"Ardath Mayhar - Khi to Freedom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mayhar Ardath)

that the thing was woundedтАж even dying, perhaps.
If the Khi had been more reassuring, I might have followed the path of
the thing even through the dark hours. But they had been full of warnings.
тАЬDo not approach those pale people in the wood. Stay hidden from them
and from any of their ships that come low over your village,тАЭ they had
said. тАЬYou are able to deal with them when you are awake, but they do not
live by honorable rules, and they might attack your villages while all are
asleep.тАЭ
I had been hard put to believe this, but the Khi speak only the truth,
and I knew that it must be so. Therefore I oriented myself to the path of
that falling thing, followed it as long as there was light, then went high
and slept until dawn.
I woke early, though the horizon was beginning to show pale in the east.
Impatient to be done with this, I began slipping through the treetops
toward the place where the thing must have gone down. Halfway down the
first long branch leading into the next tree, I heard something crashing
through the forest. I hurried into the highest, thickest part of the new
treetop and curled into a ballтАФthe color of our fur is not easy to hide
among the bright shades of the leaves. Below, a group of those creatures
went thumping past. If they were looking for the wounded thing, they were
going in the opposite direction, which pleased me.
As soon as they were out of my hearing, I went forward, more cautiously
this time. The sun was well up when I swung into a particularly large
nut-tree and came to a sudden stop. In the crotch formed by its lower
branches lay something unusual. It looked something like those I had just
seen in the forest, yet there were differences. It was quiet, for one thing.
Though it was many times my size, still it looked vulnerable in some odd
way. Besides that, it was a strange colorтАФrich brown like the veinings of
the krr leaves. It was, of course, asleep, and I felt that it was probably
hiding from those others.
While it slept, I went forward to find the spot where the hurt thing had
fallen. It was a tool, not a living being, and it was terribly smashed. The
track of the sleeping creature in the tree led from that place, so I knew
that he had been with it when it came down. StrangeтАФwas it a thing he
rode? That would be interesting to learn from him.
When I came back to the tree I sat on a high limb and felt for the Khi
within my mind. The hum was there, filled with approbation. This, then,
was not one of those they had warned me against. Should I help him? The
hum grew stronger. And that was good, for my own instinct told me that
that was the thing I should do.
It was in my mind that my young would find delight in him. There was
something about him that I felt would respond to children. Too, the Elders
should see this new kind and assess it for our records. We have studied all
the creatures of our part of this world, with the help of the Khi, and we
learn much from them to enrich our own lives. Such an alien being as this
should have valuable things to add to our store.
I knew when it slipped out of sleep. It knew that it was being watched. I
saw its muscles tense very slightly, then relax again. Very wise, under the
circumstances. It made a show of awakening, then turned to look at me
directly. It jumped a bit, and that startled me so that I, too, jerked back