The Visitor (2 page)

“
Hey! What’s got into you?” asked her father coming out.
 

Akkalo and Akkali arrived also not hiding their surprise.

“He
’s alive, Dad!”
 

“
What?”
 

Akkal took a look at his prize. He swallowed a curse and cried:

“
Get away from it. Especially don't touch it! A wounded beast can be very dangerous. All of you stay clear! I’ll get the gun!”
 

Akkaliza clung to his jacket:

“
Dad! Let him live. Please! Don’t kill him!”
 

She was grasping his garment so strongly that he couldn’t move without dragging her with him.

“
But... uh," he let out embarrassed.
 

“
Mother! Akkalo! Please! Tell him to not kill him! I beg you, help me to convince him.”
 

Embarrassed and moved by his sister's reaction, Akkalo muttered some unintelligible sounds that seemed meant to come to her defense. Akkala approached her husband’s ear to whisper:

“
If it makes her happy...Put it in a cage. With its injuries, it’ll die alone in a day or two, anyway... She won't be able to blame you for having ignored her request.”
 

Akkal felt that the idea had merit. Akkaliza, who watched for the slightest expression on her parent’s faces during this brief secret conversation, seemed so tense one would believe that it was her own life that was at stake. Moved by the supplicant face of his daughter, Akkal countered in a tone that he tried to make somewhat gruff:

“
Okay! We'll find it a cage. But... you’ll have to take care of it all by yourself. I have other things to do than to take care of it! I hope you’ve underst...”
 

Akkaliza’s tears of gratitude halted the demonstration of authority that he strove to give forth in retaliation to the weakness of conceding to what she asked for.

“
Well... okay," he said. “I'll tie it up and put it in a cage right away. I just told you that a wounded animal can be dangerous. Don’t stay near it as long as it isn’t enclosed.”
 

Willing to do anything to keep her parents in a good disposition, Akkaliza backed away a few steps.

“
Bring me a rope and a muzzle," her father told her. “Go see in the garage.”
 

While she was leaving to seek the requested objects, he spoke to his son:

“
Find me a cage from the laboratory. Be discreet. I’m not to keen on the idea of the staff asking questions.”
 

In the giant food production building, the laboratory was the place where all experiments designed to improve productivity were performed. To obtain ever more profitable animals, they were testing on some of them the amount of hormones or anabolic steroids needed to increase muscle mass. They were testing various mammary stimulants to produce more milk by beast. Finally, both for meat and milk, they were also making multiple crossbreedings through artificial insemination.

The two children having left, Akkal said to his wife:

“
I think you're right. It won’t be alive for long. It’s barely breathing. But, you never know, I prefer to take precautions. It could still bite or scratch.”
 

*

Multiple sources of pain had finally woken Etos up. He had a terrible headache, but also pain to the left shoulder, neck, nape, on the left side of his face and in both legs. Trying to get up, he was only able to raise a few groans. He remembered the two terrifying noises that had brought him down and a blazing burn, then... nothing. Regaining his senses face down on a hard, cold surface, he had the hardest time to make the slightest movement such was the pain that sanctioned it. Shortly after this return to consciousness, he had heard some of the particular chatter that he knew and feared. He knew that these chirps emanated from lightning-slayers, such was the name that his kind called these chattering creatures. So now he remained still, faking death so as not to draw attention to himself. Heart squeezed by fear, he listened. He soon understood that there were several sources of chirps and they were all close. Terrified, he stayed quiet.

Shortly after, he felt that he was touched. They were grabbing his hands. Then he was pulled quite brutally. A cry of pain escaped him.

*

“
Daddy!” cried Akkaliza. “More slowly, poor thing!”
 

“
Sorry, daughter...” answered Akkal in a slightly surly tone. “I’m doing what I can. The beast is wounded.”
 

And for good reason
! She said to herself holding back her resentment.
 

Akkal tied the bov’s wrists to secure them behind its back. Then, equipped with strong gloves for bite protection, he slipped the muzzle onto its head. Small muffled cries could be heard.

“
Akkalo," he said while opening the truck’s tail-gate, “put gloves on to help me tighten the muzzle over its mouth before pulling it into the cage.
 

*

Etos clenched his teeth to avoid yelling. They turned him over. He saw that he was in something with a flat bottom and flat edges, but pain and fear didn’t leave him with any sense of wonder about that. His terror increased again when he saw that he had been seized by two chattering creatures. They were one to each side of him. They were holding him firmly by the thighs and arms. Feeling lifted up, his eyes, dilated by terror, turned to all sides. He was so afraid that he felt almost no pain when he was put down on the grass. The lightning-slayer continued to chirp. They dragged him inside another thing that also had a flat bottom, but the sides consisted of strange very straight upright branches and with no ramifications. To his inexpressible relief, the creatures let him go and wandered off. His terror having dampened his pain, he was able to partly raise himself. It was on his knees that he looked all around him. One of the sides of the thing in which he was now included a passage that the lightning-slayers had used to go out. But one of them closed this entrance. So, there was no longer any visible way to flee. All around him were upright branches, and above, a horizontal surface rendered futile the idea to climb the sides to take flight that way. Go over, he couldn’t, but could they be broken? With both hands, he grasped one of the branches on the farthest side of the chattering creatures and began shaking it with all his strength. But his injuries began to bleed profusely and the pain became stronger than his fear. He dropped to the floor of his prison and contorted a groan. Mahisa’s image entered his mind. Was she looking for him? Where was she? How was she? He fervently hoped that she hadn’t been struck down.

*

“
You see, my daughter, that we have done well to confine him," said Akkal while removing his gloves. Even with two bullets in its body... see how this animal is enraged! It would have bitten you through to your blood! Okay, I'll go fetch the mobile crane to move it. Where do you want it put?
 

“Well, not i
n the garage or nor in our shed!” launched Akkali. “I prefer to avoid the stink...”
 

“Let's put it
just under the cover of the first trees at the edge of the forest," proposed Akkaliza.
 

Deeply worried as she watched the bov bleed, she was eager to be alone with him to provide care.

“
It’s okay with me," said the father.
 

“
Me too," said the mother.
 

“
I guess that you don’t care, Akkalo," asked Akkali.
 

Her brother took off his protective gloves and confirmed his aloofness by taking an aping expression.

*

Akkaliza threw a look towards the mobile crane that was moving away. It was a sort of pickup truck, with a small lifting device attached to the rear part of the chassis. It's with this contraption that Akkal had picked up and then brought the cage up to the agreed place. In the center of its roof, the cage had a ring to facilitate its transport. Her father, at the wheel of the machine, turned briefly to send her a hand wave that she distractedly reciprocated.

Now alone with the injured bov, she would be able to give him all her attention. He was lying on his side. He no longer moaned, but he was still losing a lot of blood. His poor shape was painful to see, probably not for everyone, but at least for her. It even greatly upset her. The teenager began to talk to him gently to try to reassure him:

“
I mean you no harm. I’m very unhappy to see you trapped and injured. I know that it’s one us who's responsible for what happened to you, that it’s my own father even. Yet, I swear that I’m sorry. It even breaks my heart...”
 

She was silent for a moment, wondering how to clean the coagulated blood that stuck the hairs on his skull and formed dry plates on his left shoulder. Then, seeking his gaze she continued:

“
I would like to heal you, heal your wounds, but I dread making you afraid. I don’t know how to win your confidence. If you let me take care of you, then, I can free you and you can
return among your own. I didn’t say that to my father, of course, but it’s what I think.”
 

She jumped when she heard the bov make one of the very deep sounds that his kind uttered. She had listened and observed these animals, with very sustained attention, long enough to be convinced that it was a complaint, a moan, but there was also something else. She was sure of it. Perhaps surprise... or curiosity, rather... Something like that, yes.

He began to put pressure on his trembling arms. At the expense of visible effort, he managed to rise up enough to sit.

“
Gently," she whispered. “Gently. Don’t overextend yourself.”
 

He stared at her with more curiosity than fear. At least, that is what she thought was conveyed by his hairy face spotted with muddy crusts amalgamated with coagulated blood. She advanced her gloved hand between two bars and stated in a quiet and gentle voice:

“
You’ll have to let me touch you so that I can treat you. Your wounds will worsen if I don’t disinfect them. I don’t know how to persuade you that I don't mean you any harm.”
 

She advanced her hand a little more. This gesture was more intended to make him understand her intention rather than actually touch him, because he was too far away to reach even with an outstretched arm. The bov looked several times at the glove and at Akkaliza’s eyes with an expression of growing curiosity.

“
You’re asking yourself what this thing is, maybe... It’s a glove. Dad wants me to wear it to avoid being bitten. But, I'll remove it, because I trust you, I know that you won’t bite me if I don't scare you.”
 

Pressing his back against the bars behind him, he looked at her removing the object. He seemed exhausted. She waved her fingers while returning her hand into the cage.

“
I'm not afraid, see. Especially, don't tell Dad! He would be very angry with me. You may be hungry and thirst... Thirsty, for sure! I'll give you something to drink.”
 

Under the bov’s still very attentive eyes, she lifted a container and filled a small cylindrical vessel that she passed between two bars. She put the receptacle down and drew her hand back ten centimeters only, hoping that he would come closer to her.

“
Come and drink. Don't be afraid of my hand. It’s uncovered and holds no weapon. You see? Come! Trust me.”
 

*

Etos listened to the high pitched chattering emitted by the lightning-slayer with perplexity. He never had until now the opportunity to hear these strange chirping sounds for so long. And for good reason! Better, in fact, to quickly flee when one of them approached. Indeed fear gave the best advice as to what action should be taken in such cases: run as fast as possible and hide. However, in the unusual situation in which he found himself, unable to follow this recommendation since he couldn’t flee, it was perhaps for this reason that curiosity had been able to take over from fear. So, he was listening to this chattering with a sort of fascination. Despite terrible pain burning in his flesh and anxiety that clenched his gut, he lent an ear and observed the creature with the greatest attention. In doing so, he conceived little by little the idea that it was speaking to him, that it was intentionally addressing him in order to communicate. As this idea went from being an assumption to that of quasi-conviction, his curiosity grew. How was it possible? Why did this lightning-slayer give him such importance? It didn't carry the thing that bangs and kills. Perhaps it would kill him later but, instead, for the moment anyway, it gave him water. He realized that he was very thirsty. The lightning-slayer continued to whistle softly. It didn’t seem aggressive. By its attitude, it even seemed to be doing everything to reassure him, to invite him to come near to drink. Was this a trap? Why would this be so since it had the means to strike him down with a single gesture using something that bangs and kills? All lightning-slayers had one, normally... According to what he had been told at least. In any case, this creature knew the one that had injured him by using such an object to bang him. So he had to be wary. He looked at the water and then the strange hand that remained near the container and hesitated. Why didn’t the lightning-slayer withdraw completely its fingers from there? Advancing very cautiously, without leaving his eyes off the hand, he grimaced in pain. The slightest of movements woke up pain in his injuries. The hand didn’t move. Its owner hadn’t stopped to produce the high-pitched wheezing, characteristic of this species of creatures, but its demeanor remained calm. It made no sudden movement. It seemed as if it was seeking to reassure him, at least that’s what he felt. He crawled a little more towards the water while meditating on the fact that it didn’t need to trap him to cause him harm since he was already at its mercy. It was by reassuring himself this way that he came so close to the container that it was now sufficient to stretch an arm to grab it. At this point, he looked at lightning-slayer in the eye and slowly advanced his fingers, ready to quickly retrieve them on the slightest suspicious movement.