"Baxter, Stephen - Manifold 03 - Origin" - читать интересную книгу автора (Baxter Stephen)

Nutcracker-folk have hair on their faces. Nutcracker-folk have no noses.
Nutcracker-folk have nostrils flat against their faces. Running-folk have no
hair on their faces. They have round eyes.

They have noses.

Stone's axe rises.

Fire takes a step forward. He is afraid of Stone and his axe. But he makes his
hand grab Stone's arm.

'People,' Fire says.

'Yes.' The new woman nods. 'Yes, that's right. We're people.'

Slowly, Stone's arm lowers.

The smell of meat is strong. One by one the people drift away from the new
people, and cluster around the corpse.

Fire is left alone, watching the new people.

The fat new person is shaking, as if cold. Now she falls to the ground. The
other puts the child down, and cradles the fat one's head on her lap.

The other's face lifts up to Fire. 'My name is Emma. Emma. Do you understand?'

Fire carries the fire. That is his name. That is what he does.

Emma is her name. Emma is what she does. He doesn't know what Emma is.

He says, 'Emma.'

'Emma. Yes. Good. Please - will you help us? We need water. Do you have any
water?'

His eye spots something. Something moves on a branch on the ground nearby. He
has forgotten that he used these branches to make a bower.

His hand whips out and grabs. His hand opens, revealing a caterpillar, fat and
juicy. He did not have to think about catching it. It is just here. He pops it
in his mouth.

'Please.'

He looks down at the new people. Again he had forgotten they were there. 'Em
ma.' The caterpillar wriggles on his tongue. His hand pulls it out of his mouth.
He remembers how he caught it, a sharp shard of recent memory.