FALAHA'S JOURNEY: A Spacegirl's Account in Three Movements

Episode #60

Tagai was indeed young. Not a small child, but compared to us his development was similar to our twenty-year-olds. His exact physical age remained unknown. With a complex brain such as their kind had he could very well be into his fifties, despite the fact that soma demanded high cognitive function and thus greatly increased it from early on. Their brains continue to grow years after birth, probably until their head and body achieve their largest size, or maybe adding neurons well into adulthood.

The Baali had no age system like ours. It was pointless to measure such long lives in small units, so they recognized only four stages in their lives. First came Ari—'teethless': children from birth till the first form change, who depended on older beings such as parents, siblings, other relatives, and even those of far blood relation. During this time little Baali learned about the world, and as soon as their teeth grew they would abandon mother's milk and go on their first hunt with older ones. Karyi—'clawless' demi-adults: a period of transitioning from childhood to their older lives. Karyi are fully independent and self-sustaining, and this is the time they start to learn beyond basic survival and broadly expand their horizons; some might even have their own children at this point. Kih'maru—full demi-adults, older youngsters who have grown claws and have selected paths for their lives; at this time they also watch over youngest ones and have close contact with Erayi, still depending on their protection from outside dangers. Erayi are full adults; all Yarsh, Yajur, and Asha belong to this group.

Though different in size and time lived, both Tagai and Kané were Kih'maru. There was no set time for 'aging' into the next level as soon as you stopped being Ari. Everyone progressed at their own comfortable pace.

Tagai hailed from the Allied Worlds known as the Triad. The First and the Third Motherworlds of the Triad were home to the Avlaora Baali, the Second belonged to the Ashantri. The three Yajur at the head of the Triad were Varga's direct descendants.

Yajur Garai, Tagai's father, ruled over Yagran, the Third Motherworld of the Triad. Their series of encounters with Shaamta and his kin began with the devastation of Sandar, the First Motherworld, wiping out the whole kindred of Yajur Shendala, along with the Triad's Sangu. Despite that, the weakened Triad prevailed.

Broken and badly hurt, Shendala remained the sole resident of the whole planet. He survived, but these deaths drove him insane and he was now terrorizing the remaining Motherworlds, randomly wandering in places and killing everything he encountered there. As time passed, his name became a legend that terrified even the strongest Baali, and, ironically, kept the Triad's other enemies away for good. The only person who could confront the crazed monster was his old lover, Yajur Draagalla, the ruler of the Second Motherworld, Gekka. As the result of this tragedy, she was now the effective ruler of the Triad. Yet the word was that she and Shendala had a child sometime after the destruction on Sandar, and as strange things came out of this strange relationship, the kid was also an unusual one.

It was this kid Shaamta now set his eyes on to steal.

But before the enemy Sangu continued with more destruction, Yajur Garai gathered his forces for attack, so Dorgu kidnapped Tagai to prevent the assault and tried to exchange him for Shendala's child. However, Tagai's father refused the offer. There were reasons behind this decision Tagai could not tell us about. Still, his acceptance of this situation pointed at the fact that he was probably close to that mysterious person. He definitely knew what they were protecting.

Was it their new Sangu?

Having failed, Dorgu's force fled the Triad, escaping Garai into the depths of space. Thus began Tagai's journey into abuse and torture. Extremes of pleasure and pain, Dorgu and Shaamta delivered it all while looking to his father's weakness to gain the upper hand, but Shaamta was particularly interested in Shendala's last child. So far, Tagai had refused to tell them anything. The only thing he had feared was breaking before dying.