Once, squatting and tearing at the rotting corpse of a large and nameless animal, they had seen carrion birds as large as the raptor that had once watched them. They were ungainly things with dark red plumage and very long tails. When the hunters passed close by they hopped about on their long legs and opened their beaks to hiss in anger. They were efficient carrion eaters for instead of bills they had jaws lined with sharp teeth.
The land was rich, the game so plentiful that it would have fallen in great numbers before their arrows had they had the time to hunt, while the weather itself became hard to believe. When they had set out on the trek the leaves were beginning to fall from the trees and they had felt the first cold grip of winter in the frosts at night. But now the seasons had been reversed and they seemed to be going back into the warm time. Even the nights were not cold, while during the day they took off their leather garments and walked with their skins exposed just as they did during the summer.
Then one day they came to the place where the large river that they had been following was joined by an even mightier one. Though it was only just past midday Herilak halted the march and asked Kerrick and the sammadars to join him.
“This will be a good place for a camp. There is that steep trail down to the river below that can be used for watering the beasts. It will also be at our backs at night and will be easy to guard. Good grazing here for the mastodons, fuel in the woods there for our fires.”
“It is still early,” Ulfadan said. “Why do we stop now?”
“That is the reason I called you here. When we began this march we decided only that we should go south. Now we have done that. So the time has come to decide where we will make our winter camp. We must now think about this.”
“We passed a large herd of the duck-billed murgu today,” Kellimans said. “I would very much like to taste one.”
“My spear hand twitches,” Ulfadan said, squinting into the distance across the river. “We have not hunted for many days.”
“Then I say let us stop here.” Herilak looked around and the hunters nodded agreement.
“I am thinking of the murgu-who-walk-like-men,” Kerrick said. “They must never be forgotten.”
Ulfadan snorted. “We have seen none of their great birds. They cannot know that we are here.”
“We can never be sure what they know or do not know. They stalked and killed sammad Amahast and they did not have the birds then. Wherever we are, whatever we do, we must never forget them.”
“What is your thought then, margalus?” Herilak asked.
“You are the hunters. We will stay here if that is to your liking. But there must be a guard at this spot, night and day, to watch the river in case of an attack. See how wide the river has become here? It must reach the ocean somewhere south of us. The ocean and the river can be a path for the murgu if they know that this is our camping place.”
“The margalus is correct,” Herilak said. “We will take this precaution as long as we are here.”
Ulfadan was looking down the bare slope, frowning at it. “Always before we have camped among the trees. It is too open here.”
Kerrick remembered the city of Alpèasak which was also on a river, but well guarded.
“There is a thing that the murgu do. They grow strong trees and thorn bushes to protect their camp. We cannot grow trees, but we could cut thorn bushes and pile them in a line for protection. It will keep the small beasts out—and we can kill anything large enough to break through.”
“We have never done it before,” Kellimans protested.
“We have never come this far south before,” Herilak said. “We will do as the margalus tells us.”
Although they had meant to stay just a night or two at this place, many days passed and still they did not move on. There were fish in the river and the hunting was very good here, better than they had ever known before. The duck-bills were so numerous that many times the far side of their herds could not be seen. They were very fast—but were also very stupid. If a group of hunters appeared suddenly they fled away. If this was done correctly the other hunters would be waiting in hiding ahead of them with spears and bows ready. Not only were the creatures fast and stupid—they also made very tasty eating.