Breed to Come Read Free

caves from a different direction.
    It was dusk and then night. Furtig was hungry. He rasped his rough-surfaced tongue in and out of hismouth when he thought of food. But he did not allow himself to hurry.
    A sudden hiss out of the night did not startle him.He gave a low recognition note in return. Had he notsounded that he might well have had his throatclawed open by the guard. The People did not survive through lack of caution.
    Twice he swung off the open trail to avoid the hidden traps. Not that the People were as dependent ontraps as the Rattons, who were commonly known tohave raised that defense to a high art in the lairs. For, unlike the People, who distrusted and mainly keptaway from the Demon places, the Rattons had chosenalways to lurk there.
    The Five Caves were ably defended by nature aswell as by their inhabitants. None of them opened atground level. High up, they cut back from two ledgeswith a straight drop below. There were tree-trunkladders rigged to give access to the ledges. But thesecould be hauled up, to lie along ledge edge, anotherbarrier to attack. Twice the caves had been besiegedby packs of Barkers. Both times their defenses hadbeen unbreakable, and the attackers had lost morepack members then they had slain in return. It wasduring the last such attack that Furtig's father hadfallen.
    Within, the caves cut deeply, and one of them hada way down to where water flowed in the ever-dark.Thus the besieged did not suffer from thirst, and theykept always a store of dried meat handy.
    Furtig's people were not naturally gregarious.Younglings and their mothers made close family units, of course. But the males, except in the Monthsof Mating, were not very welcome in the innermost caves. Unmated males roved widely and made up thescouts and the outer defenses. They had, through theyears, increased in numbers. But seldom, save at theTrials of Skill, were they ever assembled together.
    They had a truce with another tribe-clan to thewest, and met for trials with them that they might exchange bloodlines by intennating. But normally theyhad no contact with any but their own five families, one based in each of the caves.
    Furtig's cave was at the top and north, and he swung up to-it quickly, his nose already sorting andclassifying odors. Fresh meat—ribs of wild cow. Alsoduck. His hunger increased with every sniff.
    But as he entered the cave, he did not hurry towhere the'females were portioning out the food but slipped along the wall to that niche where the seniormember of the clan sat sharpening his hunting claws with the satisfaction of one who had recently putthem to good use. So apparent was that satisfaction, Furtig knew Fal-Kan had been responsible for thecow ribs.
    Though his people's sight adjusted well to partialdarkness, there was light in the cave, a dull glow froma small box which was another of Gammage's gifts. Itdid not need any tending. When the first daylightstruck into the mouth of the cave it vanished, comingalive again in the dusk of evening.
    Gammage's bounty, too, were the squares of wovenstuff that padded the sleeping ledges along the walls.In summer these were stowed away, and the femalesbrought in sweet-scented grasses in their places. Butin the cold, when one curled up on them, a gentle heatwas generated to keep one warm through the worst ofwinter storms.
    "Fal-Kan has hunted well." Furtig squatted severalpaces away from his mother's eldest brother, now sitting on his own sleep ledge. Thus Furtig was the prescribed respectful distance below him.
    "A fat cow," Fal-Kan replied as one who bringshome such riches each morning before the full heat ofthe sun. "But you came in haste, wearing trail destroyer—" He sniffed heavily. "So what danger haveyour eyes fastened on?"
    Furtig spoke—first of the Barkers and then of thestrange boundary sign. With a gesture Fal-Kan dismissed the Barkers, They were what one could expectfrom time to time, and scouts would be sent to makesure the Barkers were not pack