"David,.Peter.-.Howling.Mad" - читать интересную книгу автора (David Peter)

overhead, out of sight. Thin rays of sunlight filtering through the trees. Stand
up against tree, scratch claws against bark and love the sun. Love the light.
Scent the tree. Something strange brushed up against it. Left a scent like self,
but different. Like self rotting, decaying. Like self filled with festering
insects.
Drop to all fours and scent the ground. It was here, but now it is gone.)




"When was never a question," said Josh. "Wolves have no concept of time as you
and I do. Season to season, yes, but precisely how many days had passed since
the creature had come through the hunting territoryЕ there was simply no frame
of reference for me. This I can tell youЕ it was March. My main concern at that
point was the safety of the pack. There were eight of us in all, including my
mate. We had recently conceived young.''
("Oh. UhЕ congratulations," I said.)
"Thank you. The pups were due to be born in two months. Keeping the meat supply
in abundance for my mate was another major concernЕ which was why I was
particularly alarmed to discover something roaming the territory that hadn't
been there before. At the time that was the only way I viewed the creatureЧas
something that could pose a threat to my mate's food.''
(I shifted in my chair, pushing my tape recorder a little closer to him. ' 'Did
your mate have a name ?'')
' 'Nothing you could pronounce.''
("Can you?")
He paused a moment, giving it some thought. Then he tilted back his head and
uttered a bizarre agglomeration of sounds, kind'of like a cross between a
hacking cough and a hiccup. He shook his head and rubbed his throat. ' 'Not very
well,'' he admitted. ' 'It would be pointless anyway, because I didn't think of
her by name the way you would. Generally I simply thought of her as 'She.'
("She?" I thought how that would look on a bookflap and wasn't thrilled. ' 'How
about if we call her Ayesha ?'')
"Why?"
("Ever read anything by H. Rider Haggard?")
"No. "
("It's from a book of his. ")
' 'Oh. '' He rolled the name around in his mouth. ' 'Sounds good. Quite
mournful, actually. All right, then. Ayesha".


The wolf paused, considered the possibilities. Tell the pack. Or hunt creature
by self. Of those two, keeping in the pack seemed the better idea. Self was
large, powerful. But self had an instinctive feeling that, whatever creature was
roaming through the woods, it was far too powerful for a single wolf.
Besides, safety in numbers.
Suddenly the wolf heard something. Many somethings, all at same time. Many large
feet crackling through brush. Sounds of dogs barking, many of them. Fur stood
erect on the nape of his neck as the wolf realized immediately the massive
danger to self.