“He marched them into the Polar Zone and left them there,” I said.
Gaflus took another drink, nodded.
“What’s out there.”
“No one knows exactly. We just call them… Demons.”
“Demons,” I said, trying very hard not to let my voice sound inadvertently skeptical.
“Yeah,” he said.
“Ever seen one?”
He looked around, and then stood up, and without even acknowledging my existence, he
walked out.
*
*
*
I got back to the Jones and find the girl sitting to the left of the ramp, in some kind of right-
angle-lotus position, lying on her back with her legs crossed above her. She was so still that I
briefly feared she was dead, but with a moments observation I saw her ribs rise and fall enough
to demonstrate respiration. She looked like she’d been knocked over but I suspected she really
hadn’t been. I asked Norl what he thought.
{That’s just it…}
What?
{Thought… I’m not getting any from her.}
Is she asleep?
{More like she’s not there. Like, she’s there, but she’s not there.}
Some kind of meditative dissociation?
{Or whatever you humans call it}
What do lizards call it?
{We don’t, because we don’t do it. This is weird human stuff}
I see…
{Want me to bite her?}
Actually, yeah. Why don’t you?
{I was kidding.}
I’m not, though. Do it. See what happens.
{Seriously?}
Yeah, do it. I’m sick of not understanding what’s going on.
{Careful what you wish for…}
Advice that is always unheeded. I distrust it’s wisdom. Now bite the sleeping girl.
{Okay, then..}
And he flapped down off my shoulder and down towards her, but just as he completed a
circle and was going to light onto her chest, her arm shot up and snatched him. I started to react
but then stopped, observed.
Is she hurting you?