ad about  its death-grip.  It  turned
out  that even  when  unconscious, Av  had continued  straining his body  to
resist  being crushed. Now  he relaxed, trying  to make  himself as thin  as
possible and began gradually crawling out of the dead serpent's rigid coils.
     And  so,  after  surviving and  beating  in  single  combat  a terrible
serpent,  Av  could receive on coming of  age  a  name  associated  with his
victory.
     But  he was still  just a  brave, agile boy for whom manhood was yet to
come.  He used  to dream about this  time,  developing his  own courage  and
strength.
     Although  he  had  become  a  hunter,  he grew  up  to be  kind-hearted
nevertheless and he never killed animals except out of dire necessity.
     He  enjoyed watching from a tree as the  little animals frolicked about
near their lair.
     They  were four-footed beasts with mouths full of  teeth and they could
not  climb  trees. They had  long muzzles, erect ears and bushy  tails. They
only  attacked small animals.  In case of need,  however, they could hunt in
packs and set upon the big denizens of the forest.
     Av thought it might be a good idea  to train these little animals.  His
father, after all, had mentioned the domesticated lizards on Faena, which Av
imagined to have  been a  faraway, fabulous land from which  his parents had
flown like birds.
     The little animals were playing on the glade, in full view of Av  up in
a tree-top.
     The   little   grey  balls  of  fur  were  rolling  over   the   grass,
somersaulting,  growling and fighting  endlessly with one  another. Or  they
chased one another tirelessly across the glade.
     Av saw a cub he liked the look of. He jumped down from his tree no less
nimbly than a serpent and seized  hold  of  the terrified  little animal. It
clawed and bit him,  but Av  clutched it to his chest and ran off,  stuffing
its  sharp-toothed  little muzzle into  the  spotted predator's skin that he
wore for camouflage.
     He took his prize home-it had been quietened down by the warmth  of his
body-fed it and began training it.
     His  mother was very  much  surprised  at  his  behaviour.  His younger
brothers and sisters were in raptures.
     The little animal used to play with them. It grew up quickly and became
attached to Av. It  was evidently  in  no way  inferior to the  domesticated
lizards of Faena.
     When the animal had  grown up a little, Av decided  to train it  to  go
hunting  with him. His  father smiled condescendingly at the idea, but in no
way interfered with his son's experiments.
     Av called his future helper Ding.
     The disaster occurred  after a domestic  ceremony  at which Av had been
awarded his new name. Serpent, in honour of his victory over that creature.
     Serpent insisted that his mother should let  Avik go hunting  with him.
It was time he became an assistant provider.
     His younger brother was beside  himself with joy and ready to follow Av
anywhere.
     Ding,  of course, had to go with them.  Gifted with an amazing nose, he
could scent game even before Serpent had noticed it.
     ...Serpent came back from the hunt alone.
     His mother tore her hair and screamed frantically at him:
     "You've killed him, you've killed my Avik!"
     Serpent turned pale at these words. They were unfair. Serpent could not
have been accused of such a crime, although he was partly to blame.
     The brothers were  walking  through the forest. Ding was running ahead.
Suddenly, he stopped and growled. His fur bristled.
     Just at that moment, a huge shaggy body fell on him from above. Serpent
had heard from his father about the Faetoids which had  carried him off as a
baby.
     Now a  beast like one of those described by his father had seized Ding,
who yelped, went hoarse and then was silent.
     The shaggy beast rushed off with its prey.
     Without thinking of his  brother (and this was where he was terribly at
fault!), he ran after the Faetoid.
     The  beast  was, however,  more  agile.  But  Serpent had a  determined
nature, however. He neither wanted to nor was he capable of backing out, any
more than his mother, the young Mada Jupi.
     With his keen  hunter's instinct,  he noticed which  way the beast  had
run. Although slower than  the  beast,  he  was unerringly  following in its
tracks.
     Serpent found it under a wide-branching tree  where it  imagined itself
to be safe and was devouring the luckless Ding.
     Serpent went mad  with rage. He did not even shoot an arrow. Blind with
fury, incapable of containing himself, he  hurled himself at  the  beast and
caught it unawares.
     The Faetoid  proved smaller than Serpent had imagined at first.  He was
much  stronger  and, above all,  much  more  experienced than  his opponent.
Moreover, he knew his father's fighting tricks.
     Serpent overthrew  the creature;  it  lay helpless  beside  the mangled
corpse of Ding which it had not yet finished  eating. Serpent was just about
to finish the creature off, when it said:
     "Do r-rationals kill those who are lying down?"
     Serpent jumped back and asked in horror:
     "Who are you, a talking beast?"
     "I am a r-rational amid Terrans."
     The  creature was  talking  in Serpent's native  Faetian,  but with  an
unfamiliar burr.  Even so, it was talking. The  flabbergasted Serpent let go
of it. He wanted to ask where it came from and who had taught it Faetian.
     But  the beast, which called itself rational and was able to speak, was
cunning into the bargain.
     No sooner had Serpent relaxed  his hold, prepared to carry on  with the
conversation, than his shaggy opponent sprang on to its hind-legs and jumped
up onto the lowest  branch of the tree. A moment later, it vanished into the
foliage.
     The  dismayed  Serpent  rushed  in  pursuit  of  the Faetoid, but  then
stopped, deep in thought.
     Only  then did he fear for his brother  Avik. What had happened to him?
The little boy must  have been left behind while he chased after the talking
beast.
     Stifling  his  alarm.  Serpent  ran back  over the scarcely  noticeable
tracks that had  brought  him  to the spot.  Serpent  could  run  for  great
distances without losing his breath. But this time he felt short of air, his
lungs were ready  to burst and his  heart  seemed about to jump  out  of his
breast. Even  so,  he did not slow down  until he reached the ill-fated spot
where poor Ding had been carried off.
     His  experienced hunter's eye immediately pictured the drama  that  had
been enacted there.
     Avik had proved himself  to be a true  Faetian,  although still a small
boy.  Judging  by  the  traces  of the fight,  he  had  put  up  a desperate
resistance.
     But  there had been many attackers and they had overpowered  the little
lad. Serpent found the  route by which they had carried him off. For a  long
time he  pursued the kidnappers until  he realised that he had lost too much
time and it would be impossible to overtake them.
     Dusk  had  fallen  on  the  forest as,  stumbling  over the tree-roots,
Serpent made his way back home in utter despair. His arms dangled helplessly
down by his sides, his head was bowed on his breast.
     Thus  he  returned  home alone on  that tragic day and told  his mother
everything.
     ...Mada went crazy with grief and screamed that he had killed Avik. She
meant that he was responsible for his brother's death, but the proud Serpent
flared  up. Perhaps  it  was  his grandfather's blood  in him, not  just his
mother's.  He  was stung by the  accusation she hurled at him. If his mother
was capable of such a reproach, then he would go away to the caves and would
live there on his own.
     Mada was  too crushed  by grief  to recollect herself  and restrain her
son.
     She lay on the threshold with her  hair unloosed and, through a veil of
tears and the evening mist  that reminded her of the lost Faena, she saw her
beloved firstborn disappear behind the trees.
     But she was threatened by yet another loss.
     The lissom form of Ma, her elder daughter, slipped  past her. Without a
second thought, the girl had gone to follow Serpent.
     When  he  came back that  night from  the  hunt,  Ave was shaken by the
despondency with which he was met at home.
     On  learning  about  the double  disaster-  the  loss of  Avik  and the
departure of the elder children-Ave's face  darkened and he thrust his  hand
into his thick, greying beard.
     "Even if I'm in the wrong, and I am in the wrong, of course," said Mada
to her husband, "how will  Serpent and Ma be able to live on their own?  You
must bring them back."
     "That's got to be done!" replied Ave. "On their own, they won't be able
to beat off attacks by the Faetoids, who have resumed the war with us. Their
first catch, our poor  Avik,  will  only  make  them  even more  fierce  and
determined."
     "I  refuse  to believe it!" protested Mada. "If Gor Terr  lived  for so
long with them and taught them a thing or two, they could have kidnapped our
Avik so that he could teach them too. But you've got to bring Serpent and Ma
back."
     "I'll find them,"  promised Ave, and he added thoughtfully, "It'll be a
good thing if you're right about Avik."
     Like a truly courageous Faetian, he was trying not to let his  wife see
how shattered he was by it all.
     "I'm worried about that talking beast."
     "All my hopes are on him!" intervened  Mada. "According to what Serpent
told me, he talks like our beloved friend, Gor Terr."
     "That's just what's bothering me."
     "But I'm delighted. Even Dzin had  a feeling  of gratitude. The talking
beast, whoever he may be, could save Avik."
     "He must  be a pupil of Gor Terr's. You  were saying yourself that when
Gor Terr became a leader, he hoped to teach the beasts a great deal."
     "But why have they come back? Perhaps Gor Terr isn't alive... Either he
wouldn't have let them come here, or he would have come to us."
     "Who knows what's happened to our friend after all these years?" sighed
Ave Mar.
     "Perhaps they need  another leader and  they came for a Faetian,"  said
Mada.
     "I'll find Serpent and  we'll look for  the new lair  of  the  Faetoids
together. Perhaps we'll meet Gor Terr or even find Avik still alive. Anyway,
we'll catch one of the talking beasts and question him."
     Ave did  not manage to carry out his plan, however. Serpent  and Ma had
gone somewhere a long way  away. They  weren't  to be  found  in  the nearby
caves. He could only hope that they hadn't fallen victim to the Faetoids.
     Perhaps in  another  forest they had  founded  a  new  station for  the
descendants of the Faetians on Terr. The offended hunter hadn't forgiven his
mother for her reproach, although he had deserved it to some extent.
     Nothing was known of Avik either.
     Life continued for Ave and Mada with  their family. As if  to take over
from the lost Avik and the runaway children, Mada gave birth to twins, a boy
and a girl,  and their mother  was fully occupied  in caring for them. As if
she hadn't enough cares already.
     She  cooked  for  the  whole  family,  treated  hides with  her younger
daughters  so  as  to  sew, with the aid  of tendons, primitive clothing and
footwear  for  the growing children, herself  and  Ave.  They had  to gather
medicinal  herbs, about  which Mada knew a great  deal, and not just because
she had  once  been  a  Sister of Health. She had been attending to all  the
members of her big family. She hadn't time to help Ave with the hunting.
     After the working day, when darkness had fallen, keeping the fire going
in the hearth and grinding the day's harvest of com in a stone mortar with a
stone pestle, Mada would tell her children fairy tales.
     She didn't invent anything, she simply recalled her  life on Faena. But
for the little Terrans, living in  the dense forest, stories about houses as
high as  the  clouds,  or about rooms that moved about and even went up into
the air like birds, and even of the piloted star on which her parents landed
on  Terr,  all sounded like an amazing,  unattainable and  incredible  fairy
tale.
     Ave Mar also used to listen to these stories about the irrevocable past
as he dozed on his couch after an exhausting day.
     He would  listen and could  never  understand  whether  he  was  having
fantastic dreams or whether  he was remembering long-forgotten pictures from
the words of the now white-haired but still beautiful Mada.
     And, to the rhythmic murmur of her  infinitely beloved voice, the first
Faetian  on  Terr  wondered   what  lay  in   store  for  his  children  and
grandchildren.
     Would the  Faetoids return? Surely the  talking beast that  Serpent had
let go would feel duly grateful and would not only save Avik, but would lead
the Faetoids away,  as Gor  Terr  had done in his time? Or  were neither Gor
Terr nor  Avik still alive, and was the war with the Faetoids about to begin
again?  And who would survive  in that conflict? Who would settle the planet
with a race  of rational beings: the descendants of the Faetians or those of
the Faetoids? In the process of  development,  they would  begin to resemble
the  present-day  Faetians. Otherwise  the law  of development of all living
creatures would have to be seen in a wider perspective than had been thought
of  on Faena. It must be extended from one  planet to all  inhabited worlds!
Rational beings  could appear everywhere and could migrate  to those planets
where rational beings had not yet  appeared. They  would enter into conflict
with the  less developed. Was this not  the meaning of the all-embracing law
of the struggle for existence in which Reason must come out on top.
     Ave decided  to  carve  the  history  of his  family on a cliff  in the
mountains where he went hunting.
     One day, his rational descendants would read the inscription.
     But what would they be like?

        THE END