Valdemar Anthology - [Tales of Valdemar 02] - Sun in Glory and Other Tales of Valdemar Read Free Page B

am smaller and look defenseless.”
    â€œI do not care to risk injury by attacking dangerous prey. If I am not fast, fit, and strong, I will starve.”
    â€œTo answer your first question, I haven’t killed you, because we, too, are an intelligent species.”
    â€œThat is obvious. I was sent to watch your camp for three nights, then report to the rest of the pack. You puzzled us: you do not hunt, yet you do not graze either. You are soft and defenseless, like grazers, yet bright and cunning . . .”
    â€œLike hunters.”
    â€œYes. We would have attacked your camp already, otherwise.”
    â€œThat would have been very, very silly. Our weapons are not claws and teeth, but they are still deadly.”
    â€œNow I know that your species is truly sentient, not like the mrran.”
    â€œMrran? What is that?” I asked
    â€œA mrran is the animal that you have adopted into your herd—or should I say pack? It puzzled me greatly when you did not kill and eat the mrran. The others could hardly believe me when I told them.”
    â€œWe have other uses for the mrran. It provides wool to cover us. Unlike you, we have little fur of our own. Do you understand that?”
    â€œYes. In a way I pity you for not having a naturally warm, glossy, thick coat.” At this it preened a bit. “What are the other reasons?”
    â€œDo you remember what happened a couple of days ago?”
    â€œVaguely. There was a storm . . . and before the storm I was something else. As smart as the mrran, perhaps. Maybe even less smart. During the storm, I changed. All those of my pack changed.”
    â€œIn a way, the storm created us as well,” I explained. “We make our own food, we are neither hunters nor hunted. But we are very, very dangerous. Spread the message to your pack: leave us alone. Soon we shall stop and make a thing called a village. Stay away from it. You are most dangerous when you pounce, but we are even more deadly when we stop moving.”
    â€œI have seen that.”
    I slipped the knots on its bonds and it shook itself free in a moment. It stood and looked at me. After a moment it spoke.
    â€˜Something in me says I shouldn’t respect anything without fur. But I respect your kind if they are all as smart as you. Is this the right thing to feel, I wonder?”
    â€œI respect your kind.” I replied. “But I do not fear them.”
    â€œThen we are equal. And because we are equal, I don’t think that our peoples should be enemies.”
    â€œSpoken like a true and intelligent predator. If my villagers and your pack can stay friendly, then when one of you is sick or injured and needs care, I can help.”
    â€œHelp the injured? Why?”
    â€œBecause it benefits everyone. Are you intelligent enough to see that?”
    If cats could frown, it did.
    â€œFighting would bring the pack no benefit,” it said eventually. “I assume that you need clear land and nearby water for your village?”
    â€œYes, we do. That is why we have not settled down yet. There are too many trees.”
    â€œIf you continue on for about a day, and then turn east, you will come to the edge of the forest, where the grasslands begin. There is a stream running close by. We don’t like water or open land. You are welcome to it.”
    â€œThank you, I think we shall like it a lot.”
    I picked up my pack, but it did not move.
    â€œJust one last question before I go to my pack. Do you know what we were before the storm?”
    â€˜You were cats,” I guessed. “All that has been changed is your coloring, your intelligence, and your size. You weren’t dark green before the storm, and you didn’t have language and reasoning. You certainly weren’t four yards long.”
    I hoped that I had guessed correctly, but soon it nodded its head and padded for the trees. Then it stopped and looked back.
    â€œPerhaps, sometime, we should