"Andre Norton - Breed To Come - uc" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

tened in folds against' his rounded skull, the furred
ridge along his back lifted, and the hair on his tail
puffed.

To those who had known his ancestors, he would be
a grotesque sight; for a body once well fitted to the
needs of its owner had altered in ways strange to na-
ture. Rounded forepaws had split into stubby fingers,
awkward enough but able to accomplish much more
in the way of handling. His body was still largely
furred, but there were places where the fur had
thinned to a light down. There was more dome to his
skull, just as the brain beneath was different, dealing
with thoughts and conceptions earlier unknown. In
fact it was that brain which had altered most of all.
Feline, Furtig's ancestors had been. But Furtig was
something which those who had known those felines
could not have accurately named.

His people did not measure time more than by cer-
tain rites of their own, such as the bi-yearly Trials of
Skill when a warrior gave the best evidence of his prow-
ess so that the females could pick a mate. One noted

BREED TO COME

the coming of winter cold, and the return of spring,
summer's heat when one drowsed through the days
and hunted by night. But the People did not try to
count one year apart from the rest.

Though it was said that Gammage did things none
other of the People thought of doing. GammageЧ

Furtig studied the bulk of buildings on the other
side of the fields, lairs of the Demons. Yet Gammage
feared no Demon. If all the stories were true, Gam-
mage lived yonder in the heart of the lost Demon
world. It was the custom for first-rite warriors to
speak of "going to Gammage." And once in a long
while one would. Not that any returnedЧwhich ar-
gued that the Demons still had their traps at work,
even though no Demon had been seen for generations.

Furtig had seen pictures of them. It was part of the
regular scout training to be taught to recognize the
enemy. And, while a youngling could be shown one of
the Barkers, a Tusked One, or even a vile Ration in
the flesh, he had to depend solely upon such repre-
sentations of Demons for identification.