Beastchild

to borrow a little time against the end of everything?
        He would have thought on it more, but for the growing delusions of the sweet-drug. Outside the window, the snow was now crimson and yellow.
        It formed faces.
        Hulann…
        A Human boy…
        It was pretty. He watched, letting the unreality engulf him…
        The Hunter sleeps. His is the death sleep of the naoli. He does not yet know that it will soon be time to stalk.
        This time, his prey will be a lizard man, not a human. This will be unique for him. He will enjoy it. He has within him the seeds of destruction. He has longed to walk among his own kind with his sword of light and his permission to pass judgment. He will soon have that opportunity.
        Now, he sleeps…
        Leo was quiet for a long while, watching the wipers thrust the thickening snow to the ends of the windscreen. At last, he turned to Hulann and said, "Where are we fleeing to?"
        "I told you. Just away from the city."
        "We will have to stay away ten years. We should have a destination."
        "There is no destination."
        Leo considered a moment. "The Haven."
        Hulann looked sideways, almost lost control of the craft. He pulled it back onto the road, then talked without turning his attention away from driving. "It is not even certain that such a place exists. It may be a myth. Even if there is a sanctuary for the last humans which we have not reached, its whereabouts is a well-held secret."
        "There is a Haven," Leo assured him. "I heard it talked about in the days of the last stand. I knew of certain leaders and irreplaceable specialists who were ferreted out of the city to be taken to the Haven."
        "You know where it is?"
        "Not exactly."
        "What does that mean?"
        Leo scrunched down in the corner between the seat and the door, turned sideways. He played with the hole in the seat which let the naoli tail through to the rear floor. "Well, I know that it's on the coast. The West Coast. Along the Pacific Ocean."
        "That doesn't pinpoint it."
        "But it's a start" he insisted.
        "How would we ever search so much coast once we got there? And avoid the naoli forces all the way across the country."
        Leo did not seem perturbed by what seemed insurmountable obstacles. "We'll find a way. You're a naoli. You can bluff your way through if you have to."
        "Not likely."
        "Otherwise," the boy said, "we hang around here until they catch us. And they will, you know."
        Hulann hesitated. "I know."
        "Well, then?"
        "I couldn't enter the Haven with you. What would I do?" The worst thing now was to be utterly alone. He" could not have put it in words, but it was the thing he most dreaded. To be an outcast, a murderer, and without friends on an alien world of which he could never hope to be a part of.
        "I'll talk to them. You're different, Hulann. I'll make them see."
        "Well-" he said.
        "Please, Hulann. I want to be with my people again."
        Hulann could understand that desire. "All right," he said.
        They followed the markers over the beltway, eventually heading west across the great expanse of the North American continent. They did not see even one other car in the hours left of the night. In the silence and gently thrumming music of the blades beneath them, Leo fell asleep, once more.

Chapter Four
        
        As Hulann drove, he allowed his mind to wander, for a deluge of memories seemed the only present manner of assauging his depression. Therefore, he raised up a monolith of the past and walled off the recent events, then studied the brickwork of his partition.
        He had met his first human while aboard the naoli ship Tagasa which had been of the private fleet of the central committee. He had been a guest of the government, a writer of creative history then. The Tagasa had been en-route from the home worlds to a series of outlying colony planets in the Nucio System. The rich background of the Nucio colonies had been obvious material for a series of tapebook adventures, and Hulann had been quick to take the chance to investigate the worlds first-hand.
        The Tagasa had been in port on the world called Dala, a place of vegetation and no animals. He had returned to his cabin after a day of exploration of the surrounding jungle. He had seen the snake vines which moved almost