"Dozois Gardner - A Cat Horror Story" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dozois Gardner)

That-Which-Lights-the-Way-to-Kill, was in the sky, and that had always meant the
same thing, for uncounted generations back to the beginning of all.

It was time to tell stories, under the cold, watchful gaze of The Night Face.

"This I have seen," Caeser began. "I was hunting with the tom named Bigfoot, and
we came to the place where all the grass stops, and for almost as far as you can
see, until the trees start again far away, the ground is fiat and hard and
smells of Dead Things. I warned Bigfoot that this was Ghostland, the territory
of demons[3] and monsters, but his hunting blood was up, and the hunting is good
under the trees at night, and he would not listen. And so we went out across the
hard, bad-smelling stuff. Out into Ghostland."

Caeser looked away for a moment, out toward the far horizon, then turned his
eyes back to the People. "We walked out across Ghostland. The Dead Stuff was
cold and hard under our paws, and we could hear our claws skritch on it. The
wind carried the voices of ghosts as it whined past us. Suddenly, there was a
bright light, far away, but coming closer. Closer! I froze with fear, but, in
his eagerness, Bigfoot went on. There was a growling noise, louder and louder,
like all the dogs that ever were born, growling at once. And then there was a
light, blinding me. The light! So bright, so close, as if The Night Face had
fallen from the sky down on top of me! Then a Fast Dead Thing went by with a
roar that shook the world and a blast of wind that nearly knocked me over, and
with a smell of burning. I heard Bigfoot scream."

Caeser paused, and the rest of the People crept a step or two closer to hear
him. "When the Fast Dead Thing was gone," he continued, "I went back, step by
slow step, to see what had happened to Bigfoot." Caeser paused again,
significantly. "He was dead. The Fast Dead Thing had crashed him. His guts were
everywhere, torn from his body, and his blood was all around. The middle of his
body was flat, as though it had no bones in it anymore. He was mashed into the
dead black ground of Ghostland, in a puddle of his own guts and blood. On his
face was a look of fear and horror such as I hope never to see again."

The People shivered. After a moment, Caeser said, "Then I heard it coming back.
The Fast Dead Thing. I saw its light. It was coming back from the way it had
gone. Coming back for me. I'm not ashamed to tell you all that I ran like a
kitten! And ever since then, when I go near Ghostland, I can hear the Fast Dead
Thing hunting for me, roaring back and forth, hunting through the night to find
me."

There was an awed silence, and then a young queen named Katy said, "I hear they
can get you anywhere, the Fast Dead Things." She looked around her nervously:
"Even inside the lair: There are some of them who can follow you right in, and
get you even when you're inside. My mother told me that she used to get chased
by a little one that roared and whooshed and tried to pull her tail."

"That was just a Small Roaring Thing" a tom named Poorer said. "The humans play
with them. They're not really dangerous -- though, of course, it's better to
stay away from them, just to be safe. But the Fast Dead Things, now -- they can