When Tharhedhal told us that Alharhan and Tereskàdhar would be no more, I wondered how he could have said it with such sincerity that it made me shudder. We Tereskàdians cannot lie, but that does not necessarily mean everything we say is the absolute truth. Tharhedhal believed what he was saying was the truth, but it was his personal truth. There are many Alharhanians who believe that Krysa Rhona ended The Ap’hăkharys just because she felt like it, and yet here was a Tereskàdian who was telling me that Alharhanians and Tereskàdians, and every living thing on these two planets, had only a limited amount of time to live.

Swimming was the furthest thing from my mind right now, but I asked Rhalhea through our whistling dragons if she wanted to go swimming, and all she sent back was ‘No.’ The cubs began to protest when I told them we would be going back to our own cabin, but hushed up quickly when I told them, via our whistling dragons, not to make a scene.

From what I remember of The Ap’hăkharys there is nothing in the final section to indicate that our worlds will end on a particular date. What puzzles me is that Tharhedhal mentioned that date with such conviction, it would be hard to believe anything but the destruction of two planets was going to take place. And yet… and yet… The Orovhian system has been in existence for millions of years, and surely, it will continue to be in existence for millions more.

When somebody tells you something like this it tends to stick in your mind, and no matter how hard you try you can’t get rid of it. Even if it were true, what can we, the Tereskàdians do about it. While the Alharhanians have achieved space flight, they have so far only explored the Orovhian system. And even if we were to fly beyond the boundaries of Orovha’s planets, where would we go? And who would go? Would it be both the Alharhanians and Tereskàdians?

Kykherhenha wants to know why I would be thinking of questions like that when there is no proof except the prophecies of a girl who died more than a thousand years ago. And the prophecies have been proven false, at least in the Frešherod incident.

During the past sixteen days, I have been unable to sleep. Sure, I’ve curled up in the usual sleeping position, with my tail covering my face, but sleep has evaded me. This has affected Kykherhenha, who has been rather grumbly lately, and I don’t blame her.

Two days ago we ate at the Captain’s table. Rhalhea had told me to forget about The Ap’hăkharys and what Tharhedhal had told us, but halfway into the meal I asked Captain Lhuâdel if he was familiar with the last portion of The Ap’hăkharys. I asked him if he knew about Tharhedhal and his declaration that Alharhan and Tereskàdhar would soon be destroyed.

He laughed, which I found rather disturbing because I did not see anything amusing in what I had just told him. Do you know how many Alharhanians have predicted that either one planet, or even both, are going to be destroyed in 5700? I didn’t know if I was supposed to answer that, so I didn’t say anything. A large natural object, he continued. Aliens from outer space… some kind of quake that will rip our planets apart… you name it, they’ve predicted it. Do you know that Alharhanians have been predicting death and destruction of Alharhan and Tereskàdhar every thousand years? And look at us, here we are, still alive, still breathing.

Rhalhea glared at me, told me through our whistling dragons that she did not want to hear anymore, or she would leave the table. So I fell silent rather silently, and concentrated on my meal. I had Jhalhemha in my pouch, and she ventured out to take nourishment from my chest teats. I wondered how much longer she would be in the pouches before she came out permanently.

According to Captain Lhuâdel there are twenty two more Tereskàdian days left before we land at the spaceport on Jinhas. I promised Rhalhea that during those twenty-two days I would not see Tharhedhal and Sin’hărha, and that I would not go up to the deck where he lived. And what if I want to go swimming? I asked. She wanted me to use one of those unnatural pools on the other decks, but I was not about to do that.

It is now late at night, and I am staring at what I have just written. And this crazy thought creeps into my mind, a thought that shatters me so much Kykherhenha butts her head against my shoulder and tells me I should get that thought out of my head immediately. The thought of only Alharhan being destroyed, and Tereskàdhar being spared sits like the weight of this spaceship on my mind.
The thought that the Supreme One would punish all those Alharhanians who enslaved and raped and murdered so many Tereskàdians settles in my mind and will not leave. I try to get rid of it by reading previous entries of my journal, but that doesn’t help.

I don’t know why I am thinking of this. Tharhedhal had said that both Alharhan and Tereskàdhar would be destroyed next year. Why Tereskàdhar? What have we Tereskàdians done to deserve this fate?

Stop it, please, Kykherhenha says. Tharhedhal cannot see the future. When the day comes, you and I, and all the Tereskàdians and the whistling dragons, and the Alharhanians will still be here.

Then why do I have this strange feeling running through my body?

Pešhophashanhashen 12.489/Day 411

By the time a Tereskàdian is twelve years old, he or she will have found a mate, and they will be blood-bonded, linked from the moment the phaûphan vine encircles the wrists of both until death claims one and then the other. It is very rare that a Tereskàdian will not have found a mate by the time he or she has reached sexual maturity, but standing before me was a Tereskàdian who was sixteen years old, but who had not yet found a mate, had not been blood-bonded, and, judging by his appearance, had no wish to do so.

The last time I saw him I remember this scrawny looking cub with the tangled fur. Even at that time I thought that this cub did not know how to take care of himself, and it looked like he still had not learned. I asked him what had happened in the ten years that had passed since I last saw him, and he told me that after I took him out of that hospital in Treskebhar he stayed with a middle-aged Alharhanian couple that was decidedly anti-Tereskàdian. Rhalhea was appalled; she said that if she found out a guardian was an anti-Tereskàdian she would have left immediately. I was only seven years old, Tharhedhal said. Where could I go?

He told us that he finally did leave the home after years of verbal and psychological abuse. They did not abuse him physically, of course, because they knew what would happen. A cub may not have the poison in his claws, but an Alharhanian would think twice about tangling with one. Tharhedhal told us that on several occasions the male Alharhanian tried to beat him, but Tharhedhal used his claws and inflicted serious wounds on the Alharhanian’s hands and arms.

I didn’t want to hear any more about the past, so I asked him what he was doing on the ship, and why he did not have a mate yet. He did not say anything for what seemed like a long time, then he said Captain Lhuâdel knew about him. I told him I wanted to stay right here, he said, and no one should know about me. This entire deck is off limits to anyone but the Captain and a few personnel who have been sworn to secrecy.

If I had been already confused, I was thoroughly bewildered now. Apparently Tharhedhal was aboard this ship with the Captain’s blessing, but that still did not explain what he was doing aboard. And he still had not given me an answer as to why he did not yet have a mate.

He led us out of the room, down the hallway to another door which slid open silently. This is my room, he said, stepping aside to let us in.

To say that this was just a room was certainly an understatement. If I had to compare it to something I would say it was three times as large as the Dhoren living room. I noticed the upholstered chairs, a couch big enough to seat five, a table with eight chairs set around it, cupboards, and cabinets, a double sink, and a long counter that looked like it was large enough for me to lie on, with plenty of room left over. As I looked at everything I still did not understand. How could this scraggly-furred Tereskàdian live in such luxury while Rhalhea and I, and our three cubs, and the whistling dragons, lived in a mere cabin that was just barely large enough to serve its purpose?

Have you read The Ap’hăkharys? he asked. Of course we had, but how was that book an answer to my questions. When I asked him again why he did not have a mate, he said that he had more important things to do. Right now, he said, a mate is so far removed from my mind I don’t even think about it. When I asked him what The Ap’hăkharys has to do with all this, he said I may have read it, but I either did not deem the predictions important, or I had forgotten what she had written. I had to confess that it had been a few years since I had read it.

If you remember, he said, Krysa Rhona’s predictions end in the year 5700. The precise date has been determined to be the eighth of Mharhachyzh. There is a good reason for that date. Rhalhea and I looked at each other, neither one of us wanting to think of the impossible. I thought back to the time when we went to Frešherod to visit my brother and his family, only to find out that Krysa Rhona had predicted all the Tereskàdians in the town would be killed, including any visitors. But that did not happen because I was determined not to let it happen. The future is not set in stone, I decided, and so it can be changed.

On the eighth of Mharhachyzh 5700, Tharhedhal said, the worlds of Alharhan and Tereskàdhar will cease to exist.

Pešhŏrh. 295.489/Day 395

When we were walking along that deserted hallway it was obvious that there was another Tereskàdian aboard the ship. Kykherhenha told me she was trying to engage the other whistling dragon in conversation, but she was not having much success. Whistling dragons, if they want to, can close their minds to other whistling dragons, but that is done only rarely. If this other whistling dragons did not want to be detected she must have had a good reason.

The lights in this hallway were dim, as if this ship was trying to conserve energy. Jhorhea was holding my paw, and Rheža was staying close to Rhalhea. Jhalhemha was in my pouch and she was sleeping. I could sense a slight fear emanating from Jhorhea, and I couldn’t blame her, because it felt as if we were walking in some eerie twilight world that consisted of a rather narrow corridor winding its way to only the Supreme One knew where.

I smell water, Rhalhea said, and it’s really close. She stopped in front of a door which hissed open. I stood beside her, and we were looking at a huge room, and in that room the swimming pool that Captain Lhuâdel had told us about. Except that I couldn’t really call it a swimming pool; it was more like a lake. It reminded me of the lake near the village on ‘Hănharys where I lived. I was thinking of the cabin on the other side of the lake, and I almost expected to see one here.

My thoughts were not on swimming at the moment, because I sensed another presence here. Someone was watching us from a safe distance, and he was a Tereskàdian. Kykherhenha told me the whistling dragon she had been trying to contact had finally opened her mind to her. You will never guess who it is, she said. When she saw my ears back and my tail flicking, she quickly said, Sin’hărha. As soon as she said that name, I told Rhalhea. We looked at each other and wondered what Tharhedhal was doing here.

The first time I saw Tharhedhal, he and his whistling dragon, Sin’hărha were the only survivors in a hovercar crash in which his guardians were killed. That was when the entire city of Treskebhar was being sabotaged. Tharhedhal had been one of the more than one hundred cubs that had traveled with me and Rhalhea from Tereskàdhar to Alharhan, but it was after he lost his guardians that I really began to know him. He stayed at the Dhoren home for just a short time, because Lheana felt she could not handle another Tereskàdian and whistling dragon. After he was adopted by a young, childless couple I lost track of him.

How old was he now? He was seven when he was involved in that accident; that was almost ten years ago. If he wasn’t seventeen yet, he soon would be. Kykherhenha asked me why I was concerned with his age when I should be wondering what he was doing on this ship. He wants to go to Tereskàdhar, I thought. He doesn’t belong on this ship, she sent, and I had to agree with her. Somehow, he managed not only aboard this huge mothership, but also aboard the vessel that brought us here.

I called his name, but no one answered. I said I knew he was in here, and why didn’t he come out? I had a feeling that sooner or later he would come out. He would have to; if he wanted to eat, he would have to show himself because there was no way he was going to find anything to eat up here.

The Tereskàdian who showed himself startled me because he did not look like the way I would have pictured Tharhedhal. This Tereskàdian was rather small for a sixteen-year-old, and remarkably skinny, and his fur looked like it hadn’t seen any oil from the oil gland in years. It looked like his fur had been torn from his body, tossed about by some strong wind and pasted back on his body. His tail was not carried in the usual along-the-back position; it was dragging on the ground. In his paw he was holding a dead t’hŏphar which smelled like it had been dead for days. Rhalhea took a few steps back, held her paws in front of her snout, covering her nose. I didn’t blame her; the t’hŏphar smelled so bad that my stomach started churning, and it took all my willpower to stop from vomiting.

Tharhedhal, I said, but he just stood there. It’s me, Thekherham, I continued, but there was no reaction from him. I wanted to find out what had happened to him, why his appearance was so shocking, but I couldn’t learn anything if he refused to even acknowledge me. I looked at Rhalhea, and she just twitched her whiskers. I knew she wouldn’t be much help, and I realized it would be up to me to bring Tharhedhal into the real world.

Sin’hărha isn’t telling me anything, Kykherhenha said. She keeps closing her mind to me when I ask her something.

When we were walking down the hallway to find this swimming pool, I had my mind set on swimming, but now that I saw Tharhedhal and Sin’hărha that was the furthest thing from my mind.

Pešhophashanhashen 12.489/Day 411

Yesterday we reached the halfway mark of the journey so this will be the final time that I am writing down the Alharhanian date. Below that I have marked down the Tereskàdian date, and that is the one I will be using from now on, or at least until we return to Alharhan, and the Alharhanian date will be used when we reach the halfway point between Tereskàdhar and Alharhan.

There are two calendars in our cabin, an Alharhanian one and a Tereskàdian one. I am looking at the Alharhanian calendar, and notice that it N’hŏŵrhachyzh 15th is the first day of autumn. I wonder what the weather is like right now. Autumn in Treskebhar can be as hot as the summer, or rather chilly, as if winter were trying to intrude a little too early.

Alharhan is beyond our reach now, so whatever I write about it is sheer speculation. We are looking forward to Tereskàdhar where the corresponding date is Sŵha’hănhashen 6th, in the year 489. When the ship arrives in the middle of next month, it will be summer, but summer on Tereskàdhar is a far cry from what the Alharhanians call summer on their planet. The summer on Tereskàdhar will merge into fall at the end of that month, which means that it will soon be cold enough for snow to fall. And I am certainly looking forward to spending a long time in a cold, snowy environment.

About an hour ago Jhorhea and I were standing on the bridge, out of the way of the crew, which was going about their daily routine, making sure that everything was running smoothly. When I watched them I didn’t think I would want to be in charge of a spaceship; I think there are too many responsibilities because you have to command an entire crew and you have to please the passengers.

Captain Lhuâdel was too busy to pay any attention to us. When Jhorhea requested a visit to the bridge, he said she could come here if she was accompanied by one of her parents, and she would have to stay out of the way. Two Tereskàdians and two whistling dragons were here, trying to make sense of all the personnel at their various stations, and all the flashing lights that seems to flash on and off for no apparent reason, at least no reason that a Tereskàdian could ascertain.

A short time later Jhorhea told me she had lost interest, that she wanted to go somewhere else. So I asked her if she wanted to look for a special swimming pool, and that made her open her eyes wide and prick up her ears. I didn’t think it was fair that only Jhorhea and I should search for it, so we went to our cabin to ask Rhalhea if she and Rheža and Jhalhemha wanted to come along.

The sheer size of the ship overwhelmed us. You would think that since we had Rhalhea and I had already journeyed on this ship when Jhorhea was in the pouches we would be used to it, but it felt as if we were walking from one end of Treskebhar to the other. Not only did we travel horizontally, but we also traveled vertically, as we entered one elevator or another, giving a number when that disembodied voice in the elevator requested which deck we wanted to go to.

When Captain Lhuâdel told us this swimming pool was seven decks up from the bridge, he wasn’t sure about it. As it turned out, it was nine decks up, a deck that we found strangely empty when the elevator door slid open. I sniffed the air, and there was no mistake about the water. It smelled natural, unlike the chemically treated water the Alharhanians like to call a swimming pool.

As we walked along the hallway I wondered where everyone was. Only Rhalhea and I, and the cubs, and our whistling dragons were in the hallway. But I had this feeling there was someone else here, someone familiar. I asked Kykherhenha if she had the same feeling, and she told me she was sensing a female whistling dragon not far ahead.

I stopped and looked at Rhalhea. There was no doubt that Keridhar had told her the same thing. This was rather puzzling, as I had thought we were the only Tereskàdians on this ship. But both of our whistling dragons could not be wrong. If there was another Tereskàdian here I certainly wanted to find out who it was and why he was on this ship.

N’hŏŵ. 15.99/Day 211
Tereskàdian Date: Pešhŏrhoŵhenhashen 24.489/Day 390

We are almost at the halfway mark of our journey. Sometimes I wish travel between Alharhan and Tereskàdhar didn’t take so long, but considering the distance involved, I guess we are lucky it doesn’t take a lot longer than three months. When Rhalhea and I went to school Sen Mharen told the students that many years ago it took months and months for ships just to cross the ocean.

We have a routine aboard the ship. The first one who seems to wake up is Jhalhemha. She spends her night in either my pouch or Rhalhea’s pouch, but very early in the morning she ventures out to take nourishment at one of our teats. When she is finished she goes back to sleep, curling up right where she is. My other two cubs tend to sleep in until well into the morning. Jhorhea says since she doesn’t have to go to school, there is no reason why she and Khedrhokhazh should get up early, and Rhalhea echoes her sister’s words.

Rhalhea and I went to the Game Room, and looked around. We turned down our hearing because it was really noisy in there. One of the staff came over and asked us if we were looking for a particular game, and I told him I wanted to play Pent’hăr. He took a quick look at the tables, and told me there were no seats available, but I knew he was lying. There were plenty of seats available. I could have complained to Captain Lhuâdel, but I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. Instead, Rhalhea and I just walked over to one of the tables where two Alharhanian males were chatting. They looked up, saw me and Rhalhea standing behind the two empty chairs. We’d like to play, I said. They looked at each other, and then the big, burly one starts laughing so loud that I had to turn my hearing down even further. I can play, I said casually. The smaller one, who looked like he should eat a whole lot more, said Alharhanians didn’t play with Tereskàdians because of the whistling dragons. So that was it. The fear that our whistling dragons would tell us what kind of cards they have in their hands. What if we tell our whistling dragons to sit over there? I said, pointing to a far-off corner. They will sit away from you two so you won’t have to worry about them seeing your cards. I could see their mighty Alharhanian brains working as they pondered that one, and finally they agreed.

I should have guessed that when we sat down at the table that we would be in for a big loss. There was money involved which Rhalhea didn’t like too much. She agreed that we would not spend more than fifty L’hŏr, which the small Alharhanian didn’t like. He said we had to have at least five hundred L’hŏr on the table, but I told him we wouldn’t play with that much money. They thought about that, finally agreed to fifty L’hŏr; I think they agreed because there was no one else interested in their table, and playing with two Tereskàdians was better than playing with no one at all.

The game went our way very briefly; at one point, Rhalhea had accumulated one hundred and forty L’hŏr, and I had almost as much. But I think they were toying with us. I think they were professional players who let the opposition win at the beginning, making them think they had the upper hand, when in fact they were the ones controlling the game. It wasn’t long before Rhalhea’s and my winnings were dwindling quicker than summer days on Tereskàdhar. When I was about to put my last ten L’hŏr into the center Rhalhea placed her paw on mine and told me not to bother. Through our whistling dragons she said she had five really bad cards, and there was no chance of winning. I had a good hand, but even that wouldn’t be good enough against these Alharhanians. They had won the last dozen games, and I had a feeling they would have won every game had we remained at that table.

When Rhalhea and I left the table it was late. We found Jhorhea and Rheža back in our cabin, curled up in sleep. Jhalhemha was in Rhalhea’s pouch, but she was very much awake. The trouble with tweeners is that they tend to sleep at unusual hours. I have noticed that Jhalhemha has a tendency to be awake when Rhalhea and I want to sleep, and to sleep when we are awake.

Rhalhea drank from Keridhar and I drank from Kykherhenha, and we ate the raw meat that room service brought earlier in the evening. Rhalhea spent the rest of the evening reading, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I told her I was going to take a walk. The only problem was that I didn’t really know where I wanted to go. Are you bored? Kykherhenha asked, and she answered her own question when she said of course I was bored. She felt what I felt, of course, so if I was bored, she knew all about it.

You could walk the ship the entire three months it takes to travel to Tereskàdhar and you still won’t see everything. I was heading for the swimming pool, although I wasn’t really in the mood to go swimming. But it was a case of ‘since I am here’ so I decided that a little dip in the pool would not be such a bad idea. The only problem was the water. When Rhalhea and I and all the cubs traveled from Tereskàdhar to Alharhan I tried the pool but I didn’t like it all because of the stuff they put in the water. I hated it because the water wasn’t natural, and I vowed I would never come near water like that. But now…

Captain Lhuâdel said there was a pool on this ship so big that a dozen Tereskàdians and even their whistling dragons could use it at the same time, but I haven’t found it yet. Well, let’s just say I haven’t been looking for it yet. It’s supposed to be about seven decks up, which is quite a distance away. One of these days Rhalhea and I and the cubs will look for it, and when we find it, I will ask Captain Lhuâdel for a transfer to a cabin in that vicinity. I found out that passengers can do that. If there is another cabin available where they want to be relocated to, then the captain, or second in command, cannot refuse the request.

I am standing at the edge of the swimming pool, watching about a dozen Alharhanians enjoy a late night swim. I notice that they are all naked, which is understandable since it is rather warm in here. One of the Alharhanians gets out of the pool, wraps a towel around himself and asks me what I’m doing here. I told him I was thinking of swimming, but I didn’t like the way the water looked, and smelled. It doesn’t bother me, he said, and left. Well, of course it wouldn’t, I thought. You couldn’t smell a burning building if you were in the middle of it.

When I got back to the cabin Rhalhea was asleep. She was curled up on the bed, tail covering her face. Keridhar was on the floor at the foot of the bed, but he opened his eyes when Kykherhenha and I came in. I went over to the bed, and licked the top of Rhalhea’s head. I yawned, but I didn’t want to go to sleep. Every day since we boarded this ship we had been going to sleep much too early, and I kept thinking we were missing whatever nightlife these Alharhanians enjoyed. So I started today by staying up longer. I hoped Rhalhea would stay up with me, but apparently she wasn’t ready for it.

Tomorrow we are going to find that pool. And if there are cabins available nearby, we are moving there for the remainder of the journey.

N’hŏŵ. 11.99/Day 207