First First Contact 5
Chapter 5
Taviri, Son of Lord Ralik
Their skin was wrong. That was the first coherent thought that crossed my mind as these creatures broke the treeline, armed with a litany of unfamiliar tools. White as paste and wrinkled in strange places, their outer skin looked dead against the forest backdrop. Behind a clear, glassy material, I could vaguely make out the outline of a more natural-looking head—still unfamiliar, but at least recognizably alive. Finally, after a few moments of baffled staring, I realized that the white skin was not skin at all but some kind of clothing.
Two of the figures stepped forth, one of them a good head shorter than the other and carrying a strange metal box. They worked at the little tool between them, and then the box itself spoke. “Friend. No run.” It affirmed in a broken approximation of our language, the taller of the two figures up front holding out their paws for us to see. Gloves made from a leathery smooth material covered their paws, but I could see that they lacked the webbing of a Rosha’s, like the river itself had rejected them.
“What are they?” Velo asked, looking at me as though I might have some kind of an idea. “Forest spirits?”
My whiskers twitched out a negative. “I don’t think so,” I told him, taking a shaky step closer to the creatures as curiosity briefly overpowered my caution. Mirroring my movement, two of the figures sidled up alongside the front ones. When they themselves spoke, it was in a tongue I’d never heard before—deep yet smooth, like distant thunder rolling in the midst of a heavy storm. “Why are you here?” I asked the group, doing my best to keep my voice steady.
At first, the creatures didn’t respond. It almost looked like they were waiting for something. Finally, their postures shifted as the meaning of my words seemed to reach them all at the same time. The smallest one, still nearly twice my size, took the box and began pressing their fingers down into the colorful bumps along its face. “Here for what here. See. Talk. No wrong.” The box said.
Positioning himself at my side with his knife at the ready, Velo cocked his head at the giants, as though not understanding what he was looking at. “What are you?” he asked. “Where are you from?”
Spotting the tool in my friend’s hand, the tallest of these creatures brandished a strange tool from his side—a hollow metal barrel connected to a handle. However, another of the creatures quickly placed their hand upon the barrel and directed it back to rest at the tallest one’s hip. One of the two who had stepped forth gently grabbed the box from the smallest one and pressed down upon its colorful studs. “Knife no. Friend.” After a pause, the box spoke again. “From high. Small sun. Many.” Raising their free hand over their head, they pointed at the sky above us.
“Many small suns…” I pondered the bizarre statement for a second, my eyes drifting upward as I imagined what the sky would look like with many tiny suns rather than just the one. Then I realized that I already knew. “You mean the stars? That’s where you’re from?”
“Yes.” The box affirmed after another brief period. “One of your stars our sun. Far away.”
Velo cocked his head as the information sank in. “Wait, so you’re saying the stars are just other suns further away?”
“Yes.” Affirmed the figures through the box. “Our sun Sol, our community Earth. Our people Humans.”
Carefully turning the strangers’ explanation over in my head, I remembered a conversation I’d had with the town star mapper. He had told me once that the planets wandering through the night sky were worlds like our own. I had at the time dismissed this as a fun bit of whimsy. “So you come from another sun you call Sol, and you call yourselves Humans. You said your community is Earth. Is that your nation or your world?”
“World,” the box replied before continuing to translate their language into our own. “What are you?”
“We are the Rosha,” I told them, taking a tentative step closer as I curiously peered past the glass barrier between one of their faces and my own. Other than a small patch on the top of their head, they didn’t seem to have much in the way of fur. “Our world is Althiir. My name is Taviri, son of Lord Ralik. This one beside me is Velo.”
The smallest of them seemed to recoil slightly at the mention of my father. “You are a lord? Sorry. Not know.” The smallest of the group bent their body downward, their eyes just about level with mine as I peered into them. Behind the shortest one, two others in the group joined in.
The gesture didn’t make any sense to me. Were they trying not to frighten me? Because if so, they’d certainly done poor work with the introduction. “Why are you bending like that?” I asked them.
The one in front accepted the tool from the shorter one and typed into it. “You are noble. Have purpose.” The box paused for another few seconds before eventually spitting out. “You lord pup. We talk to lord?”
“I think they’re looking for your father,” Velo said behind me. “At least that would make sense. He’ll probably want to say hello anyway.”
Somewhere inside me, there remained a visceral sort of fear standing before these massive creatures. Then again, they’d given us no indicator that they wanted to do harm, so it seemed right to give them the assumption of best intentions. And if they did prove to wish harm on us, it'd be better to face them with the whole community than with just Velo and I. Straightening out my posture, I gestured with a paw in the direction of where we’d come from. “He lives in town. If you’d like, you can follow us there.” I affirmed.
The Humans glanced at each other, then after a few seconds they had the box respond again. “We follow. Speak with noble.”
I’ll admit I didn’t feel great about turning my back to these creatures, even if they’d mostly been peaceful. “Is it okay if my friend walks behind you?” I asked them, glancing nervously at Velo. “At least beside one of your people?”
The tallest of the Humans let out a curt bark, only to receive a glare from the shortest as they debated amongst themselves in their strange tongue. At last, once their conversation came to an end, the box supplied us with their answer. “Friend no knife,” it insisted. “Then he follow.”
“Velo, hand me your hunting knife please,” I said, holding out my paw to him.
Velo looked like he was about to protest for a moment, but instead conceded without a word as he handed me his sole weapon. “If this goes bad and they kill us,” he muttered. “I’d better see you on the judging stand to let me into Nevah.”
“Don’t worry about that,” I began, my tail swishing snidely back and forth. “I’m much faster than you, so if they do kill us, I won’t be first and it’ll be you on the judging stand.”
Walking along the riverside in the direction of town, I felt the entities’ eyes digging into the back of my neck like a river devil’s jaws as they followed close behind. “So,” I began, trying to sound as even-toned as possible just like father always did when speaking with guests. “Do you have names?”
The shortest one gently acquired the box and pointed at themselves as it spoke. “Isla,” it proclaimed before the Human handed it off to the next group member.
“Harrison.”
“Parker.”
“Cora.”
“Ian.”
I wasn’t sure I’d remember all the names, but it was a good sign that they were willing to give them anyway.
“You said the stars in the night sky are suns,” Velo said from behind them. “Is every star someone else’s sun?”
The one that had introduced themselves as Cora retrieved the box next. “Every star sun. Not every star have world. Not every world have someone”
“Why were you hiding in the trees?” I asked them, glancing back at the bizarre group for a moment as I nearly tripped over a small bump in the road. “And why are you wearing those masks? Is the air on your world different from ours?”
“Box need words to talk,” affirmed one of the Humans—Harrison, I think—through the box. “We not know your words.”
After them, the one they called Parker snatched the tool and began to speak through it. “Air not know. Maybe hurt.”
“Hurt?” I probed, hoping for some more clarification. “Would you not be able to breathe? Could it make you sick?”
“Can breathe. Maybe sick. Not know,” they clarified.
From there, our walk to town settled into an unfamiliar but recognizable pattern. Every once in a while, one of the Humans would point to something on or around the road, and Velo or myself would tell them the name for it. As time went on, their words became somewhat clearer—like the box they were using was learning our language little by little.
“How did you get here from your world, Earth?” Velo asked, his whiskers twitching curiously. “Did you fly here?”
Up ahead, beached upon the riverbank, I saw old man Wuso’s little fishing canoe. The Human holding the box was quick to point it out. “That’s a boat…” I explained.
“We get here in sky boat,” explained the one I think was Cora, before kneeling down and digging their finger into the ground, leaving behind a cavity in the dirt road. “What this?”
“That’s a hole,” I told them.
“We made hole in sky. From Sol to here. Sky boat bring us.” While the words themselves made sense in some fashion, I still couldn’t quite fish out what the Human was trying to explain. All I knew was that they came to this world in some kind of flying ship.
“Your town name is what?” Isla asked us.
“Tathar,” I told them, pausing for a moment to correct a road sign that had tilted to its side.
“Your father own Tathar?” They asked.
Carefully adjusting the sign arrow so they pointed where they needed to go, I thought about the question for a second. “I think ‘own’ might be the wrong word,” I replied, trying to think of how to explain it. “I mean, he makes important decisions and I guess he’s in charge, but it’s not like the town is his property.”
The answer seemed to surprise the Humans. For a second, they talked amongst themselves in their strange language. “If lord does not own it, then who?” The box finally spat out at Harrison’s behest.
“I guess it’s owned by all the Rosha who live here,” Velo chirped from behind us.
It seemed like it took a moment for that to properly sink in among the Humans. As most of them contemplated it, the tallest, Ian, grabbed the talking box and typed into it. “Why bring knife?” They asked.
“It’s mostly just a tool for gutting the fish,” I explained, retrieving Velo’s knife and holding it gently in both hands. “It’s also good in an emergency against a river devil.”
“What is a river devil?” Asked Harrison through the box. “Bad river spirit?”
My whiskers twitched negatively. “Not spirits. Just animals. They’re big and they like to eat Rosha. We don’t see them much around here anymore—when we do find them, hunting parties either kill them or chase them off.”
Just up ahead on the outskirts of Tathar, where stone walls reached a few Rosha tall, I recognized the guard tower set up by the main road. One of the Rosha atop the tower spotted the Humans and preemptively loaded a smooth stone into his sling. Then he spotted me. “Young lord Taviri?” He shouted to me. “What are those creatures behind you?”
“Not enemies,” I shouted out to him. “Not yet at least. They want to talk to my father. Can you folks escort us to the bell tower?”
The guard hesitated for a second, but ultimately acquiesced to my asking, sending six guards to surround us as we entered into the city proper.