Luana Read Free

to keep up with Wu and Ohoh in the trees, and with Uma on the ground. She grew stronger and larger. With each day, each month, Wu and Uma grew more certain than ever the cub was female. In a surprisingly short time she was able to gather her own fruits and berries, and even help Uma and Chaugh on the hunt.
    One day they found a sick lion cub. It had crawled into the cover of the jungle edge from a peninsula of veldt. Possibly its mother had been killed, or its pride simply abandoned it. Neither Wu nor Uma wished to have anything to do with it. Instead it was the man cub, now called Luana, who insisted on adopting and caring for the shivering orphan. She scolded Wu and Uma for their lack of concern, a shocking process neither female had yet grown used to. But if the man cub wanted to trouble herself with the sickly kitten, neither mother would object. She was now quite capable of hunting for two.
    In the natural course of time Uma grew old and less steady in herself until one day, on the hunt, she fell afoul of a stampeding water buffalo and was killed. Chaugh, grown now to enormous proportions, elected to stay with his childhood playmates.
    Then came the day when circling for food brought them back to a spot that seemed somehow familiar. The great dead bird was still there, turning red now not from the fickle sun, but with rust and metal rot. Wu tried to keep her back, but there was no keeping back the distant memories that impelled Luana forward. The old chimp could only watch silently.
    Luana entered the cabin half hopefully, half fearfully. She found nothing, as Wu could have told her. The books were still there, though. The precocious Luana had been able to read. Printed shapes on paper still had meaning, and the pictures helped. Despite Wu’s nervous denial, there was knowledge to be gained here.
    For a long time then they lived near the watering place. But not in the dead bird itself, for at night Luana could not abide it. Besides, Chaugh pointed out gruffly, their presence so close to the watering place would frighten away good game. The panther was contemptuous of Luana’s visits to the dead bird, but held his tongue. The hunting here was excellent, and they found an abandoned den nearby in a giant’s jackstraw tumble of dead trees. If man-sister wanted to waste her time thus, he would not object.
    Jukakhan, the young lion, was less tolerant. He had no memories of the strangely cold, incredibly hard bird-thing. Despite man-sister’s assurances, he could not be compelled to enter it. Old Wu, still fearful, scolded Luana continually, and then scolded her for ignoring the scolding. Ohoh, now nearly grown, watched curiously at first. Later, he found the bird-thing a delightful plaything to explore.
    One day Luana showed them a thing she had made. It was long and thin, part irontree heart and part bird-thing, with tough liana mating the two. It looked a lot like the two long claws she had fashioned from the skin of the bird, only much bigger.
    “What is that?” muttered Jukakhan. “Man-sister?”
    “It’s called a ‘spear,’ ” she rumbled back. “I saw a picture of it in one of the books and thought I could make one, too.”
    “A spear?” the lion growled, rolling its back in the clean sand. “What does it do? What is it good for?”
    “It’s like a long claw, like the little ones I made before, only it’s used differently. The pictures show how.”
    “Bah!” replied Jukakhan. “What good is a single claw?” He flexed, showing a great many indeed. “ ’Tis better to have several, I think.”
    He rolled over onto his feet and sprang playfully. Luana quickly reversed the long claw so that the wooden end faced up and the tip of sharpened bird-skin dug into the ground. Jukakhan hit the wood chest first. It bent slightly but the heavy irontree stalk did not break. The lion’s eyes bugged and all the breath went out of him with a whoosh. He landed heavily but managed to keep his feet. On a branch high