The Mantooth

ust see.' She went out and stood beside him o

ing and contracting as he prepared for the single thrust that would send a ma

en through covered ears. All the Valley seemed to hush in its aftermath, an echo of silence, as if all life for miles around had stopped its breath to listen. Indeed, thought the girl, even a creature that

f slowly. He circled the mountain twice, swooped low down the canyon as if in anger, then turned westward at the sandstone ridge and moved steadily out of sight. Sylviana stood

modore ventures so far from its hole,

here is much work to do.' He reached above and behind her on the rockface to the

a li

are only for binding wooden poles. I go to the valley to fetch them. Do not leave here until I return.' He began to descend, remembered himself. 'The swo

eful,'

ock of her hair in his fingers, and would have kissed her

ed an ax to cut the wood?' He cou

cut it. I steal i

he museum relics she had studied as a child. She moved to a small, relatively smooth stretch of stone just inside the entrance, and laid out the fur upon it. She sat down and tried to work, but

stony ground, angry and frustrated, sucking her f

ept over her. She moved to the dark fissure of the shaft and looked down, deliberating. After several minutes of i

on the floor by his accustomed sleeping place, he found there waiting for him four long and curving strands, spiral cut from the ski

an at least take a few things

half filled with treasures she thought to keep. He asked to see the knife. He withdrew it

n, and I see that you have chosen the best.' He gave it ba

rying water. And this.' She pulled the fur closer, fished around inside i

er of you yet.' She put out her arms to embrace the wolf, who

with you?' sh

ay the beavers while I took the poles. The female--' He laughed. 'She

little two-fo

of your world are only that long, but I pr

izarre thought had just occurred t

ould I

uickly found what she was looking for: PREHISTORIC EARTH, ESSAYS AND ILLU

t the background of a large den, was the figure of a great prehistoric beaver, '…..ei

look li

more o

leistocene. She stopped at a pair of saber-toothed cats, lurking

is not a go

evolution in reverse? Her scientific education told her no, it couldn't happen. But was anything impossible here? She doubted

y live mostly to the north and wes

Kalus? Why isn't

t is going to fight--and still he is only a head taller than the

ehind a group of rocks. The face of the nearer was hard and set, with swept-back cheekbones and heavy, prominent brow.

ide. 'Your people look like this?'

es

en….. But it was more than even that. For the first time in her life she knew, really knew, that Man had once been caught in between, neither fully instinctive nor rationa

s opposed to the mortal, unfeeling animals. What a sad and sorry farce. She looked first to Kalus, then at the wolf--who

t look anythi

of my life, and the reason they mistrust me.' She rocked hers

is w

fears taking shape and becoming familiar from the smokes of a half-remembered past. He seemed to sense this,

deredly back to her place. But often as he worked he would look over at her, stirred strangely by her dismay at

yself feel things. I h

must feel t

mind was far away. One phrase only kept echoing inside it, ga

E OF AN

e, and th