"All right, all right," Someone said from across the room, "let's hear it shall we?"
"Which one are you asking for?" An old man's irritated voice from ahead asked.
"Let's hear Withelbars'. His poem…what's it's name?" The same person from across the room asked.
"Withelbars' … Withelbars' …where are you…?" The old voice murmured from the top. You could hear the ruffling of paper.
"We'll wait for him to age another century." A sarcastic remark.
"Shut you up." The old man's voice wavered from age. "Ah. There it is…"
"What's it called?"
"It's called…it's called." More searching. "What's mine is not yours. But what's ours is yours as well."
"What is?" The person who threw the sarcastic remark wondered.
"The poem."
"Say what?"
"What's mine is not yours, but what's ours is yours too."
"I thought I heard 'yours as well.'" A voice complained.
The old man muttered "So it is…"
The Commoners Committee members engaged in talk.
"People…people…" The old man said, "Let's hear what Withelbars had to say."
Murmur of agreement.
"Reader, read." A voice announced. "Read…what's the blasted title?"
"What's mine is not yours, but what's our is your as well."
And a clear male voice read.
"I've written a poem; seven,
eight…no nine lines it was.
It talked about the beauty of
my she-species, her flashing
eyes and graceful gait, I've
talked about her blond hair-
trailing like rays from a golden
sun- and talked about her blue
eyes- blue, like the vast expanse
of our oceans- and talked bout
her lips- violet red…no scarlet-
Say what? You don't have a
mouth at all? Nor two blue
eyes to see from…no? Four
you say! Then you could see
much more than I, friend, the
poem I've written not just about
the she-human, but about my
trees as well, about their swaying
in the wind, the flowers scenting
the breeze about the stags bucking
in the glen…but no you wouldn't
understand, I've written it in
My language, the human language,
for how could you possibly
imagine… Say what?
You have pink leaves and blue
bark? You have red grass and
four moons?
Why, we had one moon and
even this was stolen from
us! Dead as it was and
barren…it was ours! We
marked it with a flag and a
couple of foot prints. Ours!
We have set our gazes open
it from thy past and pondered
what Human face peers down
upon us, we thought we saw
rivers and streams and high
mountain peeks…say what?
Your moons have what we
thought we saw in ours. What
live imagination do we have?
But no, my friend, only if you
could read this poem…understand
thy beauty of it's words doth it sing,
but your langue…mine…
Nay, our birds sing their cheerful verses
and your three
Are dead to their songs
and tradition…"
There was a silence as they allowed themselves to digest all this. Then a person spoke, "So is he against or with Alem?"
Alem is a poet who believes that even though there is a visual difference between humans and Andalites they are very similar.
The entire galaxy thinks not so.
But a few thoughtful humans thinking abstractly think so too. Alem is a known one, he makes his points very clearly and cleverly, but people are starting to have second thoughts about Withelbars' view on this.
"He's in between." Called out the voice, "Either that or he's trying to make a point."
"I think he's against. Nothing said there could have possible been shared…" Another said, "He talks about two different languages."
"So he does. But he talks about seeing things with four eyes and the way the human tries to entwine what's human with what's not."
"So everyone thinks that the poet's persona is a human?"
Murmurs of agreement.
"He's only musing about what the Andalite says, you don't hear the Andalite speaking but this way…Oh I don't know, it seems like he's having a conversation."
"But isn't it the Andalite that points out the similarities?"
"Not really pointing out, he's sharing what he sees as what he has and what the human doesn't. Two eyes, no four, pink leaves, blue bark, four moons. We have one, see? The human points out what he has and well, see the negatives. " The voice paused slightly, "'Four moons? Why we had one and even this was stolen.' I think he's implying it's their fault and not the enemy's."
"He?" A female voice called out, irritated, "Is everything you hear a he? It could have been a her."
"This time it is a he." The voice said, "Sorry Janet, I'm not being sexist here. But why on earth would a human talk to the Andalite telling him about a 'she human' and 'her flashing eyes'? Wouldn't make sense."
Janet person was quiet, beaten, her argument at a standstill, but she said, "Well, that's a first."
"I like the thing about the languages." A dreamy voice said, "In the poem, he says he'd written another, he talks about all the things he described, nature, birds, females…when you think about it he's talking about this poem, and the two languages, not languages at all, by language he means understanding."
I stood up. I was going to leave. I felt worn out tried.
I had a feeling that a dozen eyes were staring at me, but I made it out with the help of Kes, my guide dog, you see, I'm blind.
And the talks about the negatives upset me slightly.
The way Withelbars pointed out the things we humans didn't have, we no longer had a moon, or a planet, no longer trees or the vast expanses of the skies…But our ocean! Our oceans.
I yearned to hear her voice again. The ocean.
To hear it when she was calm, the soft slosh-slosh. To hear her angry waves as they hit the rocks with massive forces crash! crash!
I have long forgotten the way all things looked, forgot what color was, and forgot what the waves looked like, the huge skies, and the towering mountains.
Things like these were abstract to me; scarlet and blue and green and pink…all abstract things. For me black was reality.
I made my way back to my section of the preserve it wasn't far.
And when I smelt the sea…waited for Firnet to greet me, hear her complex mixture of clicks and squeaks, enter the water and feel her swim around me.
Firnet is a dolphin.
I am a human, but we are friends. I saved her; she lives in the preserve now, in the ocean part of it.
I often swim along side her.
Since I was blind, the underwater feeling gave me control over my environment, I wouldn't have to take care where I walk, not have to be walk with my legs brushing dog fur.
I may have forgotten color, I may have forgotten my own face, what I looked like, but I still remembered dolphins.
Today I didn't jump in with her, I sat down along the rocks and detected her presence, Kes sat down beside me, laid his head on my lap.
"Hey there Firnet." I said smiling, knowing that even though I couldn't see her grinning face she could see my smile only too well.
I heard clicks, then a splash of water.
I played around with Kes and Firnet. When I fist got Kes he was a bit edgy around Firnet, but now they were friends.
Kes learned to swim, only after he became friends with Firnet.
In my childhood, I had a fear of the waters, especially deep waters. And I almost drowned, actually, a white shark molded me, I still bear the scars along my chest and my face.
Firnet's pod saved me, not from the shark, as he or she just wanted a bit out of me, it had mistaken me as a seal.
And then our friendship began.
But that's not what I was thinking of, I was thinking about what a friend of mine said, a friend from the military.
A person that I had known to have affection towards me, not that she'll ever admit it.
It was before my accident, I used to be a Masi, but I survived a fighter wreckage that cost me my sight.
She was an Asi much too wrapped up in her work, an Asi who had ambitions and…well, back then she wasn't Asi and I wasn't Masi, there was no such thing.
Asi made the Asi, but back then, she was just a warrior.
And I was just a fighter pilot.
But we had feeling for each other.
Asi called, out of the blue, asking a favor. She said I was the only friend she had, the only one she fully trusts.
And I asked her what this favor of hers was.
She said she needed someone to take care of her sister's baby.
And I understood. I said I'd think about it.
And I thought about it, I knew my answer.
I thought about it carefully, because that meant moving in with her and that could arose complications...
I would say yes.
I may have the C.C, I may have Kes as a friend, and I may have my soul friend, a dolphin named Firnet.
But I longed for a friend. The C.C were strangers, Kes a dog, Firnet a dolphin. On the other hand Asi is a human.
I'm a human too.