it was another morning, the weeks of feverish planting and hunting for game to trade at the frozen locker plant at center, were behind them. now it was late summer on sulle ii, and even the early morning was uncomfortably warm.
brink yawned and stretched luxuriously on his cot. across the room tzal still slept, her tousled, short-cropped hair faded by the sun, and her exposed firm flesh a ripe, golden-red. her face was turned toward him and she was smiling faintly, as though at some pleasant dream fantasy.
brink felt a pleasant lethargy. tzal was a good partner, she never criticized without reason, and he trusted her judgment. his eyes ranged over the cabin. it was stout and well-joined—and their hands had erected it. their credits at the locker plant were growing, despite the disappearance of most of the wild herds of "cattle". in another eight or ten years they would have repaid the passage advances and own a valuable property.
it was odd, he thought idly, that he never considered any woman other than tzal as his partner when he thought of the future. actually, of course she would request a change of partners, as he also intended to do, at the year's end. if the commission allowed it she might even specify bryt carby—they worked well together in the fields and forest, and the three of them were good friends.
suddenly he was aware of carby's voice shouting somewhere outside. brink pulled on his knee-length shorts and a sleeveless tunic, and struggled into his high, clumsily cobbled boots of "cowhide". he took down his repeating weapon and pocketed a handful of cartridges.
"what's it?" asked tzal sleepily.
"i expect something is after the herd again," brink told her as he went out the heavy, double-planked door.
he could hear carby clearly now. he was calling for rea. brink swore under his breath and turned to re-enter the cabin, but carby had seen him and hailed him.
"rea left in the night," the big man said. "she took one of the horses and a rifle. and she left a note. says she is going back to live in one of the domes."
brink whistled. the "horse" she had taken, actually a ystan according to the commission, was only half-broken and a giant animal three times as large as its earthly counterpart.
"the loneliness must have driven her insane," the big man cried. "we've got to follow her—get her to come back."
carby's eyes were wild. he clamped brink's right shoulder.
"are you coming or not, dorav? she needs us. we've got to find her."
the big man's eyes leaked tears. brink realized, astounded, that the selfish, shallow, lazy woman—the woman, rea smyt—had won carby's love.
"of course, bryt. i'll help you search."
"i will go too." tzal's eyes were steady. "we must work together. when our child is born another woman will be needed."
brink opened his mouth to object—closed it.
"of course, but whether rea is the one to...."
"she is a woman." tzal smiled faintly and nodded.
"i'll follow her tracks, the ystan's tracks, westward across the park," bryt carby said impatiently. "she must head south or north to climb out of the valley. you, tzal, go to the north end of the valley and pick up the trail—if it's there."
he shook the graying coarse hair out of his reddened eyes.
"you go south, dorav. i'll meet up with you in a few hours if the trail leads in that direction. if neither of you find a trail and a day passes, i suggest that you return to the cabins."
"best plan," brink agreed. he called in to tzal: "i'll saddle up."
"right with you," his partner replied.
