Chapter 1: ONE

She didn’t want to be here, not in this crowded courtroom, dozens of humans gawking at her, staring at her whistling dragon Fharezhan (Fah’ rĕ zahn), taking pictures with their cell phones. Reporters had trailed behind her as she made her way into the courtroom, like dogs following a bitch in heat, asking questions that overlapped like two radios playing at the same time, demanding answers, leaving her no time to say anything.

Before heading to the courthouse she had groomed her fur more than necessary, told Fharezhan if she looked well-groomed, judge and jury might see her in a good light. Her whistling dragon reminded her that ‘might’ was the operative word. She was a Tereskàdian, an alien, and she would be judged by humans. She was the defendant, a young human female was the plaintiff, so it wouldn’t have surprised her that fact would rear its ugly head during the course of the trial.

Two police officers had shown up at her motel room, where she was staying while enjoying the sights of Westover, a city of five hundred thousand or so. Curiosity had brought her here, despite warnings of family and friends that she shouldn’t venture away from Colbert’s Landing, the village in northern Ontario, where over one hundred and sixty Tereskàdians, and the same number of whistling dragons had made their homes since landing on Earth three years ago.

The officers, one tall and lanky, the other shorter, tending toward a bit too much weight, stood stiffly side by side, hands close to their weapons. They asked her name, and she told them. When they wanted to know her last name, she told them she didn’t have a last name, just Sendrhea (Sĕn dree’ ah). They asked why she was visiting Westover, and wasn’t she quite a ways from Colbert’s Landing, and she told them she wanted to see a large city. Tereskàdians are known for their inquisitiveness.

They regarded the animal beside her with a mixture of fear and curiosity, and she could smell their fear. They were here on business so she didn’t bother explaining Fharezhan. One of the officers did all the talking, leaving the other standing with feet slightly apart, hands behind his back. We are placing you under arrest for assault. That statement shook her, questions immediately forming in her mind. She had the right to retain counsel without delay, the right to contact an attorney if she so chose. More words poured from his mouth, words that made no sense to her. Right now, ‘arrest’ and ‘assault’ stood out like a beacon.

The officers warned her to come along quietly, or they’d have to use force, but force must have been the last thought on their minds. She was a Tereskàdian, and while her species could never initiate an attack, it had the means to defend itself in the form of retractable claws containing a deadly poison.

She went along with them, handcuffed [pawcuffed, Fharezhan mused], curiosity strong. They put her in a cell, told her she couldn’t bring in her pet, and she stopped them right there. He’s not a pet, she told them, her voice rough, he’s part of me. We have to be together. They didn’t understand, and she didn’t bother to explain. They told her the sooner she called a lawyer, the better. She had no idea who she was supposed to call, what she was supposed to do. One of the police officers at the station told her a lawyer would represent her, speak on her behalf. He’ll try his best to get you off, he said, or at least try to get the sentence reduced.

They took her to a small room, the only furniture a brown wooden table and several chairs the same style, the same color. A rather chubby bald human sweating so much he had to wipe his brow with an already soaked handkerchief kept pounding on the table, insisting she had used her claws, and why didn’t she just admit it? The same questions over and over again, his face so close to her snout she could have counted the hairs on his nose. She yelled at him to ask something new, she was growing tired of the same questions she had already answered. It would go a lot easier, he told her as he backed away, if you confessed. She wasn’t about to admit to something she didn’t do.

They brought her into court for her bail hearing, whatever that meant. Everything here was so confusing. In Treskebhar (Trĕ skĕ bahr), the largest city on the planet Alharhan, everything pertaining to the law seemed so much simpler, now that the testimony of Tereskàdians determined the guilt or innocence of the accused.

She contacted her mate, Verdis (Vĕr’ dĭs), and her four-year-old cub Šhedrhen (Shĕ dreen), told Verdis what had happened. Since Šhedrhen was still nursing one more year before switching to the milk of her whistling dragon she had no choice but to accompany her father to Westover. Both parents had to nurse their cub, and one parent could not take the responsibility of caring for it.

When they arrived hours later on a special plane hired specifically to fly from Colbert’s Landing to Westover’s airport, Verdis told her he would stand by her side, confident that the humans would soon learn that a Tereskàdian could not possibly attack anyone, unless she was attacked first. He predicted the trial, set for the fourteenth of July, would be short, and Sendrhea would be exonerated.

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