Planet X (Revised)

Chapter 2: Kali

“Go ahead and cry,” Salim told me.

I shook my head, “I can’t, I never cry."

“Why?”

“I just don't. Well, sometimes I do, but not when someone is watching. It's typical and selfish.”

“You have a strange sense of typical and selfish. Everyone cries sometimes, even I do.”

I laugh bitterly, "Snakes that leave rainbow scars, crystals that control the elements, guys who andmit to crying, this is such a strange place." I look back at the mark. “Do you think it will fade?” I ask, worried that I’ll be stuck with a glowing, color changing “tattoo” forever. Even though it wasn’t that funny, we both laughed. “So, when can we continue our journey?”

“When you are better.”

“I feel perfectly fine, we can leave as soon as you want.”

At that moment, someone came in, her head bowed and cloth in her arms. She was a young girl with dark brown hair, and skin that was lighter than Salim's, but still dark. She was very small, and her clothes were too large for her.

I smiled “Hello,” I put my hand out to her, “My name is Alice, what is yours?”

Salim and the girl looked at me as though I were crazy, but the look on the girl’s face was quickly replaced by quiet. I caught sight of violet eyes, “I am called, ninety-three.” Was her response.

I shook my head, confused, “No, your name, not your number.”

Fearfully she answered, “My number is my name.”

“Are you a slave?” She nodded. I looked at Salim, “Your world has slaves? That’s so barbaric.”

He looked at me weird, “What do you mean barbaric? Slaves are a natual piece of the world."

"Natural?" I was astonished, but I held my tongue. "When can we leave?" I ask.

He blinks, "We can leave now if you want.”

I smiled, “Good," I turned to the girl, "you can come too.” He violet eyes lit up.

Salim objected, “She's a slave, you cannot just take her. There are rules. Laws that prohibit such a thing. You must buy her, not steal her. I do not have the money to buy a slave."

Slowly, I sigh, "I'm sorry, I can't take you. I wish I could though."

She nods, hiding her sadness, "It's okay, I understand. Here are some clothes." She places them on my lap and leaves. Salim goes outside while I change, and we head to the market. When I asked for some money to buy a few things, he handed me squares of wrinkled paper that had no discern able marks on them. “Wait, your money is paper?” I ask, he nods, “Well then keep it, I have some in my pack.” I pull out a notebook. “So, what’s the worth of this stuff? How much can you buy with it?”

He takes the notebook from me and flips through it. “Wow, this paper is pristine. So thin, flat, perfect shape, all the same size, strait lines. Where did you get this?”

I smile, “Back home, paper is everywhere. Back home, this notebook, as it's called, is worth about as much as an apple.”

 William looked at me with wide eyes, “Really?  Here, it is worth as much as an army and their gear.

I was surprised, “Wow, but I don’t get it.”

“What don't you get?”

“If you have so many trees, why is paper so… costly?”

He considered the question, “Well, the only place that you can actually get trees for paper, is in the woods. Not many people are willing to go in there, and if they are, most of them refuse to cut down trees, saying it’s savage, taking the life of an innocent creature. They say the trees wail and cry when a blade hits them.”

The last statement sent chills up my spine, something was wrong with this place. “The trees where I come from don’t cry, they don’t even have a voice.” I take a deep breath, “Well, let’s get moving, I’ll take care of the expensive stuff, you take care of the cheep stuff. Meet back here.”

Will nods and heads off. I turn back the way we came, it's time to go get a little girl.

*     *     *     *     *

It wasn't very difficult to buy the little girl, she was worth a quarter sheet of paper. That kind of made me angry, but there wasn't much I could do. The thought passed my mind to buy the entire town of slaves to set them free. But that was unrealistic, no one would agree to that.

I look down at her, "I think I'll give you a new name," I say, "numbers don't fit as a free person's name."

"Really? I am a free person?"

"Yes, but don't go running off yet. If it's okay with you, I'd like you to be my little sister."

She beams happily, "I would love that. But there's only one problem."

"What is that?" I ask, worried about a mother or something.

"I don't know how to be a sister," she whispers in my ear.

I laugh, "that's okay, I have two sisters and a brother already, and I don't have a clue how to be a sister either." She laughs with me, "So, what would you like your name to be?"

She bites her lip for a minute as we walk, "Kali," she says, "I've always wanted the name Kali"

"Then Kali it is. Hello Kali, sister of mine, I think we shall be great friends."

"But I thought we were sister, not friends."