Chapter 10: Chapter 10

The trees and the flowering plants came to see them as

soon as the Aatians left…

They waited for Richard to come over to them and Re

allowed them to come over to where he was standing.

When he saw the plants, Richard walked up to them and

greeted them!

‘

so the communication is fast here I suppose… did you

hear about the Aatians visit? Well, they did not come here

to fight… they came here to see the new comers!’

Re said, ‘ No Richard you are wrong… They came

prepared to kill all of us but when we transformed into

Rufs, they were confused. When they saw you, they

suddenly lost their hostility.’

Richard did not think so but he kept quiet and one of the

trees asked, ‘what did you decide?’

Richard was puzzled, ‘decide? Yes it is high time we

decide about our future plans! If we are all going to live

here in peace, we need to formulate rules and regulations.

So that no one would dominate or threaten each other. Let

us wait for the Aatians to make the first move and we

stand together as one’

One of the flowering plants said, ‘you have already told us

that you would protect us so we are not worried’

Richard smiled at it and told them to go and come back the

next day.

They hopped off from there. Re called the flowering plants

and asked them to provide some more cereals and fruits

and they were very happy to help them.

Richard called Buddyone which was swimming in the lake

happily… The lake did not have any organisms and all the

beings were found only in the ocean!

Buddyone climbed out of the lake and shook himself just

like dog! The water drops glittered in the Alpha light. It

dragged itself to him and said, ‘I will go get something to

eat and will come to you…’

It could be seen asking Te for something. Te generously

gave him some things to eat and Buddyone ate fast and

drank whatever was given to him. He was full and very

happy to have a very different pampered life than the one

that he knew… His leg was mended very well which was

unheard in his community! as no one would be allowed to

live even with the minor physical disability.

Richard wanted know more about the aquatic being and

who would be more apt than one of them! He saw

Buddyone dragging itself and it reminded of him of seals

of Earth. He was wagging its flippers so hard and it made

a continuous sound! He smiled at him and the crescendo

increased.

Richard sat on one of the rocky ledge on the hill wall and

Buddyone followed him and sat down on the floor keeping

his head on Richard’s lap very comfortably!

‘Tell me what other beings are there in the water

Buddyone?’Richard asked knowing very well it would

take lot of patience to extract information from him!

Buddyone straightened, ‘ Do you see the hill over there?

Very big … and there are some very big beings like this!

We call them Boothi! But fortunately they don’t eat us but

eat the plants that grow in the water. They are very playful

and throw us from one to another.. They will enjoy but it

is very painful…’ It sat there ruminating about whatever

was in the past.

Richard nudged him gently to bring him back and

Buddyone looked at him as if he came out of a sleep!

Richard asked, ‘How do the rules of your law control them

if you say they are so huge?’ Richard thought it must be

the whales!

‘

yes it is difficult … they don’t break the rules often but

when they do they are given pain pellets… it is very

painful I think because I have seen them begging for

mercy… but there are some lawless hunters who will hunt

and eat anything that move in the water… They are the

Ratsh… Everyone fears them. They don’t feel pain and no

respect for rules. Aatians kill them whenever they see

them and their body is used as fodder for the Matish farm

that the Aatians keep!’

Richard was wondering if all the aquatic beings were just

like animals in Earth!

So perhaps the knowledge may help him in crucial time!

He saw that the Ruf was already half asleep and he

decided to go and see the queen of the trees..

He told the same to Re and Re said he would like to come

with him and he transformed into an eagle and followed

him.

Richard was jogging leisurely and the flowering plants

hopped behind him as usual. The trees stopped by him and

asked where he was going and when he said that he

wanted to see the tree queen, they moved in that direction!

It was a strange procession of trees, Richard and all kinds

of flowering plants followed by the eagle…

The trees took such gigantic steps using their

roots…Richard followed them jogging…he was not in a

hurry.

The trees stopped in front of him and he looked around to

see why they have stopped. He saw prop roots spreading

across as far as he could see! He immediately thought of

the trees back in the Earth and it was called as Banyan tree

which lived for thousands of years and their prop roots

would be exactly like this! Even the fruits and the leaves

were similar to that of the Banyan tree!

One of the trees, ‘You have to walk through the path

found here to reach the Tree queen... The roots are her

sentries who guard her since the beginning and we all are

descendants of the queen’

‘How will you come?’ Richard wanted to know as the

prop roots were so close to each other and only a narrow

clearing could be seen!

‘

Oh no we wouldn’t dare to go near her without her

permission and only you are invited!’

He understood and started walking when all of a sudden

he was picked up by a prop root… he was petrified for a

minute, but relaxed as he had already experienced it as the

trees carried him to the campsite in the same way…

The prop roots passed him from one to another gently and

he lost count of the time he had been passed… after a long

time he was lightly dropped to the ground.

The trunk of the tree was so huge that it must have

covered easily a square mile!

He remembered the tree in his village and it had taken

twenty of them to cover the circumference when they held

hands…

But here it may take hundreds of them to go around it!

He was looking at it with awe when high pitch voice

reached him!

He listened keenly and in the second time he could

understand that his name was called in the strange voice…

R..I..C..H..A..R..D

R..I..C..H..A..R..D

He already felt as if he was in front of a dignitary and he

bowed his head with respect.

It continued, ‘Good to see an Earthling! I have it in my

memory of Earth!’

He was taken aback! , ‘what ! you have visited Earth?’

‘

It was long long ago! Earth was visited by some aliens

from a planet of nearby galaxy. They were searching for a

second home but they did not like Earth but they brought

me and few animals for propagation’

‘You mean you are an Earthling? Richard was

incredulous …

The tree crackled, ‘No not anymore! We were all

genetically modified so we could survive. But even then

almost all of the animals perished few evolved into some

unrecognisable natives! I was the least modified so I

retained my memory and got all the other peculiar

qualities of Proximians’ It crackled again, ‘do you speak

to the trees on Earth?’

Richard smiled, ‘I was wondering about it but there are no

land animals here… why is that?’

The queen , ‘The animals died before they could evolve

but few humans were brought and left in the ocean after

some genetical implants . The rapid evolution took place

there .The aliens who had brought us here, had not stayed

back or returned to see what happened… So the nature

took its course and all the living things have genetically

modified DNA of the Earthlings!’

‘How long ago, you think all these happened?’ Richard

tried to understand as much as he could…

The queen did not answer for a long time and he thought

his audience was over and he turned back!

One of the branches stopped him and the queen replied , ‘

It happened so long ago… I don’t remember the

Earthlings’ time but it could be fifty thousand or one

hundred thousand years back! I am happy you are here! I

have heard about the beings that brought you here!’

The eagle came down and perched on Richard’s shoulder,

‘Greetings my queen… I am Re. We did not bring

Richard; he came along with us to help us… It was the

greatest surprise when he entered our spacecraft and it was

the pure humanity that can be seen in humans sometimes!’

The queen scooped him up in one of its great braches, ‘So

you can transform into anything! Well! This ability is your

strength and I can think of a happy and peaceful life in the

planet Arda for a long time to come… But you must know

this planet has been visited by other aliens and it will be

visited again… So it is very important that we all stand

united!’

Re was fluttering its wings, ‘ Yes my queen…we will do

our best to unite everyone and create a peace treaty and

make someone, who has the best interest our King! Hope

to get your approval for this peace treaty!’

The queen did not speak for some time! Then it dropped

him and Re flew down to where Richard was standing and

perched on his shoulder!

‘

I think this will be accepted by everyone, if not let us

make them accept… But we must declare the King

candidate who could be accepted by everyone!’

Re did not hesitate even for a second!, ‘of course yes… It

is Richard!’

Richard literally jumped and displaced Re but Re again

balanced itself!’

‘Well I accept’ the queen agreed immediately… They

waited for sometime but it did not speak anything further

and the prop roots once again picked up Richard and left

him at the perimeter. He thought it must be easily

thousand square kilometres spread!

He felt the eagle following him .

He realised, he was just given a great responsibility of

bringing out the peace treaty to fruition! He has to make

the aquatic beings to agree to this!

Re had placed him in an impossible situation but with their

superior power, it could be done!

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