"Andre Norton - Breed To Come - uc" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

where he was and do battle, for he did not doubt that
the Barkers would speedily scent him (in fact he won-
dered fleetingly why they had not already done so).
Or he could seek safety in the only flight left—aloft.

The hunting claws gave him a firm grip as they bit
into tree bark, and he pulled himself up with haste.
He found a branch from which he could view the
ground below. Deep in his throat rumbled a growl he
would not give full voice to, and with flattened ears
and fur lifted on his spine, he watched, eyes aslit in a
fighting face.

There were five of them, and they trotted four-
footed. They had no one such as Gammage to supply
them with any additions to the natural weapons of
fangs. But those were danger enough. The Barkers
were a third again as large as Furtig in size, their
strong muscles moving smoothly under hides which

12

BREED TO COME

were some as gray as his own, others blotched with
black or lightened on belly and chest with cream.

They wore belts not unlike his, and from three of
these dangled the limp bodies of rabbits. A hunting
party. But so far they had found only small prey. If
they kept on along that way though (Furtig's sound-
less growl held a suggestion of anticipation), they
were going to cross the regular ranging ground of the
Tusked Ones. And if they were foolish enough to hunt
them—Furtig's green eyes glistened. He would back
the Tusked Ones against any foe—perhaps even
against Demons. Their warriors were not only fierce

fighters but very wily brained.

He hoped that the Barkers would run into Broken
Nose. In his mind Furtig gave that name to the great
boar leader. The People could not echo the speech of
the Tusked Ones, any more than they could the sharp
yelps of the Barkers—though no reasonable creature
could deem those speech. At the rare times of truce
communication, one depended on signs, and the learn-
ing of them was the first lesson of any youngling's ed-
ucation.