Read Online Sliding Scales by Alan Dean Foster - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Alan Dean Foster
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stood and shielded his eyes as best he could, shadowing them with his right hand. Takuuna, he noted, frequently had to look away and wipe water from his own sharp eyes.
In their tens of thousands, the barrunou rose from their multitude of burrows and nesting places within the canyon. No bigger than an open hand, each was supported by a single gas sac that blossomed from the middle of its back. Slim and flattened, ranging in color from a striped pale brown to a mottled light blue, each individual had a fringe of cilia dangling from its wide mouth. With these, Takuuna explained, the browsing barrunou would feel of the tops of rocks and plants for the smaller growths on which they fed. Behind cilia-lined mouth rose a pair of tiny but alert eyes. Though not mounted on stalks like the oculars of the Vssey, those of the barrunou were still capable of a wide range of motion. They could not see behind them, but they had excellent peripheral vision. The soft, sweet, cheeping sounds they made reminded Flinx of a cross between a baby bird and an angry mouse. He found that he was grinning uncontrollably.
It was not their shape, however, or their varied coloration that commanded one's attention. Instead, it was the gas-filled sacs that provided their lift. Unlike that of the various air-dwellers Flinx had encountered thus far, those of the barrunou were not pale beige, or yellow, or even dappled turquoise blue. Instead, they were covered with tiny iridescent scales that caught the rays of the rising sun and flung them back at anything and everything in the vicinity. Furthermore, these idiosyncratic reflectionswere neither constant nor predictable, fluctuating as they did not only with the position of the barrunou but with the expansion and contraction of the lifting sac itself.
It was as if a million fist-sized spherical mirrors were rising from the depths of the canyon, each one reflecting back all the colors of the rainbow. So bright was the massed shining, so intense the aggregated shimmering, that it illuminated those corners and crannies of the canyon that the rays of the sun had not yet reached.
Side by side, human and AAnn observed the vast ascension in silence, each lost in his own thoughts, each mesmerized by the splendid aerial procession that was taking place before them. For her part, Pip ignored it. She had found something small and sweet-smelling hiding among the rocks and was doing her lethal serpentine best to coax it out of its hiding place.
As they rose higher into the morning sky, the tens of thousands of softly twittering, spherical living mirrors began to disperse, riding the east-flowing breezes. In the evening, Takuuna detailed, the wind in this part of the province of Qwal-Dihn would predictably reverse, bearing the sated and tired barrunou back to their sheltering canyon.
“The brilliantly reflective sscaless that cover their lifting ssacss did not evolve for the delectation of ssightsseeerss ssuch as oursselvess,” the AAnn went on to explain. “Individually, they are flasshed to attract matess. Collectively, they function to dissorient and confusse attacking carnivoress. As iss ussually the ssituation with predatorss, there iss one in particular, the wulup, that hass developed a way to largely counter thiss communal defensse.”
“How does it do that?” Flinx found that he still had to shield his eyes from the glare in order to be able to look at the slowly scattering flock.
Takuuna drew a clawed hand over his face. It gave Flinx the opportunity to study the delicate engravings that had been etched into the knuckle scales of his guide's fingers. “Through the use of sspecial chromatophoress, the wulup hass the ability to darken or lighten itss eyecoveringss as necessary. Thiss allowss it to purssue the barrunou without being blinded. And they have other predatorss as well.” Teeth flashed. “A food ssource of thiss ssize would not be long ignored by the evolving carnivoress of any world.”
Flinx
In their tens of thousands, the barrunou rose from their multitude of burrows and nesting places within the canyon. No bigger than an open hand, each was supported by a single gas sac that blossomed from the middle of its back. Slim and flattened, ranging in color from a striped pale brown to a mottled light blue, each individual had a fringe of cilia dangling from its wide mouth. With these, Takuuna explained, the browsing barrunou would feel of the tops of rocks and plants for the smaller growths on which they fed. Behind cilia-lined mouth rose a pair of tiny but alert eyes. Though not mounted on stalks like the oculars of the Vssey, those of the barrunou were still capable of a wide range of motion. They could not see behind them, but they had excellent peripheral vision. The soft, sweet, cheeping sounds they made reminded Flinx of a cross between a baby bird and an angry mouse. He found that he was grinning uncontrollably.
It was not their shape, however, or their varied coloration that commanded one's attention. Instead, it was the gas-filled sacs that provided their lift. Unlike that of the various air-dwellers Flinx had encountered thus far, those of the barrunou were not pale beige, or yellow, or even dappled turquoise blue. Instead, they were covered with tiny iridescent scales that caught the rays of the rising sun and flung them back at anything and everything in the vicinity. Furthermore, these idiosyncratic reflectionswere neither constant nor predictable, fluctuating as they did not only with the position of the barrunou but with the expansion and contraction of the lifting sac itself.
It was as if a million fist-sized spherical mirrors were rising from the depths of the canyon, each one reflecting back all the colors of the rainbow. So bright was the massed shining, so intense the aggregated shimmering, that it illuminated those corners and crannies of the canyon that the rays of the sun had not yet reached.
Side by side, human and AAnn observed the vast ascension in silence, each lost in his own thoughts, each mesmerized by the splendid aerial procession that was taking place before them. For her part, Pip ignored it. She had found something small and sweet-smelling hiding among the rocks and was doing her lethal serpentine best to coax it out of its hiding place.
As they rose higher into the morning sky, the tens of thousands of softly twittering, spherical living mirrors began to disperse, riding the east-flowing breezes. In the evening, Takuuna detailed, the wind in this part of the province of Qwal-Dihn would predictably reverse, bearing the sated and tired barrunou back to their sheltering canyon.
“The brilliantly reflective sscaless that cover their lifting ssacss did not evolve for the delectation of ssightsseeerss ssuch as oursselvess,” the AAnn went on to explain. “Individually, they are flasshed to attract matess. Collectively, they function to dissorient and confusse attacking carnivoress. As iss ussually the ssituation with predatorss, there iss one in particular, the wulup, that hass developed a way to largely counter thiss communal defensse.”
“How does it do that?” Flinx found that he still had to shield his eyes from the glare in order to be able to look at the slowly scattering flock.
Takuuna drew a clawed hand over his face. It gave Flinx the opportunity to study the delicate engravings that had been etched into the knuckle scales of his guide's fingers. “Through the use of sspecial chromatophoress, the wulup hass the ability to darken or lighten itss eyecoveringss as necessary. Thiss allowss it to purssue the barrunou without being blinded. And they have other predatorss as well.” Teeth flashed. “A food ssource of thiss ssize would not be long ignored by the evolving carnivoress of any world.”
Flinx
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