As he sought a path down the steep side, there was a crashing in the brush below. Out of that green thicket, straight at the almost perpendicular slope. hurtled a dark shape. Sharp hoofs pawed frantically at the wall, bringing down soil and stones. Then, appearing to realize there was no climbing it, the creature, with a toss of its antlered head, turned to face its hunters.
Ray clutched at the grass of the verge to keep from sliding over. The hunted animal was directly below him, head low, breathing in labored snorts. But he could not believe it was real. Elk, if this huge monster could be an elk, did not run wild in southern Ohio. It had an antler spread of more than six feet and was far taller than Ray-as out of proportion as the forest trees. From the brush leaped shaggy-coated wolfish beasts. Avoiding the reaching scoop of the elk’s antlers, the first lunged for the animal’s foreleg, clearly no novice at this wicked game. They made a running fight, dashing in to slash and then speeding away before the larger animal could well defend itself. Ray was roused from his absorption in the battle by a shout. The hail drew one of the hounds momentarily out of the fight. It answered with a sharp bark. In a moment two-footed hunters appeared. They carried nothing Ray could identify as a weapon, though one of them had a short rod of metal. This he aimed at the throat of the cornered elk, and from its tip shot a ray of red light. Bellowing, the elk reared, to crash forward, nearly striking one of the hounds. The dogs rushed in to tear at the still quivering body, but the hunters pulled them back from the kill, sending them howling with well-aimed kicks and cuffs. Drawing a dagger from a belt sheath, one of the men set about butchering the fallen animal. Another fastened leashes to the metal-studded collars of the hounds, while the third wrapped the fire rod in cloth and stowed it down the front of his jerkin. All three were of medium height, but the broadness of their shoulders and the heaviness of their upper. arms gave them a dwarfish look. Their coarse black hair, shoulder length, was sleeked smooth with grease and held by leather thongs. Their skin was between copper and olive in shade. Broad mouths with thick lips parting over strong yellow teeth, dark eyes, and hooked noses comprised their features. They wore tunics of grayish leather, tanned to the flexibility of cloth, garments that reached from shoulder to mid-thigh. Over these were sleeveless metal-enforced jerkins. High thick-soled buskins covered feet and legs to the knees, but their arms were bare, save for bands of metal set with dull stones. Their wide belts supported sheathed daggers.
Ray crouched there, no longer attempting to recon-cile anything he saw with reality. A dream-it must be a dream. In time he was going to wake up-Then one of the dogs discovered him. Its red eyes found the source of the strange scent that had tickled its nostrils. With a howl it flung itself to the limit of its leash. The strand of hide halted its spring. In an instant it tried again. This time the thong parted. But, like the elk before it, it could gain no foothold on the gully wall. It continued to paw futilely at the gravel, giving tongue like a mad thing. Bewildered, Ray was easy prey. With a shout one of the hunters pointed to him. The leader whipped out the rod and aimed. Ray had turned to him. The leader whipped out the rod and aimed. Ray had turned to run, but he was never to reach that safety a foot or so more of soil might have given him. Something within him stiffened; he could not move. Unable to stir so much as a finger, he stood impotently waiting the arrival of his captors. With the aid of their single strange weapon, they blasted a series of steps up the side of the gully. He had not died at once as had the elk; that was all he knew. They approached him in a body, and Ray stared steadily back at them. The immobility of their heavy features and the lack of readable emotion in their opaque eyes was disquieting. Masks, Ray thought, subtly evil masks. With an icy qualm he realized he was confronting something alien, beyond the bounda-ries of his old sane world. Now they circled him warily, studying their capture. The weapon-bearing leader broke the silence with an interrogation in a guttural, hissing tongue. When Ray did not reply, the man’s brutal jaw thrust forward pugnaciously. Again he questioned, but this time in a murmur, almost sing-song. Another language, Ray guessed. His continued silence appeared to disconcert his captors a little. At last the leader snapped an order. From his belt one of the others freed a thong of hide and stepped behind Ray, to whip his powerless wrists together and lash them tight. Still under the influence of the strange weapon, Ray was forced to submit. He was shaken with a sudden loathing at the touch of the hunter.
Once he was bound, the leader raised the rod. No beam from its tip followed, but Ray was up-frozen again. Without a backward glance, the rod bearer walked away. The hunter who had bound Ray flicked him across the shoulders with the end of that thong, pointing after. Ray’s loathing heated into anger, not only at his captors, but also somehow at the whole disaster that had befallen him. He might not know where he was or why, but the feeling that he would learn and exact payment after that learning steadied him. He found strength in his anger, and he clung to it as a drowning man might cling to a rock in the midst of a raging river.
They followed the lip of the gully for about half a mile before there was a break in the steepness of the wall. Ray, bound as he was, could not have descended their stair, and even now he hesitated over the scramble. The guard rapped him across the ribs with the flat of his long dagger to start him. But at the fourth step, Ray lost his shaky balance and tumbled forward, to slide down in a cloud of dust and gravel, ending with a knock against the trunk of a sapling, his skinned face lower than his long legs.
Surely, he thought grimly, if this was a dream, that ought to have awakened him. There was a dull ache at the base of his skull. Helpless, unable to gain his feet, he lay awaiting the pleasure of his captors.
They were leisurely in their own descent. One of them came to prod Ray up with a well-aimed kick. When he could not stand in answer to that encouragement, two of them heaved him erect. With a vicious push, which almost sent him sprawling once more, they started him on.
Blood oozed out from gravel cuts on his lips and chin, drawing the attention of small stinging flies he could
do nothing to dislodge, since jerking his head about made him dizzy. When they reached the elk, he was made fast to a tree, while the hunters continued their butchery. After hacking portions of meat free, they fed .z some to the dogs and packed others in green hide. Then, one, taking some entrails, dragged them along the :� ground, leaving a red trail.
A short distance away, he came to a black hole in the slope with a sand mound below it. Dropping the scraps of offals there, he broke off a twig, thrust it into the n hole, and turned it around and around. Then he leaped away as a wave of large ants curled up and out.
The others had freed both Ray and the snarling hounds, and taking up the meat, they started down-_ stream. Ray glanced back at the kill. It was buried,,, under a heaving dark blanket.
He estimated later that they must have traveled: almost an hour before the gully widened into a regular valley. The brush, which had torn his unprotected skin and left red scratches on the hunters’ bare arms, be-. came thickets of trees and patches of waist-high grass.
Ray’s discomfort increased with almost every step he was herded into taking. His face, scraped raw, bitten, and stung, was puffed and swollen. His eyes had, narrowed into slits in the tortured flesh. The steady ache at the base of his skull spread across his shoulders and down his back. He had lost all sense of feeling in his cramped arms. Yet in a way, he welcomed all these , torments; they kept him from his thoughts. Where was. he? What had happened? That this was a dream he could no longer believe, no matter how he held despairingly to such a hope.