Uninvited (The Mind-Melded Support Character Shorts) by Carol Buhler

Author:Carol Buhler [Buhler, Carol]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-25T00:00:00+00:00

13. Vuddonville

It seemed logical that other humans would have found the river attractive, so we continued to follow it. Sure enough, villages appeared periodically on either side of its banks, no more than ten to fifteen houses arranged in a circle or square in each. We didn’t stop to visit, only studied them from a hover. The humans looked busy and productive. We neither saw, nor felt, animosity in them.

We stopped at the two don holdings near the river, the Bow and the Reg families, gathered the latest news--none of it alarming, then moved on.

By nightfall, we’d reached the southern ocean and made camp on the sand far to the east of the small fishing village perched at the mouth of the river. Under a clear sky twinkling with thousands of stars, we lay still listening to the murmur of the surf rising and falling, slipping sand sounds we weren’t used to. Korola and I cuddled, content with each other, but worried about Jol. He’d said almost nothing the entire day—so unlike him—and I knew he brooded about the strange actions of his human friends.

“Jol,” I said, “do you want to talk about it?”

The six of us were totally alone in the dark, our reeth snoring softly after having rolled and scrubbed themselves in the sand and then the water. Korola and I waited, almost not breathing.

He broke the night with a sob. “I don’t understand why they are so angry with me.” His miserable voice broke my heart—I didn’t know what to say.

Korola did. “They don’t understand how you could follow your father’s edict in the face of those men’s attack.” She didn’t reach out for him—he was too old to be cuddled by a mother. Her caressing voice did the reaching and soothing for her. “They don’t look at relationships the way we do. That is obvious. To don, your father’s words, your Supreme Don’s words, must be obeyed. From what I’ve seen from most of them—they only obey their leader if they agree with the leader’s thinking. It’s no wonder they had to flee their birth world. Thinking that way, they made a mess of it.”

“They’re supposed to be my friends!”

“And they are, or were. Maybe will be again. But they are human. They don’t understand obedience. They think you should have gone against your leader’s command and helped Mr. Snyder. We don’t know how badly he’s been hurt—”

“Dr. Tucker says very badly. He may not be able to work,” I interrupted.

She squeezed my hand, then continued. “In a similar case, among don, everyone would help care for his family, tend his animals, work his fields.”

“Like when Uncle Mordon broke his leg in the rock fall,” Jol whispered.

Korola smiled. I know she did even though I couldn’t see her face. “Exactly. But, you heard Mrs. Snyder—she doesn’t want our help.”

“Because she hates us?”

I tapped Korola’s leg to let her know I’d handle this one. “I think it’s more that she doesn’t understand us enough to trust us. For now, it’s best we let them deal with the problem.

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