D'aasee was seated on this usual rock when the Falgaran he had named Ben ambled up for its daily handout.

"Good morning Ben," he called, and the small pale green creature waved an appendage in response, and came to inspect D'aasee's midday meal.

Ben was a strange sight indeed, with its roly-poly body, and its trumpet-like ears mounted on the top of its head, able to swivel independently in any direction at will. It occurred to D'aasee that its head and hands were the only physical features they had in common, except that Ben had four hands and four what might be called feet. This multiplicity of appendages had led some of the expedition members to dub the natives of the planet Falgar spiders, but they were distinctly non-arachnid.

Ben and his kind were the predominant species on this backward planet, in a pre-industrial stage of evolution, but they had opposing thumbs, and had progressed sufficiently to invent a fair variety of artefacts that would fetch a fair price back home. Their homes were of odd design, with openings high on the walls, as a protection against predators, with which the planet abounded, but the Falgarans, with all their hands and feet, were able to scale the walls with ease.

They had not progressed to wearing clothing, but as they were covered in a soft green fur, this didn't matter, and D'aasee was unable to tell which sex was which, but he supposed that they could tell, and that was all that mattered.

He tossed it a piece of fruit, and it settled onto the opposite rock and thought gratitude at D'aasee. It was not exactly telepathic, though it could convey simple concepts and ideas directly into D'aasee's brain. For no apparent reason, his fellow explorers could not receive these communications, and D'aasee supposed it could conceivably have something to do with his colour, darker than the rest of the expedition members.

For this reason he had been made the unofficial liaison with the natives, and was happy to spend time with this gentle being, learning to compose his thoughts into some kind of order so that Ben could make sense of them. Ben could hear speech, but could not understand it, and their time on this planet would be too short for linguistics lessons.

D'aasee kept Ben well supplied with foods very strange to its species, but very welcome to its taste buds, while Ben showed D'aasee where he could find the best deposits of the various minerals that the expedition team were seeking and mining.

Finishing his lunch, D'aasee said, "Come on, let's go," and beckoned Ben to accompany him towards the land crawler. Ben thought "Where?" at him, and he gestured toward the range of hills beyond the head of the river, so far unexplored.

Ben's response was a complete surprise to D'aasee. He jumped into the air, his hands and legs wind-milling in panic, and D'aasee didn't need any clarification of the mind picture of broken bloodied bodies that he was receiving, to realise that going to the hills was a distinctly bad idea, and that if he wanted to go, he would be going alone.

He reached over and patted Ben soothingly. "It's OK Ben, we won't go if it scares you so much. What's over there that's so bad anyway?" Realising that he was confusing his green friend, he slowed down, and thought a "Why?" at Ben.

Settling himself firmly on the rock, Ben showed him a mind image of a horde of creatures, all like Ben himself, but with a pale yellow fur, sharp protruding teeth, and armed with sharp looking sticks and heavy clubs. "Enemy!"

"Enemy? But they are exactly like you except for..." D'aasee broke off as daylight broke in his mind. Colour? Was that all? Ben thought conflict and warfare at him.

"Different?" D'aasee asked.

"Wrong," Ben thought back, "Wrong." and the prevailing image in his mind was of the yellow fur.

"Colour prejudice?" he thought in amazement, but Ben could not understand the concept, and tugged at D'aasee to turn him away from the sight of the distant hills. D'aasee resolved to put the matter to the expedition leader, with the idea of getting together a strong group to visit that region the following day.

"Up." Ben raised a pair of its arms to D'aasee, who lifted his small friend off the ground and settled him on his broad shoulders for the trek back to camp. He wasn't very heavy, and the feel of the soft green fur against D'aasee's iridescent scales was pleasurable. Taking part of his weight on his thick tail, D'aasee swung around and headed in the opposite direction to the hills.

© Sandy Parkinson, March 2006. Word count 78