Chapter 29

  Leolik woke up very early.
– Mila, are you awake?
– No, Leolik.
– Maybe should we get up? I've got to go to the toilet. I think we’re gonna have guests soon. And there’s definitely no sign of any tower facilities around here.
    Leolik crawled out of the tent. He walked over to nearest bushes. He relieved himself. Then he ran down to the lake with a pot to fetch some water. On the way, he chopped off a couple of branches to make a fire. Milena got up as well and started rummaging through her bags. The sun had not risen yet, but it was already nearly dawn.
– Leolik, we've got some grains, I’ll cook some porridge.
– Mila, sure, go ahead, we’re out of fish, after all.
    Leolik began exploring the surroundings with curiosity. He noticed holes in the mountain. Caves. Near them, he noticed some figures. From a distance, it was hard to realise that they were myargs. They were moving just like humans. Leolik walked a short distance along the shore.
– I wonder if they've got any worms in the ground. How do they catch fish? – he was thinking.
    When he returned to the campfire, a surprise awaited him. Milena was not alone. Beside her there were two little myargs. Myarg children! They looked so lovely! Two children with the appearance of kittens. They were just over a metre tall. They had lovely soft fur, cat ears, and little tails. They did not have any clothes on. Very pretty little cat faces. One was red-haired, big, clearly a boy. And the second one, black-and-white, was definitely a girl, a head shorter than the first one. 
– Leolik, meet Barsik and Muria, – Milena said. – They've brought us some fish.
– Mila, they're so cute, really like kittens. We should treat the kittens to something. I wonder if they'll eat our porridge. Let me clean the fish.
    Milena served a large spoonful of porridge into each clay bowl and handed them to those little myargs. She gave them wooden spoons. Barsik was sniffing the porridge warily. Mila scooped some porridge from her bowl onto a spoon and showed them how to eat. Finally, Barsik made up his mind and tasted the porridge. His little sister was looking at him and waiting.
– Mirrr, – Barsik said, and Muria cautiously tasted the porridge as well.
    It was impossible to look at them without laughing. Leоlik smiled and ran down to the lake to clean the fish. The fish was huge. Almost as big as the one Murzik had caught. By the time Leolik returned, the porridge was eaten almost completely. Lured by the smell of the fish, Murz crawled out of the tent. His appearance caused a burst of excitement among the little myargs. Leolik cut off the fish tail and tossed it to Murzik. Murzik clamped down on the fish tail with a growl and a howl.
    The little myargs were looking at him with delight, smiling. It was definitely a smile. Leolik began cutting the fish into pieces to skewer them onto twigs and roast them. Barsik reached out his paw towards the fish. Leolik cut off two slices and handed them to Barsik. He solemnly hooked the piece with his claw and handed it to his little sister. She deftly hooked the piece with her claw and popped it into her mouth.
– Mila, what do you think... they're eating raw fish, actually. Isn’t that dangerous?
– Leolik, they’re basically cats. I guess it’s not dangerous. I wonder if they’d like fried fish.
    Leolik skewered pieces of fish onto twigs and began roasting them above the fire. Then he handed the twigs to Barsik and Muria. The little myargs gratefully accepted the twigs with fish. They ate the whole serving.
    All of a sudden, Barf appeared from the bushes. He was holding a crossbow in his paws. A bird was tied by its legs to his belt. Leolik didn’t even hear him coming up. Milena scooped a couple of spoonfuls of porridge into a bowl and held it out to Barf, inviting him to eat. He handed the bird to Milena. The bird was a bit bigger than a quail.
          – Thanks, Barf! Sit down please, have some porridge, – Milena said.
    Barf sat down by the fire and meowed something questioningly to Barsik and Muria. They replied to him as well. Leolik could only figure out one word — “mirr.” He noted to himself that it was probably the equivalent of “yes.” Barf began eating the porridge, slowly. His fangs were clearly interfering. The little myargs didn’t have very big fangs, so they managed to eat the porridge faster.
– Mila, it looks like he’s come for me. I need to go meet up with Mia. Save the feathers from the bird. I've got a great idea — I’m gonna make a toy for our little kittens.
    At the mention of "Mia", Barf perked up.
– Mia, myarga Mia! Yoik! Mia! — it seemed myargs couldn’t pronounce the letter “L”.
    Leolik held out a stick of grilled fish to Barf. Barf was sniffing it for a long time, but then started eating. He seemed to like the fish grilled over the fire.
– Fffish, – Barf said.
    Milena gave a smile.
– Barf, would you like some tea? – she asked him, pointing to the mugs.
    He nodded. Milena scooped the remains of the porridge into the bowl. She made Leolik run down to the shore, wash the pot, and bring some water. On the way, Leolik chopped a couple more dry branches and returned to the fire with a pot full of water. Milena left only half of the water in the pot. She hung the pot over the fire. She tossed some branches into the fire. The water boiled quickly. She brewed her magical herbs.
– Mila, do you think the little ones can have some of your tea?”
– Do you think this tea's gonna make them excited? Well, let Barf himself decide whether they can have it or not, – she said, scooping up half a mug and handing it to Barf. She gave him one more empty mug.
    Barf poured the tea from one mug to another several times, then left a little in the mug and handed it to Barsik. Barsik and Muria also started drinking tea.
– Well, I got it — they can’t have too much tea, – Milena said.
    Finally, tea time was over. Barf pointed at Murzik, then at Leolik, and said:
– Mia!
    Leolik put the cat into his backpack and slung it over his shoulders.
– Let’s go, Barf. Mila, it looks like you’re staying here. Cook the poultry, please.
    Leolik kissed Milena and set off through the bushes, following the myarg. They were walking for about fifteen or twenty minutes and finally reached a cave. Barf made signs for Leolik to stop, then entered the cave himself. He returned quickly, without his crossbow already. He waved invitingly to Leolik, gesturing for him to come in. Leolik followed him. They walked a short distance and found themselves in a spacious cave. There was plenty of light. There were openings in the cave ceiling. They found themselves facing a group of myargs. There were about six or seven of them. Barf bowed to one of them. It appeared to be a female myarg. She was slimmer and more graceful than the others and was also wearing a reed skirt. Her skin was black, streaked with gray. She was sitting on a tree stump, while the others (the male myargs) stood around her. Around her neck, just like Leolik’s neck, there was an elegant silver-coloured metal ring.
    Leolik took his cat out of his knapsack. Murzik immediately went to sniff the myargs, then jumped onto the lap of the female myarg. The cat’s actions drew admiring whispers among the myargs. She pointed to Leolik’s neck, at his collar. Leolik took off his collar and handed it to her. This big cat removed her own collar, then linked her collar with Leolik’s. They formed a circle. She waited for a while, then unlinked them, handed the collar to Leolik, and put her own back on. Leolik put on his collar.
– I’m Mia, greetings to you, native! – those words suddenly echoed in Leolik’s mind. But he could swear that this big cat had not even opened her mouth. Leolik was slightly taken aback, but he tried not to show his confusion.
– I’m Leolik. Nice to meet you, Mia! But I don’t seem to be from around here.
– Where have you got that crossbow?
    Leolik visualised the scree where he and Mila had found the skeleton and the crossbow.
    Mia was staring at him intently. Then she gave a sigh and relaxed. She muttered something to the other myargs. Leolik felt that the tension decreased suddenly. The myargs began talking to each other. And they were no longer gripping their spears so stressfully.
– Who is your companion? – he heard the next question echoing in his mind.
– This is Mila, my girlfriend. We have to hide. We are going to the town to see the alien. It seems to me, he must help us.
– An alien? What does he look like? – Mia was clearly getting nervous. She told something to her myargs. Ominous silence fell. They clenched their spears in their paws again.
    Leolik had to recount his entire story in his mind – how he had appeared on Geia. He spoke briefly about Queen Ksenia and King Arseniy. About the flying saucer and Chronos.
    Mia seemed to be translating his story to the myargs surrounding them. They became terribly agitated, growling and snorting. Mia raised her paw, and they all fell silent. Then Leolik heard an astonishing story in his mind, it sounded like a fairy tale.
– We the myargs are not natives of this planet either. Our planet was attacked. A few myargs, myself included, managed to escape the planet on board of a flying saucer-like spaceship. But something went wrong with the ship’s computer. We are not scientists, so we don’t know why the ship dropped us onto this planet. But the saucer-like ship crashed into a lake. We managed to save the replicator and ourselves. The replicator is a device that creates objects. But it needs connection with the ship’s computer. At first, the device worked, and we managed to copy crossbows, iron arrows, and knives. But later the connection was lost. The collar is a small computer used for communication and controlling the ship. The ship stopped responding. The replicator became useless. We have degraded to the very bottom of civilization. Without our devices, we are nothing but cats. According to our legend, we descended from animals just like your cat. That's our great ancestor. I’m afraid we will soon degenerate into cats completely.
    A long time ago, our hunter disappeared, along with his crossbow. I don’t know what happened to him. But you have found his crossbow, Leolik! I can see that neither you nor your companion are to blame for his death. Please forgive Barf for hunting you. You can continue on your way tomorrow morning. We’ll help you, Leolik. Ever since our hunter disappeared, we have been trying not to stray far from our caves and have been living a secretive life. We mostly eat fish, but it’s not very good. Some of us get sick of monotonous food. Your alien could turn out to be anyone. A friend or an enemy of the myargs. I'm praying to our goddess Bast that he turns out to be a myarg. I’ll give you my collar because it’s useless anyway. Please swear that if your alien turns out to be a myarg, you’ll give him this communicator. Only a true myarg will be able to read our message. For others, it will be a useless jumble of sounds.
    When Mia finished speaking, tears welled up in her wide eyes. Leolik was stunned. His own problems suddenly seemed utterly insignificant for him.
– Mia, I swear I’ll do as you ask. I think we need to hurry. The king’s men have been looking for us. If they cross the mountains and follow our way, a clash between the hunters and the myargs will be inevitable. Will it be peaceful?
– I understand, Leolik. I’ll send a squad to follow your trail so they can erase all traces of your passage. We’ll block the entrance to the cave with stones.
    Leolik mentally called Murzik. The cat jumped down, looking displeased. Mia took off her collar and handed it to Leolik. He wrapped it around his right arm and fastened it. Barf escorted Leolik back to the tent.
– Leolik, thank goodness you’re safe and sound, – Milena exclaimed when she saw Leolik and Barf. – So what have you found out?
– Mila, everything’s great! We’ll continue our way tomorrow morning. They’ll see us off. But we've got to hurry.
    Leolik let the cat out of his knapsack and sat down by the fire.
          – Thank God! I've got stressed so much. Sit down and have some chicken. I've saved the feathers, just how you asked.
    She ladled a little soup into the bowl. Leolik tasted it. The soup was a bit watery. And after what he had heard from Mia, he did not really feel like eating. He took two chicken legs out of the bowl and gave them to Barsik and Muria. They were hanging around right there by the fire. Leolik told Milena the whole shocking story.
– I wonder who attacked their planet. It’s just unimaginable! To attack a planet!
– Mila, I’m afraid Arseniy’s hunters might attack the myargs. That’s why we’re gonna set out first thing tomorrow morning.
    After lunch, Leolik started working over the toy he had promised to Barsik and Muria. He decided to craft a badminton set for them. Leolik could not even say how on earth he had heard of badminton. But he had a very clear picture of what it looked like. He cut off a two-meter piece of the rope that Mara had brought and unraveled it into thin strands. Then he found a long flexible branch and split it in halfs. He bent them into something resembling rackets. He carefully wrapped the handles of these rackets with twine. The hardest part was making holes into the rackets and weaving the strings crisscross so that they were stretched tightly. Leolik spent about an hour on the first racket, but he made the second one in literally half an hour. He made the shuttlecock from a piece of a branch, sticking six bird feathers into it with a knife.
– Mila, come on, let’s give it a try.
    He tossed the shuttlecock into the air and hit it. Mila caught the shuttlecock mid-air with her second racket and returned it with her racket. The design seemed to be reliable. Then Leolik handed his racket to Barsik, and Milena gave hers to Muria. The little kittens were delighted. They were meowing and squealing like children, enjoying themselves with their new toy.
    Leolik went to fetch the horse. She was fine. Leolik stroked her muzzle and led her closer to the fire. Myargs were no longer by the fire.
– Mila, where're our kittens, actually?
– They've probably ran away to show off their new toy. How do you know about toys like that?
– Mila, I don’t know. I hope we’ll find out tomorrow. I think we’ll make it to reach the city. We have to go to bed early. Any more food left?
– Leolik, there’s practically nothing left.
– Yeah, it’ll be too bad without food. But, judging by the map, we’ve got to make a one-day journey. We need to get enough fresh water for the trip.
    Leolik took the bottles out of his knapsacks, poured the old water out and went to the lake in order to fill them with fresh water. When he returned, a surprise was waiting for him. Five or six little myargs, each smaller than the last, were waiting for him. Barsik was the leader of the whole gang. Each one had a fish in the paws. They were pointing at Barsik’s racket.
– Mila, but you said we didn’t have any food!
– Leolik, I think you’ll have to make a toy for each of them. You’ll be their first coach.
    Leolik spent the whole afternoon making rackets for the gang of kittens. All the feathers were spent on the shuttlecocks. The string was also cut down quite a lot. The only saving factor was that the kittens who came were little, so Leolik crafted small rackets for them.