T:TAOAA, My second excerpt

All right, here is another eagerly awaited excerpt from Thekherham: The Autobiography of an Alien. Don't forget, this is just the first draft; when I start a novel, I just tend to write, write, write whatever comes into my head.

A little bit of background: In this excerpt, Thekherham is five years old. His parents, and Kykherhenha's parents, are mating, but because they lock together much in the manner of dogs, and the mating process is rather lengthy, Thekherham finds it rather boring waiting for them to get done, so he takes a walk through the forest and then over to the canyon. What follows below is what happens to him and Kykherhenha.

A word on the pronunciations:
Thekherham - Tee kee' rahm (but you knew that, didn’t you?)
Kykherhenha - Kich' (like the German word 'Ich' or ch='huge' without the 'uge') kee ree' nah
mhalvharel - mahl' vah rel
Vythalham - Vich' tah lahm
Khedharhij - Kee' dah ree (i)
t'hŏphar - tyoh' pahr (the 'y' is pronounced as in young or yet)

Another brief note: (yeah, all right… the story will start shortly, just bear with me). Last time I posted an excerpt the underlined telepathic conversation between Thekherham and Kykherhenha didn't show the lines. So just remember that any conversation between the two is telepathic; Thekherham can communicate verbally, and telepathically ONLY with Kykherhenha, but Kykherhenha can communicate only telepathically, with Thekherham ONLY, but with other whistling dragons as well. Confused yet?

Oh, by the way, if you want to read more interesting stuff about Thekherham et. al. check out Thekherham's Worlds, a blog found on LiveJournal, Blogger, Blogstream, and Blogsource (Yes, all four!). It is most likely the world's only serious blog told from the viewpoint of an alien. (Did I say I was weird?)

And now enough with the blah blah blah! Heeeeeeeere's Thekherham!

* * * * *

As I walked into the forest I realized that, except for Kykherhenha, I was completely alone. I told myself not to be afraid, but reminded myself to watch out for Alharhanians.

No Alharhanians, Kykherhenha said.

I stopped, looked around, up at the sky. I spread my arms and twirled around in a poor imitation of mhalvharel. Dizziness overwhelmed me and I stumbled. I sat down on the cold ground and purred, the ultimate pleasurable sound.

She nuzzled me. Are you all right?

I looked into her blue eyes. Yes.

I turned up my hearing to maximum, and listened to the insects and birds of the early evening. The chirping, whirring, clicking, and whistling would continue well into the night.

Let's go back, Kykherhenha suggested.

Why? I like it here.

They might miss us.

Show me the canyon.

Thekherham.

Please.

She flapped her large black wings, lifted off. As I watched her I thought she looked so much more graceful in the air.

I saw what she saw. The lake, which from my perspective, seemed so huge, was but a mere speck of water when seen through Kykherhenha's eyes. The canyon, a yawning chasm of immense depth, was but a thin line in the ground, and the hanging bridge looked like a string. When Kykherhenha descended a little lower I could make out more details of the bridge. It swayed a little in the wind, and it seemed to hypnotize me. I kept staring at it through her eyes.

I want to cross the bridge, I said.

No.

Just once.

Thekherham, she said, there are pieces of the bridge missing. An adult might be able to cross if he's very careful, but you're not an adult.

I headed for the canyon. Even today I cannot say what compelled me to try to cross the bridge, but I was determined to do it - just once.

Kykherhenha sailed down and landed in front of me, her auburn-furred body blocking my way. Her long tail, with the tuft at its end, swished lazily back and forth.

If you fall off and get killed, she said, I will die, too.

I walked around her and headed for the bridge. I looked across to the other side, and it seemed to be an eternity away. I shook my head, twitched my whiskers, suddenly unsure of what I was doing there.

Let's go home, she said.

No.

Please… I'll tell Papa.

Don't.

Thekherham. Her eyes sought mine. Why are you so determined to cross that bridge?

I stepped on the bridge. You know why, Kykherhenha.

Curiosity can kill you.

Another step. So far, so good, I thought. It looked pretty easy. I figured as long as I didn't look down I should have no problems.

It seemed too easy.

The first hurdle appeared in the form of a missing board. The gap seemed to be too wide for me to cross but I convinced myself that I could do it.

Of course Kykherhenha, being a part of me, read my thoughts. Don't do it.

I'll be all right. I took a few steps back, ran as hard as I could until I reached the edge of the board, then leaped across the gap toward the next board.

Thekherham! Kykherhenha screamed in my head.

I had seen it, too, at the last second, but it was too late. The board, on which I was about to land, was split in the middle, and any pressure on it would separate the two halves.

I had no choice but to come down. I was no whistling dragon; I had no wings to help me stay aloft. So when I landed on the other side of the gap, the broken board gave way, and my hind paws were touching empty air.

Thekherham!

I'll be fine, I assured her. With lightning speed I reached out and grasped one of the ropes that served as a handrail. The two sets of ropes on either side of the bridge stretched from one end of the canyon to the other. I hung over the canyon, a tight grip on the rope, afraid to look down.

Mama and Papa are still mating, she said.

You told them.

I had to.

You…

No, I can't, Thekherham. I'm not strong enough… and besides…

I pulled myself up slowly, disregarding the aching muscles that protested like one of those ever-squawking nrherhadel. I can do this, I said, trying to convince myself that there was nothing to this.

Moments later I was sitting on the board next to the broken one that was now smashed at the bottom of the canyon, I could walk to the other end of the canyon, and perhaps satisfy my curiosity, but I knew that as soon as Mama and Papa were finished with their mating, they would come to the canyon. And they would come here in the fastest manner possible.

Your papa is very angry. Kykherhenha said.

Of course he is. I stood up and looked across the bridge. The other side seemed so far away.

I had no choice but to wait. Twilight had descended when Mama and Papa finally showed up. They suddenly popped up at the edge of the canyon, and I knew that Vythalham and Khedharhij had teleported to get here as quickly as possible.

I wanted to tell them I wasn't afraid or I didn't know why I had done it, but Papa yelled at me that I was a foolish cub, and I would be punished when he got a hold of me. The tip of his tail was twitching violently, and his ears were laid back tight against his head.

"How could you, Thekherham?" Mama yelled. "How could you? We have told you not to go near the canyon, and what do you do?"

"I just wanted to see what was on the other side." I tried hard not to cry.

Papa moved slowly toward me, taking cautious steps on each board. When he reached me, he held out his paws which I wanted to grasp, but the gap between us was too wide.

"Can you reach him?" Mama called.

"No," Papa called back.

"Papa, I'm not scared."

He just glared at me.

"Maybe Vythalham can help," Mama called.

"I can't do it," Papa said.

Vythalham glided toward us. When he reached me he looked straight at me, and I could see the anger burning in his eyes, which were now blood-red. He was right to be angry with me. Not only had I endangered myself, but also his daughter.

The huge whistling dragon hovered below me. Papa told me to get on his back, but I could not do it because suddenly I was afraid. Right now I believed nothing could move me from my perch high above the canyon.

"Thekherham," Papa said, "I want you to get off the bridge and on to Vythalham's back right now, or I will jump over there myself and bring you across."

You better do what he says.

All right. Very carefully I climbed on Vythalham's back, and was carried to the edge of the canyon where Mama was waiting. I could tell that Vythalham found no pleasure in transporting me. He seemed all tensed up, and I knew he wouldn't unwind until I was off his back.

Mama cuffed me. "You listen to me, you little t'hŏphar. You and Kykherhenha will march back to the house, and you will stay there until we tell you it's all right to go out again. You will not see your friends, and they will not see you. And when you are again allowed to go outside, you will never again go anywhere near this canyon. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mama," I said quietly. I did not look at her.

If you're going to cry, Kykherhenha said, go ahead and cry.

I'm not a little cub, I protested, but I was only fooling myself. The floodgates opened and I bawled. I cried hard and long, but Mama paid no attention to me.

"I'm sorry, Mama," I wailed. "I'm sorry I'm sorry I won't do it again I'm really really sorry."

She was looking past me, waiting for Papa to cross the bridge.

I could have cried enough tears to fill a lake and she would have ignored me.

There's a bond between the dragons and the... whatever they are... I'm sure there's a word but I don't know it Anyway, is there one between Mama and Papa?

I like the end of this, btw. They're worried about Thekherham, but once he's safe Mama doesn't need to worry about him anymore, so she turns her attention to Papa even though she can't do anything to help him. Scenes like that show a lot about the characters without being blatant about it.

Question, though. If the dragons can teleport, why not just teleport Thekherham away? Or if they can only teleport their people, why not teleport Papa to the bridge beside him?

Wow, I really like the story. The entire concept is fascinating.

And I was a little confused with the teleporting too. So that's something you might want to clear up but other than that, it's great!

This is truly an amazing story, Thekherham. I've got a nuts and bolts type comment for you, however. Are you/do you intend to set the conversations between Thekherham and his whistling dragon apart some how? It's not a big deal but I think it would make things flow better and eliminate any confusion that might come up. The old italics might work.

cjh

Paloma and Scarlett, here are some answers to your questions about teleportation: The whistling dragons can use teleportation only when they are adults, and in this scene both Thekherham and Kykherhenha are cubs. Secondly, the dragons only teleport when absolutely necessary. I guess in this case, Khedharhij felt that Papa could make it safely across. Thirdly, a whistling dragon can teleport only himself/herself and his/her Tereskadian. So Papa's whistling dragon could not have teleported Thekherham.

My, all these restrictions I am placing on my characters. But I feel it makes the story more interesting.

Oops, editing this yet again. I call the relationship between the whistling dragons and the Tereskadians symbiosis.
No, there is none between Mama and Papa.

In the draft I'm doing now any conversation between Thekherham and Kykherhenha is underlined, which I guess is the proper way to do it if you want to show it in italics in book form. When I post it here, however, the underline doesn't show up.

I should've realized you'd be on top of it.

cjh

Since I have posted this excerpt I have revised the entire concept of whistling dragon teleportation, and decided that they do not teleport after all. The teleportation sounds too much like fantasy, too much like Anne McCaffrey's dragons.

Sounds like a good call.