Now, in the beginning of the fourth hour, as I did go with the Maid, I
to see afar off one of the half-bird monsters, that I did see before
upon this place where there did be naught save great stones and boulders
for a great way that did be many miles.
And truly, I to hide very swift with the Maid, where two great boulders
did come together; and surely the bird-creature to go past at no great
way, and to go with a great bounding, that did be half of flight and
half of leaping, as that it did be too weighty in the body to make to
fly proper.
And, indeed, I to have a sudden memory how that there did be a picture
in some book that I did read in the Mighty Pyramid, where it did show
such a bird-thing as this; and to make remark in the book that these
things had been seen no more in the Night Land for a score thousand of
years, or more; and to be extinct, as we do say.
But, indeed, now I do think that they did be come downward to that warm
Country, a great while gone, and so to have new life and to breed
through a great age, and this way to have set a pattern unto the Humans.
And, in verity, it might be that in some age that did be far after that
time, the Humans to find some way to journey from the Pyramid, and to
build a new Refuge in that deep Country; and mayhap the Humans thiswise
to have a new space of life, after that all the Night Land did be dead
and lost in the bitter frost of Eternity. But this, indeed, to be no
more than an odd thought; for how might any great multitude pass the
Monsters; and I to ask that you take it for nothing of fact, but only as
of my suppositions; and thiswise to come back again to happenings.
Now, when the bird-thing did be gone a long way off, I to go forward
again with Mine Own, and to have a new care, and to look very swift and
frequent everyway.
And, truly, it did be as that the creatures did inhabit that part of the
Country; for in an hour after that, I to see a good score. And, I to
free the Diskos from my hip, and to have it ready in mine arms beside
the Maid; and so to journey.
And many times I to have to hide with Mine Own, and to crouch low among
the rocks and the boulders; and this way to escape free of all for a
great while.
Yet, when that the fifth hour did be nigh gone, I heard a noise sudden
to my back, as we did go over a clear space. And, in verity, there did
be one of the monsters that came upward over certain rocks that were to
my rearward; and surely it to have been stayed hid there, or resting,
and to have heard us or to have smelled us; but anywise then to have
knowledge of us, and to come with low and brutish heavy boundings, very
lumbersome, after us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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