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

Now the Varlian, intelligent and helpful though they were, were
definitely not shaped like Homo Sapiens. Their females were, except for
their size, identical to the males, at least to my unpracticed eye. So the
shape they caressed onto the cool air of evening was that of some being
other than a super-Varlian.
Try as I might, I could catch only a chance word here and there. My
attempts at Varlian elicited polite attention and some well-concealed
amusement, but it didnтАЩt further our mutual understanding. So when the
delegation stood and completed their business with a manglingly complex
handshake, I was still in the dark.



VI.

Hale Enbo
I was awakened the next morning by a soft babble of voices. Sitting up,
I looked into three small, green-furred faces peering around my door. The
moment they saw I was awake the younglings bounced into my room and
onto my chest. In some way during the span of a night I had become, to
their young minds, a part of the family. We indulged in an all-out game of
tussle and tickle. It was brought to a halt only when Mrs. Lime appeared
at the door-hole and scolded the four of us impartially.
Breakfast was a melon with deep red meat, two of the bread-pods, and a
bowl of sweet, milky fluid. As with the meal the night before, I found it
filling, tasty, and satisfying. Never in any of my spans of eating with the
Varlian did I suffer any problem with their foodstuffs, reinforcing my
belief that their metabolisms were all but identical with ours.
The delivery of meals by our jolly bagman fascinated me, and in the
dawnlight I followed him about his round and back to his source of supply.
This was a neat тАЬkitchenтАЭ located in a rock formation hidden among the
trees. By sign and hint, I gathered that the best cooks among all the
Varlian did their cooking for the entire tribe and were honored as
particularly valuable citizens. I thought that an excellent arrangement.
Still, I hadnтАЩt much time for poking into the domestic affairs of my
hosts. Before the sun was above the trees to the east, Lime found me and
pointed westward. I climbed back to the nest for my boots and a fond
goodbye to the rest of the Limes. Then Lime and the other Varlian who
was to share our journey gathered up packs of webbing and strapped
them to their backs, and we were off.
Our new companion was, I believe, a female. She had circles of creamy
fur around each eye, which gave her such a wise and owlish look that I
named her Owl forthwith. She seemed completely easy with me and my
peculiar problems with treetop travel. She set herself to find easy routes
that I could negotiate. As neither Varlian would consider traveling
aground again, I was glad of her help and her patience.
Lime concerned himself, this time, with scouting ahead and behind and
to both sides, all of which my slowness gave him ample time to do. We had
gone half the morning without incident when he returned from a foray
and gestured us into a particularly thick treetop. I went up obedientlyтАж