FANTASTIC PLANET v2.0 (4 page)

'It's
shorter than saying Terror.'

The old man
smiled faintly:

'Terror!
Is that so?'

He touched
the young boy's arm and added:

'You're
quite well built, but you could do with more muscles. How old are you?'

'Tiwa, my
mistress, tells me I'm a hundred days old... Faithful, why are you wearing a
collar? Are you not a wild Om?'

'All the Oms
wear collars, even the wild ones. Didn't you notice Brave's?'

'No, his
hair and beard are too long, I couldn't see.'

'They're
fake collars', said Faithful. 'If an Om was found without a collar he'd get
taken back. Myself, when I was younger, I got caught by a guard. When he saw my
collar, he said: "This Om must belong to someone in the
neighbourhood". And he let me go. We'll give you a fake collar.'

Terr
remained thoughtful. 'I'm really hungry, he said after a while. Do you have any
food for me?'

The old man
raised his finger in the air.

'Above your
nest you'll find a pot of sap.'

'Sap?'

'Yes, Brave
cut a gash in the tree's bark and the sap is pouring into a pot for you.
You'll see, it tastes like sugar.
You won't be hungry or
thirsty anymore.'

The little
Om shuddered at the thought of more dangerous acrobatics, but driven by hunger
he climbed the branches and found the pot above his bed.

He drank
from it a thick tepid liquid with a vague sweet taste. He was not happy with
this unrefined food, but he drank enough to regain some strength before going
back down to keep the old man company.

'Feeling
better, little one?' asked the old man.

'Yes, but I
don't really like it much.'

'You'll get
used to it. Besides we do have other

foods
.'

'Where are
the other wild Oms?'

'They're all
hunting to bring back what can be useful to us. They mostly steal from the
Traags.'

An idea kept
running through Terr's head.

'Do they
steal instruction headsets?'

The old man
sniggered:

'No, whatever for?'

Terr evaded
the question.

'I stole
one.'

'Really?'

'Yes, I
enjoy learning. It makes me stronger.'

'And are you
educated?'

'A little, I
can read. I also understand a lot because

I used to
listen to Tiwa during her infos.'

'Believe me,
little one, Traags' education may be fun, but it's of no use at all to the Oms.
What would be useful for you, on the other hand, is to know how to run fast,
climb trees, steal without getting caught...'

Voices and
the rustle of foliage came from the foot of the tree. Soon a few silhouettes could
be seen climbing up the lower branches and Brave's face appeared.

'Well,
well', he said, 'the luxury Om is awake.'

He pointed
to the headset astride his shoulder and added:

'Look what
I've brought for you, luxury Om.'

'Oh!
Said Terr, happiness onto you, Brave!'

Other Oms
appeared; one of them, black with frizzy hair, laughed a lot and displayed
extremely white teeth; his name was Charcoal. Some females were part of the
group, as well as a few children almost as young as Terr. Their tough life had
made them muscular and they were effortlessly carrying heavy tins, giant fruit,
rolls of metal wire and assorted objects taken from the Traags.

They
gathered around Terr with a benevolent curiosity.

'How old are you?' called out a young boy.

'A hundred
days,' replied Terr feeling a little intimidated.

'A hundred?
What does that mean? I'm two
times ten hands of ten day hands, plus two', retorted the young boy proudly
throwing back his long hair. 'Let's see how strong you are.'

As he said
this he shoved Terr who almost fell off the nest. Brave intervened and slapped
the attacker's face.

'Stop it,
Valiant, Terr's not used to the life we lead.'

'Did you
look after the baby, Faithful?' enquired a statuesque female Om.

'Yes, young
lady, your baby has all it needs.'

'I'll go and
have a look,' said the female Om as she hopped from branch to branch towards
the top of the tree.

She came
across Brave who had gone up to put the headset in the nest set aside for Terr.
Brave dropped down onto a nearby branch. He raised his arm and said:

'Listen, all
of you. I want everyone to be nice to Terr. For a while he'll make do with
staying in the tree and helping Faithful sort what we bring back. This luxury
Om has got to get used to effort and grow some muscles. Then I'll take care of his
education.'

He turned
towards Terr:

'As for you,
as I've already told you, you'll obey me at all times. I brought back the
headset to make you happy but you'll only be allowed to play with it once your
work is done, understood?'

'Yes,' said
Terr timidly. He felt sad and missed Tiwa and the nature room. He felt quite
cold and bloated by the unfamiliar sap. In short, he was as unhappy as can be
and wished he was locked up in a comfortable omhouse, faraway from these caring
louts.

'Come with
me,' said Brave.

Terr
followed him obediently, climbed branches, crossed difficult spots by pulling
on flexible offshoots until he reached an enormous branch. He watched as Brave
disappeared into a hole in the branch and he followed him inside a kind of
cavern roughly carved into the wood.

'I can't see
a thing,
it's
pitch-black,' said Terr.

'Just wait
here', Brave's voice said.

Terr heard a
loud grunt and the cavern suddenly lit up. Brave was proudly pointing at a huge
stone resting on a metal pole.

'But
it's...' hazarded Terr.

'Yes', said
Brave, 'it's a Traag light; the others aren't strong enough. You see, I place
the stone on the switch. To turn it off I remove the stone.

Terr looked
around him. He was in a vast storeroom filled with odds and ends. Tins of all
sizes were piled up on the floor in a jumble.

'There',
said Brave, 'you're going to sort all this out. You'll stick the boxes with
other boxes, rolls of wire with other rolls of wire, and you'll do the same
with the rest.'

'But', said
Terr pointing at a pile of boxes, 'must I sort the ones already piled up?'

Brave looked
at him as if he was dealing with a complete idiot.

'Can't you
see they're already sorted?'

'No, you've
put boxes of food with boxes of medicine. There's even a box of powder for
treating Traags' membranes.'

Brave looked
at him silently.

'AH these
boxes have the same shape', he said at last. 'How can you guess what's inside
them?'

'It's
written on them... there, these small signs, they're meant to be read.'

Brave ran
his fingers through his beard, a gesture familiar to him. He whispered:

'So, reading
means guessing what's inside the boxes thanks to these small signs? I could
never understand what "to read" meant... Well, if that's so, do as
you like. It'll stop us spending hours opening the boxes which are no use to
us.'

'All right!'
As he was leaving, Brave
hesitated:

'Tell me,
little one... is it thanks to instruction headset that you learnt to
read?"

'Of course.'

Brave left, scratching his head.

Within a few
days Terr was totally familiar with the gymnastics his new arboreal life
demanded.

He had
somewhat grown and his muscles were more defined beneath his tanned skin. Brave
took him to run more often in the neighbouring gardens, teaching him to hide,
to crawl without being seen by the Traags, to steal fruit and vegetables bigger
than himself.

One day he
gave him a collar intended to conceal his illegal status and he took him to the
town.

'Don't
forget', he said, 'you must never let the Traags know you can talk. Amongst
other things this will allow you to act stupid whenquestioned about your
masters or why you're here or there. As for the rest, I taught you enough
tricks for you to manage on your own.'

They were
walking one behind the other in a grassy ditch.

'What is it
we're going to do exactly?' asked Terr.

Brave
chuckled at the idea of what laid ahead.

'I took you
because you can read', he said. 'We're going to steal. You'll read what's in
the boxes, that way I won't waste my energy stealing something useless. Can you
swim?'

'Yes, why?'

'You'll see.
Now shut up. We'll continue in

silence
.'

They entered
a conduit which vanished into the depths of a concrete wall. Terr was walking
comfortably, but in front of him Brave's large silhouette was bent double.

They
branched off several times in the thickening shade. Fearful of getting lost in
this labyrinth, Terr stayed glued to his guide. After a while the latter
stopped and whispered in his ear:

'Now it's
going to go up. You'll climb easily with your back and knees. Let me go ahead
so you won't slow me down.'

Sweating and
puffing, they climbed slowly up a vertical tube. Soon, faint but increasing
daylight glowed above them. It came through a small grate closing the duct.

His knees
and back propped up against the sides, Brave slowly lifted the grate and peered
outside. Reassured by his observation, he came out of the pipe and held his
hand out to Terr to help him out.

They were in
a massive room where metal scaffolding propped up machines which were purring
quietly, under no surveillance whatsoever. Everywhere giant wheels, cams and
bearings were dancing an intricate ballet.

Terr caught
sight of rows of cylindrical tins jerking along on parallel running lines.
These lines disappeared into a dark tunnel towards which Brave pointed his
finger.

'We've got
to go through there', he said taking along his young companion.

They climbed
up metal lattice work and got on top of a tin each. Shaken every time the line
pulsated, Terr held on as if on the roof of a rolling carriage, as Brave was
getting ahead by jumping from tin to tin. Pride made Terr get up and he
followed as fast as he could, guided through the shade by vague silvery glints
of light from the lids under his feet.

They reached
a second room where more machines were grabbing the tins one by one, rolling
them along and printing on them assorted Traag letters before releasing them
into a second tunnel.

Aping his
guide, Terr jumped on the ground before the machines caught him and ran to the
other tunnel.

The third
room was much bigger than the others. The noise was more bearable. Guided by
the line moving one notch at a time, the tins were piling up along the walls in
multicoloured colonnades.

'Here we
are', said
Brave
. 'You can read. Tell me which tins to
take.'

Terr read
the inscriptions but they did not tell him much. He got nearer a pile of boxes
and read:

ENERGIZER MX

Young mammal
liver extract

Associated
to micro-elements 1 and
2

In form of
tablets

'This one is
good,' he said.

'Good', said
Brave, 'we'll steal ten tins.'

Terr looked
anxiously at the tins which were as big as him.

'How will we
take all this?' he said, 'it's not possible.'

'I'll
explain. Come near this window.'

Terr moved
nearer docilely. Brave showed him a stream of dirty water spewed out by the
plant.

'We're going
to drop the tins in the water. They'll float far away from here pushed by the
current. I know where. All we'll have to do is collect them with other Oms.'

'But then,
why only ten tins?'

'Because it would get noticed!
They'd get
wary and put the factory under surveillance. We wouldn't be able to come back
without getting caught. Whereas with ten tins every so often they don't notice
a thing; you understand now? Come on, lay them on the ground one by one and
roll them towards me, it's not hard. I'll lift them and push them out of the
window.'

Terr grabbed
a first tin with his arms, pulled with all his strength, managed to tip it over
and with a shove sent it rolling towards Brave who bent down, clutched the
bottom of the tin with his fingers and pushed it up the wall groaning. He
hoisted it up to the window ledge and sent it falling into the empty space.