“Will you ever get away from them?” asked Gor Terr, gloomily doubtful.
“D’you remember the snowy mountains we saw through the upper porthole on Quest? We’ll go where it’s too cold for the Faetoids. They won’t come after us.”
“You have no r-right to risk the child’s life,” boomed Gor Terr. “But you’re right about one thing. Someone’s got to leave here. Either the Faetians or the Faetoids.”
From that time on, Gor Terr began disappearing frequently from the house and returning without the usual hunting trophies.
Ave and Mada didn’t ask him where he was going, believing that it was up to him to tell them.
He was, in fact, secretly making his way to the gully with the caves. He had selected a reliable shelter and spent a long time observing how the Faetoids lived.
He had marked out an enormous shaggy Faetoid who was evidently the leader of the tribe. Wasn’t it he who was conducting the war on the newcomers?
Exceptionally burly and fierce, he dealt ruthlessly with anyone who displeased him. He once gave Dzin a terrible beating: Gor Terr spotted her unerringly among the other beasts. However, it was not just strength that made him superior to the rest of the Faetoids. His brain must have been more developed than that of any other individual.
The Faetoids had not yet developed as far as rational speech, but they nevertheless communicated amongst themselves with monosyllables that differed mainly in cadence. After being beaten, Dzin fled the cave and came upon Gor Terr hiding in a thicket.
She took fright at first, then squatted in silence not far from him, clutching her heels with her forepaws, and began making soft, piteous sounds. When he realised that she was not going to make a noise at the sight of him, Gor Terr didn’t strike her with his stun-spear. He was conceiving a plan of insane daring, and Dzin could be useful to him.
Every day after that, when Gor Terr went to the hiding-place that he had picked between two close-growing tree-trunks, he would find Dzin waiting for him.
She became a kind of ally to him. Gor Terr could not explain anything to her. But she behaved exactly as he wanted. With her animal instinct, she was able to guess his intentions. Several times, when one of the Faetoids drew near to Gor Terr’s hiding-place, Dzin jumped up, screamed threateningly and gesticulated to drive the uninvited beast away.
Gor Terr’s dangerous plan was soon ripe for action. He decided to disclose it to the others.
When she heard him, Mada decided that he was having another crazy spell and offered to shock him out of it with an injection.
But Gor Terr was adamant.
“One thing’s certain,” he affirmed. “The herd’s got to be driven out of here; it must be led away. They’ll take me for one of themselves. I look sufficiently like them and I know their habits. I’ll deal quickly enough with the disobedient ones. I’ll become their tyrant, their r-ruler, their dictator. And to their own advantage. I’ll teach them sense and r-reason.”
It proved impossible to dissuade Gor Terr. He regarded his scheme as the duty of a friend.
“We certainly won’t win a war with them,” he said. “I’ll lead them off into the mountains. When they’re settled there, I’ll come back to you. You’ll already have had lots of children. I’ll turn your little ones into r-real Faetians.”
Gor Terr began preparing for his exploit as if for an afternoon stroll. In fact, he didn’t need to take anything with him.
Ave could not let him go out alone and decided to back him with small-arms fire from under cover if events did not work out as Gor Terr planned.
As Gor Terr had requested, Ave Mar was following Gor Terr at a distance so as not to frighten Dzin. They had embraced as they left the house and had said goodbye in silence. But Mada had wept in the doorway as she waved Gor Terr goodbye.
Dzin was sitting in her usual attitude. She was waiting.
Ave watched the strange scene from a distance.
Gor Terr went up to the Faetoid, who met him amicably, even warmly. He then took off his Faetian clothes.
He was covered with dense hair, but compared with one of the shaggy beasts he looked almost naked, although in general body shape, height, broad shoulders and stoop he vaguely resembled a Faetoid. He could have been mistaken for one in the dark, but, of course, not in broad daylight or at dusk. So, at least, it seemed to Ave Mar, who feared greatly for his friend. But Gor Terr, unarmed, went fearlessly down into the gully with Dzin.
Ave was gripping a pistol so as to come to Gor Terr’s aid; his friend was already approaching the cave from which he had rescued his captive friends.
Ave watched as the Faetoids who met Dzin paid no attention to her companion at first. Then they noticed something unusual about him and began gathering in twos and threes to study the newcomer with the thin hair whom Dzin had brought back with her.
At last, the rest returned from the hunt.
Accompanied by Dzin, Gor Terr went bravely up to them.
Dzin began shrieking something, squatting, falling onto the stones and jumping up again. She must have been explaining that she was starting a new family and was presenting the one of her choice to the others.
The Faetoids didn’t take the one of her choice very much. One beast, at the far end, stood up, rudely thrust Dzin aside and struck the stranger with his forepaw. To be more precise, he had intended to strike. But before he could do so, he shot up into the air and crashed to the ground several paces away. Bellowing, he got up on all fours and sprang at his assailant like a spotted predator. But the stranger dealt him such a blow that the Faetoid spun round on the stones, howling. The others reacted to the incident with what seemed like total indifference. However, no one else dared try his strength with the newcomer.
Interestingly enough, Gor Terr had only to take his clothes off for the beasts not to recognise their former enemy and not even to see any difference between him and themselves.
Sol was rising. It was the beginning of the magnificent dawn that had impressed the Faetians so much during the first days of their sojourn on Terr.
The Faetoids, however, were not admiring it. They were lying down to sleep in their caves.
Only one particularly large beast with repulsive features, flared nostrils and brown fangs protruding from his mouth, wandered from cave to cave as if checking something.
His mental powers were unlikely to have been so developed that he could really have been capable of checking anything at all. He might simply have been wandering aimlessly from one cave to another.
Any beast he found outside, however, hurriedly disappeared into the darkness under the vaulted roof.
Ave had still not left his observation post, fearing for Gor Terr’s safety.
He had stayed there all day, well aware how alarmed Mada must be for him. He was waiting for, and dreading, the showdown between Gor Terr and the leader.
The leader appeared earlier than the rest and summoned all the others with a throaty scream.
Stretching and yawning, the Faetoids emerged reluctantly from their shelters. Gor Terr also came out. Compared with all the others, he now looked almost puny. No wonder the beasts were looking askance at the new arrival. He didn’t wait to be attacked, but exhibited his own character.
For no apparent reason, he attacked a fairly inoffensive Faetoid, nimbly knocking him off his hind legs and hurling him down to the bottom of the gully. Another was outraged at this conduct on the newcomer’s part, but paid dearly for it. Gor Terr rushed at him in a fury and, pinning him to the stone wall, began banging his head so hard against it that the other howled with pain.