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

crooks of their elbows.

He touched Lame One with the knob of his killing-club.

"You," he said. "Stonebreaker. Other She. Go back in brush, come
around other side. We wait here. Chase hatta-zosa to us, kill all you
can."

Lame One nodded. He and his companions slipped away
noiselessly. For a long time. Wise One and the others waited, and
then he heard the voice of Lame One, which the hatta-zosa could
not hear: "Watch, now. We come."

He had a stone in his free hand, ready to throw, when Lame One
and Stonebreaker and Other She burst from the brush, hurling
stones. Other She's stone knocked down a hatta-zosa and she
brained it with her club. A stone he himself threw dazed another; he
threw his other stone, missing, and then ran in, swinging his club.
There were shouts all around him and a blur of fast-moving golden-
furred bodies. Then it was all over; they had killed four, and three
had gotten away. The others wanted to give chase.

"No. We have meat, we eat," he said. "Then we go away, hatta-
zosa come back. Next light-time after darktime, we come back, kill
more."

The others hadn't thought that far ahead. That was why they were
willing to let Wise One think for them.

They all looked around for stones to break to cut up the hatta-zosa,
but the stones here were all soft. They would have to use their
teeth and fingers. They helped each other, one standing on the
neck of a hatta-zosa while two pulled it apart by the hind legs; they
used stones as hammers to break the bones.

At first, they ate greedily, for it had been sun-highest time the day
before since they had tasted red meat.

Then, their hunger satisfied, they ate more slowly, talking about the
killing, boasting of what they had done.

He found the flat brown thing that was so good, ate half of it, and
gave the other half to Little She; the others were also finding and
sharing this tidbit.

It was then that he heard the sound of fear, more a rapid vibration
in his head than a real noise. The others also heard it, and stopped
eating.

"Gotza come," he said. "Two gotza."