A Close Call For Bytes.

Dear Toby.

I know. I'll write again tomorrow, he says, at which point he vanishes off the planet. But this is why I wanted this blog so that I could do just that, go and come back and it wouldn't matter, I'd still be able to write letters to you whenever I wanted. Well an awful lot has changed since I last wrote, but we can't go into all that now, I have a story to finish.

I was jittering with nerves when I arrived at the colony with Bytes. No way was I zapping in the bushes and walking him down the thoroughfare, to the low country with the rules! I zapped straight into our cube with him. Gwen was there of course, so was Tovey, Barney and Bernie were watching the door and some of the others were milling around, trying to pretend things were as normal as they could be. I couldn't see Geordie, I didn't think much about it, expected he'd had other things to do instead. Nobody said a word when I arrived, not even Mum. It was all so dangerous, we all knew that.

I walked forward through the press of leps and put Bytes down on Dad's bed. Dad was sinking fast, he looked worse even than yesterday. His teeth were clenched in pain and there was sweat on his forehead.

"All right, Bytes." I whispered, bending down to my purple friend. "Now you need to look at Dad. Try to see where the badness in his tummy is. Think it away from him so he can get better. And bytes, try to see if there is any other badness in him like that and think that away too."

Bytes wriggled up the bed and settled himself on Dad's chest, just like he did to me when he wanted me to wake up in the morning. He leaned forward and looked full into my Dad's face. A long time passed when you could have heard a dewdrop fall in the cube. My mind was whirling. Was it too much to expect a baby like Bytes to be able to do this amazing thing?

Then, after what seemed like halfway past forever had gone by, Bytes suddenly jumped off my Dad who twisted sharply over on his side and hung over the edge of the bed where there was a bucket. He began violently coughing and zurking. Mum rushed forward to hold him steady. It went on so long it scared us all, especially as what came out was like nothing I've ever seen before, horrible slimy lumpy stuff, irch! When it was over we laid Dad back on his pillows and someone took the bucket away. I looked at Dad's face. He was sleeping, but he looked easier. The pinched, pained look he'd been wearing for weeks had gone. I even thought a little colour had come back into his thin face.

Bytes was cranking at me. He wanted to talk. I didn't have my iPad but I had my phone. I got it out. Bytes shimmered out of existance.

"You ought to go home, our Bert, right now." Tovey said. "We got away wiv it so far."

"We don't know if it's worked. Bytes is about to tell us." I said. Just then Bytes's loopy writing scrolled across the small screen.

"Lots of bad bits in belly, one in chest too and one in eating pipe. All gone now, Couldn't think away so Bytes made them come up. Is it good?"

"It's excellent, Bytes!" I said. "Come on out of there, we have to go straight away." A moment later Bytes, warm and fluffy, was back on Dad's bed. I turned to the family.

"Dad's going to be ok. He had cancers, thorns, in his stomach, his ches, lungs I should think, and his oesophagus, but they're gone now. in that bucket. Now we must leave."

Mum threw her arms around us and burst into a loud storm of sobbing. I was just getting myself out of her tight hug and picking up Bytes when I suddenly felt a wrenching pull in my guts. I knew that pull, I'd felt it once before. Cassie was in danger.

"Cassie!" I bellowed. I couldn't think of anything else, Tobe, it was the imprint. I forgot all about Bytes, I ran out of the cube, totally ignoring the shouts for me to stop. I found Cassie down at the other end of the colony, she was tied to a pipe. She'd been knocked out, which is why I'd only felt the pull when I did, when she came to and started pulling with the imprint.

By the time I figured out what was going on, released Cassie and ran with her back to the cube it was, of course, way too late. The plan had been well made. The cube had been attacked by a huge number of crack soldier guards, Bernie, Barney and anyone else who put up a fight had been overpowered and Bytes had been taken away.

I don't like to think about the time I spent after that, Tobe. Milo was waiting for me back at the cube. He was absolutely delighted with himself. I demanded to know where Bytes was. "Oh, he's quite safe, Bertalius." he said. "He's somewhere you'll never find him. He's going to be a very useful servant to this colony from now on. He'll soon learn that if he does things for us, he eats. If he doesn't, he goes hungry. Primitive magical creatures, which is all he really is, soon learn who's master. After all, he was only loyal to you because you fed him!"

I thought of all our good times together, of the love and friendship Bytes had shown me and I thought my heart would break.

"Go back to those humans now, Bert, and don't come looking for the creature if you know what's good for you. It's time dirty little human toadies like you knew their place in this colony."

Can you imagine how I felt, tobe? I couldn't do a thing. Bytes would be closely guarded by crack soldiers, i hadn't a hope of ever getting him back. I wished with all my heart I'd never taken him back to the colony. I couldn't look at any of my family. I loved them all, but I loved Bytes too. I just zapped out and went home.

When I told Brian and L what had happened they were heartbroken too. I was expecting recriminations, but they had the kindness not to be angry with me, they could see I was angry enough with myself. We just sat together, remembering Bytes and crying. Finally I went to my closet to try and sleep. I had a full day the next day.

Drearily I turned on my iPad to do one final mail check, it was possible Hinky had written, or Elli, and anyway, I'd better tell Elli what had happened, if ever so briefly.

As soon as I turned on my iPad I nearly dropped it. The picture of a furry purple creature exploded on to the screen. Three huge loopy words then exploded across the screen above the smaller Bytes picture.

"Where You Been?"

The next minute, the picture Bytes shimmered out of existance and a warm, furry, purple bundle had hurled itself at me, crying at the top of its considerable voice.

Stars on the water, Tobes, I couldn't believe it! I didn't know that Bytes could get into web space even if he wasn't near a computer, phone or iPad. If I'd known that, all I would have needed to do was to turn on my iPad when I got home, and there he'd have been. Bytes was shivering with fright, crying so loud that his voice soon brought company. When Brian and L found me cradling Bytes they were amazed but overjoyed as I was. I grabbed my phone and rang home.

"Mum," I yelled over Bytes's continuing noise. "I just turned my iPad on and Bytes came out of it. He's been hiding in web space. He got away from them, Mum."

"Oh stars an' moon, our Bert, I am glad. Now we can get that stinkin' zblert Milo too!"

"How's that, our Mum," I said, when I'd got over the shock of our Mum using such a bad swearword.

"Well," she said, taking a deep breath. "Your friend, you know, the one from the old country, well, when the soldiers turned up he couldn't do much, but 'e 'ad a yuman fing what records everyfing, pictures an' all. So we got the 'ole fing, 'e just kept out the way an' got 'em, saw the soldiers comin' an' Milo tellin' 'em to 'it Bernie an' Barnie an' Tovey and that, an' them takin' the purple fing away. Your friend's goin' to the 'ead of the council wiv it. We was 'opin' to get the purple fing out that way, but if 'e's 'ome already, we can just get that nasty Milo so 'e can't never 'urt the purple fing again."

Good old Geordie! He had been there. He'd been hiding out somewhere and had videoed the whole attack and thus had cooked Milo's goose good and proper. Abducting a magical creature is still illegal thank the stars. Without evidence I couldn't have prove Bytes had been abducted, but thanks to Geordie, Milo didn't have a leg to stand on.

When Bytes had calmed down I got him to go back into the iPad to explain what happened. He was too scared at first to think about anything. Milo, several of his followers on the council and all the soldiers who were with Milo had taken Bytes to the guard cubes and put him in a strong cage. Then they started demanding that Bytes do thinks for them. Of course he had refused and I think they hurt him, he won't talk about it, but he drew a picture of something long and sharp and made a pain noise, so I'm pretty sure. They left no marks on him, my poor darling baby friend. Anyway, when it got too bad he suddenly thought of webspace and just disappeared into it. They couldn't do a thing. he was just gone. Oh, Toby Tobes, I wish I could have seen their horrible, zlanny ugly faces!

Anyway, there was an awful row about what happened, as well there should have been. The council was appalled, and rightly so. Milo was tried for abduction and sent to the locking halls for fifteen years. When he comes out he'll be expelled from the colony. The other six councilors who were in on it have had smaller locking sentences and they will also be expelled when they come out. The crack soldiers have been stripped and expelled and that's left us short handed but the council was appalled to find how much rottenness there was in our colony, they say we can't afford to have bad leps in positions of power so it's better to be short handed while we recruit new soldier guards.

Auntie Kitty had a bad time. Milo is her son of course, and two of his brothers were also in the plot. They've been disowned by not only her and their siblings but by all their family. They are im-zlavaarn, and that is a really terrible thing to be if you're a lep. There's no worse outcast than a lep with no family willing to own him. He can't even use his patronymic now, he will be known as Milo Im-Zlavaarn for the rest of his life, and his children will carry the dishonour too. I can't feel much sympathy though, Tobes, he deserves all he gets.

Now let's talk about happy things. My Dad got well again. It took him a while, because the thorns had taken so much of him, but with good nursing and good food, he regained all his strength and now he's the Dad i remember. He still has problems with his back and lets others do the foraging more often than not these days, but he enjoys his food now, loves his tot of Zair, is still an enthusiastic brewer, he can always be found sitting up high in his swinging chair, looking down at the generations of his family who all love him so much.

And there's another thing. Bytes always comes home with me now on Sundays. With Milo and anyone else who means him harm out of the way, Bytes is safe in the colony again. And because he's safe, not to say welcome, in the colony, he loves to do thinks for anyone who needs them. That was the stupid thing about Milo's wicked plan, Tobes. Bytes loved doing thinks for the colony, but he did them because he wanted to. He'd never have done them under threat of force, never ever. Now, when we get home on Sunday mornings, Gwen meets me with a list of people who need Bytes's help and we make the rounds. Bytes goes into cubes that are sad and comes out usually leaving happiness behind. Then maybe we'll pay a visit to old Sparky the electrics man and see if anything needs doing there, or to the head of the council to see if anything needs repairing in the structure. Once we have everything done we'll start at the far end and bring our portable party right down to the doors. Bytes will think barrels of zair, huge loaves of bread, yellow cheeses, every kind of fruit, vegetable, salad, cake, pie, pastry, nut, candy and confection made of wild food you can possibly imagine. He's so used to it now he doesn't even break a sweat! When the leps know we've started the party they erupt out of their cubes and everyone starts eating and drinking in the thoroughfare till you can hardly move for people. Then the harps, the drums, the fiddles come out, there's dancing and singing to make the whole colony shake.

But the best of the evening is near the end when a cry goes up for violet rolls. You just have to time it right, leave it too late and Bytes gets too sleepy. Too early and the place is so packed we can't move to get from one end to the other. Bytes and I have usually come back up to Mum and Dad's when it's time for violet rolls. They live up near the top end. I'll have just nipped in to have a quiet cup of tea and to say we'd better get going soon when I'll hear it starting, it kind of surges from one end to the other: "Violet roll! Violet roll! Violet roll!" Then I grin, I know it's the climax of the evening. I put my coat on and kiss Mum, hug Dad, pick up Bytes.

There's a huge roar as we come out into the thoroughfare and before we know it we're lifted high up into the air, up on the shoulders of I don't know how many leps. Then we're moving off down the thoroughfare towards the doors. As we go, I think violet rolls at Bytes. Vilet roll, just as Mum used to make them when I was little. So hard to get all the things, so rare, but so delicious! The lightest, fluffiest sponge, the spring violets chopped very fine, cream stolen from a dairy and whipped with honey and more finely chopped violets, the way Mum would roll the sponge up around the filling so as not to lose one precious bit, then sprinkle on a glaze of melted sweet butter, honey and whole violet petals that made the top of the cake shine like crystals. Bytes knows this thought so well now that I only have to flick the thought to him and out come the violet rolls, one after another, each one on a long, blue dish like the one our Mum used to have. he holds them out in his long arms and passes them into the crowd. Everyone reaches for them. To catch one of Bytes's violet rolls means you'll be lucky all week long. If you don't, that's all right too, because Bytes thinks enough for every single lep to have a slice. The yells of delight and the cheers, the oohs and ahs of greed and admiration follow us all the way to the door, and by the time I'm in the zapping bushes, the dancing is beginning again, and I know it will go on for most of the night. Sunday night parties are now famous in our colony.

I'm always glad to get back home to my lovely comfy closet after my hectic Sunday, Toby Tobes, but before I go to sleep there's just one more thing I always do. I snuggle down in my warm, comfortable bed and take my dear little Bytes in the crook of my arm. He looks at me and raises one of his comical eyebrows. I nodd. Then, he thinks one last violet roll, this one very small, on a miniature blue dish. It's divided in half. I take half and bite into it, sighing with pleasure. Bytes picks up the other piece and crams it into his mouth. Then, violet roll all finished for another week, we snuggle down to sleep. Bytes always stays with me now. I think nearly losing each other has shown us both how important we are to each other so I always wake up to that pink tongue licking my face, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Well, my precious Toby Jug, that's a huge entry. I still have lots to catch you up on, and I hope I will be back soon to do just that, but for now I have a million things I must go and get on with. I love you, big eyes.

Love

Zan. (dad).