Free Running from the Deity by Alan Dean Foster

told the male Dwarra. “It’s what keeps everything fixed to the surface of the world and prevents it from flying off into space.”
    Bent under her share of the burden that was their guest, the female made a gargling noise in her throat. “I won’t argue with alien notions of how things work because I’m not familiar with them, but everyone knows that weight is what keeps things fixed to the ground. When you drop something, weight is what makes it fall.”
    While the two explanations were not irreconcilable, Flinx decided that now was not the time to begin lecturing his amiable hosts on the finer points of elementary physics. He needed to concern himself with more prosaic matters: such as where they were taking him.
    “To our home, of course,” Ebbanai informed him when he voiced the question. “To a place where you can heal.”
    Flinx did not counter that better facilities for speeding his recovery were available on board his ship. He thought it unlikely these remarkable folk would willingly board his craft. They might be bold, but if confronted by something as intimidating and alien to them as the
Teacher,
their resolve was likely to shrivel. Better to engage them on ground and terms they found familiar.
    As the trio made their way northward through the dunes, with Pip patrolling lazily overhead, it became clear to him that these creatures were not true empaths like himself. Whereas he could perceive their emotions effortlessly, they could not tell what he was feeling unless he worked to project his emotions directly onto them. Moreover, they could only recognize each other’s feelings when physical contact was made through the cerebral transmitter/receivers they called Sensitives.
    That aside, with the exception of Pip, with whom he shared a unique mental connection, they were more like him in their emotionally perceptive abilities than any species he had ever encountered. The feelings he received from them were as clear and pure and easy to interpret as words on a screen. He felt an instant rapport with these simple sentients of a kind he had never experienced before, not even with another human being. Well, with the exception of perhaps one or two human beings, he corrected himself. And a certain thranx.
    It was as if, after searching for uncomplicated, straightforward empathetic connections all his life, he had finally stumbled on a situation where they were not only not special, but a natural component of everyday person-to-person existence. The realization left him more than a little overwhelmed.
    Careful, he admonished himself. Thus far, he had only met two of the natives. Their mental condition might be as unique as it was isolated. He knew nothing of the rest of the population. He needed to reserve judgment concerning the abilities of the species as a whole until he had experienced a substantially greater number of encounters. Appearances, even mental ones, could be deceiving.
    He nodded toward the native on his right. Though the representatives of the two sexes were approximately the same height, the limbs of the male were larger in diameter than those of the female, while the lower torso of the latter was wider. He recalled the unique birthing process described by the
Teacher,
but saw no sign that the female was carrying pouched young.
    A slight misstep sent an electric sting up his right leg, and he winced. “Is it much farther?” he asked via the translator swaying on the retractable cord around his neck.
    “Not so far.” He found himself looking into the large, inquisitive round eyes of the female. “Why didn’t you just fly there? Ebbanai said that you arrived here in a great flying machine.”
    “That’s just it,” he told her, sidestepping mention of the shuttlecraft and skimmer snugged in the
Teacher
’s support bay. “It’s not feasible to have a large vessel engage its engines to travel such a short distance.”
    Ebbanai freed one double-flanged forehand long enough to make a crisp