Zosix and Camelon - 3

The Forest Below

Camelon did a little jig, singing “I win, I win, I win” rather out of tune. After a few seconds of jigging he realized he had better sit down and let his body recuperate from the strain he had just put it through.

Camelon looked at Zosix. A fly buzzed past. Zosix realized that by now Baba should have come rushing out of his hut, completely annoyed by the entire hullabaloo.

Zosix called out “Baba?” And then once more, “Baba?”

Zosix entered the hut.

“He’s not here”, said Zosix, coming out of the hut.

“Maybe he’s gone on one of his trips with Bahadur”, offered Camelon, “you know how he’s always telling us about the adventures that they had”

“Still…that’s strange, I didn’t think he would go of on one of his trips so suddenly, and without telling us”

“Should we search for him?” asked Camelon.

“I don’t know. Where would we search? He could have gone anywhere!”

“Maybe he’s gone to the forest below, he was telling us about it sometime ago, right?”

“Not enough data” flashed through Zosix’s multicore processor, as he stood at the edge of the cliff behind Baba’s hut, trying to figure out which way would be the best way to get down to the forest below. There would have to be some path leading down to the forest if Baba had been there before, but there were no signs of any possible gradual descent from where they stood.

Zosix scanned the cliff face. There were enough grips and footholds for him to climb down the wall, but there was no possible way that Camelon’s clumsy feet would be able to manage the descent.

“Okay. But I can’t find any way down except the cliff, and you’re not going to be able to scale the cliff face. Will it be okay if I go down now and search for some easier path, then you can come too?”

Camelon looked over the edge dubiously. “I guess so”, he said “but don’t take too long, please.”

Zosix descended steadily. He had already calculated the best possible route using an Optimal Path Algorithm to decide which grips would get him down the fastest and with the least effort. He had to stay away from the waterfall (though it was more of a waterdribble, at this time of year), as the rock there was very damp and covered with slippery moss. Camelon peered over the edge very carefully, watching his friend’s rapid progress.

Zosix reached the bottom. Even his rapid robot reflexes were not prepared for what he was about to see.

A girl!

Now Zosix had seen a few girls before, during their infrequent visits to the village, so typically this should have been no surprise. But here was a girl and not just a girl – a girl minus her garments, washing herself in the pond at the bottom of the waterdribble. Her hair was a brown so dark it was black. Her jaw was sharp. Her breasts were small and perfectly molded. Her garments lay strewn on the rocks around the little pond.

She turned and saw Zosix, who stood at attention; his recognition systems working overtime.

“Hi!” she said, wading out of the water undoubtedly unashamed by her lack of cover. She shook her head, causing a rather large number of water droplets to spatter on Zosix’s face. Then without a sense of urgency she put on her clothes, which consisted of a long white gown with intricate flower embroidery all along the ends. If the gown was meant to cover her nakedness it did not serve its purpose too well, since it was not very opaque, and with the added wetness provided by her recent bath it was as good as a sheer film.

She sat on a rock, smiling at Zosix, and started to comb her hair. Somehow Zosix’s advanced communication systems were failing him. Various programs running in his electronic brain were running into infinite loops. He finally managed to say hi, by quickly killing all the extra processes that were jamming his processor.

“Hi” she said once more, as she delicately placed a white flower in her hair, “what brings you here?”

“I’m searching for Hashmi Baba, would you know him?”

“The old fellow from up there?” she asked, tapping her index finger against her temple and then pointing up to where Zosix had recently descended from.

“Uh…yes” Zosix answered, unsure of what she intended to convey by her actions.

“Well I haven’t seen him in a very long time”

“He hasn’t come here today?”

“No he most certainly has not!”

“But he has come here before”

“Yes, a long time ago”

“With Bahadur?”

“Who?”

“Bahadur, his friend.”

“No”

“Alright”

The tennis-ball conversational exchange stopped at this point, while the silence made itself heard for a moment in infinity before the forest sounds continued their normal course. She continued smiling at him, paying careful attention to his features. Zosix, meanwhile, stood rigidly still, and if it were not for Styfroflom’s unrelenting pursuit for quality organic skin-look-alike material, one would certainly know he was not a real boy.

She got up from the rock she had been sitting on and walked toward Zosix. Optimized Action Interpretation Algorithms were failing to produce any results in Zosix’s head. They stood face to face, an arm’s length separating them. She ran her left hand down his face, from the start of his hairline along his smooth jaw to his chin. Her fingers, he noticed, were the softest he had ever felt, and her eyes seemed endless, and she smelled of the earth before it rains.

“It almost feels like you’re not real!” she remarked.

At this point, if it were possible for alarm bells and flashing red lights to pop out of Zosix’s head, they would have. If he was programmed to lie, he probably would have said he was a real boy, however that was not the case and he said nothing at all.

“How do you know Hashmi Baba?” he asked suddenly.

“I don’t know him personally, but my mother has told me about him. How do you know him?” she mirrored.

The question, though relatively simple, seemed to catch Zosix off guard. “We live across the forest from his hut.”

“What’s your name?”

“Zosix”

“I’m Leia”

There was another long pause in the conversation, when Zosix suddenly remembered Camelon would be waiting at the top, possibly getting more anxious with each passing minute.

“Is there any other way to get from here back to the top?” he asked.

“Why don’t you stay in my forest?”

“My friend, Camelon, is up there waiting for me.”

“Well let’s get him down then”

“He can’t climb to well”

“Well I know another way up.”

She took him by the hand and led him into the pool.

“Where are we going?” he asked. She didn’t reply. Holding his hand in a firm, yet delicate grip she continued leading him till they were facing the rock wall, the water splashing on them.

“Hold your breath” she said, and pulled him under the water.

Fortunately for Zosix he had no need to breathe or he would have choked. They dived through an opening at the bottom of the pool, and after a few seconds they emerged from another pool, this time in a cave.