"Jack Vance - The Narrow Land" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

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The Narrow Land

by Jack Vance

A pair of nerves joined across the top of Ern's brain; he became conscious, aware of darkness and
constriction. The sensation was uncomfortable. He tensed his members, thrust at the shell, meeting
resistance in all directions except one. He kicked, butted and presently created a rupture. The
constriction eased somewhat Ern squirmed around, clawed at the membrane, tore it back and was met
by a sudden unpleasant exudation: the juices of a being not himself. It wrenched around, reached
forth. Ern recoiled, struck back the probing members, which seemed ominously strong and massive.

There was a period of passivity. Each found the other hateful: they were of the same sort, yet
different. Presently the two small creatures fought, with little near-inaudible squeaks and
chitters.

Ern eventually strangled his opponent When he tried to detach himself, he found that an adhesion
of tissue had occurred, that the two were now one. Ern expanded himself, rounded and fused with
the defeated individual.

For a further period Ern rested, exploring his consciousness. The constriction once again became
oppressive. Ern thrust and kicked, creating a new rupture, and the shell split wide.

Ern struggled forth into soft slime, then up into a glare of light, an acrid dry void. From above
came a harsh cry. An enormous shape hurtled down. Ern dodged, evaded a pair of clicking black
prongs. He napped, paddled, slid down into cool water, where he submerged himself.

Others inhabited the water; Ern saw their dim shapes to all sides. Some were like himself: pale
pop-eyed sprats, narrow-skulled with wisps of film for crests. Others were larger, with the legs
and arms definitely articulated, the crests stiffer, the skin tough and silver-gray. Ern bestirred
himself, tested his arms and legs. He swam, carefully at first, then with competence. Hunger came;
he ate: larvae, nodules on the roots of reeds, trifles of this and that

So Ern entered his childhood, and gradually became wise in the ways of the waterworld. Duration
could not be measured; there was no basis for time: no alteration of light and darkness, no change
except for Ern's own growth. The only notable events of the sea-shallows were tragedies. A water-
baby frolicking too far, recklessly, offshore might be caught in a current and swept out under the
storm-curtain. The armored birds from time to time carried away a very young baby basking at the
surface. Most dreadful of all was the ogre who lived in one of the sea-sloughs: a brutish creature
with long arms, a flat face and four bony ridges over the top of its skull. On one occasion Ern
almost became its victim. Skulking under the roots of the swamp-reeds, the ogre lunged forth; Ern
felt the swirl of water and darted away, the ogre's grasp so near that the claws scraped his leg.
The ogre pursued, making idiotic sounds, then, jerking aside, seized one of Ern's playfellows, and
settled to the bottom to munch upon its captive.

After Ern grew large enough to defy the predator birds, he spent much time on the surface, tasting
the air and marveling at the largeness of the vistas, though he understood nothing of what he saw.
The sky was a dull gray fog, somewhat brighter out over the sea, never changing except for an
occasional wind-whipped cloud or a trail of rain. Close at hand was the swamp: sloughs, low-lying