It was another day in the Home of the Stork. At this particular time, it was guardian shift: keeping an eye on the kids, reading them tales, playing with them, demonstrating to them that someone could show some genuine affection, stopping their scuffles, and protecting them from any unexpected danger. From the energetic to the shy ones, I had a time, a word, and a smile for everyone.
I was playing as goalie in a soccer match; nothing weird. One eye on the ball; other on the silent kids trying not to be noticed, and the rest of my body ever so slightly healed from my first violent creation. Just another busy afternoon of games and fun.
Until I heard that peculiar roar.
“Ok, kids, go back inside” I calmly called with my whistle, gathered and then and, in an orderly manner, sent them all inside the building. Once everyone was inside, I locked the door to the building and phoned Ellie. “Headmistress Ellise?” if it was a serious professional issue, I always addressed her by her title. “Yeah, it’s Renate” I saw the creature peeking its huge head in front of the entrance grate from behind the outside wall. “There’s a problem outside. Could you please send someone to deal with the kids?” no doubt about that animal. “I just don’t want them running around outside right now” a guepo. “Simply said, it’s dangerous to be outside at this moment” a goddamn guepo! A Thaebian beast, now, in front of me, on Earth!. “You probably can see it from your office window. Let’s hope that fiend is domesticated. We’ll talk later, ok?”
I hung up before she told me to and then, walked to that exotic beast. Dark green grass like hair; four small, black, pebble-sized eyes; conical head; double-jawed cross-shaped mouth; thin and agile body, a long and flexible tail, and short but really fast legs for sudden ambushes in green swamps or green fields. If not for the hair, it would recall the image of a strange alligator. But, no doubt about it, it was the same kind of creature I avoided every day, long ago on my origin planet.
“What are you doing here, little one?” still, I didn’t feel any kind of hostility from this devious hunter. I put my arm through the grate and I invited the creature to come to me. As I anticipated, he walked to me and sniffed my hand out of curiosity. Luckily for me, it was domesticated. If not, I would have lost my hand right there. When well fed, guepos weren’t a problem for anyone. But, if so, there was only a question to be solved: who did feed it?. “When will you show up? Come here and fetch your damn pet!”
“Not so cowardly anymore, I see” close to the wall, a man showed himself. Tall, muscular, shaved head, a little moustache, formal clothing, shades over his eyes… he seemed menacing, even if his attitude gave another impression. “I’ve heard things about you in the city. Never thought you would turn out to be so fierce.
At first, I didn’t know what that man was referring to but, soon after, my leg tattoo started to itch.
“Do I know you?” many different visions and shapes reached my mind, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of them. Only thing I was sure of, that man was a Thaebian like me.
“Oh, come on! Don’t you remember me?” and now, he spoke my native language in a tone I would have never hoped to hear again. A bit frustrated, he pointed to his face. “I’ve just cut my hair and let my beard grow!” then, he put away his shades and I could see his eyes. His pure black eyes, just like mine.
“…Uruk?”
“In the flesh!” then, he proceeded to hug the long neck of his unorthodox pet. “Pren, come on, greet my baby sister!”
I already knew that some Thaebians barged around the different systems. I, sometimes, found some black eyed ones like me when I had to run some orphanage errand near the space elevator, but I would never have imagined that I would run into my own brother while on Earth!
“You’ve grown a lot!” half happy, half worried, I pointed out the obvious in my, somehow, rusty native language. The Snow around him told me he wasn’t in the orphanage for old time’s sake.
“And you’ve changed even more” he praised me. “Some friends of mine told me about some” weird tribal woman with a long tongue drawn on her neck” knocking someone down in the underground cage fights”.
“Just helping a friend with her rent” that was my favorite excuse: the objective truth.
“Earth, better watch out: Thaeb is stronger!”
I dropped my hand after patting the guepo and stood up. I knew he said it for the laughs, but I still heard my arrogant father’s voice in that quote.
“I see now that you’ve traveled a bit farther from the tribe” he probably noticed the change in my tone, but I kept smiling.
“Well, tracking some game for the tribe helped me find some weird people settled in the other side of Rip Range. I made some friends, they taught me some things, we bargained a bit, I sold them pelts and herbs in exchange for medicines and, when I noticed, I started working for them. Usual stuff”.
“I see” in my underground fight, I beat a drug dealer, somehow related with my brother who traveled from Thaeb to Earth… I connected the dots right there. And that truth disgusted me. “I started as a box pusher myself around here too. Humble hard work, I must say”.
“Well, the boxes I push earn a little more than yours” he was genuinely proud of his achievements. Luckily for him and thankfully for me, he hadn’t consumed any of that drug himself. “Sometimes, I get pelts or jewels; other times, I get little critters like Pren here” he teased the guepo a bit, who then grunted, annoyed” and, sometimes, I have to fight to keep the merchandise safe”.
He spoke the truth and that was all what I wished from him.
“You have a nice boss, then” still, I had my doubts about his allegiances. He didn’t come to a third-rate orphanage because of some rumors. He already knew that I, Renate, his sister, was there.
“Good thing you mention him” Uruk wasn’t the smartest guy around if he jumped for every bait I threw to him. “He was impressed with your fight in the cage so…”
“…so?” he interrupted his suggestion. I didn’t even need to heed the Snow to notice he was tasked to bring me with him.
“Oh, nothing, nothing. Nothing, really” this reaction of his made me smile spontaneously. “Let’s say that you will have a nice job if you want in the space port. Would you be interested?”
“I’m flattered, really, but I must pass” I didn’t say no only because I wasn’t interested, but because he wished I didn’t take the chance. Uruk wasn’t very bright, but he wasn’t a complete idiot. He had his own suspicions. “I started to study medicine and working here gives me the means to do it quietly. Pushing boxes and hitting some nasty hooks can be very distracting. Also, I wouldn’t change the forest for the space port, up the elevator, no matter how much they’d pay” I leaned on the grate, smiling. “I still wear the paintings and I show my tattoos proudly” I pointed to my leg tattoo. “Even I honor my title,” Coward”, without shame. I’m still a” tribal”, as they call me here. I cannot live without the forest”.
“And there’re people like me, who preferred the change of pace” subconsciously, he started to scratch his leg tattoo under his trouser with his foot.
“You still honor your title, Uruk, the Tracker “I laughed softly, as I remembered the day he received his surname. “You’ll keep traveling, finding places no one has ever looked before. You don’t need to paint your entire body as our father did to demonstrate anything. As long as you keep pushing in the world, you’ll find answers to any problem for our tribe”.
“…for someone who abandoned the tribe out of spite, you sure know how to talk like one of our elders” he was very surprised.
“Oh, there’s more where this came from” I laughed again. “Can I hope to see you again soon? I have to return to work and Pren isn’t…”
“…I understand” he pet the creature softly and started to walk away slowly. “He’s inoffensive, though”.
“Can’t risk it” I was dead serious about this. Too many runs for my life made me very wary of those jaws. “Will I see you in the next Black circle, maybe?”
“I hope so! I have to go back to my own job now. I’ll see you soon!”
And he went away. Or he fled, I didn’t stop to check.
Soon after, I felt secure enough to open the building again; I was bombarded with childish questions about” the monster” my brother brought; I was questioned by Ellie, very worried at first and really happy after knowing about my biological brother and, finally, I returned to my job as if this was any other day.
That is, until a bird landed on my shoulder. Not any bird, in fact: a crane. And not any crane: a paper one. Not a single kid noticed that and I took advantage of it to unfold that origami crane.
“Happy to know you reunited with your brother. Also happy that you didn’t join his organization. Did you think they wanted revenge because of what you did in the cage? Give some credit to that dumb dealer: he’s a pretty good loser, if you ask me. No, they sent your brother after you because of me. The only loose end they know about me is you, the one who proclaimed I was your master and the only one who could keep talking with me more than two sentences one after another. I suspect what they want from me, but I won’t give it to them so easily.
Just keep working as usual. I’ll make sure they don’t bother you or your orphanage.
Anaissa L. L. A.”
“A bit late for that, I fear” I mumbled. And, in that very instant, the words on the paper changed.
“They just want another wild beast pet under their control. But this world has one guepo too many already. I’m more of a… what did you call them?
Anaissa L. L. A.”
“Ursco” I whispered with a smile in my lips. The words rearranged again.
“Yeah, ursco: Indomitable and fierce. Wherever those walk, all the forest gives them space to pass, feared all around Thaeb. Yep, I prefer that.
Again, keep working and studying. I’ll see you tonight.
Kisses,
Anaissa L. L. A.”
If my reunion with my brother ended in a tense note, Anaissa had already completely alleviated my anxiety. Only thing left for me to do today was blocking some goals and smiling for the kids.
Even if I didn’t have the heart for that now.
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