«The time for burning and destroying is past,” said the kikihuahua. «You must adapt — that is what God is telling you.» He bent down, and from the beach he picked a small dish-shaped object. «You see this hemitrex? Millennia ago, the hemitrex was a different creature altogether. It was soft. It had no hard shiny shell. It was just a fragile mass of jelly floating in the ocean — in fact people called it the jellyfish. It was at the mercy of tide and current, and since it floated near the surface, it was at the mercy of the sun, too.
«And one day, the sun became terrible.
«Giant balls of fire exploded from its surface and sent evil rays shafting towards the Earth like poison arrows. Men and animals and plants died in the heat and sickness of its light. For ten thousand years this went on, until the fires died down and the sun was normal again. But the men and animals and plants were no longer normal. Except for those humans protected by the Sisters of the Moon, they were changed, because only by changing could they have survived the furious sun.
«The jellyfish adapted too. In order to protect itself against the rays, it grew a hard thin shell of a shiny substance which had the power of reflecting almost all the sunlight which struck it. The jellyfish adapted, and it lived. As did many other creatures. As you must.»
The chief pointed out, «We don’t have ten thousand years. We’re dying now .»
«Then eat something other than fish.»
«There is nothing else. The land is barren.»
The kikihuahua put its hand into a rock pool and drew out a handful of seaweed. «Eat this. It is not affected by the red tide.»
«We’ve tried. It’s too coarse. We cannot digest it.»
«Then cook it.»
«We have no firewood, remember?»
The kikihuahua sighed. «You haven’t learned anything.» He placed the seaweed on the rock and held the hemitrex over it, tilting it so that the sun’s rays were gathered in the shiny bowl and focussed on the weed. After a while, steam rose. In a few moments the seaweed was cooked, tender and edible.
The kikihuahua bowed, walked across the island, climbed onto his vehicle‑creature and disappeared.
At this point the Second Kikihuahua Allegory, as told in later years, ends. In Karina’s day, however, people were more ruthlessly literal, and Haleka continued the story to its climax, as he knew it, like this:
The chief approached the pile of cooked seaweed, sniffed it and made a face of disgust. «We can’t eat this muck. It may be food for a kikihuahua but it’s no food for humans. We’re a tribe offish-eaters, and fish-eaters we will remain, and no alien with hairy buttocks will tell us otherwise.»
«And anyway,” said his woman, holding up the shell, «This jellyfish may have adapted, but it’s dead all the same.»
«There’s a lesson in that,” said the chief.
And from that day on they thought no more of the kikihuahua, but continued to eat raw fish, getting even sicker until they died, one by one.
Which is why the Isle of Arbos is uninhabited — and there’s a lesson in that, too.
«So?» said Karina.
«You will obey the dictates of the Examples and not eat raw meat.»
«Are you sure that’s what the story means?»
«You will not question me, Karina!»
During the rest of the afternoon the tump browsed its way through the foothills and Karina walked beside it; first on the seaward side, then on the side of the mountains — and the tump always tended to shy away from her.
I’m not cut out to be a tumpier, she thought in some satisfaction.
Evening came and Haleka slid down, allowing Karina time for a small cooked meal before the sun dropped below the mountains. Then the coolness of night enveloped the fields and Karina climbed onto the tump’s back to watch for jaguars. Looking around, she could see the dim shapes of other tumps, each topped by its attendant. The moon slid from behind a bank of clouds and the scene was suddenly washed with cold light. Karina, alert, stared about her, hearing faint sounds from a nearby grove of trees. A night-hunting owl swooped low overhead, snatching some squealing rodent from the grass and startling her. From somewhere else came the metallic roar of a big cat.
There was something wild and elemental about the night.
It’s a time for killing. The words came unbidden into Karina’s mind, planted there countless generations ago by a forgotten technician at the institute of Mordecai N. Whirst.
A sudden scream cut through the night sounds.
Karina whirled round. The tump to her left gave a convulsive heave, and the attendant was missing from its back. Then there was a worrying sound; a grunting, and noises of a struggle.
Karina threw her head back and uttered an unearthly screech.
«Huh? Huh?» It seemed that all of nature had been shocked into silence — with the exception of Haleka, who was muttering his anger at being roused. «Is that you, Karina? What in the name of Whirst is —”
«Be quiet.» Karina pulled him unceremoniously to his feet. «Come with me.»
Karina dragged Haleka at a trot towards the riderless tump. When they got there, they found the apprentice lying unconscious on the ground. Blood seeped darkly from a wound at his temple. His tumpier was crawling from under a blanket, grumbling.
«What …?»
«There’s been an attack.» Karina looked around. «Where have they gone?»
«They? Jaguars hunt alone, Karina.»
«Felinas don’t.»
Others arrived; tumpiers and their apprentices, alerted by Karina’s screech. Then, sliding from the backs of nearby tumps, three girls.
Haleka stared at them in surprise and suspicion. «Who are these felinas?»
«My sisters. I thought we might need some help tonight, so I replaced three of the apprentices. It was bad luck we picked the wrong tumps, or we might have had them. Did you see anything, Teressa?»
«Not a thing.»
«I thought we’d catch them in the act. But it seems they’ve gone. Maybe I frightened them off,” said Karina unhappily.
The apprentice on the ground groaned, returning to consciousness.
«Weakling,” observed Teressa disgustedly. She pulled him to his feet, not very gently. «Who attacked you, huh?»
His eyes focussed and he saw her. Sudden fear showed. «A grupo! What’s a grupo doing here?»
«Trying to help you, idiot. Who attacked you?»
«I was pulled off the tump from behind. I didn’t see.»
«Jaguars often attack from behind,” said a tumpier wisely. «They run up the back of the tump and pick the apprentice off, clean as a mango.»
«They don’t club him across the head,” said Runa. «This is human work.»
«A goddamned felina grupo!» somebody shouted, staring in deep suspicion at Teressa.
«Shut up, all of you!» Runa shouted, as a babble of accusations arose. «Shut up! This may be a diversion! While we’re all arguing here, they could be stripping a tump to the bone somewhere else!»
Karina raised her head, sniffed the air, and cried, «I smell blood! Over there! Towards the mountains!»
«But —”
«Be quiet, Saba.» Karina allowed the main body of the hunt to move off westwards, then took Haleka by the arm and called to her sisters. «Come on — this way. The noise from that crowd is enough to scare a herd of crocodiles. We go east, and we have Haleka as our witness.»
The five of them walked quietly downhill, and before long they heard the sounds of feeding.
«They don’t know you’re here,” whispered Karina to her sisters. «They won’t be expecting a full-scale attack. If it’s Iolande’s grupo, there’ll be four of them. That’s one each. Haleka — you help Saba.»
But the tumpier was accelerating down the slope, skinny legs pumping. «That’s my tump! For the love of Mordecai — it’s my tump they’re eating!» His voice was shrill with outrage, and the sounds in front of them ceased suddenly.