Chapter 192: (DelVar) (2/2)
I love you and our family. I miss you.
Respect and Honor: Del'Var, your male child.
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DEAR: Uln'Var, Revered Mother
Our 'pelts' have finally grown in. The itching of our oil glands was maddening until the Terrans figured out what was happening. They gave us oils to put on our pelts to sooth the itching until the glands started working right.
My pelt is soft and slick. It keeps me warm even when I dive to the bottom of the lagoon.
I know we look funny in the pictures, covered in fur, but I don't feel chilly all the time.
Mother, take a good look at the pictures. Do you see the older N'Kar with the injured arm and mechanical eye? Do you know who that is?
Uncle Val'Var! Your brother that vanished when you were kits!
Apparently the Terrans conquered the planet he had been taken to and 'liberated' it by armed force. Nearly eight thousand N'Karrians were freed! Uncle Val'Var has been in the mines for almost forty years but he's here, now, with us!
He sees the doctor every day and stays with me, Kle'Var, or Tre'Var. He has to have special medication to help him with something called ”Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” from his imprisonment and what the humans call 'enslavement' for all these years. I had to design a special hut for him that doesn't make him feel like the walls are closing in but doesn't make him feel like it's too open. He is often escorted by a Terran male who helps him with his anxiety. It is odd to see so much empathy and care from something like a Terran primate.
BUT!
Please tell Clan Mother Eng'Var that her son still lives!
The others are still being inprocessed, but I have other news. Terrible news that I had to ask permission to tell you about.
Nearly a hundred female N'Karrian were rescued. Their names aren't being released at this time. I've heard the guards talk about 'war crimes' and 'violation of genetic rights' and have smelled the scent of Terran anger. We don't know what happened to them but whatever it is I was asked to customize not only the buildings but how the island should look.
I will check the names when they are released. Perhaps my older cousin didn't disappear due to a hovercraft accident. That's what they told us about Uncle Val'Var.
I asked a human what might have happened to the females and was told 'Something terrible, kid' and the smell of human anger grew so strong I had to flee.
Terrans eyes glow when they are angry. It's a dull red. Not their mechanical eyes. Their meat eyes.
I asked Ransom. He told me I didn't want to know. When I asked him again he just mentioned something about something called a 'pleasure dome' which for some reason made him very angry. He threw his beer bottle against the rocks hard enough to shatter it. After that I didn't see him and a guard told me he'd been reassigned to The Front.
I wish the war was over, mother. I wish we could all come home to N'Karoo or maybe bring N'Karoo here.
Respect and Honor: Del'Var, your male child.
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My Beloved Child, Del'Var
Your news and pictures were greeted with well tempered joy. We still must be careful how we react to the letters we receive. I have only received two packs of your letters, as the Terrans have only found our little world in the last month.
I concealed your letters in my hiding spot, lest the Overseers find them. Several families have been punished for the content of the letters. However, Post Mistress Ast'Lar of the Windsong Isle, has gone to the Most High Overseer and told him that punishing for or impeding prisoner of war correspondence is against Terran Reformed Geneva Convention of 371 PD. According to her we should no longer be punished for what you write but we hide the letters and pictures anyway.
I saw the Terran when I was at the starport, learning to sort correspondence. You are right about how funny they look. Tall and yet squat, with large hands and feet. Their strength is amazing and their endurance rivals our own. I can see why you were so frightened when you faced their war machine.
You little sister Ink'Var wants you to know she hugs a doll she made of you every night and takes the doll with her to bed so you do not get lonely or have bad dreams.
The still images of your prison are hauntingly beautiful. Almost as if it is not a prison.
Your Clan Mother Olp'Var has said the pictures look like the stories her own Elders would tell her of how the world looked. She says that you have been both cursed and blessed, to live in paradise but separated from your family is a terrible burden. She urges you to stay strong.
She also saw the pictures of you with your fur and began to weep, saying you looked like her Clan Elder males when she was a small kit, before the Balding Times.
We love you so much. Come home soon.
I love you, my child.
Mothe