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Show small brown ears twitched in puzzlement. "They are killing each o t h e r . . ." she said querulously, " . . . a g a i n ." Several of the Zetts made knowing sounds with their mouths. "Well..." began Yari. "...that is nothing to us " "No..." Lodyan's ears twitched again. "No..." she repeated. "Let us hurry and go to the Great P e a k s . . . , " whispered the female Zett sitting beside her. "...and get our P'lini leaves." She was Lodyan's eldest daughter, Shado, and of all Lodyan's children, she was the most anxious, "You are a walking worry," said Yari, who was of all Lodyan's children the least anxious. "I see a northern one lift up a long weapon," Lodyan said, staring out at nothing. "He has lunged with i t . . . t o . . ." " . . . t o kill one of his own!" Shado screeched, her small furry hands clutching her face in horror. Lodyan jumped to her feet. "No, no!" she cried. "To strike the Woman-who-writes-words! She has fallen. . .fallen!" She began jumping up and down. "And she's far. . .far! All the way back to Westwick! " She threw her head back and screamed with despair into the sky. Yari and his young son ran to loosen the JumbleDogs. "We will get there before the Twins drop to the Great Peaks!" Yari cried. Two of the other males whistled piercingly into the trees. Branches cracked and clusters of scrup leaves fluttered down to the forest floor. Then the sky darkened with the enormous wings of twenty-three gold DragonGeese, the legendary Grendels. As soon as they lit ponderously in the clearing, 284 |