"Howard Waldrop - The Dynasters" - читать интересную книгу автора (Waldrop Howard)

"Uh-oh," said Nunu.

She ran back to the cave as fast as she could through the thick snow, putting
her feet in the holes she'd made coming out.

"Quick!" she said. "Stoop-shouldered guys big jaws coming!"

They grabbed their clubs and pointy sticks and all ran to the top of the cliffs.

Out a ways on the mud and sand ramp that divided the two parts of the Big Water,
which stretched out toward the land far away you could almost see when it was
clear, men were coming. They could see their big jaws this far away, and their
skins flapped around them, dark in the breeze.

Mo counted.

"We more," he said.

"Get 'em," said Ug.

Afterwards, they found that the big jaws belonged to the men themselves, and
admired them. They were large and were out in front of the mouth. Some of the
children wobbled those of the dead ones -- yaga yaga yaga. Their teeth were all
different too, the front ones not as sharp.

But the skins, which had flapped and fluttered around them while they were
fighting, were not theirs at all. They belonged to dead animals. They could be
taken off the stoop-shouldered men.

Ug wrapped one around himself. After a while he said, "Hey! This warm!"

They rushed to grab them.

Mo was looking at the sandy causeway.

"Next time, bring more," he said, pointing toward the far land. "They tough.
Take long time die."

Ug had two skins wrapped around him. He danced.

"Hey!" he said. "What have supper?"

Nu looked for the bug crawling in the fur of his leg, found it, pinched it to
pieces.

It was his time to watch from the top of the tall cliffs as he had done many
many times before in his youth and early manhood. Now he had children of his
own. The stoop-shouldered guys big jaws never had come back. It had gotten
colder, though there had been a few golden summers in there.