An Unlikely Ally

Chapter 18 - Target Practice

Arty was resting against the corner wall of the room closest to the door and was holding the braille book while she watched over John as he slept.

"I cannot imagine the burden of having to sleep every 'fourteen to sixteen hours' and for 'eight-hour' lengths. To his units, I would be sleeping every forty-six to sometimes even seventy-two hours and then be asleep for around twelve to fourteen hours." Arty chuffed quietly as John shuffled a bit in his sleep almost as if he could hear that he was under scrutiny.

"They move in their sleep too, or John at least. 'Dreams' he called them, like watching random snippets of the previous day, mixed in with wants and desires, fears and worries. I feel that dreams can best be described as the books I have listened to, they are unreal yet so fantastic. I guess that makes up for the long time doing nothing then, they get to live in another world of fantasy for nearly half of their life. Do they even know which one is fantasy and which one is the world?" Arty mused to herself and looked down at the leather-bound book before flipping it open.

She brushed her fingers over the pages to feel the complex patterns of raised protrusions that were the braille text, yet she could not decipher their meaning. But she noticed that the dots were in groups typically, each group had several seemingly random lengths of elements, but with very deliberate spacing.

"Wait... These are letters! Words! Long space between a grouping is like the pauses when speaking English words, which means within those groups are letters, and I know their exact pattern, it repeats just like English 'characters' repeat in words." Arty gasped to herself and felt the excitement build in her body.

She closed the book and ran her fingers over the dots that were where the 'title' should be.

"Five symbols, space, then six. First group a symbol repeats twice in the 3rd and 4th position and is on the last 'letter' of the last group. My guess is that symbol is an 'R', 'Harry Potter'." Arty beamed into the darkness of the room, to her it was also quite dark since there was very little ambient noise besides John's breathing.

Arty shook her head and quietly placed the book down to her side, all the while still smiling. "Humans are way more fun then my own kind, why do they have to be so stuck in thinking such stupid things?" She asked herself but answered shortly after. "Because if you were like me back home, you would of already starved to death or had your home taken by a more cunning figure." She sighed and turned her gaze over to the sleeping figure of John and watched him for a few minutes.

She watched the slow and rhythmic outwards and inwards movement of his chest, taking comfort in it. "My kind normally sleeps together, well families sleep together. to ensure their safety at night. With little food and water, we sleep a lot longer and sometimes are unaware of our surroundings, it can happen especially if their starved. The healthiest stays awake to watch over the weakest, just in case something happens during the night, like home being attacked by other family or 'earthquake'." Arty paused as she watched John rustle some more, wrapping up tighter in his blanket.

"I am the strongest watching the weakest." Arty noted but shook her head quickly. "No, that implies we are family, we are not." Arty corrected herself but paused to consider. "In Hunger Games, Katis and Peeta were 'friends', I think? My kind typically have no concept of friends, except distant ally. You are mate, family or distant ally, you aren't kind unless you get something in return. Am I John's 'friend'?" Arty asked herself.

She thought over this and considered what this could mean. "For humans, friends are like family, you trust your friend and they trust you, however unlike mates, you don't intend to start offspring with them. But what is a 'girlfriend or boyfriend' then? Wait a minute-" Arty's heart nearly leapt out of her chest and she felt her face warm up as she glared at John.