ly
_ga-n_, spirits who could choose their shape at will and had, oddly,
this time assumed the bodies of man's tricky enemy? Were they
_ndendai_--enemies--or _dalaanbiyat'i_, allies? In this mad world he did
not know.

_Ei'dik'e?_ His mind formed a word he did not speak: Friend?

Yellow eyes met his directly. Dimly he had been aware, ever since
awaking in this strange wilderness with the coming of morning light,
that the four-footed ones trotting with him as he walked aimlessly had
unbeastlike traits. Not only did they face him eye-to-eye, but in some
ways they appeared able to read his thoughts.

He had longed for water to ease the burning in his throat, the
ever-present pain in his head, and the creatures had nudged him in
another direction, bringing him to a pool where he had mouthed liquid
with a strange sweet, but not unpleasant taste.

Now he had given them names, names which had come out of the welter of
dreams which shadowed his stumbling journey across this weird country.

Nalik'ideyu (Maiden-Who-Walks-Ridges) was the female who continued to
shepherd him along, never venturing too far from his side. Naginlta
(He-Who-Scouts-Ahead) was the male who did just that, disappearing at
long intervals and then returning to face the man and his mate as if
conveying some report necessary to their journey.

It was Nalik'ideyu who sought out Travis now, her red tongue lolling
from her mouth as she panted. Not from exertion, he was certain of that.
No, she was excited and eager ... on the hunt! That was it--a hunt!

Travis' own tongue ran across his lips as an impression hit him with
feral force. There was meat--rich, fresh--just ahead. Meat that lived,
waiting to be killed. Inside him his own avid hunger roused, shaking him
farther out of the crusting dream.

His hands went to his waist, but the groping fingers did not find what
vague memory told him should be there--a belt, heavy with knife in
sheath.

He examined his own body with attention to find he was adequately
covered by breeches of a smooth, dull brown material which blended well
with the vegetation about him. He wore a loose shirt, belted in at the
narrow waist by a folded strip of cloth, the ends of which fluttered
free. On his feet were tall moccasins, the leg pieces extending some
distance up his calves, the toes turned up in rounded points.

Some of this he found familiar, but these were fragments of memory;
again his mind fitted one picture above an