Outworld Promise (chapter three)

Posted 19 August 96

Max gets a taste

There ain't no justice!

Max felt better once he had fed. But before the feeding, he had thought about the downed Flyer for a long time. He wondered about that. "What happens to it now?," he asked himself. "If the Flyer doesn't move, where did the rough Big take it? "And what was it that changed about the Flyer that caused it not to move?" Max had been hurt before. Sometimes he would try to run too fast and make his movers sore. And sometimes he would try to jump up to a high place and fall, hitting the bottom like a lump, or hitting his head (which was really the worst thing). But he had always gotten up and moved again. He never just stopped moving. Even when he would lie down, his chest would move, and even thump a little. But he never really just stopped completely. "One day, when I learn to make Big sounds, I will ask the Bigs about that," he decided.

Sounds were hard to do. He and Kira told each otd to do. He and Kira told each other things without needing sounds. In fact the only reason he made sounds at all was to try to tell things to the Bigs, and to try to tell things to the Flyers. Sometimes the Bigs seemed to understand him. They told him things a lot, but most of the sounds just made him feel good, he didn't really understand the telling all that well. He mostly learned the rules by whether the sounds were soft or hard after he had just done something. But the Bigs got happy when he learned a rule, and that made him feel good. Then the Bigs made smooth, soft sounds, and he knew he had learned. Max figured Kira was the same way, in fact right now she was making her happy sounds to the rough Big.

The Big was smoothing her back with its mover. The Bigs always used their front movers for things like that. Max wasn't really sure they should be called movers, since the Bigs didn't move with the front ones, only the back. But Max decided they were much like his front movers, and attached to them near their head, like his. So to keep the list of names he needed for things down to a manageable number, movers they would be. "Come to think of it, the Bigs did use them for moving the glow, and placing the feeding, and even moving he and his sister, so they were just a different kind of mover," Max decided. Max liked it when he figured things out. He liked learning things, and when he learned something besides a rule, g besides a rule, he was even more happy. He felt he had to learn the rules, but learning things just because he could was the best of all. That's why Kira called him smart. She didn't fool with this kind of learning much either. "She just wants to be safe and do the helping, and feed, and she's happy with that," he thought. "Oh, and she likes the Bigs to smooth her back, too," Max corrected himself.

The air got cool as the smooth Big came in from Outworld. Max jumped up and ran to the Big, making sounds and running in circles around it. It made the sound for him, the sound it had made to him always since he could remember. He had figured it out one day: this was the sound that the Bigs made for "Max." Then it told him some things, things that were soft, and that was good. But Max had hoped the Big would let him go to Outworld, and the Big just went over to the other one and Kira, making sounds the whole time. It told the rough Big things, and the rough Big told it things, and they told and told for a while. They looked at Max, and told some more. "What were they telling?," Max wanted to know. As this thought bounced around in his head, the rough Big started to move toward him.

It came slowly, making sounds as it got closer and closer. Max froze where he stood. Had he done something wrong? Was he making the Big unhappy? "No," Max thought. "The Big is m "The Big is making soft sounds, as soft at least as the rough Big ever did." The Big reached down with its front movers and picked Max up.

These were not called Bigs for nothing. They were much bigger and stronger than Max and Kira. They often moved him and his sister this way. Sometimes they just picked them up without moving them, and sometimes they smoothed their back, too. But this time, the Big was moving Max. And the Big was moving Max toward the opener to Outworld!

Max and the Big moved through the opener. Max felt his chest thumping hard. This was It!

Max could hardly breathe. The air would not come into him or leave fast and hard enough. The smells! The smells were wonderful! There were so many of them, layered upon each other over and over again. There were so many, he couldn't sort them all out! "There! "That one!," he thought. "Was that a Flyer smell?" Max turned his head to look, but as he did, other smells came to him. It was all so confusing! In all his dreams of Outworld, he had never counted on this. He never knew so many smells were possible! And the things he could see! When Max and the Big had come into Outworld, a large bunch of Flyers took off. They had been feeding, but they jumped into the air when the opener had worked. Max guessed the sound of the opener had made them fly. He only caught a glimpse, but there were more Flyers than he hade Flyers than he had ever seen through the clear. And now Max knew that the clear was not the best way to look at Outworld! He could look all around, and up and down and still see parts of Outworld! From the clear, he only got to see a little bit. This was almost too much for him. There was so much learning to be done here, and Max wanted it all, right now!

Max twisted his movers, he twisted his whole body, but the Big was far too strong for him. He wanted to move on his own movers! He wanted to explore everywhere in Outworld right away! Max made sounds, trying to plead with the Big to set him down so he could move on his own. Max tried telling the Big to please put him on his movers, please Please! But the Big would only move Max some more, moving him where the Big wanted to move him.

Further into Outworld they went. Max looked down and saw the wet. And in the wet there was something moving! Max tried to look harder at these things, but they were hard to see. And he couldn't smell them at all. What were they? They certainly weren't hoppers or scooters, but they scooted through the wet. Max only knew about drinking the wet, he never had seen anything that moved through it.

A Flyer made sounds above his head. He forgot about the wet and looked up. He looked at the Flyer and watched it fly for a brief moment. The realization that passed over him in that instant was one of shock, disbelief, and disappisbelief, and disappointment. Just to confirm what he had already discovered, he looked down at his movers. He was in Outworld, and he was not a Flyer.

He was still just Max.

Max was crushed. He made sad sounds to the Big. He wanted to leave Outworld and go back Inside. He ignored all the sounds and smells, forgot about the things in the wet, and curled his head up against the Big. The Big moved Max back to Inside.

To be continued...