Yuen-Mong's Revenge Read Free Page B

being— human no doubt —light-skinned and tall in comparison to
the men. Female? She was standing just outside the trees, twirling a sling
in her hand. She also carried a bow, though much bigger than the ones of
the men. A second, equally commanding whistle sounded, and the group
of six howled angrily. Five immediately ran for the opposite forest cover,
while the sixth grabbed a big piece of the bird before following them.
The intruder whipped up the sling and barely a second later, the man
cried out in pain, dropped his burden and ran limping after the others.
          With easy grace, the intruder loped down from the forest edge to the
bird, her long straight black hair flowing like a flag. She deftly cut
several pieces of meat, dropped them into a pouch, and then slowly
walked back up to the forest, turning briefly as if to survey the scene,
before she disappeared under the canopy.
          Atun trained his binoculars back on the six men who were just emerging from behind the tree trunks and cautiously went back to their quarry,
where they howled again when they saw the cuts missing from the bird.
One of them kicked the carcass in obvious anger. Then they gathered the
remains, still sizable he thought and swiftly disappeared in the forest in
the opposite direction from the intruder.
          What an implausible scene? The planet inhabited by two different
human species, one clearly dominant where even a single female was
feared by the other, though both savages who used weapons of long-gone
primitive tribes of Old Earth? Or were one or both stranded spacefarer
like him who had gone wild? This did not augur well. All at once he had
the urge to get back to his craft as quickly as possible.
            He clambered over to where he had come up and carefully started the
descent, when a slight noise made him look down. Turning his head as
far as he could, he saw the intruder— definitely female —swinging his
survival pack onto her back.
          "Hey, what are you doing? This is mine!" he shouted.
          She only looked fearlessly at him with a faint smile, grabbed his laser
gun and spare charge pack and started running down toward the trees
with the same easy loping gate he had observed before, her black hair
now tied into a pony tail.
          "No, wait! Stop! Stop!" he cried, an edge of desperation in his voice,
hoping that she would at least recognize the sound of that universal word.
He scrambled down the rock face, almost losing his grip and risking a
fall. By the time he touched the bottom, she had reached the edge of the
forest, where she briefly paused, as if wanting to see what he would do.
          "Stop!" he called out again. But when she saw him coming down the
slope, she disappeared in the trees. Panic gripped him. He was surely
going to lose her in the forest. When he entered the trees, he could see
movement farther down—the light gray of his survival pack, bobbing up
and down. He sped up, trying to gain ground on her, but she always
seemed to be about the same distance ahead. Then he could see her
silhouette against the sunshine at the edge of the forest. He shouted
again, but the sound got swallowed by the canopy. She briefly looked
back up before turning to the right along the edge of the forest. He cut in
her direction, hoping to intercept her, or at least catch up a bit, but she
easily outsprinted him. By the time he came into the open, she was
standing, about a hundred yards ahead. He had not managed to gain an
iota on her and he was already panting heavily.
          With a renewed effort he went after her. She turned left into the
grasses. When he reached that point, he saw her again the same distance
ahead partway down a narrow path, well-used judging by its trampled
surface. She is trying to entice me away from my craft, went through his
mind. Would he find his way back again? He slowed, questioning
whether to continue the pursuit or give up on the survival pack and