Paws and Planets by Candy Rae Page B

these numbers and the numbers themselves he
decided, that would prove whether or not they possessed the power
to reason or not.
    As he waited
impatiently for Sanua to return and take over the eggs he made his
plans and when she did he took only the time to say a few
pleasantries before he escaped with Aei and Aya, leaving her
wondering why he seemed to be so preoccupied and what on Dagan was
he carrying in the receptacle?
    In actuality,
inside the receptacle were five wooden balls, culled from the
ltsctas play box. Marua, Velua and Belu were getting a bit old for
playing ball anyway and Saru was pretty sure they would not notice
they were gone.
    He led Aei and
Aya deep into the trees that surrounded the daga. The allsts (the
Lai word for tree) were tall and dense here, providing a leafy
canopy under which he could conduct his investigations in
private.
    At last they
reached a spot with room enough for his purpose and Saru placed the
receptacle on the ground.
    “Right you
two,” he said to Aei and Aya, “time for your first lesson.”
    He picked out
the first ball and held it up
    “This is a
ball,” he said and Aei and Aya looked at him then at the ball.
    “We’re not
going to play with it.”
    They looked at
him with uncertainty, balls usually meant play, their gazed turning
into puzzlement as they watched him place it before them.
    “Don’t touch
it,” Saru ordered as he placed a second beside the first then added
a third.
    Three in a
row , he hummed to himself, quoting a well-known song. Three
is enough to start with.
    “There are
three balls here.” He pointed at the first and said “one.” The
second he called two and the third he called three.
    “One, two,
three,” he said then, pointing to each in turn.
    He took one
away.
    “One, two,
there are two balls here.”
    Aei and Aya
wagged their tails.
    He took a
second away.
    “One ball.”
    He added
another.
    “Two
balls.”
    He added the
third.
    “Three
balls.”
    They watched
with no obvious reaction.
    Saru repeated
the process six times more and then another six times until he
began to observe the dawning comprehension in their faces.
    He sat back,
having placed two of the balls in front of them once more.
    Here goes.
    “How many balls
are there?” he asked, not really expecting a reply.
    Aei looked at
Aya and his lips quirked.
    He tapped his
paw on the ground twice and Aya nodded.
    Is this a
fluke?
    Saru tried
again and got the same reply, two distinct taps of a paw.
    He added the
third ball.
    Aei didn’t even
wait to be asked. He tapped his paw three times.
    With rising
excitement Saru took the two remaining balls out of the receptacle
and placed them with the others, enunciating carefully the words
for four (san) and five (rak).
    This time it
was Aya who tapped, five times.
    Saru spent the
next fifty tvans removing and adding balls and the Lind never got
it wrong once. He sat back to think it over then to his surprise
Aei came over and nudged him with his cold, wet nose.
    “R … k blls,”
he said very slowly as he pointed at them with his paw and not
really expecting an answer Saru asked, “and how many balls would
there be left if I took one away?”
    Aei considered
for perhaps half a tvan.
    “San,” he said
at last, “san blls eft.”
    Result? One
speechless Saru!
    He had no
doubts now. Dakaru had been right. The Lind were extremely
intelligent and in possession of reasoning powers that made them
most definitely sentient.
    Now what were
the Lai to do? Remain and teach them or try to find an isolated
spot in order to leave the Lind to develop their new abilities on
their own? As he looked at them, pleased and triumphant expressions
on their faces, he knew what the answer would be.
    The Lai would
stay, at least for a while, stay as teachers and guides, until the
day when it would be time to leave.
    Saru was about
to embark on a new career, as a teacher of the Lind and he would
carry out this self imposed task for the remainder of his