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

The Home-tree was the greatest discovery made
by Bom's ancestors. Its unique characteristics were
discovered when it seemed that the last surviving col-
onists would perish. At that time no one wondered
why a growth unutilized by native life should prove
so accommodating to alien interlopers. When the hu-
man population made a comeback, scouts were sent
out to search for other Home-trees, and a new tribe
was planted. But in the years since Bom's great-great-
great-great-great-grandfather had settled in this tree,
contact with other tribes had first dwindled and then
stopped altogether. None bothered to reopen such
contact, or cared. They had all they could do to
survive in a world that seethed with nightmare forms
of death and destruction.

"Bom is back . . . look, Bom has returned . . .
Born, Bomi"

A small crowd gathered around him, welcoming
him joyously, but consisting entirely of children. One
of them, ignoring the respect due a returning hunter,
had the temerity to tug at his cloak. He looked
down, recognized the orphan boy Din who was cared
for in common.

His mother and father had been taken one day


file:///F|/rah/Alan%20Dean%20Foster/Foster,%...%20Dean%20-%20Humanx%2001%20-%20Midworld.txt (16 of 181) [1/16/03 7:03:42 PM]
 file:///F|/rah/Alan%20Dean%20Foster/Foster,%20Alan%20Dean%20-%20Humanx%2001%20-%20Midworld.txt

while they were on a fruit-gathering expedition, by
something that had coughed once horribly and van-
ished into the forest. The rest of the party had fled
in panic and later returned to find only the couple's
tools. No sign of them had ever been found. So the
boy was raised by everyone in the village. For rea-
sons unknown to anyone, least of all to Bom, the
youngster had attached himself to him. The hunter
could not cast the youth away. It was a lawтАФand
a good law for survivalтАФthat a free child could
make parents of any and all it chose. Why one would
pick mad Bom, though ...

"No, you cannot have the grazer pelt," Bom

20