Kathoc Bose 2: Beasts
“Fahlo, I have a question. Why are there no women here.” 📖 SCI-FI
To review Kathoc Bose 1 is HERE Kathoc Bose 3 is HERE
Kathoc Bose 2: Beasts
The white disk of the moon was rising on the eastern horizon, casting its first milky light upon the sea. The soft tongues of waves licked at the sand of the high tide line. Kathoc Bose and Fahlo were sitting at the night-fire with the men and the boys of the Gather, eating their fish and heavy salted bread. They pulled their long robes tighter against the chill.
“Fahlo, I have a question.” He spoke in English.
“Yes, Kathoc,” he smiled, “You have … always question.”
“Fahlo, why are there no women here?”
“Women? I don’t know what is women.” Kathoc Bose had appeared on Veylas less than three weeks ago. His ability to communicate in their language remained primitive, while Fahlo was learning English quickly and wanted to practice. Picking up a stick from the edge of the fire, Kathoc drew in the sand two basic figures that had the distinguishing parts of two genders. He pointed the stick, “Men. Women.”
“Ah, women,” Fahlo nodded. “Kaa-prees”.
“I have been here 19 days,” Kathoc said,” and I see no women, no kaa-prees. We are nine men and two boys. Where are the women?”
“Kaa-prees na Bahn kaa-preesa,” Fahlo answered. “Women at the … Place of the Women.”
“Women don’t live with men?”
“With men?” he laughed and repeated with emphasis, “Women live at Place of the Women — na bahn kaa-preesa.”
“Why don’t they live here?”
“Here? They cannot live with men. Men are beasts, Kathoc. Kaa-prees don’t live with beasts. We go to the women place. We take fruit and fish to them. We help them. We lie with them. And we come back to the men-place with our sons. We live the way of beasts. No, women cannot live with men.” Fahlo’s long, straw-like hair stuck straight out from his head, a silhouette of spikes in the light of the fire.
“On my world, men and women live together. And the small ones, too.”
“No. Not so!” Fahlo called to the other men and shared what he’d just learned about Kathoc’s people. They all looked startled and spoke among themselves. Then they laughed.
“When do you see them?” Kathoc asked, “the kaa-prees?”
“We see them two times in one cycle of the moon. We go again soon and you come with us.”
Kathoc Bose was curious about this arrangement, and wanted to know more. “In the women-place, you have wife?”
“Wife? What is wife?”
“Do you have ONE Kaa-prees, one woman for only you?”
Fahlo paused at this odd question, shook his head, and spoke a little more slowly. “Kathoc, the kaa-prees choose any man they want. Sometimes different man, sometimes the same man. They are not wife. They choose what they want.”
Kathoc leaned back and raised his face to the black star-washed sky, stars that carry messages to this planet from unfamiliar galaxies, millions of miles away. He inhaled deeply the scent of water-weed, the smell of creatures of the sea. He blew out a long breath. “Two times in one moon-cycle,” he said, “… it’s long time with no women. Are men not lonely?
“Lonely?”
“Sad … because they want the women here?”
“No, not lonely. The men of our Gather are close, Kathoc. Very close. And the women are with the women. No one is lonely.”
Shaarn stood and began to chant the night songs and others joined in. They all touched hands, as is the custom of the men of Veylas. Kathoc sat silent. He had many more questions, but they would have to wait until he had the words to form them.
I like the attempts at understanding each others language and the overall eeriness of the situation.
Very inventive and unusual. Please don't make us wait for two more turns of the moon to find out what happens next! Thanks Sharron.
Will there be a part 3???