FANTASTIC PLANET v2.0 (2 page)

When the
little Om was away permanently, in the specially fitted out omhouse, the mother
bore only vague regrets with no particular resolve. Still, for several days she
moaned occasionally without really knowing why.

Once Tiwa
was certain her little Om would not be taken from her again, she said:

'This time,
he really is mine! What will I call him?'

'The Om
mother's name is Softina', advised her father, 'call him Softy.'

Tiwa looked
at the young creature as it was pulling up a fistful of grass in the nature
room. It was squatting on its small plump legs, clenching its fists in the
grass with a blissful look on its face and throwing green clumps in the
swimming pool, whilst letting out loud and

exultant
shrieks of laughter.

'Softy
doesn't suit him,' said the Traag child. 'Look how strong he is!'

'He must be
stopped,' said Praw. 'The little devil is going to wreck the nature room.'

He raised
his arms, deployed his membranes and sent wind towards the little Om, saying:

'Boo! Will
you stop that, little
devil!
'

'No Father',
said Tiwa, 'you're scaring him. He doesn't know what he's doing; he's only a
young animal!'

Yet the
creature did not seem scared at all. Aping the Traag, it was shaking its little
arms and shouting in turn:

'Boo! LidP
devil, boo!'

The father
and daughter burst out laughing. The Traag took two steps towards the Om and
grabbed it by one of its legs. He twirled it in his hand and took it to the
omhouse ignoring Tiwa's protests.

'He's got to
sleep a little', he said closing the omhouse's door,
'he's
been up to enough mischief for now, he needs to rest.'

To divert
his daughter's displeasure, he added:

'What name
will you give him in the end? He already has nice hair, just like his mother.
Call him Goldie.'

The little
girl pulled a face as her father gently ushered her to the nature room.

'Too many
Oms are called Goldie because of their hair', she said.

At that
moment, two little fists could be heard in the distance banging against the
omhouse door and a shrill voice was shouting:

'Boo!
Lidl devil!'

The two Traags
laughed again.

'He's a real
terror!' exclaimed the father.

The little
girl stopped laughing at once.

'Father',
she said, 'I will call him Terror.'

Praw said
with surprise:

'But that's
not an Om name!'

'It doesn't
matter, Father, I think it suits him. For short I will say Terr!'

Praw smiled.

'As you
wish, Tiwa, it is your Om after all.'

'I'll write
his name on a collar, I... Oh father! He still doesn't have a collar!'

'We will buy
one.'

Tiwa stamped
her feet.

'Now,
Father, right now. Take me to buy a collar for Terr!'

A green eyed
Traag entered the nature room. Praw turned towards her.

'Did you
hear that Wami? She wants me to buy a collar for the Om.'

Tiwa now
pleaded with her in turn.

'Mother,
will you? Will you let me go with Father to buy a collar for Terr?'

'Terr?' said
Tiwa's mother. 'Who's Terr?'

'It's the
name I've given to my little Om.'

The Traag
snapped her membranes with severity.

'All I hear
is talk of this Om!' she said. 'Since it's been here everything is going wrong.
I bet you haven't done any learning today?'

Tiwa gave a
downcast glance at the instruction headsets hanging from the wall.

'No Mother',
she said in a low voice, screwing up her red eyes.

The Traag
approached her and gently wrapped her membranes around her shoulders. She said
in a softer tone:

'That's
alright, Tiwa, I excuse you once more from instruction this morning.'

She turned
towards Praw.

'Take her to
buy the collar, Praw, if it pleases her that much.'

'That was
indeed my intention', said the father, 'but she must promise me to start her
instruction as soon as we return.'

Tiwa
promised everything that was asked of her and dragged her father towards the
door.

They crossed
the mound and, in order to go faster, unfolded their membranes and glided along
the ground.

From his
terrace, neighbour Faoz saw them leave.

'How's the
little Om?' he asked.

'Very well',
replied Tiwa, 'we're off to buy him a collar.'

The father
and daughter got into the sphere and closed the cover. It took off and flew
towards the town; tower blocks could be seen on the horizon.

'Father,
where will we find the collar?' asked Tiwa.

'In Block
12A there's a large omhouse display. There, one can find everything needed to
keep Oms. That's where I got the equipment for our omhouse.'

Within a few
minutes they had reached the city gates and left the sphere to take the mobile
alley leading to the A blocks. Through tunnels and over bridges, they crossed
other districts before getting to the town centre where the crowd was much
denser and the spheres of the warders and technicians appeared like large soap
bubbles suspended in mid-air. They left Alley 3 and let themselves be
transported by Alley A until Block 12.Once in the Block 12 atrium, they went up
ten floors and Tiwa became filled with wonder.

A large
corridor was lined on one side by shop windows where Oms of all races were
displayed. Some were blond like Terr. Others had dark skin and curly hair. Some
males had a mane of hair which started between their eyes and ears and,
circling the mouth, ended on the chin.

Further away,
glass cages were lined up where one could see dogs, lions from Mars, birds from
Ygam and all sorts of other animals from the universe. But Tiwa only had eyes
for the Oms, this race of small monkeys from Earth.

Tiwa's
selective interest for these animals was not particularly original for a young
Traag girl. An Om was by far the most prized companion on Ygam. Was there not a
saying which went: "Oms are Traags' best friends"? Besides it was in
front of the Oms' cages the larger crowds were gathered.

Praw let his
daughter entertain herself for a while looking at the shop windows, before
taking her along saying:

'Time is
short. Don't forget you must do your instruction when we get back home. Come
and choose a collar for your little Om.'

They entered
a showroom where all sorts of things for animals were displayed. A salesman
introduced himself and presented different models of collars. Tiwa picked a
large blue one.

She did
however worry about its size, saying:

'This will
never fit my little Om.'

But the
salesman reassured her by pointing at a small switch which could be pressed to
shorten or lengthen the collar. He also suggested a magnetic leash, a simple
bracelet that could easily be slipped on one's wrist and set up with the collar
to prevent the Om from going more than six millistadia away.

Praw asked
for the items to be packed and left the block with a very happy Tiwa.

Half an hour
later they were back home. Tiwa rushed to the omhouse, placed the collar around
Terr's neck and the bracelet on her own wrist. Then, keeping her promise, she
went to sit on the lawn of the nature room and put on her instruction headset,
as the little Om fell asleep on her lap lulled by her caresses.

'...Elementary
school, the headset hummed gently, 'info 10. This info will be about
ygamography. Please close your eyes.'

Tiwa closed
her eyes and a very precise mental picture arose in her head. An orb was
rotating slowly, a sphere divided up in irregular red and green smears.

'Our last
info dealt with the genesis of Ygam's seas and continents. Next is the
distribution of these on Ygam's surface as rearranged intentionally by the
Traags. Ygam's continents number six: Four artificial ones and two natural
ones. The latter were not altered by the Traags. They have kept the shape given
to them by chance and are used as a reservation for inferior species.'

'The four
continents retouched by the Traags have a triangular equilateral shape and are
of equal size. Two are situated at the same distance from each other in
hemisphere A, the other two at equal distance from each other in hemisphere B.
Their tips point towards the poles, while their bases face the equator.'

'The natural
continents are situated on the equator, but as far away as possible from the
adjusted continents, that is to say...'

The little
Om, in a pleasant dream, could see a multicoloured sphere spin around. He could
hear words, though he did not understand them and could not even have
pronounced them correctly.

As the
Traag's hand was resting on his head, the bracelet was very close to the
collar. Thanks to a very simple phenomenon, which no one had thought about,
Terr could hear and see in his sleep everything his young mistress perceived
through her
headset.

The voices
and images were falling into his subconscious like seeds into virgin earth.

Terr got used to sleeping on
Tiwa's lap whenever she was doing her instruction. At first her parents
prevented her from it, fearing that their daughter be distracted by the small
animal's presence. But they soon noted they were wrong.

Indeed, when
Tiwa was deprived of the little Om she shortened her instruction hours to go
and play with him sooner. In fact her inferior friend's company incited her to
keep the headset on longer. In the end Praw and Wami actually recommended she
took the little Om with her to ease her daily learning chore.

One day, as
Terr had already grown somewhat, Praw heard a noise in the omhouse where he had
locked him up for a few hours. He got near and heard the animal humming a
strange song with even stranger words:

'Klud city
is continent South A's largest town, Torm the largest in the North A continent,
nent, nent... The Traag's original element is water; in the past, Traags could
not breathe in air... air... air! Nowadays they are amphibious thanks to the
mutations created by the scientist Zarek, Zarek, rek, rek
!...
'

Praw could
not believe his eardrums. He went to find his wife.

'Wami', he
said, 'something amazing is happening!'

'And what
could that be?'

'You know
the little Om... it's unbelievable... the little Om knows Tiwa's infos by
heart!'

Wami
shrugged.

'You're
always so dramatic. Tiwa may well have taught him to pronounce a few words,
but...' Praw did not reply and took his wife towards the omhouse. Behind the
closed door a juvenile voice was humming:

'... That is
why, that is why... ceps' spores do not germinate in acidic soil, soil... Tiwa,
Tiwa, naughty... ty, do your infos... A thir... a third of the planet Sird's
atmosphere is composed of strong elements and two thirds of weak elements!'

Praw opened
the door suddenly and found Terr seated on his cushion swinging back and forth
in rhythm with his nonsensical song.

Terr had
become a handsome little boy, with curly shoulder length hair. He bounced up
and ran to Praw's legs asking: 'Treat!'

Wami began
to sing in order to coax the creature: 'Tiwa, you naughty gir... girl, go and
learning now!'

But Terr
just burst out laughing and tried to wriggle out of Praw's hand, keeping his
eye on the nature room's green space where Tiwa was romping about. The Traag
let him go, and Terr ran to the swimming pool where he dived, chuckling.

Puzzled, the
Traag couple looked at each other.

'After all',
said Wami, 'we own a little Om who speaks better than the others; let's not
make a meal out of it. He doesn't understand a word he is saying.'

'Of course',
said Praw. 'He mixes everything up, botanic with cosmography, ygamography with
biology...'

In turn they
entered the nature room to see Tiwa who was coming out of the water.

'Do you know
your little Om can talk?'

'Of course',
said Tiwa. 'I am trying to teach him to talk like a Traag, but it is difficult.
Some words he just cannot pronounce.'

'Really?'
said Wami. 'Your father and I have just heard him reciting your infos by
heart.'

Surprised,
the Traag child shook her membranes to dry them a little.

She said: '
That's
impossible; Terr only speaks like a baby Traag and...
I've never taught him my lessons, he couldn't have..."

'We heard
him!' asserted her father.