"Philip Jose Farmer - WOT 5 - The Lavalite World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

They were not worried at this time about the trees. They just wanted to
keep distance between them and the others. When Anana's watch was over, she
would wake up McKay. Then she'd return to lie down by Kickaha. She and her
mate were not overly concerned about one of the others trying to sneak up on
them while they slept. Anana had told them that her wristwatch had a device
which would sound an alarm if anybody with a mass large enough to be dangerous
came close. She was lying, though the device was something that a Lord could
have. They probably wondered if she was deceiving them. However, they did not
care to test her. She had said that if anyone tried to attack them, she would
kill him immediately. They knew that she would do so.

CHAPTER THREE

HE AWOKE, SWEATING from the heat, the bright light of "day" plucking at
his eyes. The sky had become a fiery light red. The clouds were gone, taking
their precious moisture elsewhere. But he was no longer in a valley. The hills
had come down, flattened out into a plain. And the party was now on a small
hill.

He was surprised. The rate of change had been greater than he'd
expected. Urthona, however, had said that the reshaping occasionally
accelerated. Nothing was constant or predictable here. So, he shouldn't have
been surprised.

The trees still ringed them. There were several thousand, and now some
scouts were advancing toward the just-born hill. They were about ten feet
tall. The trunks were barrel-shaped and covered with a smooth greenish bark.
Large round dark eyes circled the trunk near its top. On one side was an
opening, the mouth. Inside it was soft flexible tissue and two hard ridges
holding shark-like teeth. According to Urthona, the plants were half-protein,
and the digestive system was much like an animal's. The anus was the terminus
of the digestive system, but it was also located in the mouth.

Urthona should know. He had designed them.

"They don't have any diseases, so there's no reason why the feces
shouldn't pass through the mouth," Urthona had said.

"They must have bad breath," Kickaha had said. "But then nobody's going
to kiss them, are they?"

He, Anana, and McKay had laughed. Urthona and Red Ore had looked
disgusted. Their sense of humor had atrophied. Or perhaps they'd never had
much.

Above the head of the tree was a growth of many slender stems rising two
feet straight up. Broad green leaves, heart-shaped, covered the stems. From
the trunk radiated six short branches, each three feet long, a pair on each
side, in three ranks. These had short twigs supporting large round leaves.
Between each ring of branches was a tentacle, about twelve feet long and as