He was trembling again. He wrapped his arms around his chest, trying to hold himself together and fight off the Memories that were clustering on the fringes of his consciousness.
Lights appeared over to one side. They were moving, more or less in a straight line. They seemed to be moving across the snow. As he watched, they passed underneath the stalk lights. They were followed by a dark green box. A box-on-wheels. An Azuran car! The scene cleared in his mind. There must be a road hidden by a long bank of snow. That was why there was the row of lights. Of course! Azurii used roads to get their clumsy vehicles to houses.
Then it struck him. Slowly, not wanting to, but having to, he looked down at his arms, his body, his legs. Of course he was not in a HoloWrapper, he was in his own body. The only time you could be in a real person’s body was when you were there to watch and learn. You had no control, just like when he was in the snowman. And even then, it could not be his body, even if he was ever to be a HW Character that would not happen. The globe was correct. He was on Earth!
He shivered. Again he has stopped concentrating on his fire. I must get warm! What to do? Well, at least I look like an Azuran. Mostly. They have all sorts of colours. And even if my face is different, well, we all have the same bits! And I have seen them wearing clothes like mine. Shouldn’t frighten them. I hope the compiler works!
He dug deep and found the courage to continue downhill.
CHAPTER 17
A CONFUSINGWELCOME
FINLAND
Up in his bedroom, sixteen-year-old Hannu was just about to close the curtains. He stopped to take one last look at the slope on which he would ski the next day. He thought he saw a figure. Surely not at this time of the night? He blinked and looked again. Indeed, someone was coming down the snowy slope. Dressed all in black with long black hair and a handbag over her shoulder. What was a girl doing out on the slopes at this time of night! No-one he knew had hair like that. He shrugged his shoulders and settled down to do his homework.
At the bottom of the slope Qwelby arrived at a steep and very slippery bank. Making his way to the top he saw a long strip of black stretching to the left and right. I was right. This is what the Azurii use for their stuck-to-the ground transport. Looking across to the other side he saw three people. Real Azurii! Nerves made him tremble. The desperate need for warmth before his energy ran out gave him the courage to cross the black strip and through a gap in the icy bank on the other side.
The three men they were speaking as he approached.
‘Busana?’ he said
Louder voices, sounding nasty, he was not able to detect their energy fields. Did they not have them? Were they so weak they did not reach out past the thick clothes they were wearing?
‘Ghilusa ezwaqondawen eyaghi. Ghikuluma limiwena eya,’ he said.
That brought loud guffaws and one of the men pushed him in the chest. Suddenly he was being pushed from one to another, thrown harder and harder. All the time they were calling out words, yet his compiler provided no Tazian.
Taken aback, confused, flailing his arms to keep his balance, he struck one of them. He was hit on the side of his head. He staggered, clutched at a man to stop himself from falling, and was violently pushed away, spinning. The motion called forth a memory of the movements he and Wrenden had practised whilst watching Tamina. He swung an arm around and struck one of the men on the head, heard an exclamation, but still no translation.
A fist came towards his head. As he watched and ducked he realised that everything they were doing was slower than at home. He swivelled and struck out with his foot. As he caught a man behind his knee, saw him fall to the ground, pivoted away and swayed backwards to avoid another fist, realisation struck him. Tamina’s dance routine was more than just dance!
Another memory came to him. A few days after she had danced for his recent rebirthday, when he had called her ‘Lightning’, he had asked her in all seriousness to tell him about her training. She had explained that what she enjoyed most was a demanding form called Active Body Dance, where two or sometimes more people performed fast, complicated movements together. She had tried to get him and Wrenden to try a couple of dance steps as she called them. They had felt silly. It came as a shock to realise it was a lot more than girly dancing.
His leg was struck from behind. He stumbled and was kicked again. His leg gave way and he fell to the ground. As he rolled onto his back he saw a patch of light high up on the wall of a house some distance away. A window. A head poked through and a voice called out. A boot came swinging towards him. He grabbed it, heaved and rolled away. As the man fell to the ground he continued rolling, fear and cold engulfing him. It is true. The Azurii are as violent as we have been told.
Trying to rise, he was felled as he was kicked, then again. Light glinted off something in the hand of the biggest man as he again tried to rise. A knife! Bright light flooded the scene as a door was opened and another voice called out. With a shock, Qwelby recognised the face of the man holding the knife. It was the man he thought of as Big Boy, who had smashed in the face of the snowman that day. The knife disappeared.
His attention taken by the fact that another person was standing silhouetted in what had to be a doorway, Qwelby did not see coming the kick that landed in his stomach. He doubled over in pain as another from behind sent him sprawling headlong onto the hard surface.
Curling into a ball he was relieved to see feet walking away as his attackers sauntered off, calling out over their shoulders, waving their arms and making strange gestures with their hands.
*
Hannu’s concentration had been interrupted by noises outside, sounding like a fight going on. He pulled back the curtains. There was a fight. He recognised Erki, the school bully. The other two had to be his idiot companions. As he opened the window he realised with a start that the figure on the ground had black arms and legs. That explains the attack!
Whoever it was, she was wearing only shorts and a tank top. He opened the window and called out. ‘Leave her alone!’ He saw a shaft of light from a door opening in the house right by the affray and a deep man’s voice calling out.
As Erki and his mates jeered, swore and moved away, still shouting abuse and making rude gestures, Hannu did a double take. The figure on the slope had not been wearing all black, it must have been that black girl. What on earth was she doing walking down the slope, and dressed like that. No-one in their right mind would go out of the house dressed like that in this cold.
The figure on the ground uncurled. The movement jolted Hannu out of his wonderings and he switched back to what was happening. Leaping down the stairs, he ran through the kitchen and out of the back door, calling to his mother. ‘There’s a girl outside, wearing summer clothes, being beaten up!’
He ran down to the footpath and a short way along it, coming up to the tall girl who was on her hands and knees. ‘Hello.’
Qwelby jumped with surprise as he heard the voice, rolled over to get away and scrambled to his feet, ready to defend himself from another attack. This time he saw a boy about the same size as himself in dark trousers and a brightly patterned sweater, looking like many Azurii he had seen in flikkers.
They stood looking at one another. Qwelby, wary, half crouching with his arms extended, waiting and watching. Hannu taking in that the black person was a boy with black, shoulder length hair with green highlights.
The Azuran spoke.
Still nothing from Qwelby’s compiler. Again, he tried the usual greeting. ‘Busana?’
The Azuran cocked his head on one side and spoke again.
Qwelby heard a tonal quality that sounded questioning, and not at all threatening. What to do, what to say? He tried to explain.
‘Ghilusa ezwaqondawen eyaghi. Ghikuluma limiwena eya.’
The Azuran spoke again, then tapped his hand on his chest and Qwelby heard: ‘Haa – nnu.’
Qwelby guessed that was a name and tapped his own chest saying slowly: ‘Qwel – bee.’ Then he shivered.
His energies were totally gone, he was freezing.
The Azuran smiled and again tapped his chest saying: ‘Hannu.’ Then stuck out his right hand.
Qwelby took a half pace back in surprise and stared at it for a moment. Then he laughed as he remembered Azuran flikkers he had seen, put his hand out and then they shook hands. Then Qwelby shivered hard. Hannu gripped Qwelby’s arm, tugged and gestured behind him to an open door, talking rapidly.
Qwelby understand the gesture and let the boy pull him towards the door. A person was coming towards them wrapped in a thick coat, carrying something large and soft looking. As a coat was held out to him, he guessed the new arrival was a woman. He was shaking so much he almost dropped the coat. The woman stepped up to him and draped it around his shoulders, pulling it together in front as the two Azurii hurried him towards another door that was standing open, casting welcome light onto a path cleared of snow.
They entered a room with a lot of objects around the walls that Qwelby could only guess at, then through into what he recognised from the flikkers as an Azuran kitchen. Qwelby felt himself taken by his shoulders and led to stand by a large, iron object. From the heat coming from it had to be a cooking device.
Hannu said something to the woman who looked closely at Qwelby and went out through another door. She returned a few moments later carrying some clothes and beckoned him to follow as she went into the small room where he had entered the house. She handed him a large, warm towel, and put the clothes on a piece of machinery Qwelby did not recognise.
He understood her gestures. ‘Ghikabonawena.’ He smiled and started to take off his top. Made of a silky material, skin-tight and wet, he had no strength left in his arms and was stuck.
She spoke and gestured.
Qwelby understood the gesture, felt silly and nodded.
Seija was below average height and with a comfortable, motherly build. As she reached and started to tug up, Qwelby realised her difficulty and bent over, allowing her to pull the tank top over his head. Standing up, he saw the surprise in her eyes as she looked at his chest. Then she turned him round and he felt gentle hands on his back. He sensed her energies: concern, caring, motherly. Ripped from his own world, arriving on Azura without his twin and attacked by the first people he’d met! Coming from a world where violence just did not happen, the woman’s caring touch was exactly what he needed. He opened the floodgates of his feelings, seeking security and to be looked after, letting his fear and tension drain out as he felt her caring spreading though him. When he felt her hands leave his body he turned to her with tears in his eyes.
‘Ghikabonawena’ he repeated, as she gave him an odd look and returned to the kitchen, closing the door behind her.
‘He’s a… Red Indian,’ she said to her son with a perplexed look on her face. Not realising that the red patches were radiation burns, Seija assumed everything was the result of his having been beaten. ‘He’s badly bruised all over. Lots of bright red patches on his skin. Those devils gave him a bad beating. Just as well you heard.’
‘Better than that, they were right outside the Ylönen’s house. He opened his door. That’s when they went.’
‘A good job too,’ she said as she busied herself at the stove.
She was just setting hot drinks on the big pine table when Qwelby entered, wearing her son’s sweater and tracksuit bottoms. She gestured and Qwelby sat on a chair alongside Hannu.
‘Just as well you take after your father,’ Seija said to her tall son. ‘Your clothes fit him nicely.’
Qwelby’s senses were all awry. The trees and snow, so similar to parts of Vertazia that he might have been at home. But the house. In its layout the kitchen was similar to how a Tazian house might be, yet much smaller and everything in it felt odd. The wooden table: old, worn, cared for, yet the solid pieces were from different trees and only half alive.
The drink was an unusual taste, yet it was delicious and he could feel the heat flowing through his body. Sipping it as he watched the blonde haired boy talking to the equally blonde woman he guessed to be his mother, he noted their energy flows. Although very weak compared to Tazian auras, the colours revealing their surprise, excitement, puzzlement and doubt were a welcome confirmation that he was amongst human beings. As his shock lessened and a corner of his mind told him to relax, he found himself easing into the reassurance of understanding without words that there was a good relationship between the two Azurii, and there was no sense of danger.
Unaware of the power of his thoughts on a world whose inhabitants lacked the mental collectiveness of the almost hive like existence of the Tazii, Qwelby unconsciously flooded the two Azurii with his need for help and protection and a feeling of family. Energies that took root in both.
Mother and son stopped talking. Hannu turned to Qwelby, speaking and gesturing.
Qwelby was fairly certain he was being asked where he had come from. He tried to explain. Hannu was shaking his head, clearly not understanding. He gestured and led Qwelby to the back door, opened it and they stood inside in the warmth. With gestures, raised eyebrows, some nods, and Qwelby starting to learn some Finnish words, he thought that Hannu eventually accepted that he had arrived at the top of the hill. The two went back into the kitchen. As Qwelby sat down it was clear from Hannu’s gestures that he was explaining to the woman what he had learnt.
As Qwelby relaxed, he became more aware of the pain from his beating. He wanted to lie down, but was desperate to communicate. Having finally remembered how the compiler worked, he started asking the names of all the things around him.
For a while it worked. Then he picked up the mug and showed that he wanted a word to explain drinking. The answers sent sharp pricks into his head.
He held his head to ease the discomfort. In the silence it struck him that Hannu and his mother were not frightened of him. In fact the boy was actually very excited, and he felt kindness coming from both of them.
Wanting to make faster progress than slowly learning lots of words that would not help him explain who he was and where he came from, he looked all around the room for anything that could help. There was a pretty picture on the wall with a sheet of numbers. That was an exciting find. It reminded him of one of those weird similarities between their worlds, that Azurii used almost the same shapes for numbers as did Tazii. He guessed he was looking at a calendar.
Then his brain made more connections. Pictures. Drawings. Excitedly, he made signs showing that he wanted something to draw on, and grinned at Hannu’s equal excitement as he leapt up from the table, speaking rapidly and gesturing for Qwelby to follow him upstairs.
CHAPTER 18
IT’S HOT
KALAHARI
Tullia was seated astride the Stroem, bent forward and murmuring encouragingly to it as she inched ahead of Kaigii and the others in the final DareDragon Race of an KeyPoint FunDay. She was about to shoot through the ColourDash that marked the end of the race and have her flying suit over-painted in the winner’s musical colours when the Stroem disappeared, sending her tumbling head over heels in the pitch dark.
She jerked to a painful stop as something large hit her in the back.
A voice said ‘Ooowwww!’
My voice? Where has it come from?
Silence.
Fifty trillion cells in my body and each one hurts!
She opened her eyes and quickly closed them as bright sunlight blinded her. Slowly she opened them again, peering out below her hand. She found the source of the pain, a large white stone. Cross with it, she turned around and pushed it out of the way. Something small and black waved at her. Politely she waved back, then stopped, her hand suspended in mid-air.
I recognise that. It’s a scorpion. A deadly, black scorpion. She used her hands to lever herself backwards. The scorpion followed, its sting arched high over its body, two large, vicious-looking claws stretching towards her bare foot.
It stopped moving and swung to the side as the ground trembled. A black and white leg appeare
d before her, rapidly followed by more. They were attached to black and white bodies. Oh, what beautiful ponies! A small herd trotted past.
She looked around as the dust settled. No sign of the scorpion.
She did not remember settling into a HoloChair. In fact she could not recall anything since being with Kaigii when their father picked them up on the family PowerSled. As she looked around, the scene shimmered. Heat Haze. There was sand on the side of face from where she had been lying down.
She went to unszeam a pocket. Her fingers fumbled. It was right there but she couldn’t open it. But she had two sets of fingers. Very strong heat haze? Carefully she aligned two sets of fingers with two szeames and undid them, or it. A cramp hit her stomach. She gasped and bent over. The cramp got larger and larger until it engulfed her whole body. She keeled over onto the sand.
*
As she regained consciousness she heard a strange ‘pat, pat’ sound. It was getting louder. A pair of long, thin legs came into view, topped by a large, oval-shaped body. A long, thin neck stretched up to a head seemingly high up in the sky. That’s a head. A beak. The body is made of feathers. Feathers? It’s a bird! Virtual reality. I’m in a KiddyKartoon!
So who or what is Kaigii?
Unsteadily, she sat up and looked around. The ground was just dusty red sand. In all directions there was an endless vista of scrubby bushes with lots of small, spindly trees dotted about, unlike any that she knew.
Except.
It was all very similar to what they had seen from inside the staircase.
And the sun.
Shielding her eyes she looked up. It was lower in the sky. She had been asleep, but her inner clock was all awry and all she could do was guess that had probably been for a whole ouer. She was hot. Her winter body suit was a basic AutoReg that would adjust to a normal range of temperatures. She was a sensible girl and saw no point in wasting hard earned energy credits on the SuperLux model when she was sure to have outgrown it by the following winter.
Ripped Apart: Quantum Twins – Adventures On Two Worlds Page 13
