Killbird

feet. Trees began to lean, and I ran. I looked back and the trees fell and the earth opened in a giant mouth.» It was no lie. We found the hole, and it was huge, lined with dragonskin, empty. There were, as we counted over the days which followed, an even one hundred of those holes, spread around our valley. (As time went on the rains and snows filled the killbird holes with water and they made fine swimming places for our young, although we discouraged it, since the water therein was so frightfully deep.) «And then,» Roden said, «there was a roar as of endless summer thunder, and as I feared for my life a giant killbird rose on a tail of fire, and I looked around—» «They came from everywhere,» Cree the Kite said excitedly, «so many we could not count, and the air was filled with their thunder, and—» «I was so close,» said Ouree, «that I could feel the heat of the tail of fire, and the force of his passing upward sent me sprawling to the ground.» «Thank God you were not hurt,» I said. «The air was filled with them,» Yorerie said. «As many as the birds of the end of the summer, flying upward, and then the gods of man came and did battle with them and sent many of them from the sky.» (Pieces of dragonskin fell into the village of Stoneskull, but hurt no one, giving Stoneskull's people material for many arrow heads and hardaxes.) And so I listened to my family. All had seen and heard. It was a real thing. One hundred killbirds had risen from our valley to do battle with the gods of man. I was right. So many could not help but destroy all, and my knowledge of such things made me believe that killbirds, like dragons, did not breed, so that now the sky must be empty. «My family,» I said. «I have heard the voice of God. He has told me, Eban the Hunter, that the earth is ours and that the sky is ours, for His purpose in this wondrous thing was to kill the killbirds so that man can forever and in safety praise God with the wings which God gave him.» «Can it be true?» Yorerie, who once risked his life with no hope of gain merely to be able to make a long soar, was looking at the sky with a rapt expression. «God has spoken to me,» I said. «Although I still mourn, I will come out of mourning and we will build wings and we will praise Him with a flight…» I looked around and chose the highest hill. «… from that peak to the center of the valley.» «Ha, Eban,» Yorerie yelled in joy. We built in haste, but with care, for wings are not thrown together lightly. A support breaks in midair and a man tumbles to his death. We had an ample store of dragon's veins for tying, and the women worked to scrape the hides to a thinness, and at last they were ready. Then we three hunters, last of the Strabo family, climbed the hill, careful to stay inside the teeth-spitting range of the hill dragons, and cleared a place, making God's chaos in praise. On the morning we lifted after a run and we soared. Our valley made a nice cup for the creation of updrafts, and we went high, I confident yet keeping an eye on the sky to see the first hint of the white streak of a killbird. None came. «Ha, Eban,» Yorerie yelled in joy, swooping past me on a wing. I dived after him, chased him, yelled my joy. Cree came and zoomed past my head and I found an updraft and climbed and forgot that there ever had been such a thing as a killbird. We flew until the updrafts failed, and we landed, one after the other, on the meadow beside the stream to greet our family, who sang in joy. Nothing would do Yorerie but to make a second flight, so we trudged to the hill and ran and soared. There were, needless to say, many flights of praise in the following time, and then a strange thing happened. It was during the period when there was in the very air a strange tingle, a warning, the spirits talking to our bare bellies. It gave me some concern, but it was not strong, not deadly. Still, I knew not why there was warning in land which had always been safe until, consulting the Seer of Things Unseen, I was told that in our legends the old ones spoke of a time when the spirits of evil moved in the air. I doubted God, then. Had He given us one boon only to curse us in the giving? But in days the spirit was so low that one had to concentrate to feel it, and then it faded, and during that time we had no rain. But while our attentions were on the spirits in the air and we were troubled, Ouree the Unclaimed built a pair of wings, copying them from ours, and announced her intentions of flying. «Women do not fly,» I said. «I have consulted the Seer,» Ouree said. She could be the most stubborn woman upon occasion, as I had found, since she tended my daughter, Margan, and the child I had fathered with her, whom she had named Mar. «There is nothing in our custom which says a woman cannot fly.» «But women have never flown,» I said. «We will consult the Seer,» she said, with tight lips. «Women are not strong enough to fight the winds of the sky,» I said. «I am strong enough to carry a deer,» she said. «Can you say more?» Well, a wise family head, indeed, a wise man, knows when he has no argument. I yielded and, to prevent the breaking of frail female bones, gave Ouree flight lessons, sitting on her desire to leap from the high hill and forcing her to take short and quickly ended glides from low places. She did well, damaging her wings on landing only once. The day came when nothing would do but for Ouree to fly from a high hill, though not the highest. I talked with her at length, warning her of the updrafts and the winds and giving her lessons in how to handle them, and then, white-faced, she ran and leaped and soared beautifully, her bare legs gleaming and her graceful form hanging below the wings in the saddle, and I heard her cry out in joy as she caught the updraft and circled. «Do not climb high,» I yelled at her. «Glide slowly toward the meadow.» «Beautiful,» she yelled. «So beautiful.» And she climbed, the silly female. She went into the air and got the wind off the far hills. «Dive, dive,» I yelled at her. She was being swept slowly toward the rim of hills to the west. «Dive down and get below the hills!» But she was beyond the reach of my voice. I could see the people in the meadow below, and they were waving and shouting and I was shouting, and Ouree was still being swept toward the far rim. She was high. I watched. «All right,» I said, speaking as if she could hear me. «You have gone too far and now you cannot come back into the valley. Stay high, clear the hills. Above all, do not go down within range of the teeth of the dragons. Fly beyond the hills, find a meadow, land, and then fold your wings and walk back, coming all the way around.» Surely, surely, she was wise enough to know her danger. Surely. But she was now realizing her position and was trying to dive back. She was diving for the top of the hill where the dragons were rooted. Then, as I screamed and yelled, unseen and unheard, she came to her senses, soared and disappeared beyond the hills. I made haste down the hill and found the family concerned. «Yorerie,» I said, «you and I. We will go through the dragon's hole and march to meet her. Since we know not where she landed, nor if she will circle to the south or the north, one will go to the south and the other to the north, and we will meet her.» «How will I know when to turn back if I do not meet her?» Yorerie asked. «I have been thinking of extending our range,» I said. «It will be good if you scout all the way around the southern hills to a point directly to the west and then return by another route.» «Yes. You will do the same to the north?» «I will,» I said. «We take note of game signs, of water, of living sites, of fruit and nut trees.» «I will,» Yorerie said. We made preparation. I was worried about Ouree, but she was a solid-minded woman, skilled in the hunt, could be expected to be able to forage on the land for the few days it would take her to walk back around the hills. My only worry was that the land to the north and west had not been explored and there could be more dragons. I thought of Ouree facing a dragon alone, and I was sick inside. Mar had loved her so. She was so gentle and so considerate, and she looked after our children, Margan and Mar, so well. But she would be fine, I told myself. Old Seer would tend the two little girls. I would find Ouree in the wilderness and bring her back. Mar would have wanted that. And thinking of Mar I felt a little surge inside me. Woman. My Mar. Mar, Mar, I said silently, can you understand why I fear so for the safety of Ouree? It is only because you loved her so, my Mar. And as I set out beside the sturdy and dependable Yorerie to fetch back the young woman we'd both loved during the time she lived in the warm cave with us, I could see Mar's face smiling at me with a knowing look in her eyes. Behind us the family waved. Then we were alone, and I heard or felt something, something I'd never heard or felt before, and, fearfully, I looked up. Ref: Z-333-469-123- P-222 X&A Restriction Code Origin: Minutes Board of Determination, Sector Lightning, Headquarters X&A, Mercer. Sub.: III Planet, Life Zone Class Xanthos II sun, sector Sub-Lightning 30-60-97-38. Inhabited Humanoid. Dated: N.Y. 30,500, Month 4, day 24 Pres.: Prof. Anton Bradley Gore. The meeting was called to order by Chairman Prof. Anton Bradley Gore. Prof. Gore announced that the purpose of the Board of Determination was to discuss the discovery of Class 1-A-sub Humanoids, C-Scale primitive, T rating T-1. The purpose of the meeting thus established, the Chairman distributed copies of a report from U.P.X. Old Earth, Capt. T. Willis, Cmmd. A recess was called to allow the board to study the report. Upon reconvening, Chairman Gore called for introductions by the individual board members. The makeup of the board is as follows: Chairman Gore: Some of you may question my being chosen as chairman. If you do, I can't blame you, for this is pretty high terrain for a teacher of literature at Xanthos University. I suppose I was selected since I was called upon, because of my specialty in alien literature, to analyze the hypnoprobe material gathered by members of the crew of the Old Earth. Since I taught the subject, I suppose they decided to use me. You know how those X&A fellows are about aliens. But since my duty is just to preside, I guess I'm as good as anyone, and I won't let any of my uneducated ideas intrude into your thinking. Now if you will stand, beginning with the Admiral, and introduce yourselves. Admiral of Fleet Talltree the Healer: You are overly modest, professor. We've all read your astute theory of the Dead Worlds and your analysis of the Miaree legend. Speaking for myself, I say that I know of no man better qualified to deal with the alien mind. As for myself, I am a Fleet man, entered the Fleet as a mere boy and have served it since, primarily in exploration and alien search. It is quite obvious to all that I am a man of old earth, a healer. I have visited the planet in question and may be able, as this discussion goes along, to give some insight into the inhabitants. Degan the Far Seer: I am here from my post at the observatory on Lightning because I was the only Far Seer willing to leave his job. Moil the Power