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Updated: June 14, 2025
"If we saw one rock ape," Dane wondered, "why didn't we see others? And why here and now?" "That!" Tau pointed ahead on the trail Asaki had picked for their ascent. For a long moment Dane could see nothing of any interest there and then he located it a finger of rock. It did not point directly skyward this time, in fact it slanted so that its tip indicated their back trail.
Down the steep incline bumped a round white ball, bouncing past the tumbled carcass of the ape, sailing up into the air, to strike and burst open a few feet away. "Back!" With one arm Asaki sent Jellico, his nearest neighbor, tumbling back into the jungle. Then the Chief Ranger pumped a stream of needle rays into the remains of the ball.
The cleaning was easy for the brittle bedding of dried bracken and grass the beast had left burned quickly, cleansing with both fire and smoke. When they raked the ashes out with branches, Asaki and Nymani brought in handfuls of leaves which they crumpled and threw on the floor, spreading an aromatic odor which banished most of the foulness.
They kill wantonly and leave those they do not choose to pelt." "Trail " Nymani pointed eastward. "Leads to Mygra swamp." "The swamps!" Asaki was shaken. "They must be mad!" "Or know more about this country than your men do," Jellico corrected. "If poachers can enter Mygra, then we can follow!" But not now, Dane protested silently.
It would appear that their search for the water tree would be delayed. They withdrew to a spot hacked from the edge of the jungle, leaving a screen of green between them and the traitorous up-slope. But within the few hours of daylight left them, it was proven that Asaki had been overly optimistic in his hopes of discovering a water tree.
Asaki discovered a cave before sundown, located not too far from a mountain stream. The Ranger sniffed the air before that dark opening as the Hunter pilot shed his equipment and crept forward on his hands and knees, his head up and his nostrils expanding as he, too, tested the scent from the cave mouth. Scent? It was closer to a stench, and one ripe enough to turn the stomach of an off-worlder.
There always remains" Tau put down his mug, " there always remains a small residue of happenings and results for which we have not yet found any logical explanations " "And I believe," Asaki interrupted, "it is also true that a race can be conditioned from birth to be sensitive to forms of magic so that men of that blood are particularly susceptible."
Pouring a little into the palm of his hand he smelled it, touched it with the tip of his tongue. "Purifier and something else," he reported. "It could be one of half a dozen drugs, or some native stuff from here which we've never classified." "True. There are drugs we have found here." Asaki scowled down at the green mat of jungle. "So our water is poisoned?" "Do you always purify it?"
Dane forced himself to look away from the swaying cat-dog, to watch instead the singers who were now furtively eying their lord and his guest. The Terran knew that there were feudal bonds between the Ranger and his men. But suppose this was a showdown between Lumbrilo and Asaki whose side would these men take?
He wore at his belt not the standard stun gun of a spaceman, but a weapon which resembled the more deadly Patrol blaster, as well as a long knife housed in a jeweled and fringed sheath. To the eye he was an example of barbaric force tamed and trimmed to civilized efficiency. He saluted, palm out, and spoke Galactic Basic with only a suggestion of accent. "I am Kort Asaki.
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