"I knew they were part of the tribe of my foe"the descending and nearing creatures, who else could they be, and here I am standing next to the beast I just crippled, I was not sure what they to do next"for once, but there really was no escape, or refuge from this planet. There were mountains way in the far distance, nearby was all mounds, and some small green foothills, I mean, yellowish-green. But everything looked gray at the moment, everything that was no farther than a few hundred feet from me; I mean there was a gray mist in the atmosphere, around me, everywhere, everything. "I ran towards the foothills, and hid behind some shrubbery, watched the group gathering around the old heavy-jawed-boned man, and my body started to tremble from the submerging chilling air, everything was so gray, suffocating. For some odd reason the primitives did not follow me, perhaps I was a creature they needed to learn more about me"I presume"before they did what they wanted to do; thus, needing to explore me and my ways more, and its ways of how to deal with me. I knew not their ways, there kind of thinking, nor could they or I figure out how to deal with the situation at hand, so I was thinking. Perhaps they were cleverer than I gave them credit for. But at this very moment, I was lost for any great maneuvers. "I found some barriers hanging loosely on a number of branches of some low slanting bushes, and I ate them hardily, they were sour, but I hadn't eaten anything since before my last death. As I moved around and beyond this area, I found huge ice hills, sucked some moisture off of their sides, I was really thirsty, and it satisfied me completely. I could eat most anything, any kind of nourishment any place, it was not lethal for my body, for Moirommalit's are quite adaptable in this way. But my body was not functioning as it normally did; it was in slow gear, slow motion yet. "The farther I walked north, the more insects I found and ate, there were many, and I sensed it kept this part of the planet warm, for there wasn't much sun, and the ground to my knees were warm, although the upper atmosphere was thin here with a chill, almost void of any large amount of vegetation: the insects were hot when I ate them. Furthermore, I found I needed to rest more than I was used to, more than before that is, before I came to this planet." |