d.

He tried to remold his Dog-nostrils to be less sensitive. It didn't
work. It wouldn't, so long as he kept the Dog-shape. An attempt to
modify his metabolism didn't work either.

All this in the space of two or three seconds. He was rooted in his
tracks, fighting the smells, wondering what to do.

Then the noises hit him.

They were a constant and staggering roar, through which every tiniest
whisper of sound stood out clearly and distinct. Sounds upon
sounds--more noise than he had ever heard before at one time in his
life. The woods behind him had suddenly become a mad-house.

Utterly confused, he lost control and became Shapeless.

He half-ran, half-flowed into a nearby bush. There he re-Shaped,
obliterating the offending Dog ears and nostrils with vicious strokes
of his thoughts.

The Dog-shape was out. Absolutely. Such appalling sharpness of senses
might be fine for a Hunter such as Ger--he probably gloried in them.
But another moment of such impressions would have driven Pid the Pilot
mad.

What now? He lay in the bush and thought about it, while gradually his
mind threw off the last effects of the dizzying sensory assault.

He looked at the gate. The Men standing there evidently hadn't noticed
his fiasco. They were looking in another direction.

... a Man?

Well, it was worth a try.

* * * * *

Studying the Men at the gate, Pid carefully shaped himself into a
facsimile--a synthesis, actually, embodying one characteristic of
that, another of this.

He emerged from the side of the bush opposite the gate, on his hands
and knees. He sniffed the air, noting that the smells the Man-nostrils
picked up weren't unpleasant at all. In fact, some of them were
decidedly otherwise. It had just been the acuity of the Dog-nostrils,
the number of smells they had detected and the near-brilliance with
which they had done so, that had shocked him.

Also, the sounds weren't half so devastating. Only relatively close
sounds stood out. All else was an undetailed whispering.

Evidently, Pid thought, it had been a long time since Men had been
Hunters.

He tested his legs, standing up and taking a few clumsy steps. _Thud_
of foot on ground. Drag the other leg forward in a heavy arc. _Thud._
Rocking from side to side, he marched back and forth behind the bush.
His arms flapped as he sought balance. His head wobbled on its neck,
until he remembered to hold it up. Head up, eyes down, he