Nightmare Planet
Page 9
diedquickly and without agony. The thought to kill was an inspiration, whichwas the result of continued adventuring. Burl cut off meat for histribesmen. The dogs offered no objection. They were well-fed enough.Burl and Saya, together, carried the meat back to the blinkingtribesfolk. On the way they passed within two yards of a dog whichregarded them with extreme intent and almost a wistful expression. Theirsmell did not mean game. It meant--something the dog struggled dumbly toremember.
"I have killed the thing," said Burl, in the tone of one speaking to anequal. "You can go and eat it now. I took only part of it."
The dog wagged its tail--and then backed away as if in confusion. Afterall, matters had not yet progressed to cordiality.
The humans consumed what Burl had brought them. Most of the dogs went tothe feast Burl had left. Presently they were back. They had no reason tobe hostile. They were fed. The humans offered them no injury. The humanssmelled good. The dogs were fascinated by their smell.
Presently they were close about the humans. They were not insects. Theywere interested. The humans were extremely interested in anything whichwas interested in them. It was a wholly novel experience. It was thefeeling Burl had felt in becoming the tribal leader. Now every humanfelt a little of it, in the intent regard of the dogs. And everythingelse was so strange that it was possible to accept anything withoutquestion. Even the possible friendliness of unparalleled creatures whichassuredly were not of a kind with past enemies.
A similar state of "mind" existed among the dogs.
Saya had more meat than she desired. She looked about among the humans.All were well supplied. She tossed it to a dog. He jerked away alertly,and then sniffed at the meat where it had dropped. A dog can always eat.He ate it.
"I wish you would talk to us," said Saya hopefully.
The dog wagged his tail.
"You do not look like us," said Saya interestedly, "but you act as wedo. Not as the--monsters!"
The dog looked at meat in Burl's hand. Burl tossed it. The dog caught itwith a quick snap, swallowed it, wagged his tail briefly and camecloser. It was a completely incredible action, but dogs and men wereblood-kin on this planet. Besides, there was subconscious racial-memoryinstinct in friendship between man and dog. It was not overlaid by anypast experience of either. They were the only warm-blooded creatures onthis world. It was kinship felt by both.
Burl stood up and spoke politely to the dog. He addressed him with thesame respect he would have given to another man. In all his life he hadnever felt equal to an insect, but he felt no arrogance toward this dog.
He felt superior only to other men.
"We are going back to our cave," he said politely. "Maybe we will meetagain."
He led his tribe back to the cave in which they had spent the previousnight. The dogs followed, ranging on either side. They were well-fed,with no memory of hostility to any creature which smelled like men. Theyhad instinct and intelligence. The latter part of the return to thecave--if anybody had been qualified to notice--was remarkably like agroup of dogs taking a walk with a group of people. It wascompanionable. It felt remarkably right.
That night Burl left the cave, as before, to look at the stars. Thistime Saya went with him, gladly. But as they emerged from thecave-entrance there was a stirring. A dog rose and stretched itselfelaborately, yawning the while. When Burl and Saya walked aside from thecave, the dog trotted amiably with them.
They talked to it, embarrassed. And the dog seemed pleased. It waggedits tail.
When morning came the dogs were still waiting hopefully for the humansto come out. They appeared to expect the humans to take another nicelong walk, on which they would accompany them. It was a brand-newsatisfaction they did not wish to miss. After all, from a dog'sstandpoint, humans were made to take long walks with, among otherthings. The dogs greeted the humans with tail-waggings and cordiality.
* * * * *
The friendship of the dogs assured the humans' new status in life. Theyhad ceased to be fugitive game for any insect murderer. They had hopedto be unpursued foragers. But, joined to the dogs, they were raised tothe estate of hunters. The men did not domesticate the dogs. They madefriends with them. The dogs did not subjugate themselves to the men.They joined them, at first tentatively and then with worshipfulenthusiasm. And the partnership was so inherently right that within amonth it was as if it had been always. And indeed, except for a fewcenturies, for them, it had.
The humans had made a permanent encampment by then. There were a fewcaves at an appropriate distance from the slope up which most wanderersfrom the lowlands came. The humans moved into the caves. A child foundthe chrysalis of a giant butterfly, whose caterpillar form had sooffensive an odor that the dogs had not attacked it. But when itemerged from the chrysalis, humans and dogs together assailed it beforeit could take flight. They ended with warm approval of each other. Thehumans had great wings with which to make cloaks. And men wore cloaksnow--shorter than the women's--but cloaks. They were very useful againstthe evening chill. When one dawning a vast outcry of dogs awoke thehumans, Burl led the rush to the spot, and his great lance did executionwhich the dogs appeared to admire. Burl wore a moth's feathery antennae,now, bound to his forehead like a knight's plumes. They were verysplendid.
In a single month their entire way of life went through a revolution.The ground was often thorny. A man pierced his foot, and bandaged itwith a strip of wing-fabric so he could walk. The injured foot was morecomfortable to walk with than the well one. Within a week women werebusily contriving divers forms of footgear, to achieve the greatestcomfort. One day Saya admired glistening red berries and tried to pluckthem, and they stained her fingers. She licked the fingers--and berrieswere added to the tribe's menu. A veritable orgy of experimentationbegan. And this was a state of affairs which is very, very rare amonghuman beings. A tribe with an established culture and tradition cannotchange without disaster. But men who have abandoned their old ways andare seeking new ones can go far.
Already the dogs were established as sentries and watchmen and friendsto every one of the humans. By now mothers did not feel alarmed if achild wandered out of sight. There would be dogs along. No danger couldapproach a child without vociferous warning from the dogs. Men wenthunting, now, with zestful tail-wagging dogs as companions in the chase.By the time a stray monster from the lowlands reached this area, it wasdazed and half-numbed by at least one night of bitter cold. Even spiderscould not find energy to leap. They fought like fiends, but sluggishly.Men could kill them while dogs kept their attention. Burl killed onethe third week on the plateau. He was nerved to the deed by a peculiarfeeling that he must be worthy of the courage of the dogs with him atthe time.
And presently, while their way of life was still fluid, the permanentpattern of civilization on the nightmare planet was settled. Burl andSaya went out early one morning with the dogs, to hunt for meat for thevillage. Hunting was easiest in the morning while creatures strayed upthe night before were still numbed. Often, hunting was merely butcheryof an enfeebled monster to whom any sort of movement was enormouseffort.
This morning the humans moved briskly. The dogs roamed exuberantlythrough the brush before them. They were five miles from the villagewhen the dogs bayed game some distance ahead. And Burl and Saya ran tothe spot hand in hand--which was something of a change from their formeractions at the thought of a giant creature of the insect kind--and foundthe dogs dancing and barking around one of the most ferocious and mostghastly of the carnivorous beetles. It was not too large, to be sure.Its body might have been four feet long, but its horrid mandibles addedthree feet more.
Those scythe-like objects gaped wide--opening sidewise as a beetle'sjaws do--and snapped hideously, swinging about as the dogs dashed atthem. The legs were spurred and spiked and armed with dagger-likespines. Burl plunged into the fight.
"_Those scythe-like objects gaped wide ... as the dogsdashed at them._"]
The great gaping mandibles clicked and clashed. They were capa
ble ofdisemboweling a man or snapping a dog's body in half without effort.There were whistling noises as the beetle breathed through its abdominalspiracles. It fought furiously, making frantic plunges at the dogs whodashed in and out to torment and bewilder it while they created the mostzestfully excited of uproars.
There was something beside this conflict that Burl and Saya should havenoticed, but they were instantly intent. The other thing was quiteunparalleled. There had been nothing else like it on this planet in manyhundreds of years. It moved slowly above the plateau as if examining it.It was half a dozen miles away and perhaps a mile higher when Burl andSaya prepared to intervene professionally on behalf of the dogs. Then itswerved and moved directly toward them. It moved swiftly.
But it was silent, and they did not know at all. Burl leaped in with alance-thrust at the tough integument where an armored leg joined thebody. He missed, and the monster whirled. Then