and terrifying, but also wondrous and awe inspiring. Every time he witnessed it through Gar it was always night with eternally blazing stars. This baffled him.

Likewise, Gar wanted to apologize, but he wasn’t sure exactly what for. Kai’s broken arm, of course, but it felt like there were other things as well that he should be sorry for. He didn’t like the feeling of remorse. Being a prince it was not something he was very familiar with.

The result of all these unspoken thoughts resulted in an awkward silence, no one saying anything.

Kai was the first to break the silence.

“Have you had a bath?” Kai’s abrupt statement was unexpected. Gar was immediately taken aback.

“Huh?” Gar said, completely caught off guard and not sure if he’d heard the young native correctly.

“Do I smell or something?”

Kai became flustered not having meant offense.

“No, I mean…have you bathed, you know?” Kai stammered, realizing that Gar probably didn’t understand what he meant. “Do you know?”

“There’s this black soap stuff in the hut…” muttered Gar, still ill at ease and now nervous about his body odor.

“Oh no, I didn’t mean…!” Kai exclaimed. He then stopped talking, took a moment and tried another tactic. “There’s a place where we go. I mean, I could take you.” Finally he gave up and took his hand, pulling him Gar along. “Just come with me.” It was instinctual for the native, but when Kai had grabbed Gar’s hand, a little jolt went through the prince. It was the first time they had touched, intentionally. The feeling was not entirely unwelcome to the stranger.

Gar followed Kai out past the large garden where many exotics fruits and vegetables were coming into full bloom in the warmth of the season. They went down beyond that to where the river came into a cove with large, grey stone steps carved into the rock. Each ledge was about fifty feet wide and the stacked slabs created a gentle slope into the water.

At that time of day the only people were children playing and on the far side of the man-made cove, a few older tribesmen going about some business by the river.

On the sides of the water’s edge were large bushes that had gobs of a grey moss-like substance growing on it in large tufts. Gar walked over to one of the nearby bushes and plucked off some of it, inspecting the stuff. The spicy smell was very familiar. Having come up from behind him, Kai gently took the moss out of his hand and squeezed it tightly in his own. When he opened his hand again Gar saw the familiar black soapy shape that was on the table in the hut.

Suddenly it all made sense to Gar. Kai laughed as the look of revelation came across the confused prince’s face. Then he slugged him in the shoulder with his good hand and started going to the water for a bath.

Even with his wounded arm he was able to strip out of his leggings and loincloth quickly, knee deep in the water before Gar even realized what he had done.

“Come on!” he called out to Gar, turning his full body towards him and splashing up some water playfully. “Have a bath! You’ll feel better!” On Orestus Gar was not used to such freeness regarding nudity. A person never exposed one’s body publicly and he found the notion a little shocking. Such things were considered taboo. He was taken by surprise, although later on he would be embarrassed by his naive discomfort. Of course the Aklesh people wouldn’t care if they were dressed or undressed. It wasn’t in the lexicon of their culture to be modest. The prince had always thought of himself as a progressive about such matters, but when asked to actually participate found his liberality was waning in regard to his general cultural upbringing.

And this was only part of the reason why he had become uncomfortable.

There, standing before him wet and naked, was Kai. It was the first time he’d seen any of the adults of this tribe, especially him, without any clothes. And the young tribesman was very strong and well formed. Kai kept innocently smiling and extended a hand for Gar to join him in the water unaware of the sensuality of his own image.

The picture was quite an alluring one for a lost prince who was very lonely.

Gar felt the familiar flush he had before when he accidentally ‘reached’ and found Kai while standing at the top of the Keep. His heart rate sped up and his body tingled. He began to panic and was frozen to the spot, not knowing what to do or how to gracefully get out of the situation.

Kai’s smile faded.

Gar could not hide his thoughts, especially the more virile ones. His embarrassment by them was mortifiying. Kai sensed what was coming from him and immediately the awkwardness of the moment grew worse. Instinctively, the native took a few steps back into the water and then smoothly submerged his body so all that was above the surface was his shoulders and head.

Kai felt horrible. He had not intended to make Gar ill-at-ease…and just as they were starting to get along as well! The ability to sense another’s

emotional

state

had

unforeseen

consequences for both of them.

Neither knew quite how to handle it.

Just as the awkwardness had grown almost unbearable point where gar would have been happy to be anywhere else and half considered bolting, they both heard giggling coming from their left.

A couple of the children had been watching the proceedings and found the whole thing very funny. One of the kids pointed to Gar and rubbed his own face. At this motion the children burst into laughter.

Gar felt his cheek and realized why the children were giggling. By that time he had almost grown a full beard. They were laughing at him because of his facial hair. He had seen some of the men in the tribe with hair on their faces, but it had been white, thin and sparse at best. His hair was dark and was nothing like the children had ever seen.

Now he had something else to feel self conscious about.

Immediately Gar started looking for an escape but came across something else instead.

What he noticed was the tribesmen at the other end of the bathing area. They were not paying any attention, being too busy to observe the incident. The older gentlemen were focused on another task entirely.

One of the men had a knife-like object that appeared to be made of bone. He also had lotion in a bowl and was rubbing it on the side of another tribesman’s head. Then, using the bone knife he scraped it along the scalp. The other man’s short white hair fell on the stone and all that was left was smooth skin.

The man was a barber.

Gar recovered himself, now aware of how foolish he was acting.

He nodded to Kai, who was treading water and wore a confused expression, then took off his shirt and tossed it on the stone step. He was about to go for his pants but heard the children laughing again, harder this time. They pointed and scratched their sternums, referring to his chest hair.

Gar gave them a look and then laughed as well, continuing to strip down. He figured it was fine to let them gawk and laugh. It
was
funny and if he had been a little kid in their position he would have laughed as well. He knew he was a decent example of his race and had nothing to be ashamed of.

When he had completely stripped Gar confidently walked over to the man who had the bone knife.

Now, it was one thing to feel uneasy about nudity, it was another thing entirely to continue looking like a slob, especially when one was royalty and there was an available barber to be employed.

All modesty aside, it was time to clean up and have a shave.

In the moments before Gar had arrived at the school hut that morning, Zaela had made it very clear to Kai that he was to report to the council later that evening. This was something he had kept from Gar all day.

Kai did not like standing before the council. Each time he had in the past his life had altered dramatically.

On his first visit he had learned of the tragic death of his father. Really it had been a confirmation of something he had known almost the moment that it had happened. But the hearing it from the council made it clear he was the man in his family from that point on. Something a child that young should never be burdened with.

The second time, shortly there after, he became apprenticed to the Healer.

When he came of age he was presented before the council a third time to be assigned a hunting group.

Tyro had ended up taking him on. The whole event had been a degrading experience. The only reason he ended up in his friend’s group was because no other hunting party would have him.

Kai was small compared to all the other tribesman and therefore appeared weak.

Tyro had done it out of love and friendship, but with the inclusion of the triplets as well, their group become tagged as undesirable. They were a team of misfits and outsiders.

Despite being considered the odd ones, Kai thought it was nice to have people that he could call friends. Still, it would have been better if he could have gotten invited into a team based upon his own merits and not pity.

The last time he was before the council was when he had stood with Gar, just before being abducted by the Others. That time had been by far the worst of all. He had been admonished before the entire tribe, a thoroughly humiliating experience. It made him agitated even thinking about it.

One fact was certain; he was never the same after an encounter with the council.

He could only guess what would be waiting for him this time.

After the tribe had eaten the evening meal he made his way to the small hut next to the meeting place.

His arm was still a little sore. He had washed and rewrapped it with cloth before going to see the council. A broken arm didn’t really embarrass him. He just didn’t feel he needed any more reason for the lead warriors and council members to find more physical fault with him.

Kai could see the light of a fire coming from inside the hut as he approached the top of the Keep. It made the hut glow in the deep blue quietness of early evening. There were not many huts up that high and no one came there unless it was a great gathering or they wanted to get away from everyone else. The torches were not yet lit on the stairs so the reaching arms of the great tree were bathed in the cool shadows of the encroaching night.