Don't Call Me Kitten! Read Free

play.”
    Shimon gave
Zex his most mischievous smile and his eyes gleamed with laughter.
“Oh I will Zex, have no fear of that. Now ask away. You have
questions for me.”
    Zex let out a
sigh. He hadn’t been aware that he’d been holding a weight of
tension inside himself since Thex had requested his presence on his
team. No doubt Shimon already knew what his questions were but it
was good to be able to ask them anyway. Shimon might be a child but
as he had just simply and eloquently argued that didn’t mean he
wasn’t a source of much wisdom. He trusted the man who was in the
child. Someone who, many of his kind suspected, was a much more
highly evolved dimensional being than his present existence might
suggest. He could trust him to give him the answers he was seeking.
“Why did you tell the council that I need to be on Thex’s team for
this mission? He’s limited in the crew he can take. If I go he’ll
have one less warrior with him. I follow the middle path of love
and compassion, not their right hand path of order and
justice.”
    “Even so.”
Shimon paused and wandered over to get a his sand slate. It was a
simple tray with shallow sides that held just enough sand so that
he could draw patterns, pictures he saw in his mind or practice his
writing. The Malakim were averse to using paper for anything
impermanent. He placed the sand slate between him and Zex and drew
are series of dots with interconnecting lines.
    Zex took a
moment to study the picture and mused. “A network. The way you’ve
drawn it with a mix of shallow and deeper lines crossing over and
under each other hints at something that’s also three
dimensional.”
    “Exactly. As
you know the dots represent connection points, nodes I think you
call them. Those points are important not just because of what they
are but by the very fact of what connects with them. And a network
like this doesn’t have to be limited by space and time. You are one
of these points Zex. You need to be positioned in an exact point in
space and time. You also need certain experiences, events and
beings to connect with you.”
    The sage child
seemed to be quite excited by this but Zex wasn’t getting where
this was all heading. “So I’m part of some grand plan and have a
role to play?”
    Shimon
saddened as he thought of what Zex must face if this was to work.
“Yes, but it won’t be easy.”
    “Details?”
    Shimon shook
his head. “It would take too long. I can show you though.”
    Zex understood
what the boy wanted to do. A direct transmission from mind to mind.
He bent his forehead to touch Shimon’s and suddenly their minds
were one. The vastness of the other’s near drove him into a white
out but Shimon seemed to take control and steered him to what he
needed to know. As it decompressed within his own mind he sucked
his breath in at the implications of it all. Just as quickly the
connection was gone. He sat stunned for a moment staring at Shimon
then bowed his head in the dust.
    Shimon gently
raised his head and mentally pleaded with him to sit back up. “No
Zex, you don’t understand. We are all part of what you just
connected with. Yes I am special but so are you. We are all unique
expressions of that.”
    Zex sat up but
still stared in awe at the boy. “But you are more connected with it
than any of us here. Maybe even more than Meta.”
    Shimon just
shook his head. “It’s not a competition Zex, I am just as I am.
That’s the best any of us can be. But back to matters at hand. You
have an important role to play in this. Do you understand that
while you will be captured by the enemy and imprisoned for some
time your soul can never be imprisoned unless your mind makes it
so?”
    Imprisoned for
some time. That was an understatement. But yes he had understood
and there was no arguing with the wisdom of what he had seen. He
nodded his assent. “What of the others.”
    “They cannot
know. If this is to work out as it must they cannot be made aware
of