"Piper, H Beam - Fuzzy 3 - Other People" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

among the rocks. Now was egg-laying time for zatku; they would all
be where the ground was soft, to dig holes to lay their eggs. But
they might find hatta-zosa here. He had seen young trees with the
bark gnawed off. Hatta-zosa were good to eat, and if they killed two
or three of them, it would be meat enough that nobody would be
hungry.

Besides, killing hatta-zosa was fun. They were nearly as big as
People, with strong jaws and sharp teeth, and when cornered they
fought savagely. It was hard to kill them, and doing hard things was
fun. He suggested hunting hatta-zosa, and they all agreed at once.

"Hatta-zosa stay among rocks." That was the young male they
called Fruitfinder. "Rocks more at top of hill."

"Find moving-water," Big She offered. "Follow to where it come out
of ground."

"Look for where hatta-zosa chew bark off trees."

That was Lame One. He was not really lame, but he had once hurt
his leg and limped for a while, and after that they all called him
Lame One because nobody could think of anything else to call him.

They started, line-abreast, each keeping sight of those on either
side. They hunted as they went, not very seriously, for they had just
eaten the berries and if they found hatta-zosa there would be much
meat for everybody. Once, Wise One stopped at a rotting log and
dug in it with the pointed end of his killing-club, and found a
toothsome white grub. Once or twice he heard somebody chasing
one of the little yellow lizards. Finally they came to a small stream
and stopped, taking turns drinking and watching. They they
followed it up to the spring where it came out of the ground.

This would be a good place to come back to if anything chased
them. Trees grew close to it, with sharp branches; a gotza could
not dive through them. He spoke of this, and the others agreed.
And through the trees above, he could see a cliff of yellow rock.

Hattazosa liked such places. The others hung back to let him lead,
and followed in single file. Now and then one would point to a tree
at which the hatta-zosa had been chewing. Then they came to the
edge of the brush, to a stretch of open grass at the foot of the cliff.

There were seven hatta-zosa there, gray beasts as high at the
shoulder as a person's waist, all gnawing at trees.

They wouldn't be able to kill all of them, but if they killed three or
four they would have all the meat they could eat. By this time,
everybody had picked up stones and carried them nested in the