Time's Last Gift

The tormenting attacks lasted for about five minutes more. Then the lion was bowled over and he and about six hyenas became a rolling, roaring, cachi

The lioness was next, and she ripped the side off a hyena before she died. The survivors began eating at once, and the wolves and birds moved in closer, waiting for their chance. Thammash ordered some of his men to follow him in an effort to drive off the hyenas. He wanted the two heads and the tails. The rest the hyenas could have, since there was already so much meat harvested. The hyenas retreated reluctantly but did not attack. The heads and tails were hacked off and brought back triumphantly.

'This has been a great day!' Thammash cried. 'You have brought us much good fortune, Koorik!'

Thammash did not think the fortune was so good when the people moved on to the site of the dead rhinoceros. He and the three strangers and half of his tribe were moving across the plain to the rhinoceroses when they saw three men racing toward them. Thammash ran out to meet them. Gribardsun followed. He was in time to hear Shimkoobt, a man of about forty, gasp out the end of his story.

While the six Wota'shaimg were cutting up one of the rhinos, they were attacked by fourteen Wotagrub. These sprang out from the heavy growth, yelling and throwing spears and boomerangs. Treekram had fallen with a spear sticking out of his thigh. The remaining five had thrown their spears without effect. The invaders had then thrown a second volley, and Lramg'bud had been hit in the neck with a heavy boomerang. The Wotagrub had been charged, and the four had turned and fled. But another boomerang struck Kwakamg on a leg and he fell down. Before he could get up, he was speared.

The news was a great shock. The loss of the meat was not so much, since they had two mammoths at the other site. But the loss of four men in one day was a terrible blow to the Wota'shaimg.

The women, on hearing the news, started to wail. Thammash told them to keep quiet and get back to their work. He detailed Angrogrim and Shivkaet to follow him and set off. Gribardsun and von Billma

Gribardsun had wondered for only a few seconds why the chief took only two men with him against the invaders. But then he saw that Thammash expected Gribardsun and von Billma

All of the bodies, including Thrimk's, had been mutilated and the heads removed. Von Billma

Thammash stood silent for a long time. Then he spoke to Gribardsun.

'Shouldn't we go after them and kill them?'

Gribardsun did not reply at once. The deaths of the men had affected him, since he was coming to know them as individuals and even becoming fond of several. Moreover, if the killings were unpunished, the Wotagrub would try again. And if the tribe lost many more men, it would be in a critical situation. '

However, he did not like to take on the powers of a god. He would have liked to stand to one side and study the relationships of the two tribes. Let them work out their own histories; if one perished, then that was too bad. But that was also the way things were. And he also hoped to be able to make friends with the Wotagrub and study them. He could not do so if he killed their men.

'Once you're involved, you have to take a stand,' he told von Billma

He asked Thammash if the tribe ever made aliens members of their people.

Thammash said, 'I have never heard of such a thing.'

Evidently these people were not as advanced as, say, the North American Indian of pre-Columbian times.

'If you capture a baby,' Gribardsun said, 'what do you do with him? Kill him?'

Thammash's face brightened. He said, 'No, of course not, if he is healthy. We raise him to be a warrior and a hunter. But that is different. A baby is not an enemy. Nor even a Wota'shaimg.'

A Wota'shaimg was a human being. A non-Wota'shaimg was not fully human.

'He becomes a Wota'shaimg when he goes through the initiation of manhood,' Thammash said.

Gribardsun knew that he could not turn down the request for help. The relationship between the explorers and the tribe would never be the same again. And there was the strong urging of his own feelings to consider. He was outraged, and even touched by grief, at the death and the mutilation of his tribesmen.

His tribesmen! he thought.

He said, 'Very well. We'll trail them.'

And we'll see what happens then, he thought.

The four - Gribardsun, Thammash, von Billma

'They must have moved some time ago,' Gribardsun said.

They cast about on all sides, including the hill above the overhang. But the frequent spring rains tended to wash out footprints and to carry off bits of fur caught on plants or dropped objects.

'Give me the 32 and its ammo,' Gribardsun said to von Billma

Von Billma

'Your people need you,' he said. 'Now. Every hand available should be carrying the meat and the tusks of the beasts.'

'You are a very strong man,' Thammash said. 'You could carry much meat.'

Gribardsun smiled and said, 'True. But it is more important that I convince the Wotagrub that they should leave us alone.'

Von Billma

'But I am,' Gribardsun said. He ran off down the hillside and was soon lost to sight as he made his way back up the hill to the top.

The two tribesmen poked around the camp for anything of value the enemy might have left behind. And then the three departed.