Ikiiri

Ikiiri Chapter 4

"What...what's the meaning of this?" Owzer asks, looking between them and taking a step back.

"You've been hunting an innocent people, Owzer," Jinari says, stepping forward. "You've been killing them and stripping their bodies for fur and ivory, and why? Just because it suits you? Just because you can make some money from killing them? It's wrong, and it has to stop."

Owzer laughs nervously and protests, "Th-this is ridiculous! I've done no such thing!"

"Five of your own men went after Ikiiri a few weeks ago. It's pure luck that she's still alive." He walks forward again, pressing close to Owzer, who backs away and moves behind a table. "She's the proof of what you're doing, Owzer!"

Owzer looks at each of them in turn, then scowls and flies into a small, animated outburst. "This is preposterous! You can't seriously expect me to believe that this, this...animal is any kind of person to kill! I admit, they're not quite what I expected..."

He pauses to look her over, studying her familiar stripes and tail patterns and recognizing them as belonging to the species that Manny hunts. "But they're still not people!"

"I'm not an animal!" She protests angrily.

Owzer steps back, taking his hands off of a chair. He almost blanches, but catches himself and regains his composure.

"Can an animal talk?" Jinari asks him.

Looking defensive, Owzer scowls and points at him. "This is a trick! You trained this beast to speak our language so you could make a mockery out of me."

"He didn't train me to do anything," She replies in a flat, chilly voice; then she looks at Jinari and her face softens. "We taught each other."

Owzer steps back, laughing and waving his hands. "You're going to have to do a lot better than this if you're going to convince me. I mean, look at you...you stand there, talking to me, dressed in his clothes, but you aren't a woman. You're not human, you're..."

He seems to fumble for words, scrunching his mouth up a little and gesturing at her with his hand. "Something else. You have no civilization, no culture, nothing without him...or if you do, it'd be the first time I've heard of it."

He looks at Jinari and gives him a hard look. "Take your pet somewhere else. I'm not buying your bull."

Jinari's about to say something when she shoots a look at him and holds her hand up, begging him to stay quiet. He looks at her for a moment and relents, stepping back with a nod, nearly literally biting his tongue. She looks back at Owzer and steps toward him, a tear rolling down her face. "My people...do nothing to you. We just want to live in the forest, in peace...all we have is our family. You come and kill us...kill our family, kill our friends...you hunt us and take our skin, our...our..."

She runs the fingers of one of her hands over her ivory, unable to find a translation for them. "Just so you can show us off like -- trophies."

She walks closer to him, finally looking up into his face. "...Please don't kill any more. Please."

He shakes his head, fighting back tears and whispering, "But you aren't human."

"That doesn't make it right," She whispers.

A tear rolls down his cheek and his breath quivers. "It...it...doesn't matter...you..."

He speaks the words, but he doesn't believe in them anymore. He's realized that they are beings that have emotions and intelligence, people that can think and feel and live. The reality of his situation falls on him like the walls of Vector tumbling down, a weight of depression and anguish and cold, hard facts burying him in a single, sudden realization...