Chapter 8: People of the Shadows

The forest seemed to hold its breath, the very night insects shocked into silence. Gradually the woods came alive, and as their eyes became used to the darkness they could make out faint outlines of their surroundings. Rowlf and Harg, swiftly running on silent feet, brought the scattered party together. They huddled close against the darkness and damp cold so different from the jungle warmth they had left behind.

"Do you think they'll follow us?" Audrey's voice was little more than a whisper in the darkness as she tried to gain some warmth by pressing close to Harg's thick fur.

"No way," Charley reassured her. "That portal's closed for good, unless I miss my guess. When the dome blew, it musta just about took the whole building down with it. A shame, records of all them worlds, and now there's no way to reach them. At least the KaKree are bottled up in their own world with no way to get out."

"Right now I'm more worried about staying alive on this world," Phil grumbled. "Running around naked may be all right in a tropical climate, but right here and now it's damned uncomfortable."

"And here I thought you liked me this way," Luana teased. "Or are you changing your mind?"

"No chance of that," he answered, more than half seriously. "But this isn't the climate for it. I only hope that it isn't much longer until dawn."

"No' much longer," Harg reassured him, raising his muzzle to sniff the air. "Soon will be ligh', then we star' to move toward home."

They could barely see outlines of objects in the darkness under the trees. There was no breeze, but a fine mist filtered down through the branches, chilling them where they huddled together. After a seeming eternity of darkness, it was Audrey who first realized that she could make out the shape of a low-hanging branch.

"I can see!"

Her low cry of discovery alerted the others, and they watched the forest unfold around them. They had found a scanty shelter among the roots of a fallen forest giant, and on all sides other huge trees rose from the mossy soil. They might almost have been Earthly oaks and maples, but their leaves shone a deep glossy green in the pale morning light.

"Achoo!" Charley erupted in a violent sneeze. "Brr! It's colder than a witch's tit around here. We'd better get moving, afore we freeze to death. Hey, Rowlf! Which way do we head from here?"

"I don' know. The trees are too thick, and so are the clouds. I can only tell tha' the sun is coming up somewhere off tha' way. Soon, we should be able to tell if we are far to the north or south. Both places have thick trees, and we could be in either one."

"Right or wrong, we've got to get moving," Phil told them. "The few miles we cover won't make much difference, and we've got to get warm."

"How about something to eat," Audrey asked plaintively. "It's been so long since we've had a decent meal, that I've about forgotten what good food tastes like."

"There is good red mea' in woods," Harg answered, staying close by her. "We mus' be careful, not anger Shadow-People."

"Shadow-People?" Phil looked concerned. "Who are they?"

"And what are they," Luana added.

"Ones who live in dark woods," Rowlf tried to explain. "They are no' like us, no' like wolves. More like men, but no' much like. Walk on four legs, bu' have hands. Wolves trade mea' of buffalo and antelope for things they make; scents and ornaments and toys for cubs. We trade with them a' special trade place a' edge of trees, never come into forests. Shadow-people hunt a' night, don' like brigh' sun and open prairie. They hun' under trees and up in branches."

"They ea' roots and berries, too," Harg added, wrinkling his snout. "No grea' hunters, but good fighters. Catch small animals in traps. Use spears to kill larger animals."

"Just what we need," Charley groused as they made their way through the forest. "Another sentient race to complicate things. This'll shoot down the project for sure."

The sun, hidden by trees and masked by clouds as it was, seemed to be swinging around to the left as it rose. They were in the southern hemisphere of Aurora.

"We would be," Phil commented wryly. "World Traders' base is a good ways north of the equator, by almost twenty degrees, and we must be at least fifty or sixty degrees south by the height of the sun. Let's see, seventy degrees of latitude, and probably a fair amount of longitude. That's, let me see if I can figure it. Aurora's only about six thousand miles in diameter..."

His voice trailed off as he worked the figures over in his head.

"How far do we have to go?" Audrey seemed shaken, as though only now realizing just how large even a minor planet could be for people travelling on foot.

"Three or four thousand miles," he answered glumly. "That much or more. Even if we could cover forty miles a day, it would take us at least three months to get there. And that would be if we knew right where it was."

"At least we kin live off the country," Charley observed hopefully. "The last planet I was on, we couldn't eat the local food. We had to carry all of our own grub with us, and we damned near starved to death afore we made it back."

"Three months, maybe more." Luana moved closer to Phil. "We don't know what may have happened by then."

Taking a rough bearing on the sun's foggy image, they headed in the general direction of the equator. The exercise soon warmed them, and the springy moss was kind to their bare feet, but Phil was dismally aware that by the time night fell they would have to find some kind of shelter. One more night of cold and dampness might not be fatal, but too many of them certainly would be. They needed food, warm clothing and shelter if they were to survive.

With a subdued yelp, Harg streaked ahead through the trees, Rowlf hot on his heels. They split up as they disappeared from sight, circling to each side of their quarry. Far away in the woods a choked-off squeal told of the end of their chase, and only moments later the two huge wolves reappeared, dragging their prey.

"But... but how are we going to eat it?" Audrey shrank away from the bloody carcass of the hornless spotted deer.

"Raw," Phil told her bluntly. "It may not be as tasty that way, but it'll keep our strength up like nothing else could."

The warm bloody meat tasted amazingly good after the nauseous messes they'd been fed in the KaKree slave pens. He had to caution them against eating too much, too fast, and there was little left for the wolves to bury when they were done. The sun was high in the cloudy sky, but there was still a chill in the air and they were glad to be moving again.

"Hold!" Rowlf growled as they padded along amidst lengthening shadows. A muted command to Harg, and the two wolves slipped away into the gathering darkness. A sudden yowl of protest was silenced by fierce growls. A barked command, and the two wolves escorted their captive back to face the rest of the group.

"What in the world," Luana breathed. "Why, it's beautiful, but what is it?"

Their captive was indeed beautiful and strange. Loping toward them on all fours, it resembled a large cat with long fore-legs. Drawing closer, they could see that its bulky double shoulders also bore a pair of short, muscular arms. The head, cat-like with its whiskered muzzle and cupped ears, had a high-domed skull with a large brain case. The slit-pupiled eyes were set well forward and its hands, while stub-fingered and with heavy claws, did have opposable thumbs. The creature was clothed in rich mahogany fur, soft and thick with golden stripes and splotches, fading to a pale fawn on the underside.

"I had a feeling that we were being watched," Rowlf explained. "This is Ka-Kachima, a warrior of the Shadow-People."

"Ask him how far it is to the edge of the forest," Phil suggested.

"He won't tell," Rowlf reported unnecessarily after his question was answered with a single spitting monosyllable. Another try brought a spate of hissing, throaty speech. "He says that he will not help us."

They tried to reason with him, but he was hostile, more than just suspicious of their motives.

"You are killers of my people," he insisted. "You come from nowhere, kill, then disappear. You do not even kill for food, leaving behind the defiled bodies of warriors, women and little children. You send them to the spirit land to face the cold winds without their skins."

"How do you know it was beings like us," Phil wanted to know.

"You left your foul stink behind," the answer was translated. "Killing with sticks that spit fire, and fog that chokes!"

"That... That's where those furs came from!" Audrey's face was twisted into a mask of horrified revulsion.

"What furs?" Phil shot the question at her.

"When I first met Steve... Mr. Jordan, there was this get-together at his place. He... he had these gorgeous furs that he was giving to the wives of some of his friends in the government. They were like his!"