Predator Complex: Magic (3/3)

“I found that the bigger our universe grows, the further the borders of our perception reach, the more I value the small stories around me, the every day wonders that happen in spite of everything. I wonder: Will it be the same for them?” – ‘Journal of the anonymous Starfarer’ by Laila el-Sadiq

The next half hour went by far less fruitful, consisting of just patient observation of the clearing in front of them and waiting. Occasionally a local bird flew by or could be heard with their alien singing. If they took any note of the predator in the hide, they didn’t seem to care much. Madu took the lull as an opportunity to make precise notes of the layout of his surroundings and adding to his previous notes. The clearing was about a hundred and twenty meters wide and about two hundred thirty or so meters long. Given the range Alexander had stated for his rifle those dimensions seemed logical enough. The hide was not standing directly on the clearing but rather a few meters further into the forest and so he ventured that the furthest away an animal could be was maybe two hundred and eighty or ninety meters if it emerged at one of the faraway corners of the clearing. Too far for a comfortable shot but given the ample green grasses and the solid stone of salt mounted in the middle of the clearing on top of a low wooden stump, it wasn’t too hard to guess that animals would probably not stay at the edges for long; at least not every time. The whole set-up seemed almost tailor made to lure in bigger herbivores and he guessed that was the whole point of it.

After a while Madu ran out of things to note down about his surroundings leaving himself to his own thoughts and the noises of the world around him. It was strange. He wondered if this was actually the first time since he came to Earth that he got the time to just take a place in like this. Was this what Alexander had meant earlier? The forest wasn’t literally calm, in fact there was the sound of life everywhere around them, but it still felt that way. It struck Madu as odd that he could even feel that way with a predator just sitting there beside him but this place had a weirdly soothing effect that even seemed to apply to the wildlife around it. Was it maybe the difference in rhythm?

The cities no matter the size all had their own busyness to themselves, but this forest seemed almost deliberately slow. No time tables to keep, no meetings to attend, just the things the basic needs necessitated to care for. He had never quite understood the philosophies that acclaimed the return to nature, which cast civilisation as an unnatural state of being, but here for the first time Madu could comprehend why others may felt differently. He noted down these feelings as well, for whatever they would be worth to posterity.

So attuned to his surroundings he finally noticed a slight sirring right above his head and tilted it to better inspect the ceiling of the hide cabin with one of his eyes. At first glance there seemed nothing off about it, just a few tightly packed wooden planks underneath a tar roof, but then he found a large winged insect emerge from a hole at the edge of the cabin roof. It’s sizeable body shone in yellow and black stripes, a clear warning to any would be predators, and swung itself into the air after a short probe of it’s surroundings. For a moment it hovered a bit above Alexander’s head, then it propelled itself over to Madu and out of the cabin, shortly followed by another one that zipped out in the opposite direction. Madu had seen insects bigger than these but given their warning colours he did not dare to underestimate the danger they could possess and if anything Earth had already earned itself a reputation for having a wide array of rather deadly inhabitants. At least these ones seemed rather uninterested in their two temporary co-habitants though, just like Alexander had said. Still Madu’s interest was piqued.

“Are those poisonous?”, he asked quietly.

Alexander nodded slightly.

“A bit. They sting if they feel threatened. It’s not really that dangerous by itself but it hurts quite a bit…I suppose it could get dangerous though if you get stung a couple dozen times. That said with hornets you really have to go out of your way to aggravate them. They hunt other insects and have no natural enemies aside from themselves and parasites. They are literally to dangerous to care. They ‘know’ that no one is stupid enough to mess with them.”

Madu didn’t know if he was more fascinated or incredulous as he observed another hornet coming into the cabin and entering the hole the two others had exited. There he was sitting with what most in the galaxy considered the most dangerous predator species in the existence to one side, many considering them even too dangerous to get in contact with in the first place, and right above his head lived yet another predator species that was judged so dangerous by Earth’s inhabitants that even Humans did not dare to mess with them. The worst part was that his colleagues which were more interested in the rest of Earth’s biosphere had already reported other species to whom the same judgement hat been applied: Too dangerous to mess with.

Earth almost seemed like some messed up experiment. How else could one explain this many dangerous species in one biosphere? There was something else to this too though and Madu felt as a curious thought slowly crawl up the back of his mind, diligently working it’s way into his awareness. Maybe there was a parallel to Humanity and the rest of the galaxy here? He would have to study both the Hornets and Humanity more thoroughly but perhaps he had just inadvertently stumbled upon a crucial piece of information.

Humans were undoubtedly aggressive and even more so against each other. They were also undoubtedly so incredibly dangerous that Madu doubted most spacefaring species would even try to fight with them. The question was: Would this lead to the same behaviour in Humans that Hornets showed to their environment? Was all the fear of Humans falling upon the galactic community for naught? Would they simply ignore the rest of the galaxy, knowing no one was dumb enough to mess with them, and go on doing their own thing? Just like the Hornets. Was it that easy to co-exist with Humanity? He would have to investigate this hypothesis further. Discuss it with his colleagues. If there was kernel of truth to this, it would make the future so much easier, and wouldn’t it also explain why Humanity had been so peaceful and cooperative?

While these questions filled Madu’s thoughts, he was snapped out of them when his lens picked up some movement on the clearing. Suddenly he was aware again why they were here. He made a faint gesture with his claws and the lens automatically focused and zoomed onto the movement at the left edge of the clearing. It was a rather small creature with light brown fur, long ears, a slender head and big round black eyes. The lens quickly identified it as a Hare, a common mammal living all over the continent, and provided a short list of it’s most striking characteristics. He wondered if this would be a viable prey animal for Humans and a flick of his claws confirmed that Human cuisine definitely included an array of dishes based on this animal. There was still something very alien and disturbing about that fact but for now Madu forced himself to concentrate on Alexander. How would he react? Had he noticed it at all with his fairly primitive tools? Before Madu could even reshift his focus to the Human beside him, Alexander already pointed in the direction of the Hare, his binoculars over his eyes.

“Over to the left. One of my Hares. Have five or six of them around this area lately. Always come here around this time of day. Eat the herbs here”, he whispered and fiddled with a knob on his binoculars, presumably to adjust the zoom, “Seems to be doing well. Good for it.”

Madu was slightly stumped. His lens had been programmed to automatically detect any movement and even had an infra-red sensor to do so yet Alexander had seen the Hare basically at the same time as some of the best technology on the market. Maybe it was not that hard to do, maybe there was an element of experience to this or maybe this was just another example of the keen senses Humans had. Whatever it was, a different question was on Madu’s mind now.

“Will you shoot it?”

Alexander lowered his binoculars and contorted his face into a grimace Madu couldn’t decipher. How many muscles did Humans have in their face?

“With what? My rifle? Like I said, It’s gonna get torn apart from the calibre I use, literally. I’d need a smaller rifle for that. I mean I CAN do it if you insist on it but I wouldn’t call that an effective use of our time and resources”, Alexander replied with hushed but amused voice and then turned his gaze towards Madu, “Or do you have a grudge against the lil’ thing?”

Madu blinked a few times and then shook his head in an imitation of a Human gesture.

“No, I was just merely curious if you consider this viable prey. There is a list of dishes that does seem to use Hare meat as an ingredient.”

“Hmm, I suppose that is right, but personally I don’t hunt for small game. Also Hares are a bitch to make taste good. Have to led them sit in a sauce for like two or so days. Rabbits are way easier. There is also no reason to shoot them from a game management perspective. Their population is kept in check by lynxes, wolves, foxes and birds of prey. If we started to hunt the Hares we would just increase the food pressure on these predators for no good reason.”

Madu quickly noted all of that down in case the audio capture hadn’t fully caught it. It was a fascinating insight into the mind of a Human hunter. A number of perspectives flowed together in just this simple exchange. Personal hunting preferences, tools available at the moment, ease of dish preparation as well as the concept of game management which Madu hadn’t even considered to exist but made perfect sense to him. After all why shouldn’t a predator society manage their potential prey? The Feria did the same just with fruit bearing flora and the concept of managing the wildlife in general wasn’t entirely foreign either. He would need to make a more thorough investigation of what that concept meant for Humans and what they had written on it. Maybe it was also a good lesson of Human psychology as well. Just because they could eat and kill it, they didn’t necessarily did it. Madu couldn’t observe even a twitch of Alexander’s towards the rifle which was still standing in corner in front of the Human. If there was an involuntary reflex to killing, Alexander didn’t show it. Was it weird that he had expected this to be different? Was it just a bias born of his own cultural upbringing? Probably. For now he would continue to observe and leave conclusions for when he had more data to work with.

“Speaking of the devil”, Alexander interrupted with a quite murmur and rose his binoculars to his eyes again, prompting Madu to adjust his lens, quickly finding what had likely caused Alexander’s reaction. On the opposite side of the clearing a small red-orange animal with a long bushy tail, a slender long snout and two forward facing eyes had entered. Clearly a predator and the lens quickly confirmed it. A fox, a small predatory mammal that had spread widely over the planet. It seemed not that much bigger than the Hare, making Madu wonder how it could prey on the Hare in the first place, but for now he wanted to use the opportunity to capture how an Earth prey animal would react to the entrance of a potential threat. He turned his attention back to the Hare, just to find it fairly relaxed. Judging from the position of it’s ears it had clearly taken note of the fox, but rather than flee it was just munching away on some grasses. It was somewhat confusing but as Madu turned back to the Fox he could reason why: The Fox seemed utterly uninterested in the Hare, instead strolling leisurely over the clearing towards the salt block further in.

“As long as the Fox doesn’t get into the Hare’s flight radius, the Hare will just ignore it and it’s not like these animals are entirely stupid either. A Fox strolling with this little care for stealth onto the clearing doesn’t have any mischief in mind”, Alexander explained, voice still hushed, having seemingly caught Madu’s slight confusion.

“I was wondering if Foxes hunt Hares at all. They seem a bit small for it”, Madu replied equally hushed.

“Hmm. Yeah, maybe. Foxes are omnivores and basically eat anything that is easily available including carrion. Hares aren’t exactly their first choice, too hard to get usually, but Foxes won’t say no to the young or weakened ones and if they are hungry enough they might as well try. This one is usually well fed. I see it every so often around here. Probably enjoys what I leave behind when I shoot something too.”

As Madu watched the small predator lick the salt block he could finally get a good side view of the fox and he realised that he had underestimated it’s size a little bit. The Hare was probably at the upper limits of what the Fox could hunt and he found it utterly fascinating that the Hare seemed fully aware of it. It seemed prey animals on Earth had developed very finely tuned to the dangers each predator in their environment presented, though perhaps that was just a truism. Didn’t this apply on any world and to any species?

Earth maybe stood out due to some of it’s environmental factors like the fairly heavily tilted axis which induced a distinct seasonal cycle or it’s high gravity and it had produced a wide array of fearsome predators, including Humans, but even a Feria like him had different reactions to different native predators. A Gea-Hawk or one of it’s close evolutionary cousins for example would be cause for major alarm to any of his kind back on Homeworld while the Tanguum, which was maybe a bit bigger than the Fox, was almost universally ignored because one could simply fly away from it even though it was well established that it could kill a Feria. It did raise the question though how the wildlife of Earth had adapted to the threat of Humans.

He had already observed various species of birds that co-habited the cities with them and seemed to care relatively little for the Humans. Some species like crows, pigeons or sparrows seemed even almost tame, often scurrying right beneath the feet of the Humans. These were generally not hunted by Humans as far as he could tell though and so he wondered how something that did get hunted by Humans would behave. For now he had to content with the animals that were in front of him on the clearing and these didn’t seem to have a care in the world.

The Fox went on to sniff around the clearing a bit and eventually left the way he came. Meanwhile the Hare was eventually joined by a second one of his kind, both ignoring each other and going about feeding of the various grasses and herbs of the clearing and after maybe fifteen minutes they each left into the woods, leaving Madu and Alexander alone in their cabin again. The evening sun was now very much setting, the light slowly fading out of their environment and with it the activity around seemed to slow down even more. One bird after another went silent and Madu too could feel a tuck of sleepiness. He wondered how long the light would still be good for Alexander to shoot anything. He knew Humans could handle vision with surprisingly little light due to their adaptable pupils but Madu didn’t knew how far that would carry if there was no sunlight at all. The only thing he was sure of was that Alexander likely saw vastly better in the dusky light than he himself could. At least he had his lens to help out with that. Sadly it would not be able to fix the lack of any game showing up and so he took the time to readdress his notes on his observations, sort them and formulate a few thesis ideas.

Madu was so thoroughly engrossed in that task that Alexander needed to give him a careful bump with a finger, making him almost yelp. It took him a moment, then he understood that Alexander was pointing his finger in direction of the clearing. Madu quickly adjusted his lens and scanned the clearing, finding the cause for Alexander’s action: A small group of animals which his lens identified as roe deer hovering at the right edge of the clearing. From the infra-red outlines Madu’s lens suggested a female and two smaller undetermined members of it’s kind. Madu ventured they were her children, though probably already a couple months old given their decent size. They were barely visible without the infra-red, only the heads of the children sticking out of the shrubbery while the mother’s neck stuck out with her head. Again Madu was surprised that Alexander had spotted them even without any infra-red assistance but that mattered little for now. Now he had to closely observe both the behaviour of deer and of Alexander.

The mother deer seemed awfully careful and Madu could have sworn she was closely observing the hide, flicking her ears into multiple directions and he could hear a very distant snorting. The mother was fully aware of the possible peril. Still the clearing with it’s fresh greens and the salt lick was an almost impossible to ignore source of fresh nutrients for her and her children. It was no surprise to Madu then that the mother carefully stalked onto the clearing, her two children following her closely. They were decently large animals, especially the mother, with decently bulky bodies and covered with short bright brown fur ending in an almost snow white behind. He could easily see how an animal like this would be able to provide plenty of meat to a Human and Madu noticed that Alexander was following the group with great interest.

“Ah, an old acquaintance. Hadn’t seen her in a bit. Glad to see that she got her remaining children well through. She used to have three, but lost one a bit earlier”, he whispered, never lowering his binoculars, and added with a smirk, “through no fault of mine I would add. I’d wager for the involvement of a Lynx. I wonder where her daughter from three years ago is. They used to stay fairly close together.”

Madu was again fascinated by how well Alexander seemed to be acquainted with his prey and their usual behaviours. It spoke of keen observation of the animals over a long time and at the same time it brought up a number of questions for him.

“Won’t they hear us? How can you identify them? Will you shoot them?”

Alexander didn’t lower his glasses as he responded.

“As long as we whisper and make no hasty movements: no. We have very little wind that would carry the noise and the wind is standing against us anyways today. Roe deer are mostly smell based and their vision mostly focused on distinguishing moving objects. They aren’t fools of course. This one knows very well the danger and has lost offspring here before”, Alexander slowly lowered his binoculars and focused onto Madu.

“As for identifying her: Usually you can’t tell them apart but this one has persistent colour anomaly on her nose bridge. Also there aren’t that many roe deer that come by regularly here. As for shooting at them: The mother is still in very good shape and it’s not hunting season for mother animals. If anything I take out one of the children. That said, I am inclined against it. She had a very bad year last year. Lost all of her children. One to me, two to other means. That said, I do have special permission to shoot anything today if you deem it scientifically necessary, so in the end, it’s your call.”

With that the weight of responsibility suddenly dropped onto Madu, his head feathers rose in agitation, his fascination for the intricate knowledge of Alexander and the concept of hunting seasons fading before the question of life and death. He had never before decided about the life of anybody or anything. He was just a field researcher who had spent his entire life oscillating between the university and whatever field study had called for him next – and if he was honest he hadn’t even been on that many field studies either. The assignment on Earth was his first big expedition of major importance and not once had he anticipated that his research of Human hunting practices would lead to him deciding the survival of another living being. He focused his lens onto the small group feasting on the grasses of the clearing. He could see the slight colour variation on the nose bridge of the mother Alexander had spoken off. A small white dot in an otherwise almost uniformly brown fur. He was torn. Instinctively everything within him rebelled against the thought of him being the cause of death for any of these animals yet on the other hand didn’t science demand their sacrifice?

Madu shuddered. What was he thinking? He had heard the judgement of Alexander and this wouldn’t be his last such hunt either. While the killing of an animal was an integral part of that, it was not the only one and he had already gathered a good deal of data that needed to be sorted and analysed. There was no need to force anything.

“Well, who am I to overwrite the judgement of the predator?”, he simply replied, earning himself another pat on the back by his Human companion.

“Good man”, Alexander replied with a genuine smile, “Did you know that many would shoot one of them? Simply because they dared to show their faces here? I am glad you are not one of them.”

Madu would have been startled if the confusion caused by Alexander’s statement hadn’t overwritten everything just now.

“Isn’t that the purpose of hunting?”

“The purpose of hunting is population control and food, Madu. Not mindless slaughter of everything one is allowed to shoot at the time. Though I do like their meat, it’s not like I am going to starve without it and population control also includes leaving healthy animals alive in decent numbers to maintain a viable population. Many forget that, fully focused on their own experience or economic gain rather than what is the best course of action. In my opinion if it’s frustrating to you to sit out here and shoot nothing even if you could have, you have chosen the wrong hobby and are blatantly unaware of your responsibility you bare towards these animals.”

There were Alexander’s ethics again. To a degree it was simply the repeat of what he had said earlier but that he stuck by his conviction even in the face of prey was a reassuring thing for Madu as it was ample prove that Humans weren’t just mindless murder machines, well at least some of them. Alexander seemed to know a few that would react exactly how he would have initially expected. How would they compare against Alexander?

Madu hadn’t time to contemplate this any further as his lens alerted him to movement at the other end of the clearing and Alexander too seemed to have noticed it, raising his binoculars. It was another roe deer of about the size of the mother deer, the lens quickly identifying it as another female but it had no children in tow. Contrary to the other mother there was no hesitation or care with this one. It just went onto the clearing and became quickly apparent that something was off in it’s movements. It limped.

Madu could not ascertain why, but for some reason it avoided putting weight onto one of it’s front legs and to Madu’s chagrin it was the leg they couldn’t see from their position on the hide. What followed was as heart warming as it was perplexing. After a short hesitation the mother deer stalked over to the limping female seemingly greeting it. Madu gestured his lens to zoom further in, noticing a white colour anomaly on the nose bridge of the limping female while Alexander fiddled with the knob on his binoculars again.

“Oh”, Madu and Alexander exclaimed almost simultaneously.

“Is that the daughter you said the mother was hanging out with?”

“Wouldn’t know any other animal with that anomaly”, Alexander replied.

“She looks quite hurt.”

“Yeah…She won’t make it very far if this is something bigger. If she would just turn around a bit…ah!”

In that moment the limping female indeed turned a bit and exposed the hurt leg, though nothing could be immediately seen. No obvious wound with blood dripping from it or anything of the kind.

“Doesn’t seem to be something external”, Madu chimed thoughtfully.

“Which might be worse for her”, Alexander replied solemnly, “Her ankle might be broken from the way she limps.”

Madu didn’t need an explanation to understand that such a thing would be a death sentence to essentially any wild animal. Something like that didn’t heal properly without intensive care and hindered the ability to flee and find food significantly, making the female a rather easy prey for any predator.

“Does your lens see any children behind her?”

“No, she is alone as far as I can see.”

“She shouldn’t be. Around that time a year she should have kids about the same size as the other one.”

“Maybe it’s related to the injury? An attack occurred. She could flee. Her children didn’t make it. She hurt herself in the process.”

Alexander seemed to ponder the suggested theory and then gave a slight nod.

“Could be.”

The two of them observed the two female roe deer interact further with each other. The mother giving her older wayward daughter a few licks, the two of them making their way further into the clearing, the mother patiently waiting for her daughter to limp along, arriving in the middle of the clearing where the grasses were rather low. Alexander exhaled sharply.

“That ankle is broken”, he said with conviction and it didn’t take Madu long to see the heavily swollen ankle too. He wasn’t an expert in these animals and certainly not a medic but he didn’t thought that it would take much biological knowledge to make the comparison with the other ankles to see that this was certainly not how it should look.

For a moment Madu wondered what Alexander would make of that and was about to ask him only to stop short of his first word as the mother fixated onto the hide. He could swear the she was looking directly at them for a moment. Madu’s couldn’t help but hold his breath. Her eyes looked almost…pleading? She held that pose for almost half a minute, then she trotted off, leaving her older injured daughter behind by herself, her two young children following closely after her, while the injured daughter just stood there, her side presented to the hide.

Alexander lowered his binoculars, his face an unmoving mask. Madu saw evidence of shock, disbelief and sorrow in it. He had never seen an animal behave like that and he could tell that it was much the same for Alexander, his binoculars resting on his lap. It took the Human only a few seconds to collect himself, then Alexander put the binoculars away to his side and grabbed onto his rifle.

“As you wish”, he murmured as he carefully and silently placed the rifles stock onto the ledge of the small opening in front of them and took aim.

“Open your mouth and cover your ears; this will be loud”, he instructed with a whisper, prompting Madu to hastily do just that. Then the sound of raging thunder rolled through the forest. Madu’s eyes closed in that second. He thought his ear drums were about to split, feeling the shock reverberating through the entire cabin and triggering his own flight reflex, which he only suppressed with great effort in the last second as he felt his wings flexing. When he opened his eyes again the limping deer lay lifeless on the ground. Barely moved from where it had stood before the shot.

Alexander observed the lifeless corpse for a second longer, then slowly removed the bullet cartridge from the rifle, switched the security back on and put it back into the corner of the hide. Madu meanwhile was still in a bit of a shock, his heart pounding out of his chest. He had been prepared for this eventuality, or so he had thought. He knew better now. The same seemed to apply for the rest of their environment as an odd silence had gripped the forest. This wasn’t the calmness from before but the same shock he felt himself right now. He reminded himself of his duties, of the things he had to do now. He had to document it. This was a priceless, nay, lucky opportunity and it gave him the strength to rebalance his inner turmoil.

He focused back towards Alexander, expecting the Human to get ready to get down and inspect his prey, but instead he just sat there. Hands folded onto his lap and leaned back against the wooden wall behind him, his eyes closed. He seemed in no rush.

“Aren’t…Aren’t we going to go down now?”

“No”, Alexander responded, slowly opening his eyes, “We are going to let her die in peace.”

“But…isn’t she dead already?”

Alexander exhaled sharply. “Hardly. I hit her heart. It will a take a bit longer for the rest of her to give out. Until she is truly dead.”

“And…you want to wait for that?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

For a moment Madu could’ve sworn he saw a hint of anger rise in Alexander’s face but it flickered away as quickly as it had come, as if carried away by a slight breeze.

“Put yourself into her shoes. You were hurt, badly so, then you feel an impact and hear a noise loud as thunder. The force of it drops you to the ground. Panic grips you. You try to get up, but you can’t. Your legs won’t listen to you any longer. It is as if you have no power. You feel yourself getting dizzier, colder, weaker by the second. Your concious slowly fading out and with it the panic. Maybe one small part of you understands that this is the end. What would you rather see in those last moments? A predator hovering over you or the beautiful evening sky?”

Madu looked outside onto the dead deer, then towards the horizon which was tinged in red by now, the first few stars emerging. He tried to imagine the scenario Alexander had described and a small shiver shook him.

“The evening sky”, he replied meekly.

“And that’s why we got to wait.”

Alexander closed his eyes again and left Madu to his own thoughts, which had drifted into a sort of melancholy he found hard to explain. He had never been the religious sort but before he knew he had wished the deer’s spirit to move on in peace.

Was it strange to feel sorrow for the death of an animal that he had never known before, that was as alien to him as the rest of this world? Madu roused himself. No; it wasn’t, he decided. He had seen it’s pain first hand. It’s loving interaction with it’s mother. It had feelings. It had lived. He had wondered about what had instigated Alexander’s ethics and now the answer felt so painfully obvious. There was one thing that wouldn’t leave him though: The image of the mother staring at them. He had to talk about it.

“Have you…have you ever seen anything like this before?”, Madu asked knowing instinctively that there was need to specify any further as Alexander didn’t even open his eyes when he replied.

“No. Never.”

An oppressive silence hang over the hide for a moment in time that felt like the thick sap of a tree dripping slowly along the path of gravity culminating when Alexander reopened his eyes to an unfocused stare that pierced off into the distance.

“I have been out here for many years. I have seen all kinds of animals come and go. Some through my hand, some through the hands of others, some through other means, whatever they were. None ever ‘asked’ me to kill one of them. If I’d been out here alone I’d say I imagined it, but you saw it too, didn’t you?”

“Yes…she…she was almost begging you to kill her daughter…to end her child’s suffering. I…could swear she focused me for a moment as impossible as it is.”

“Is it? We all live and feel. We share in this world. Maybe even in the same ways. Who is to say that a connection like that is not possible? I have found that there is a certain magic to life. When you are out here long enough, you can see it happen…That is if you let it happen and I choose to believe it happened today. That it was indeed real. That there was something special about it. I want to live in a world where that is possible. Wonders are something to be savoured, Madu. Let us not destroy it by trying to reason about it.”

Madu gave an agreeing chirp. Whatever this behaviour had been caused by, did it truly matter? The scientist in him would have said yes and he was sure his colleagues would come to much different conclusions once they got their hands on the recordings and data captured by his lens, but in this moment he was with Alexander. This moment deserved to be magic.

©Eno Khan
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