West of Eden

happiness Vanalpè slapped the thick bark of the great tree that rose there. Vaintè went and stood beside her, touching the wood herself and feeling the same joy. Her tree, her city.
    "This is where I will stay. Tell everyone that this is my place."
    "This is your place. Walls will be planted to ring the place of the Eistaa. I will now go and wait for Stallan, then bring her here."
    When she had gone Vaintè sat in silence until a passing fargi looked her way, then sent her for meat. But when the fargi returned she was not alone.
    "I am called Hèksei," the newcomer said in the most formal manner. "Word has spread of your arrival, great Vaintè, and I have hurried to greet you and welcome you to your city."
    "What is your work in this city, Hèksei?" Vaintè asked, just as formally.
    "I attempt to be of aid, to help others, to be loyal to the city…"
    "You were a close friend of the now-dead Eistaa, Deeste?"
    It was more of a statement than a question and the barb struck home. "I don't know what you have heard.
    Some people are jealous of others, carry tales—"
    Her words cut off as Vanalpè returned, followed by another who wore a sling across one shoulder from which there was suspended a hèsotsan. Vaintè glanced at it, then looked away, saying nothing although its presence here was forbidden by law.
    "This is Stallan of whom I spoke," Vanalpè said, her eyes slipping over Hèksei as though she did not exist.
    Stallan made the sign of formal salutation, then stepped backwards towards the door.
    "I am in error," she said hoarsely, and Vaintè noticed for the first time the long scar that puckered her throat. "Unthinkingly, I wore my weapon. Not until I was aware of you looking at it did I realize that I should have left it behind."
    "Wait," Vaintè said. "You wear it always?"
    "Always. I am out of the city as much as I am in. This is a new city and there are dangers."
    "Then wear it still, Stallan, if you have need of it. Has Vanalpè told you about the beach?" Stallan West of Eden - Harry Harrison
    signaled yes in grim silence. "Do you know what the creature could be?"
    "Yes—and no."
    Vaintè ignored Hèksei's gesture of disbelief and contempt. "Explain yourself," she said.
    "There are swamps and jungles in this new world, great forests and hills. To the west there is a large lake and beyond that the ocean again. To the north endless forests. And animals. Some very much like the ones we know in Entoban*. Some are very different. The difference is greater to the north. There I have found more and more ustuzou. I have killed some. They can be dangerous. Many of the fargi I took with me were injured, some died."
    "Dangerous!" This time Hèksei laughed out loud. "A mouse under the floor dangerous? We must send for an elinou to take care of your danger."
    Stallan turned slowly to face Hèksei. "You always laugh when I speak of this matter about which you know nothing. The time has come to stop that laughing." There was a coldness in her voice that allowed no answer. They stood in silence as she went out the entrance, to return a moment later with a large, wrapped bundle.
    "There are ustuzou in this land, fur-bearing creatures that are larger than the mice beneath the floor that you laugh at. Because that is the only kind of ustuzou we knew of before coming to this new shore we still think that all ustuzou must be tiny vermin. The time has now come to abandon ourselves of this idea.
    Things are different here. There is this nameless beast, for instance."
    She snapped the bundle open and spread it across the floor. It was the skin of an animal, a fur-animal, and it reached from wall to wall. There was only shocked silence as Stallan took up one of its limbs and pointed to the foot on its end, to the claws there, each one as long as her hand.
    "I answered yes and no to your question, Eistaa, and this is why. There are five claws here. Many of the larger and most dangerous fur-creatures have five toes. I believe that the killers on the beach were ustuzou of some kind, of a species never encountered before."
    "I think you are right," Vaintè said, kicking a corner of the thick fur aside and trying not to shudder at its soft and loathsome touch. "Do you think you can find these beasts?"
    "I will track them. North. The only way they could have gone."
    "Find them. Quickly. Report to me. Then we will destroy them. You will leave at dawn?"
    "With your permission—I will leave now."
    West of Eden - Harry Harrison
    Vaintè