The Visitor (3 page)

A breath of wind brought him a familiar scent that caught his attention; without a doubt, it was the smell of his own kind. Perhaps distracted by the lightning-slayer, he hadn’t noticed the distant clamor that he could easily to associate with this smell. It was made by a very large number of voices from fellow creatures, voices that screamed and seemed to lament. But his burning thirst reminded him that there was water very close by.

*

Akkaliza sunk her gaze into the primate’s eyes with almost hypnotic concentration. For her, this moment was exceptional. Although it was only through eyes, she became aware that it was the first time that she communicated with a bov in such an intense way. What was happening in the animal’s mind? It was a question which had always fascinated her. How did he perceive her? What was the bov’s conception of time? Did he have the capacity of anticipation? Did they, in one way or another, try to explain natural phenomena? What were their faculties for communication between themselves? While it was very probable that the very deep sounds they emitted allowed them to express themselves in a way, had they reached the level of a language? If so, did they have only nouns and verbs... adjectives? Or even linguistic elements unknown in her own language?

“
You’re staring at my hand with apprehension, huh! I've no evil intentions. Come and drink, if you're thirsty.”
 

The bov glanced at the container and remained motionless, looking constantly between Akkaliza’s hand and eyes.

“
See, nothing's happening. You’re in no danger from me.”
 

The bov bent the end of his finger to hook the edge of the vessel and pull it gently towards him. After, returning to a seated position, he took the container with both hands to bring it to his mouth without taking his eyes off Akkaliza. She looked at him drinking with pleasure in the hope that this small gift and her engaging attitude could begin to conquer his confidence.

“
Okay, see! I’m your friend. It would be really a good thing that you let me treat you now.”
 

The bov put down the almost empty vessel and sat back again against the bars. Akkaliza decided to go around the cage to get closer to him. Refusing to lose sight of her, he turned suddenly on himself emitting a shriek of pain. She knew very well that cry. Alas! She had so often heard it in her father’s units of meat and milk production. She felt guilty:

“
I’m so sorry to have caused you to make that movement. Look! You’re bleeding again, by my fault! As it’s urgent that I treat you, I'll have to do it another way, without your explicit consent. I hope that you won't hold it against me.”
 

Akkaliza returned slowly on her steps and opened a bag that she had left in the grass.

*

Etos watched the lightning-slayer, his entire body trembling such the pain was intense. He was aware that it wasn’t the real cause, that it hadn’t been a good idea to turn so abruptly, but nevertheless, he couldn’t forget that he owed his terrible wounds to an acquaintance of this creature. It was therefore with some concern that he saw it picking up an object and pointing it at him. It didn’t really look like something that bangs and kills... maybe a bit... Suddenly, he felt an impact in his right shoulder. Noticing something had punctured his skin, he wanted to snatch it, but couldn’t finish his gesture, as he lost consciousness.

At dinner with her parents, her brother and a few guests, Akkaliza occasionally sneaked a few glances through the dining room’s window. Night had fallen since about an hour. She thought of the bov that would soon be regaining consciousness in his cage. The table was rather animated, laughter, funny stories and personal anecdotes following one another for a long time. This cheerful hubbub satisfied Akkaliza, since it stole attention away from her. She didn't want to be asked about her bov.

Her brother, seated at her right spoke to her in a low voice:

“
So?”
 

“
I’m okay...”
 

“
Did you do something for it?”
 

“
I had to tranquilize him with the narcotics gun. Thank you for lending it to me. Thanks to it, I was able to clean, disinfect and dress his wounds.”
 

“Great
!” said Akkalo, forking a morsel of bov and bringing it to his mouth.
 

“
I hope he recovers quickly," she continued trying not to think about what he was chewing.
 

“
I don’t want to upset you, but... I don’t want you to get your hopes up too much.”
 

“
In fact, he's only superficially wounded. Two bullets went through a muscle between the neck and shoulder. But he also received a severe shock to the head. I think he was knocked out when falling. It's more for this reason than any other that he remained unconscious for a while.”
 

“
Then perhaps he might recover," he whispered with a smile.
 

Her brother shared a certain complicity with her, but he had trouble understanding her excessive, he thought, commitment to the animal cause. He loved animals also, but no more nor less than most people. Like all other members of the family, he held great affection for their pets, three thacs and two hinecs. Of course he loved animals! But, not to the point of forgoing meat! He had to eat!

(Note from the translator: in French, cat and dog are respectively 'chat' and 'chien'. Rearranging the letters, you can now see where thac and hinec come from. Sorry that I could not find a way to achieve a similar result with the three letter English words.)

A year ago, Akkaliza had become vegan. Which meant that she consumed nothing that came from the world of animals. Absolutely nothing. No meat, no dairy products and no eggs... nothing. She refused even to wear leather, that she persisted in calling "animal’s skin”.

The family knew that Akkaliza had been influenced by her aunt Okkala, Akkal’s sister.  Following a serious argument in which he told her that he didn't want to ever see her again at his home, Akkal hadn’t spoken to her since more then a year. But it was suspected that Akkaliza and her aunt, who for a long time had been vegan also, discreetly met from time to time.

Akkaliza was bored to death at the table. She would have given anything to be somewhere else!

Hanging on two of the room’s walls, stuffed wild bov heads seemed to stare at the guests with glassy eyes. They were hunting trophies that Akkaliza tried not to see.

Okkos, one of Akkal’s friends, asked him point blank:

“
By the way, still angry with your sister?”
 

Akkaliza stared at her father.

“
We're still not talking to each other," answered the latter obviously bothered by the question. “I don’t want to hear
about her. Since she has created that bullshit Two One Four, she has become impossible to live with!”
 

Two One Four was the vegan association, fighting for the abolition of slaughterhouses, chaired by Okkala. The three numbers referred to a law concerning animals.

(Note from the translator: tongue in cheek reference by the author to an existing association in France, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L214)

“
I don’t want to meddle into what's none of my busyness, but, still, I find you quite vindictive.”
 

Akkali threw a worried look to her husband. She knew this was a very sensitive issue for him.

“
Okkala has mounted my daughter against me in stuffing her skull with all this nonsense about animals. She has convinced her that I’m only an assassin, that I’m a maker of death! What would you do in my shoes? I should abandon my busyness to make her happy? That way, we’ll all die hungry and we'll have to live in the street!”
 

Okkos turned to Akkaliza:

“
Tell your father that you’ve never thought of him as a maker of death. Tell him, see how upset he is!”
 

“
I’ve never made such a claim, Dad...” Akkaliza forced herself to repeat.”
 

“
You haven’t said that to me, but it’s what you think! “
 

“
Really now! You're not going to blame your daughter for what you think she thinks!”
 

“
I know what she thinks because I know what my sister has dumped into her head! And that’s the reason I no longer want to see her, the bugger. Those were her own words that I’m repeating to you; words that she uttered to me several times in the presence of the children at this very table. I’m a maker of death! That is what she had repeated several times, in addition to a whole bunch of other nonsense. Look where we are, because of that! Akkaliza won’t eat anything more than carrots! Umas have always eaten meat, but Okkala and all sick minds of her ilk, who feel smarter than everyone else, claim
that they can do without it. And look at how they think of themselves as intellectuals! They even invent new words... 'speciesism' among others...”
 

Very uncomfortable, Akkaliza thought to get up from table to go to the cage to see how the bov was doing. But increasing her father’s anger would be taking the risk of putting the life of her protégé in danger. This possibility forced her to stay seated and do everything possible to calm things down.

“Okay!” exclaimed Okkos. “For someone who’s only eating carrots, if it’s truly the case, she’s not in so bad health as that. So no peril there. Youth will be youth, as they say. She’ll eventually end up eating meat like the rest of umanity, don’t worry.

“She would be better off at Restaurants for All as a volunteer like her brother," said Akkali. “In giving too much love to animals, one no longer loves umas!”

“Don’t use me to reprove of Akkaliza," interjected Akkalo to his mother. “My volunteering at Restaurants for All has nothing to do with the fact that she’s vegan.”

“Yet I’m doing all I can to be broad-minded," said Akkal. “I’ve even allowed Akkaliza to tame the bov that I wounded while hunting. I’ve put it in a cage so she can take care of it. So then! What more can I do? Me, the great maker of death!”

Ykkypol, another guest who was a major shareholder of Akkal’s company, was astonished:

“
Well! You're going to tame a wild bov now, Akkaliza! Tell us about it.”
 

Akkaliza made a unmeasurable effort to say as little as possible about it. She had but one wish, get this meal over with and let the guests leave to be able to send a few messages to her aunt.

*

Etos had begun to wake up shortly after dusk. He had dreamed of Mahisa. Torpor that numbed his mind and dizziness that gave him a swimming impression were gradually dissipating. He was then able to sit. Intrigued, he had looked at and touched the bandages and the bits of tape that concealed his wounds; while making this discovery, his surprise had grown as his conscience cleared. His pain being significantly reduced, the possibility that the strange things covering his injuries had something to do with it came to mind. Then, he wondered if it was the lightning-slayer who had put them on him during his inexplicable sleep. Remembering the object aimed towards him and the small cylinder piercing his skin, he made the hypothesis that she had put him to sleep by this means. If that was the case, the lightning-slayers didn’t systematically kill. They were also able to induce sleep from a distance. He said to himself that was also a great power, but much less to fear than that which killed or injured. But, maybe it had nothing to do with it... in this case, how to explain that he was suddenly put to sleep to wake up with those pain soothing things on his body?

Odors and clamor from his own kind still came to him, the first transported randomly by the whims of the wind, the second, on the contrary, appearing to grow when the leaves fell silent.

He observed for a while the forest gods still glistening with their same eternal purity. While recognizing many, he was impressed that they were powerful enough to reign over the lightning-slayers' territory. He hoped they were benevolent and vowed to show them his courage.

A new object of curiosity pulled him from his deep reflection. A container. There was one near him. In addition to the discovery of these things that hid his wounds, enough to justify that his mind was busy elsewhere, probably darkness explained that he hadn’t noticed it earlier. This container, flat and round, was full of white grain. Touching the small mound that they formed with an inquisitive index finger, he noted that it was soft. Two grains remained glued to the tip of his finger when he withdrew it. To be able to give them a closer look, he moved them right before his eyes. This was unlike anything that he had ever seen. These small and elongated
soft things were made of two parts joined together. He smelled them. Then, no doubt inspired by this rapid olfactory examination, he pressed one of them on his tongue and nibbled. It seemed edible. He licked his finger to swallow the second grain and seized the vessel and brought it to his mouth. Holding it in one hand, he used the other to eat. He found that it was good and he was hungry. This was the first time he ingested cooked rice. When he had finished, he saw that the water container was still there and it was full. He drank less than half and careful not to spill any, he put it down in a corner of the cage. The moon rising over the tops of the forest began to project a feeble light around him. He found an apple and a long thing, yellow and slightly curved, a banana in fact, but he never had seen one before. It took him only a moment to down the first one, including its core. He sniffed, licked and nibbled the banana for a few seconds before deciding to bite more deeply. When he discovered the white flesh inside, he decided he would rather get rid of its skin that he dropped out of the cage, but close by, in case he didn’t have anything else to eat later. He found it a very delicious thing. When he had completed its ingestion, he stood up and began to examine more closely the vertical bars that held him prisoner. He shook many, with more force than before, but still holding a bit back, because, although invisible, his wounds quickly reminded him they were still there.