"Jerry Oltion - A New Generation" - читать интересную книгу автора (Oltion Jerry)

She had caught just a glimpse of her discoverer: a tall, gangly
creature that walked on two legs, maybe three times as tall as her. It didn’t
look toothy or heavily armored or particularly fast, which meant it was
probably poisonous.

How could she not know? She knew about the bushes with the orange
berries, and she knew about the tide, and she even knew about the forest
that awaited her atop the cliffs, but she didn’t know anything at all about the
creature that stalked her. Was it fierce, or was it food? She didn’t know that
most basic of things about it.

She poked her head up through the scratchy branches of her hiding
place until her topmost eye could see over the bushes. The mystery
creature had followed her trail to the point where she’d stopped making
one, and was waving a shiny forepaw back and forth through the air. “It’s in
here somewhere,” it said.

“Watch out,” said a fainter, thinner voice from the side of its head. “If
it’s anything like what’s in the water, it could take your arm off in one bite.”

“I’m wearing my p-suit,” the mouth voice said.

“It could still hurt a lot.”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s two feet long.”

Language. Two speakers were exchanging thoughts. Instinct told her
that much. It didn’t tell her what they were saying, but she guessed one was
being cautious and waiting out of danger while the other one explored.

It bothered her that she had to guess. It bothered her that she didn’t
know how the second speaker could project its voice directly into the first
speaker’s ear. Instinct should have covered this, as it covered everything
else.

“I’m getting a heat signature,” the explorer said. It waved its shiny
forepaw toward her, then past, then brought it back to point straight at her.
“Right there.”

Discovered so easily? She must have wiggled the bush. She ducked
down and moved silently toward the ocean again. The creature would
expect her to climb the cliff, as her kind always did when they hatched. But
when she rose up again to look, it was still pointing its outstretched arm
directly at her.

“It’s quick,” it said. “I’m probably going to have to stun it.”

“If you can hit it,” said the other voice.