Star Born | Page 3

sea
people. Only Sssuri and a few others of youthful years would consider a journey to
explore the long-forbidden section their traditions labeled as dangerous land.
The belief that he was about to venture into questionable territory had made Dalgard
evasive when he reported his plans to the Elders three days earlier. But since such trips
were, by tradition, always thrusts into the unknown, they had not questioned him too
much. All in all, Dalgard thought, watching Sssuri flake the firm pink flesh from the fish,
he might deem himself lucky and this quest ordained. He went off to hack out armloads
of grass and fashion the sleep mats for the sun-warmed ground.
They had eaten and were lounging in content on the soft sand just beyond the curl of the
waves when Sssuri lifted his head from his folded arms as if he listened. Like all those of
his species, his vestigial ears were hidden deep in his fur and no longer served any real
purpose; the mind touch served him in their stead. Dalgard caught his thought, though
what had aroused his companion was too rare a thread to trouble his less acute senses.
"Runners in the dark--"
Dalgard frowned. "It is still sun time. What disturbs them?"
To the eye Sssuri was still listening to that which his friend could not hear.
"They come from afar. They are on the move to find new hunting grounds."
Dalgard sat up. To each and every scout from Homeport the unusual was a warning, a
signal to alert mind and body the runners in the night -- that furred monkey race of
hunters who bed the moonless dark of Astra when most of the higher fauna were asleep --
were very distantly related to Sssuri's species, though the gap between them was that
between highly civilized man and the jungle ape. The runners were harmless and shy, but
they were noted also for clinging stubbornly to one particular district generation after
generation. To find such a clan on the move into new territory was to be fronted with a
puzzle it might be well to investigate.
"A snake-devil--" he suggested tentatively, forming a mind picture of the vicious reptilian
danger which the colonists tried to kill on sight whenever and wherever encountered. His
hand went to the knife at his belt. One met with weapons only that hissing hatred
motivated by a brainless ferocity which did not know fear.
But Sssuri did not accept that explanation. He was sitting up facing inland where the
thread of valley met the cliff wall. And seeing his absorption, Dalgard asked no

distracting questions.
"No, no snake-devil--" after long moments came the answer. He got to his feet, shuffling
through the sand in the curious little half dance which betrayed his agitation more
strongly than his thoughts had done.
"The hoppers have no news," Dalgard said.
Sssuri gestured impatiently with one out flung hand. "Do the hoppers wander far from
their own nest mounds? Somewhere there ---" he pointed to the left and north "there is
trouble, bad trouble. Tonight we shall speak with the runners and discover what it may
be."
Dalgard glanced about the camp with regret. But he made no protest as he reached for his
bow and stripped off its protective casing. With the quiver of heavy-duty arrows slung
across his shoulder he was ready to go, following Sssuri in-land. The easy valley path
ended less than a quarter of a mile from the sea, and they were fronted by a wall of rock
with no other option than to climb. But the weltering sun made plain every possible hand
and foot hold on its surface.
When they stood at last on the heights and looked ahead, it was across a broken stretch of
bare rock with the green of vegetation beckoning from at least a mile beyond. Sssuri,
hesitated for only a moment or two, his round, almost featureless head turning slowly,
until he fixed on a north-easterly course -- striking out unerringly as if he could already
sight the goal. Dalgard fell in behind, looking over the country with a wary eye. This was
just the type of land to harbor flying dragons. And while those pests were small, their
lightning-swift attack from above made them foes not, to be disregarded. But all the
flying things he saw were two moth birds of delicate hues engaging far over the
sun-baked rock in one of their graceful winged dances.
They crossed the heights and came to the inland slope, a drop toward the central interior
plains of the continent. As they plowed through the high grasses Dalgard knew they were
under observation. Hoppers watched them. And once through a break in a line of trees he
saw a small herd