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Authors: Mike Resnick
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species existed, at least until he studied them further and felt confident of a non-violent reception.
Suddenly he heard a roar. It wasn’t close, but it was loud enough to convince him that his first order of business was to find a sanctuary where he could sleep in safety.
He began walking. As he did so he passed a number of caves, but he couldn’t be sure that they weren’t home to whatever had roared. He considered climbing a tree and sleeping on a broad branch, but he couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t fall off, and besides there was every possibility that at least one carnivore was arboreal.
He continued exploring his surroundings. After two more hours it began getting darker, and he realized that he didn’t know the planet’s rotation speed, and hence the length of its days and nights. He looked toward the top of the mountain. The dense vegetation thinned out the higher he went, and seemed to vanish entirely at the edge of the glacier.
It was an easy decision. Until he knew the mountain and its residents-sentient and otherwise-better, he’d spend his time up near the ice cap, where there was less vegetation, because less vegetation meant less herbivores and less herbivores means less meat-eaters. They might even avoid the glacier entirely.
He trudged up the mountain, alert to every sound and movement, and made it to his destination without seeing a single animal. He found the edge of the glacier cold, but not unbearably so, and he began looking for shelter. He found a cave, made sure that it bore no trace of any other resident, and entered it. He was aware that the air was much thinner up here, but his body adjusted to it and he paid it no further notice.
He awoke from his first night on his new world, stepped out into the sunlight, and walked down to the tree line. His first task was to find some nourishment, and he tried some nuts from one of the trees. They didn’t have much taste, but they didn’t do him any harm, and he began sampling fruits, grasses, barks, and other nuts, making mental notes about which tasted better. When he had satisfied his appetite, he decided self-defense was the next order of business. He found some flat stones just below the edge of the glacier, appropriated the two sharpest of them, tore a straight branch off a tree, and spent the next few hours working on it with the stones until he had a formidable spear. One of the stones was almost the right shape to double as a dagger, and he created a necklace of woven grasses to hold it.
He saw some small antelope and a variety of rodents, all of them moving very cautiously, which implied to him that predators did reach this altitude. Just at twilight he impaled a spring hare with his spear, and took it back to his cave with him, where he ate the meaty parts and buried the rest beneath the snow so that it wouldn’t attract any predators.
That was his routine for the next month. Each day he went a little farther afield, either at the same altitude or a bit lower. By the end of the month he had seen elephant, rhino, buffalo, and leopards, plus smaller game, but he still hadn’t seen any member of the sentient species. He decided that was his next step.
There was a village about two miles away from his cave, mostly to the south and also a few thousand feet lower in altitude. Were it not for their nightly fires he would not have known for sure it was still populated, for they made almost no noise and never climbed higher up the mountain. He decided that twilight was the best time to approach it. It would be too hard for him to hide in the daylight, and he wouldn’t be able to observe them once the fires went out at night.
So he very carefully made his way to the village, a series of some thirty huts, and hid behind a large tree while the women prepared their food over the open fires. He’d been eating his food raw since he’d arrived, and while he
Suddenly he heard a roar. It wasn’t close, but it was loud enough to convince him that his first order of business was to find a sanctuary where he could sleep in safety.
He began walking. As he did so he passed a number of caves, but he couldn’t be sure that they weren’t home to whatever had roared. He considered climbing a tree and sleeping on a broad branch, but he couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t fall off, and besides there was every possibility that at least one carnivore was arboreal.
He continued exploring his surroundings. After two more hours it began getting darker, and he realized that he didn’t know the planet’s rotation speed, and hence the length of its days and nights. He looked toward the top of the mountain. The dense vegetation thinned out the higher he went, and seemed to vanish entirely at the edge of the glacier.
It was an easy decision. Until he knew the mountain and its residents-sentient and otherwise-better, he’d spend his time up near the ice cap, where there was less vegetation, because less vegetation meant less herbivores and less herbivores means less meat-eaters. They might even avoid the glacier entirely.
He trudged up the mountain, alert to every sound and movement, and made it to his destination without seeing a single animal. He found the edge of the glacier cold, but not unbearably so, and he began looking for shelter. He found a cave, made sure that it bore no trace of any other resident, and entered it. He was aware that the air was much thinner up here, but his body adjusted to it and he paid it no further notice.
He awoke from his first night on his new world, stepped out into the sunlight, and walked down to the tree line. His first task was to find some nourishment, and he tried some nuts from one of the trees. They didn’t have much taste, but they didn’t do him any harm, and he began sampling fruits, grasses, barks, and other nuts, making mental notes about which tasted better. When he had satisfied his appetite, he decided self-defense was the next order of business. He found some flat stones just below the edge of the glacier, appropriated the two sharpest of them, tore a straight branch off a tree, and spent the next few hours working on it with the stones until he had a formidable spear. One of the stones was almost the right shape to double as a dagger, and he created a necklace of woven grasses to hold it.
He saw some small antelope and a variety of rodents, all of them moving very cautiously, which implied to him that predators did reach this altitude. Just at twilight he impaled a spring hare with his spear, and took it back to his cave with him, where he ate the meaty parts and buried the rest beneath the snow so that it wouldn’t attract any predators.
That was his routine for the next month. Each day he went a little farther afield, either at the same altitude or a bit lower. By the end of the month he had seen elephant, rhino, buffalo, and leopards, plus smaller game, but he still hadn’t seen any member of the sentient species. He decided that was his next step.
There was a village about two miles away from his cave, mostly to the south and also a few thousand feet lower in altitude. Were it not for their nightly fires he would not have known for sure it was still populated, for they made almost no noise and never climbed higher up the mountain. He decided that twilight was the best time to approach it. It would be too hard for him to hide in the daylight, and he wouldn’t be able to observe them once the fires went out at night.
So he very carefully made his way to the village, a series of some thirty huts, and hid behind a large tree while the women prepared their food over the open fires. He’d been eating his food raw since he’d arrived, and while he
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