"Alan Dean Foster - Humanx 1 - Midworld" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

the belly of some nightcrawler, he fell into a sound,
dreamless sleep.

It had been a fairly hard rain, Bom reflected as he
stared out through the bole cut in the gall. Behind
him, Ruumahum slept on oblivious. The furcot would
continue to do so until Bom woke him. Left to
his own devices, a furcot would sleep all but a few
hours a day.

Droplets still fell from the green sky above, though
the rain had long since ceased. A couple struck Bom
in the face. He shook the tepid moisture away. Walk-
ing would be slippery and uncertain for a while, but
they would start immediately anyway. He was anxious
to be Home. Anxious to see the look on Brightly
Go's face when he dumped the grazer at her feet.

Rising, he booted Ruumahum in the ribs a couple
of times. The furcot moaned. Bom repeated the ac-
tion. Ruumahum got to his feet two at a time, grum-
bling irritably.
"Already morning... ?"

14

"Long day's march, Ruumahum," Bom told him.
"Long rain last night. There should be red berries
and pium out before midday."

Ruumahum brightened at the thought of food. He
would have preferred to sleep, but . . . pium, now.
A last stretch, extending forepaws out in front of
him and pulling, digging eight parallel grooves into
the alloy-tough dead base of the gall. Persons, he had
to admit, were sometimes useful to have around. They
had a way of finding good things to eat and making
the very eating more enjoyable. For such rewards
Ruumahum was willing to overlook Bom's faults. His
triple pupils brightened. Humans flattered themselves
with the idea that they had done an awesome job of
domesticating the first furcots. The furcots saw no need
to dispute this. The reality of it was that they had
stuck with the persons out of curiosity. Human persons
were the first beings the furcots had ever encountered
who were unpredictable enough to keep them awake.
One could never quite predict what a person might
doтАФeven one's own person. So they kept up the pact
without really understanding why, knowing only that