She ran past, brushed Sim, their bodies touched. Her eyes, white as silver coins, shone at him. He knew then that he'd found a friend, a love, a wife, one who'd a week from now lie with him atop the funeral pyre as sunlight undressed their flesh from bone. Only the glance, but it held them in mid-motion, one instant. "Your name?" he shouted after her. "Lyte!" she called laughingly back. "I'm Sim," he answered, confused and bewildered. "Sim!" she repeated it, flashing on. "I'll remember!" Dark nudged his ribs. "Here, _eat_," she said to the distracted boy. "Eat or you'll never get big enough to catch her." From nowhere, Chion appeared, running by. "Lyte!" he mocked, dancing malevolently along and away. "Lyte! I'll remember Lyte, too!" Dark stood tall and reed slender, shaking her dark ebony clouds of hair, sadly. "I see your life before you, little Sim. You'll need weapons soon to fight for this Lyte one. Now, hurry--the sun's coming!" They ran back to the caves. * * * * * One-fourth of his life was over! Babyhood was gone. He was now a young boy! Wild rains lashed the valley at nightfall. He watched new river channels cut in the valley, out past the mountain of the metal seed. He stored the knowledge for later use. Each night there was a new river, a bed newly cut. "What's beyond the valley?" wondered Sim. "No one's ever been beyond it," explained Dark. "All who tried to reach the plain were frozen to death or burnt. The only land we know's within half an hour's run. Half an hour out and half an hour back." "No one has ever reached the metal seed, then?" Dark scoffed. "The Scientists, they try. Silly fools. They don't know enough to stop. It's no use. It's too far." The Scientists. The word stirred him. He had almost forgotten the vision he had short hours after birth. His voice was eager. "Where are the Scientists?" he demanded. Dark looked away from him, "I wouldn't tell you if I knew. They'd kill you, experimenting! I don't want you joining them! Live your life, don't cut it in half trying to reach that silly metal thing on the mountain." "I'll find out where they are from someone else, then!" "No one'll tell you! They hate the Scientists. You'll have to find them on your own. And then what? Will you save us? Yes, save us, little boy!" Her face was sullen; already half her life was gone, her breasts were beginning to shape. Tomorrow she must divine how best to live her youth, her love, and she knew no way to fully plumb the depths of passion in so short a space. "We can't sit and talk and eat," he protested. "And _nothing_ else." "There's always love," she retorted acidly. "It helps one forget. Gods, yes," she spat it out. "Love!" * * * * *