Ten minutes later, he knew quite a bit about the thing, but what he knew
did not make much sense. In the first place, its blood _was_ green, a
yellowish pussy green. In the second place, the larger mouth, complete
with jaws and impressive musculature, opened not into a digestive
system, but into a large closed pouch which comprised most of the
animal's torso. There was no proper digestive system at all, only a
rudimentary gut, heavily laced with blood vessels, terminating at one
end in the small second mouth, at the other in an even smaller anus.
Otherwise, the thing had no insides except a good pair of lungs and a
stout heart--none at all. Bone, muscle, lung, heart--plus the
ridiculously inadequate gut--that was it.
What about the small, furry, animal then; the one the other had been
carrying in its pouch? There was nothing much out-of-the-way about it--a
feline sort of carnivore, something like a marten. The fur looked
interesting, and he skinned it out, casing the hide. On the left ham,
the skin was punctured and there was a swollen, bluish area--about the
sort of wound that would be made by the fang of the first thing he had
shot. Ed squatted back on his heels, studying it and putting two and two
together. What two and two made was pretty hard to believe, but it
fitted the evidence.
He wiped his knife carefully on the grass, put it back in its sheath,
and got to his feet. Suddenly, the feeling that he was not alone
recurred. He looked quickly around.
Back where he had shot the first thing, a man in forest-green whipcord
trousers and jacket was leaning over, hands on knees, looking at the
remains. The man looked up and met Ed's eyes. He nodded casually and
walked over to the second thing, prodded it with his toe. After a long
moment he nodded again to Ed, smiled briefly, and winked out.
Ed stared at the empty air where the other man had been, mouth open. It
was just a little too much. A lot of things had happened to him in the
last few days, he had been able to take most of them more or less as
they came along, but after all, he wasn't a chicken any more, he was
pushing sixty, and there is a limit to what a man should have to put up
with at that age. The thought of his snug cabin, with a good fire going,
moosemeat bubbling in the pot, the gas lantern hissing, and the bottle
of Hudson's Bay rum he had tucked under the eaves against just such an
occasion as this, was suddenly very appealing.
Besides, it was getting late, and he didn't think he cared to be
stumbling around this world in the dark.
He elbowed his pack up, hooked the left shoulder strap, and headed for
home, staying off the trail in ordinary caution and watching his
footing, but moving pretty fast just the same.
Actually, he need not have been so careful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account