Ankirah
The deafening noise of a spaceship that flew almost touching the ground made the young Brennalyan startle. Rather mechanically than instinctively, due to the imminent danger, he jumped off the bed with a warrior-like movement which didn’t fit him at all, grabbed the weapon at hand near the bed and rushed to the door of the shelter. His two sisters had been woken up too.
“ What happened Tassyan? Who was it?” a gently voice was heard coming from the back of the shelter.
“ Nothing happened, stay calm. It might have been one of the damned Accanian ships. But they didn’t see us, the ship passed away”, answered the young man in a low voice returning to bed.
He put aside his weapon, a generator of power fields being able to destroy everything around one mile and wrapped himself in a dusty tattered blanket. He hated that weapon. That sort of weapon had been used to kill his both parents two weeks before. While he and his sisters were in the old city looking for some food among the ruins left by the interplanetary war, a spaceship similar to the one that woken him, landed near their shelter. Two Accanians, each carrying a weapon like Tassyan’s in their hands, got off. One of them entered the shelter where his mother was, he aimed at her without saying a word and a moment later, the person Tassyan loved the most was only dust. His father who had been one mile away trying to mend an old propelling capsule when the Accanian ship landed, ran to the shelter terrified of what might happen. He saw the other Accanian outside checking his weapon. Taking advantage of his lack of attention, the Brennalyan took out his little laser gun and shot at him. The portly Accanian dropped dead making a horrifying roar. On entering the shelter, he heard a fizzing sound and a second later the Brennalyan’s body disintegrated into reddish grains of dust.
The Accanians were known as reward hunters and their planet, Accania, was light years away from little Brennalya. Those dreadful warriors killed at will in cold blood everything that moved. They were more than one hundred kilos weight. They had flat heads, dark hair and cunning, small strangely red eyes. Their hands having four, long, stumpy fingers were able to crush without difficulty any living thing on Brennalya. They rarely came on the lonely planet where Tassyan lived, because they could find nothing there.
Brennalya had been almost completely destroyed after the interplanetary war. Only about one hundred Brennalyans had survived because, when the explosion had erased every living creature on the planet, they had been at an official meeting in order to appease the interplanetary conflict on Meros, an interplanetary Center of Command situated at two light years from Brennalya.
Tassyan together with his two sisters, Kassyra and Metuah lived in a shelter which, when Brennalya was destroyed two years before, was in fact a blockhouse where war armament was stored. Only a room of one hundred square meters left of it after the destructive explosion. There were three improvised beds and a shining metal table used as a night table. A piece of an old mirror hanging on the left wall of the shelter was used by Kassyra and Metuah to dress up in the morning every two weeks when they would go to look for food in the old city situated at four hours’ walk. There they chanced to meet one or two lonely natives who themselves were looking for cans of food they hoped to find among the ruins left by the explosion.
Brennalyans were so friendly that only by smiling they could become friends for life not only with each other but also with other species. They were not tall, few men were 1,80 meters. They always smiled and their eyes were so serene that only creatures with cold blood like Accanians could kill such kind beings. The clear complexion of their soft skin gave them a special aura. They had no hair but it didn’t alter at all their pleasant presence.
One hour after the ship’s flying over their shelter, Tassyan could hardly get off his bed rubbing his eyes.
“ Metuah, Kassyra, get up! said he to his sisters. It’s late and we must go to the city today.”
Five minutes later they were both in front of the piece of mirror. Metuah was wiping the dust that was everywhere in the shelter, from her face while Kassyra stood still smiling and thinking elsewhere.
“ Hurry up! Come!” said Tassyan apostrophizing her.
The young women immediately came to her senses and began wiping the dust from her face too with a soft piece of the blanket she used to cover herself during night. That moment they heard a deafening thunder clap not far from them. The two sisters stepped back frightened. Tassyan grabbed his weapon and rushed to the door.
“ Stay here! Stand still!” He ordered them, though his tone betrayed kindness and love.
A thick trail of smoke was rolling to the sky in the distance.
“ Maybe one of those damned Accanian ships has crushed, said Tassyan to the girls who were paralysed with fear. I think that no one is still alive as it looks. Stay here! I will go there to see if I can find something useful among the pieces of the ship”, he raised his voice to be heard as he was distancing himself from the shelter.
Hardly had he walked two hundred meters when Tassyan fell as if he had been mown down by somebody. He leaned in his elbows and pointed his weapon to the direction of the smoke. Less than a hundred feet ahead, an unknown being as running for its life. The frightened being that hadn’t noticed Tassyan had the presence of mind to throw itself to then ground as soon as it saw him. The young man had already aimed and was ready to shoot. The being was getting closer and closer and Tassyan noticed that it had the sublime features of a woman. She was scared to death. Tassyan dropped his weapon and remained on the ground. He thought that he had nothing to be scared of, that the woman was not a danger either for himself or for his sisters. The young man raised a bit when the woman was a few steps away and she being so terrified fell on him. Tassyan caught her in his strong arms and they were now face to face. He was so amazed at what he saw. He was unable to keep his eyes off her. He was so dazzled by her beauty that his heart started beating so fast as if he was the one who had been running for his life five minutes before. Her golden hair touched her shoulders and the light spread by Kahr, the star that made life possible on Bennalya, seemed to caress it. Those dark frightened eyes betrayed an immense joy when they met Brennalyan’s kind look. She tried to wipe the dust from her face but she realized she couldn’t because she was immobilized to the ground. After a few moments of delight, Tassyan finally came to his senses, raised gently, gave her his hand and helped her up shaking himself off dust.
He could hardly believe his eyes. He had only heard of Lethyas from his parents, he had never seen one and now he had a Lethyas in front of him. He knew that those sublime and innocent beings were hunted by the Accanians for their ability to get into other beings’ minds and to know exactly what they think. Lethyas had stopped communicating through words long ago, the only means of communication was telepathy. It was absolutely normal and natural considering their abilities.
No sooner had Tassyan shaken himself off dust than they heard a strong fizzing sound a few steps away. He threw himself to the ground pulling the Lethyas down. Tassyan looked ahead. In the distance the thick smoke continued to split the sky in two. An Accanian was preparing to download another field of power at them. The young man grabbed the weapon, aimed and shot. That damned strong fizzing sound heard again. A second later the Accanian disintegrated into grains of dust.
Having forgotten she couldn’t understand his words, he said to that wonderful woman standing next to him:
“That bastard! He almost killed us!”
But she knew exactly what he thought.
They raised, full of dust. She ripped a piece of cloth from her clothes and wiped the young man’s face, smiling at him. He watched her as if he were charmed.
“What’s your name beautiful Lethyas?” he asked her in a low voice stammering.
She burst into laughter and that made her more beautiful and more innocent. Tassyan was bewildered. He didn’t know for a few seconds why she was laughing. Then he remembered that the beautiful Lethyas couldn’t understand his words. That made him laugh too. They were standing looking at each other forgetting that the Accanian could have them killed a few moments before. Tassyan realized that words were useless because that wonderful being standing in front of him understood him without the help of words. He remembered that she knew every thought of his.
Long afterwards did they stop laughing. They were face to face watching each other while he was holding her hand and it seemed that nobody and nothing could ever break them up. They heard a strange noise above. They looked up. A ship was flying slowly towards them. Tassyan quickly grabbed his weapon out she stopped him taking it and throwing it away, He didn’t realize what was happening but the expression on her face assured him that there was no danger. She looked him straight in the eye holding more tightly his hand. The ship stopped about twenty meters above them. A door opened and the two were shrouded in a blue light. The young Brennalyan understood immediately that the ship had come after her. He had to let her go but his hands were holding hers more tightly. A tear trickled gently on her cheek. She slipped her hand off his took out a medallion and put it in the young Brennalyan’s hand. She gave him a kiss on his cheek and the blue light disappeared. The ship took off and vanished as if by magic.
Half an hour later, the young Brennalyan was still there looking up, thinking of that wonderful being.
“ Tassyan, Tassyan!” he heard in the distance Kassyra’s kind voice.
The young man woken from his dream. He could hardly believe what had happened. It might have been only a dream. That couldn’t have been real. What had a Lethyas had to do with Brennalya? He had surely dreamt. Of course it must have been a dream…He looked ahead and saw Kassyra coming. That moment something slipped off his left hand. He bent and found a golden medallion. He wiped it carefully of dust and read loud, his voice betraying strong emotions: Ankirah…
