| Survival: Chapter Two |
| "Bring him in." said a rather well dressed dog man. He was king of all lands. His pelt was like a Collie, but still he was part man, part canine, and his name was Siro, which in the planet's language meant "new day". Two guards roughly brought in a tall, impressive, hooded figure. The hooded cape was the clothing of the slaves, the cat people race called the Jellicles. They wore the bachi to hide their feline appearance. The dog race was knowen as the Pollicles. Siro walked to his dias and sat down in his throne, the cape he had draped around his shoulders flowing with the movement. He eyed the cat man in front of him. the tom kept his head lowered respectfully, his hood concelling his face. "Remove the bachi." A guard came behind and roughly yanked the hood back. Still the cat man kept his eyes lowered. Siro stepped off his dias and stood in front of the Jellicle. The Jellicle was taller, medium built and because of the heavy labor he did on a regular basis, muscular. His stregth was hidden under a flaired shirt, of the 16th century style. All the clothes of te people on the planet were fashioned after that era. Only instead of the puffy pants, the men wore tight ballet like leggings and high buckle boots. the women dresses in the same era's gowns onl shorter, coming to the ankle rather than the floor and absent the corset. However the slaves women often dressed the same as the men. The diffrence only being the lighter and more femimine style of the bachi they wore. Often white, pink, or sky blue, trimmed with jewels. The men's bachi were plain, usually black, brown or midnight blue. Siro now faced the fuury head of the Jellicle. he stooped lower to see his face. Many of the Pollicles found the Jellicles looks repulsive, but Siro found them exotically fascinating and at times lovely, especailly their women. the guard closest to the cat man pulled hiswhip from his belt and stuck it under the Jellicle's chin pulling his head up. The face that looked back at him was yellow, striped with patches of black and grey his neck and what could be seen of his chest was white. the luminous eyes were a bright shimmering blue. The catman, if he had been an earth cat would have been called a Clouded Leopard, only with blue eyes. siro stepped back. The shoulders were not bent in a slump as one would believe a submissive slave's would be, nor was his stature. Instead it was noble, royal like, just as was the stare coming form the Jellicle's face. That always amazed Siro the most about their race. Even the most submissive slave walked and stood nobler than than even the most graceful of the Pollicles. the noble nature always took him by noticible surprize. "What's your name?" Siro asked recovering from his usual reaction. "Coras, son of Janer Sembele sir.", the cat man replied ina soft, gentle, almost whispery deep voice. A voice that could calm others. "Well, Coras son of Janer, do you know why you were summoned here?" Siro asked returning to his throne. "No master." Coras replied lowering his head once more. Siro looked around at the guards and saw them snicker at what they believed was an action from the Jellicle as a result of fear. Siro knew better, even if the Jellicle himself didn't. He knew this cat man, as any of the Jellicle not weakened by the whip could tear them apart in minutes if he wanted to. "Guards, leave us alone." he said returning his gaze to the Jellicle. The guards gave him a surprized look but did as he bid. They knew the king was far more skilled with the swords and hand to hand combat than they could ever be. They reasoned he would be okay. "Now their gone, so please act as though I am not the king and look at me. I can not speak to some one without seeing his face." Siro replied. the Jellicle complied reluctantly. "Go to the window, look out at the horizon." Siro said pointing a clawd finger at the window to his right. He walked slowly over to it, the stones surrounding him glowing green with the reflection of his anxious and curous mood. Siro watched as the long tail of the catman thrashed back and forth complimenting the stoned moody tones. "What do you see that is missing?" Siro asked after a couple minutes. The Jellicle turned back around, the stones glowing brown with sudden saddness. "The mountain Cio is gone." "Yes", Siro then got up from his throne and crossed the room and stood in front of the Jellicle, "do you know why?" "Yes." ,he answered in almost a whipser. "Tell me." Siro persuaded. The Jellicle looked back out the window and stared at the spot where the mountain Cio had once stood. "because of the sacraeh. ouyr people are dying and are part of the planet. As we die so does our side of the planet, just as if your race..." the Jellicle turned around looked briefly at Siro and bowed his head after he had trailed off. "Very good. Do you the history of your people?" Siro asked turning around and going over to a table where an old book knowen as the Juranae laid. It was open and marked. "From what I remember from individual studies of the Juranae, about 400 years ago one of our tribal leaders broke an extremely important trading agreement with your people. We were a race of people who knew only the land; we lived off the plants and animals. We knew nothing of warfare and conquering. So when it was brought to your king's attention and your people demanded blood for the outrage this was mentioned. Out of fear for killing the planet's other side, the Day of Tears happened. we were taken as slaves and our kin... tribal leader and his line were the only ones that were to be killed,: Coras replied in a tone he reconized Deuteronomy often used when teaching the Jellicles their history. "Yes, and you may refer to your tribal leaders as kings, that's what they were. But I mean further back than that, about 100 years." "Youmean the story of Brai and Ara Belle?" "Yes, because it is important as to your purpose here." Siro said gloomily, the stones around him reflecting his mood. "Our people's line needed to be reinstigated. There was a portal to the planet of the humans, Earth, I believe it is called. Through the portal the human Ara Belle as brought to our planet. she was supposedly very beautiful and gebtle. there were signs as to her not belonging on her home planet, things once she came here she realized told her that here was truely where she was meant to be. The portal reshaped her DNA as to start to tie her to the planet. But her human form and all else about about her wasn't effected . through the continual contact with other jellicles and the saturation of the planet she recieved from the very wind and earth beneath her feet she became more Jellicle. She did not however become a full Jellicel until Brai and she exchanged a jua. Her DNA was totally reshaped enough that herhuman apperance no longer existed and like us she became fully liked to the planet. But the human genes to insure our survival were left untouched. After their marriage they had children, who had children and so on and so forth and therefore our species survival was assured." Coras explained all this, then when finished took a deep breath and caught himself from the smile he felt crossing his lips, happy that he remembered that much of the history. "Do you know the humans version of the story?" Siro asked, curious as to how much this young tom knew. "I believe their version involved the Jellicle turning into a human. But the real history was brought to them by Ara Belle's family and the efforts of a missionary of Janu I, who was certain history would repeat itself and tried to persuade more humans to make their life on our planet." Coras said uncertain. "The story is called 'Beauty and the Beast". Now, here's the reason i sent for you. what happened in Brai's time is happening again. Do you know who your ancestors are?" Siro asked. "No," Coras said embarrassed. Up til now he'd been doing so well. "You are a descendant of the line of the Sita." Siro said, waiting for the Jellicle's reaction. His eyes widened slowly and themouth dropped open and then quickly shut. Sior smiled slightly then erased it. "Yes, you are of royal Jellicle blood. The royal line of Janu I and the line of Brai." |