By Patricia Alicia White
| AKKI: A STELLAR TAIL By Patricia Alicia White |
A BRIEF EXPLANATION
Also because of this relationship, I am able to converse with Kyrene using telepathy. We communicate admirably...especially when Kyrene gets her own way.
In a phrase, my goal in life is to keep Kyrene safe. For most Achate this is a simple matter of performing the most rudimentary guard (need I say the word) dog functions. You know the ones, always yapping and growling at shadows and doorbells.
If you think that's the way it is with Kyrene and me, you're quite mistaken. Not for us a simple life. No, indeed. "We need adventure", to quote Kyrene.
The following modest account began when Kyrene announced that she had to find herself. I never thought she was lost. Muddled maybe, lost, never. But that's not important. The fact is that Kyrene was on a quest. Therefore, in accordance with the Achate Creed, so was I, and no amount of discussion on my part could dissuade her from leaving our nicely appointed rooms in her father's house to go who knows where in search of who knows what.
When we left Achatar, we took the bare minimum. Kyrene even left behind her real last name, lest, God Forbid, some idiot should offer to help her or something because of her father's connections. It was a shock for me to go from richest family on the planet to alone and poor in the solar system, but Kyrene seemed to adore it and, truly, the destitute part only lasted a few months. Soon Kyrene had built a good reputation as a musidancer of high quality and we reached a level where we were only modestly poor. Although it wasn't a bad life, I still wished for the sight of the blue prairie-daisy hills and deep violet valleys of our home planet.
But we needed adventure, according to Kyrene, and that was not to be found on Achatar. Neither was she apparently, so we went to Gaea Minor.
Now I know it sounds silly of me, but I thought our time on Gaea Minor was quite enough adventure. As it was, we barely escaped from there with our lives. But this isn't the time to tell about the Gargantuan Fromishes or how we were chased by a furious gang of rarebit miners. That will have to come later. Right now is the time to discuss the second stop on our quest: Thalir, the Jewel of Gaea.
First of all, let's get one thing straight. I'm no person's pet.
Sure, I might look like a dog, perhaps even a big, black, rather handsome dog--with, I might add, a striking white area of fur around my left eye. But that's only because I am of the species Canis Sapiens Achatar. Kyrene, who some mistakenly refer to as my owner, is my Achate, or companion for life. Because of this somewhat binding relationship, we hang around together a lot.