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Authors: Robert Adams
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exist from whence they had come—but this place called Earth was not the place of their origin, and certain of its most common constituents were in ways inimical to their health and well-being. These elements not only shortened their lifespans and somewhat curtailed their powers but lowered their fertility drastically. Even so, it was the best place to reside that they had then found in the course of many lifetimes of searching.
"The exceedingly low birthrate was understood early-on in the earthly existence of this so-wise race, but it was nothing about which they then had much cause to worry—not back then, when so very many of them still existed. However, not even the Elder Ones were truly immortal and, as the courses of hundreds of millennia passed by on the Earth, their overall numbers became fewer and still fewer, as aged spirits flickered out faster than they could produce new carriers of the racial flame.
"Then did all of the remaining ones of the Elder Race meld their minds and decide upon a course by
which they might, they hoped, prolong the unique and irreplaceable qualities of their race, if not the race itself. Over a vast span of time, they sought out and subjected to multiple testings a whole host of different creatures, beings native to the place you call Earth. At length, they all decided upon a certain kind of terrestrial primate; you know what kind they chose, old friend."
"Cave men?" thought Fitz, wonderingly, "Neanderthals? Cro-Magnons?"
The big cat answered, "No, those of which I speak now were a for less refined raw material than those of whom you are thinking; ten thousand of the then-generations of human life separated them from those chosen by the Elder Race, who then slowly—allowing almost all of the natural courses of events to take place—guided those chosen, obliquely controlled their breeding, the developments of a culture of sorts, provided them now and then with the germs erf technology which could improve their chances of survival.
"In its fullness, time passed. Continents and islands and seas rearranged themselves upon the face of the planet, mile-thick ice-sheets expanded and contracted many times, lands rose above the seas, then sank back beneath them, seas themselves emptied out and their beds metamorphosed into bone-dry deserts or towering snow-capped mountains. A huge assortment of animals of all sorts died out in this time, but the Elder Race saw to it that the chosen species was spared despite their many and blatant vulnerabilities.
"At last, at long last, when the few remaining
Elder Ones felt that, were their long-envisioned plans to have hope of eventual success, they must begin, they went among the various groups of their primates and, again testing, chose those that they found to be the best—physically, mentally, emotionally— and, after bearing them to certain predetermined locations, began to assume shapes and breed with them.
"After several generations of hybrids had been guided and taught that which beings of power must know, the Elder Race determined that, although the hybrids and the get of the hybrids matured faster physically than did the pure get of the Elder Race, their powers were slower to develop and that, although significantly longer than pure humans, the life expectancy of the hybrids was even less than the severely-shortened lifespans of the still-extant Elder Ones. In hopes of possibly breeding to counter these distressing tendencies and traits, the Elder Ones visited the areas inhabited by the pure strains of humans on a regular basis, seeking out and bearing away healthy, young specimens of comparatively long-lived stock and with the best minds that pure-strain humans could be expected to have. In the enclaves, these specimens were bred to Elder Ones or hybrids and, very slowly, the strain was slightly improved.
"When enough mature hybrids were available to make it fairly certain that there would be plenty of teachers for the young they would
"The exceedingly low birthrate was understood early-on in the earthly existence of this so-wise race, but it was nothing about which they then had much cause to worry—not back then, when so very many of them still existed. However, not even the Elder Ones were truly immortal and, as the courses of hundreds of millennia passed by on the Earth, their overall numbers became fewer and still fewer, as aged spirits flickered out faster than they could produce new carriers of the racial flame.
"Then did all of the remaining ones of the Elder Race meld their minds and decide upon a course by
which they might, they hoped, prolong the unique and irreplaceable qualities of their race, if not the race itself. Over a vast span of time, they sought out and subjected to multiple testings a whole host of different creatures, beings native to the place you call Earth. At length, they all decided upon a certain kind of terrestrial primate; you know what kind they chose, old friend."
"Cave men?" thought Fitz, wonderingly, "Neanderthals? Cro-Magnons?"
The big cat answered, "No, those of which I speak now were a for less refined raw material than those of whom you are thinking; ten thousand of the then-generations of human life separated them from those chosen by the Elder Race, who then slowly—allowing almost all of the natural courses of events to take place—guided those chosen, obliquely controlled their breeding, the developments of a culture of sorts, provided them now and then with the germs erf technology which could improve their chances of survival.
"In its fullness, time passed. Continents and islands and seas rearranged themselves upon the face of the planet, mile-thick ice-sheets expanded and contracted many times, lands rose above the seas, then sank back beneath them, seas themselves emptied out and their beds metamorphosed into bone-dry deserts or towering snow-capped mountains. A huge assortment of animals of all sorts died out in this time, but the Elder Race saw to it that the chosen species was spared despite their many and blatant vulnerabilities.
"At last, at long last, when the few remaining
Elder Ones felt that, were their long-envisioned plans to have hope of eventual success, they must begin, they went among the various groups of their primates and, again testing, chose those that they found to be the best—physically, mentally, emotionally— and, after bearing them to certain predetermined locations, began to assume shapes and breed with them.
"After several generations of hybrids had been guided and taught that which beings of power must know, the Elder Race determined that, although the hybrids and the get of the hybrids matured faster physically than did the pure get of the Elder Race, their powers were slower to develop and that, although significantly longer than pure humans, the life expectancy of the hybrids was even less than the severely-shortened lifespans of the still-extant Elder Ones. In hopes of possibly breeding to counter these distressing tendencies and traits, the Elder Ones visited the areas inhabited by the pure strains of humans on a regular basis, seeking out and bearing away healthy, young specimens of comparatively long-lived stock and with the best minds that pure-strain humans could be expected to have. In the enclaves, these specimens were bred to Elder Ones or hybrids and, very slowly, the strain was slightly improved.
"When enough mature hybrids were available to make it fairly certain that there would be plenty of teachers for the young they would
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