And for two they had a whole planet. And they had everything: water, air, food, and time ... And birds flew in the sky, strange in sight and taste, and fish swam in the seas, strange in color and smell, and lived in strange forests strange animals ... And there were only two intelligent beings on the entire planet: Man and Arch. They came to her for different reasons and at different times ... They lived in different worlds, they ate and drank differently, they wore different clothes and spoke different languages, but they had one thing in common. This, this particular planet, they chose independently. When the man landed, the arch ship was already on the planet about a hundred miles east of the landing site. But neither of them knew about the existence of each other: the person simply did not notice the ship of the arch as it landed, which is forgivable: it is extremely difficult to consider a space boat on the surface of an entire planet.

Try to find the keys before leaving the house, and then you will swear! And the man had no time or desire for research. Landing was forced. In general, he was very lucky that in this sector of deep space there was a planet suitable for living. Actually, she was not even alone, but this one attracted the pilot of the Far Postal Service, and there was no hope at all to check the convergence of conditions on all three possible planets for landing. The man took a chance - and won a billion in the "Christmas lottery". Because there was air. Because there was water. Because it was life. Because...

But arch unscrupulously slept the arrival of an alien mind. Perhaps he had his own reasons for this, but the cosmos does not forgive even the slightest mistakes, and this is a mistake. And considerable.

Therefore, they met in about a week according to local time. The man was busy all this time: first it was necessary to notify the Earth about the location of the ship of the Far Postal Service. It was the most important thing. And it took a lot of time, because only in science fiction - I called the code of the planet, and it’s done. But in fact, explaining to the dispatcher on Earth in 12 parsecs about where exactly the ship is is not an easy task! Then it was necessary to attend to the preservation of cargo, and this was also important. Moreover, the person engaged in the preservation of cargo in parallel with communication with the Earth - at such distances, the time of question-answer allows you to be bored. And the cargo will not wait ... It's good that there was no live cargo on this flight. There was no need to be distracted by feeding and cleaning the cells. But also to check in a huge ship the work of refrigerators, vacuum coolers, heaters, air conditioners and other facilities ... Yes, the person did not miss.

But the arch at this time did not do anything. Nothing from our human point of view. All the pastime of the arch was reduced to the preparation and absorption of food, sleep, tagging of the territory, sometimes - cleaning and easy repair of the hut. For the arch lived not in a serviceable and comfortable boat, but in his own hut. The rest of the time, the arch was either warming the belly in the sun, or dragging himself through the forest, choosing who would be his prey today. He lived here already in order, so each time it became more and more difficult to choose a new type of prey, and sometimes the arch even refused to hunt, returning to canned food.

And everyone was busy. Therefore, the meeting took place after the person, having dealt with the immediate and pressing problems, finally remembered that he was a man, and therefore a king of nature. And so, having slept and had a full breakfast, he flew out to inspect his own kingdom. A light, and almost silent flyer carried an admiring man over the expanses of the New World. This planet would seem ugly to us - there was no greenery here, pink and red tones prevailed, the vegetation was organized not in slender forests, but rather in shrubs of forest-steppe. But the mountains and plains are equally beautiful on all planets.But if you spend six months or a year in a steel box, and your only companions will be a set of rubber women and a computer - I will see how you will turn up your nose from the expanses of the whole planet!

Therefore, it is not surprising that after flying around a considerable area, a man planted a flyer on a sandy strip of the bay of the sea not far from the local forest. By our standards, this place could even be called beautiful. He did not swim, for he remembered that he did not forgive the cosmos of errors, but he went to the woods ... But he was mistaken with the direction and went not to the flyer, but on the opposite side of the bay. And stumbled upon the arch. Imagine a meeting with cougar, standing up on 2 legs and taking some thing in front paws ... In general, the first meeting did not bring pleasure to the parties. A man has civilized instincts, and he did not shoot just because the puma had something in his hands. And this fact immediately took her out of the discharge of the beast to another discharge. And the arch didn’t shoot just because he considered a man in a spacesuit a robot, and he only had a weapon to hunt with him. That is - to defeat prey, but not technology. And when the man, after long seconds of thinking about the situation, moved, the arch simply turned, and, throwing up his tail, jerked along the sand as if competing with a cheetah. Having opened his mouth, the man looked into the trail of settling sand ...

- Grrr!

The man let out a cheer, stealing up to the arch from the back. He jerked his ear.

“You're still too noisy.” I smelled you. True, just now.

The man hit a sunbed a meter away from the arch. There was a “common place” - that is, for meetings, negotiations, solving joint issues and making requests and complaints to each other. Arch guarded his territory carefully, and was very offended if a person violated visible borders to him alone without an agreement. And they spoke the language of the Arch. Because in the process of finding out who is who, it turned out that the roaring and guttural language of the archs is still suitable for human reproduction, but the sounds of the human language are stressful for the archs. In addition, the arch did not make any visible efforts to master the human, willingly repeating the words of his language and explaining their meaning whenever a person asked for it.

In any case, it was much easier for man, for he already knew four languages, and for the first time the arch heard that speech without an easily recognizable meaning. Alas, the meaning of many concepts for man remained a mystery. For the structure of speech in humans is still not suitable for communication with the arch. Take at least mimicry ... On the face of a man there are hundreds of recognizable emotions that arch is completely inaccessible. And the movement of the ears and tail? A person learned to distinguish them, but to reproduce them ... So we had to limit the language to both of the available means or in the process of creating new terms and agree on their meaning. And as a result, the person acquired a fifth language, and the arch ...

- I still learn to walk like you!

- I'll get used to it, and I will not be afraid.

The presence of the arch at the "common place" meant that he wanted to communicate. Most often, it hurt trouble - the pilot never studied at the space diplomat and learned a lot of unpleasant things about himself in the process of such communication. Communicating with a representative of another civilization is not a job for the faint of heart self-lovers. But alas, a man could not overcome himself and lock himself up in a ship before salvation arrived from Earth - long months of loneliness? Again! For what? Moreover, the arch was, in principle, a pleasant neighbor on the planet - sacredly observing the territory, he never climbed the "western hemisphere" - that part of the planet where he built his dwelling following the example of the first settlers. On the "eastern hemisphere" the arch was plenty of room ... But he wanted to talk too.

- Teach me to swim - the arch's tail jerked on the lounger.

The man thought. The dislike of cats that is well-known to people can in principle be transferred to archs, but very conditionally. All the same arch - not cats. And the arch several times watched the water procedures of man - from the shore. He never called him to swim ...