Life on other planets -- Fiction; Mars (Planet) -- Fiction; Science fiction
After considerable search we found a deep and narrow ravine which
seemed a most favorable place in which to hide, but, scarcely had we
entered it, when I chanced to see two eyes looking down upon us from
the summit of one of the ridges that flanked it. As I looked, the head
in which the eyes were set was withdrawn below the summit.
"That puts an end to this place," I said to Tavia, telling her what I
had seen. "We must move on and look for a new sanctuary."
As we emerged from the ravine at its upper end I glanced back, and
again I saw the creature looking at us and once again he tried to hide
himself from us. As we moved on I kept glancing back and occasionally
I would see him--one of the hunting men of U-Gor. He was stalking us
as the wild beast stalks its prey. The very thought of it filled me
with disgust. Had he been a fighting man stalking us merely to kill, I
should not have felt as I did, but the thought that he was stealthily
trailing us because he desired to devour us was repellent--it was
horrifying.
Hour after hour the thing kept upon our trail; doubtless he feared
to attack because we outnumbered him, or perhaps he thought we might
become separated, or lie down to sleep or do one of the number of
things that travelers might do that would give him the opportunity
he sought, but after awhile he must have given up hope. He no longer
sought to conceal himself from us and once, as he mounted a low hill,
he stood there silhouetted against the sky and throwing his head back,
he gave voice to a shrill, uncanny cry that made the short hairs upon
my neck stand erect. It was the hunting cry of the wild beast calling
the pack to the kill.
I could feel Tavia shudder and press more closely to me and I put my
arm about her in a gesture of protection, and thus we walked on in
silence for a long time.
Twice again the creature voiced his uncanny cry until at last it was
answered ahead of us and to the right.
Again we were forced to fight, but this time only two, and when we
pushed on again it was with a feeling of depression that I could not
shake off--depression for the utter hopelessness of our situation.
At the summit of a higher hill than we had before crossed, I halted.
Some tall weeds grew there. "Let us lie down here, Tavia," I said.
"From here we can watch; let us be the watchers for a while. Sleep, and
when night comes we shall move on."
She looked tired and that worried me, but I think she was suffering
more from the nervous strain of the eternal stalking than from physical
fatigue. I know that it affected me and how much more might it affect
a young girl than a trained fighting man. She lay very close to me, as
though she felt safer thus and was soon asleep, while I watched.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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