Life on other planets -- Fiction; Mars (Planet) -- Fiction; Science fiction
From this high vantage point I could see a considerable area of country
about us and it was not long before I detected figures of men prowling
about like hunting banths and often it was apparent that one was
stalking another. There were at least a half dozen such visible to me
at one time. I saw one overtake his prey and leap upon it from behind.
They were at too great a distance from me for me to discern accurately
the details of the encounter, but I judged that the stalker ran his
sword through the back of his quarry and then, like a hunting banth, he
fell upon his kill and devoured it. I do not know that he finished it,
but he was still eating when darkness fell.
Tavia had had a long sleep and when she awoke she reproached me for
having permitted her to sleep so long and insisted that I must sleep.
From necessity I have learned to do with little sleep when conditions
are such that I cannot spare the time, though I always make up for it
later, and I have also learned to limit my sleep to any length of time
that I choose, so that now I awoke promptly when my allotted time had
elapsed and again we set out toward far Gathol.
Again this night, as upon the preceding one, we moved unmolested
through the horrid land of U-Gor and when morning dawned we saw the
high hills rising close before us.
"Perhaps these hills mark the northern limits of U-Gor," I suggested.
"I think they do," replied Tavia.
"They are only a short distance away now," I said; "let us keep on
until we have passed them. I cannot leave this accursed land behind me
too soon."
"Nor I," said Tavia. "I sicken at the thought of what I have seen."
We had crossed a narrow valley and were entering the hills when we
heard the hateful hunting cry behind us. Turning, I saw a single man
moving across the valley toward us. He knew that I had seen him, but he
kept steadily on, occasionally stopping to voice his weird scream. He
heard an answer come from the east and then another and another from
different directions. We hastened onward, climbing the low foothills
that led upward toward the summit far above, and as we looked back we
saw the hunting men converging upon us from all sides. We had never
seen so many of them at one time before.
"Perhaps if we get well up into the mountains we can elude them," I
said.
Tavia shook her head. "At least we have made a good fight, Hadron," she
said.
I saw that she was discouraged; nor could I wonder; yet a moment later
she looked up at me and smiled brightly. "We still live, Hadron of
Hastor!" she exclaimed.
"We still live and we have our swords," I reminded her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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