Free Six Blind Men & an Alien by Mike Resnick Page A

mountain to his cave. He was up at sunrise, and this time he did not wait until twilight to approach the village but walked openly into it at noon.
        The leader emerged from his hut and approached him.
        "My name is Goru," he said. "This is my village. If you do no harm, you will be welcome here."
        "Thank you," said B’narr.
        "Bira thinks you are a devil, and he will be watching you closely."
        "Who is Bira?"
        "Our mundumugu. "
        " Mundumugu ?" repeated B’narr.
        "He who makes the laws," explained Goru.
        A wizened old man approached them. "I can speak for myself," he said.
        "You are Bira?" asked B’narr.
        "I am Bira, creature," he answered. "And I know you for what you are."
        "I wish only to befriend your people and be of service to them," B’narr assured him.
        "If that is true, we will hide you when the Germans come," said Goru. "Or if we have ample warning, you will retreat to where you live now until they have gone."
        "What are Germans?" asked B’narr.
        "Europeans."
        "And what are Europeans?"
        "Unlike you, they are men ," interjected Bira.
        "They are white men who have superior weapons," continue Goru. "They came to the land many years ago, when I was still a child, and declared that it was theirs and not ours."
        "And they have driven all your people to this mountain?"
        Goru shook his head. "No. My tribe has always lived on Kilimanjaro. But many tribes live on Serengeti and near Ngorongoro and Olduvai, and the Germans rule us all."
        "How many Germans are there?"
        Goru shrugged. "Who can know? They come from a land that is far away."
        "So only some of them live here?" persisted B’narr.
        "That is correct."
        "How many?"
        Another shrug. "I don’t know. A hundred. A thousand. A million. Enough. "
        "Are any on the mountain right now?"
        "I do not think so," said Goru. "But Kilimanjaro is a big mountain."
        "Perhaps we should talk about these Germans," said B’narr.
        "That is what we have been doing," said Goru, confused.
        "I mean everyone who lives on Kilimanjaro."
        "Why?"
        "Because it is our mountain, not the Germans," answered B’narr. "We must find a way to let the Germans know that."
        "We cannot fight them," said Goru.
        B’narr smiled a very alien smile. "There are ways," he said. "We will discuss it tomorrow."
        "My magic cannot defeat them," said Bira. "If yours can, it is more proof that you are a devil."
        "I am not a devil," answered B’narr. "And there is something else I am not: a mundumugu . You are the only one in this village. I do not want your job."
        "You do not think it is worthy of you?" spat Bira.
        "I am just a stranger who wishes to help." B’narr spent an hour in the village, learning the people’s names, learning who lived in which hut, learning where the other villages on this side of the mountain were and which tribes lived in them, and then he went back to his cave with a sense of deep satisfaction.
        They needed him.
        Far from being banished here, he now knew that he’d been put here for a purpose. He suddenly felt complete again.
        The next morning he returned to the village. He had hoped to find some fifty village leaders gathered there. Instead there were only eighteen, plus Goru and Bira, but he wasn’t discouraged. One had to start somewhere.
        "I am pleased to meet you all," he said by way of greeting. "I will learn each of your names before the meeting is over."
        "What are you?" the tallest of the leaders,
        "I thought Goru had explained it to you," said B’narr.
        "Bira is right," replied the man. "You were never born of human parents."
        "I know it is difficult to believe-" began B’narr.
        "It is impossible to