“Lad-nar, take this,” Kettridge said. “Here, give me your hand.”

The creature looked at him with huge, uncomprehending eyes. The Earthman felt closer, somehow, to this strange creature than to anyone he had ever known in all the lonely years of his exile. Kettridge pulled his glove on tighter and reached for Lad-nar’s seven-taloned hand. He pulled at the arm of the form-fit suit, and it elastically expanded, stretching to twice its original width.

After much stretching and fitting, the creature was encased in the insulating metal-plastic.

Kettridge had an impulse to laugh at the bunched fur and awkward stance of the massive animal. But again, the laughter would not come.

“Now, Lad-nar, put on the gloves. Never take them off, except when the storms are gone. You must always put this suit on when the Essence-Stealers scream. Then you will be safe.”

Thought: Now I can walk in the night?

“Yes, come.” They moved together toward the cave’s mouth. “Now you can get a cat litter for yourself. I did not bring one, because I knew you would believe me and get your own. Come, Lad-nar.” He motioned him forward.

Thought: How will you walk without the suit?

Kettridge ran a seamed hand through his white hair. He was glad Lad-nar had thought the question. The multiple flashes of a many-stroked blast filled the air with glare and noise.

Kettridge could not hear the noise.

“I have brothers who wait for me in the Great House from across the Skies that will take me back to the heaven Home. They will hurry to me, and they will protect me.”

He did not bother to tell Lad-nar that his search tune was almost up and that the Jeremy Bentham’s flitter would home in on his suit beam.

“Go! Walk, Lad-nar!” he said, throwing his arms out. “And tell your brothers you have screamed at the Essence-Stealers!”