No Friend But One

rebeckyelsie:

“How. Dare. He.”  My human took a shuddering breath. 

“You’re 12!” She said loudly. It reminded me of a video I had been shown earlier, of a quiet mountain suddenly…what was the word…exploding. 

My human was still talking. “Never mind that 12 doesn’t mean the same thing to you…full-grown, born mature, etc. Still, I’m pack-bonded to you for goodness sake! They can’t just take you away from me.”

She did not seem to understand that a captain’s word was final. I would be sad to leave my human as well, true, but signing onto a ship meant following the orders given – including removal from one’s human. 

“You’re mine.” She was still talking. 

This conversation was beginning to affect me. I had also pack-bonded with the human, though to a lesser degree. No one had the capacity for pack-bonding like the humans. That is why they matched one of us zanataz to a human on ships – so that other creatures would not have to pretend to be bonded to the humans. Thus far, zanataz were the only ones that had even a portion of the ability to keep up with earth’s pack-bonding creatures. It had been found that other creatures, “pets” from earth, were also capable. However, being that they could not speak nor had any usefulness on a ship, we were a better alternative companion for humans. Pack-bonding was useful-

My human’s sobs broke across my thoughts. She was sitting on her resting-place now, covering her face, with liquid flowing down through her fingers.

“First, no other friends. Then we lose contact with earth. And now they take you away. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t.” 

I moved closer to her and patted her shoulder, as I had been taught. Pat. Pat. A sniffle from the human. Pat. Pat. Her hand covered my glove. (our claws had proven non-beneficial for human contact). Her head came up and her eyes met mine, full of liquid. “I can’t,” she whispered. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An hour later, I had managed to get my human to the common energy consumption area. She poked her food slower than normal then aggressively poked her food. Ah-the word was stabbed. I had learned that word from watching a movie with her one night. 

“I’m gonna talk to the captain.” She stood up and started walking to the door before I could recover and hurry after her. The downside of us being human companions was that our reflexes were much slower than humans. 

As I hurried along the corridor, I was reminded that I was also slower than humans in general. By the time I got to the bridge, my energy was low and the door had just shut behind my human. I decided to wait it out in the hallway. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My human had done the impossible – again. She had somehow convinced the captain, using logic – a tool in the human arsenal that is not always used – that keeping me on board was the wisest course, “at least for a month or two.” My human had danced all the way back to her quarters, and I found myself thankful that I had been so successfully bonded with her. She truly was a wonder, and I agreed with many of my own species when they said “we are forever in our humans’ debt, in a multitude of ways.”