|
 MammalsHere are relevant references from the Books where mammals are mentioned. I make no pronouncements on these matters, but report them as I find them. Arrive at your own conclusions. I wish you well, Fogaban Anteater Bosk Forest Long-Haired Northern Snow Wild Deer Dog Frevet Gatch Giani Horse Hurt Bounding Kaiila Kailiauk Larl Black Domestic Jungle Pet Red Snow White Young - Spotted Lart - Snow Leem Monkey Guernon Jit Saru Panther Forest Jungle Rock Pig Porcupine Qualae Rabbit Slee Sleen Black Canal Domestic Fighting Forest Guard Herd House Hunting Jungle Striped Miniature Named Borko Ramar Tiomines Varcus Pet Prairie Tawny River Sand Sea Black Red White-Spotted Snow Tracking Tree War Water Sloth Squirrel Black Tabuk Grass Tarsier Tarsk Domestic Forest Giant Pet Small Tiny Voltai Wild Urt Bounding Brown Brush Canal Domestic Field Forest Four-Toed Giant Gliding Gray Ground Horned Hut Leaf Long-Haired Mottled Mountain Poison-Spined Port Prairie Red River Ship Snow Stable Striped Tawny Tiny Tree Water White Uru Vart Verr Domestic Mountain Wild
More than six varieties of anteater are also found here, Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 312 A great spined anteater, more than twenty feet in length, shuffled about the edges of the camp. We saw its long, thin tongue dart in and out of its mouth. The blond-haired barbarian crept closer to me. "It is harmless," I said, "unless you cross its path or disturb heavily clawed forefeet, uttering an enraged whistling noise, clubbing and slashing, lacerating, eviscerate even a larl. It lived on the white ants, or termites, of the vicinity, breaking apart their high, towering nests of toughened clay, some of them thirty-five feet in height, with its mighty claws, then darting its four-foot-long tongue, coated with adhesive saliva, among the nest's startled occupants, drawing thousands in a matter of moments into its narrow, tubelike mouth.
In several cases tarns have devoured their own masters, and it is not unusual for them, when loosed for feeding, to attack a human being with the same predatory zest they bestow on the yellow antelope, the tabuk, their favorite kill, or the ill-tempered, cumbersome bosk, a shaggy, long-haired wild ox of the Gorean plains. Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 125 The meat was a steak, cut from the loin of a bosk, a huge, shaggy, long-horned, ill-tempered bovine which shambles in large, slow-moving herds across the prairies of Gor. Priest-Kings of Gor Book 3 Page 45 In a vast low case, on the floor of which apparently grew real grass, I saw a pair of shaggy, long-horned bosk grazing, Priest-Kings of Gor Book 3 Page 191 The man gestured with his fat hand and a white bosk, beautiful with its long, shaggy coat and its curved, polished horns, was led forward. Its shaggy coat had been oiled and groomed and colored beads were hung about its horns. Drawing a small knife from his pouch the Initiate cut a strand of hair from the animal and threw it into a nearby fire. Then he gestured to a subordinate, and the man, with a sword, opened the throat of the animal and it sank to its knees, the blood from its throat being caught in a golden laver held by a third man. While I waited impatiently two more men cut a thigh from the slain beast and this, dripping with grease and blood, was ordered cast upon the fire. The bosk, without which the Wagon Peoples could not live, is an oxlike creature. It is a huge, shambling animal, with a thick, humped neck and long, shaggy hair. It has a wide head and tiny red eyes, a temper to match that of a sleen, and two long, wicked horns that reach out from its head and suddenly curve forward to terminate in fearful points. Some of these horns, on the larger animals, measured from tip to tip, exceed the length of two spears. Not only does the flesh of the bosk and the milk of its cows furnish the Wagon Peoples with food and drink, but its hides cover the domelike wagons in which they dwell; its tanned and sewn skins cover their bodies; the leather of its hump is used for their shields; its sinews forms their thread; its bones and horns are split and tooled into implements of a hundred sorts, from awls, punches and spoons to drinking flagons and weapon tips; its hoofs are used for glues; its oils are used to grease their bodies against the cold. Even the dung of the bosk finds its uses on the treeless prairies, being dried and used for fuel. The bosk is said to be the Mother of the Wagon Peoples, and they reverence it as such. The man who kills one foolishly is strangled in thongs or suffocated in the hide of the animal he slew; if, for any reason, the man should kill a bosk cow with unborn young he is staked out, alive, in the path of the herd, and the march of the Wagon Peoples takes its way over him. I was surprised at the distance I had been from the herds, for though I had seen the rolling dust clearly, and had felt and did feel the shaking of the earth, betraying the passage of those monstrous herds, I had not yet come to them. But now I could hear, carried on the wind blowing toward distant Turia, the bellowing of the bosks. The dust was now heavy like nightfall in the air. The grass and the earth seemed to quake beneath my tread. I passed fields that were burning, and burning huts of peasants, the smoking shells of Sa-Tarna granaries, the shattered, slatted coops for vulos, the broken walls of keeps for the small, long-haired domestic verr, less belligerent and sizable than the wild verr of the Voltai Ranges. The hundred, rather than eight, bosk that drew his wagon had been unyoked; they were huge, red bosk; their horns had been polished and their coats glistened from the comb and oils; their golden nose rings were set with jewels; necklaces of precious stones hung from the polished horns. "There are bosk to be groomed," he informed her, "and their horns and hoofs must be polished there is fodder to be fetched and dung to be gathered the wagon must be wiped and the wheels greased and there is water to be brought from the stream some four pasangs away and meat to hammer and cook for supper - hurry - hurry, Lazy Girl! It was a large wagon, drawn by eight black bosk. The Bosk is a large, horned, shambling ruminant of the Gorean plains. It is herded below the Gorean equator by the Wagon Peoples, but there are Bosk herds on ranches in the north as well, and peasants often keep some of the animals. We heard one of the guards shouting outside. We also heard, in the distance, some bosk bells. We could hear the bosk bells, on the harness of the bosk, quite clearly now. A man came forward and untied the straps leading to the nose rings of the bosk from the bosk ring on the deck. He led them back toward the stern of the barge and onto the pier. The broad circles of wood on which the wagons were mounted were now rotated, so that the wagon tongues faced the pier. The bosk, now, bellowing and snuffing, and scuffing at the wood with their hoofs, were being backed toward the harness. The two extra crewmen were unchaining the wagon. There were only a few bosk visible, and they were milk bosk. The sheds I saw would accommodate many more animals. I surmised, as is common in Torvaldsland, most of the cattle had been driven higher into the mountains, to graze wild during the summer, to be fetched back to the shed only in the fall, with the coming of winter. Then the air was filled with the thunder of hoofs, bellowing of the bosk. The bosk, in their charging hundreds, heads down, hooves pounding, maddened, relentless, driven, struck the square. We heard, even from behind the herd, Ivar, and I, and a hundred men, screaming and shouting, the howling, the startled shrieks of Kurii, the enraged roars of Kurii. We heard the scraping of horns on metal, the screams of gored Kurii, the howls of Kurii fallen beneath the hoofs. Nothing on Gor withstands the charge of the maddened bosk. Larls themselves will flee before it. Added to the one wagon which had been drawn by the shaggy, oxlike creatures were now four other wagons. These wagons, too, apparently, were each drawn by a pair of the oxlike creatures, called bosk. The wagons were now unhitched. Several animals, those called bosk, ten or more, hobbled, browsed among the trees on the other side of the camp. The first team of bosk was hitched up, two of the great animals, broad, shaggy, with polished horns. I found myself in the vicinity of the palisade. Initiates moved about, and many others. They performed ceremonies and sacrifices. In one place a white, bosk heifer was being slaughtered. Incense was being burned and bells were being rung; there was singing and chanting. The wagons often move. There must be new grazing for the bosk. There must be fresh rooting and browse for the tarsk and verr. The needs of these animals, on which the Alars depend for their existence, are taken to justify movements, and sometimes even migrations, of the Alars and kindred peoples. "How are the bosk?" I said to him. "Some are in the forest," he said, uncertainly, "outside the reserve." He would be referring to wild bosk, which can be surly and territorial. In forested areas, they are substantially forward horned, and attack, head down, directly. The Tuchuk bosk, on the other hand, usually have wide, spreading horns. When angered they attack, a bit to the side, to tear the enemy. They also hook nicely, and, if one is caught on the horn, one can be hurled a hundred feet. They are large and powerful. The straighter horns of the forest bosk are presumably an adaptation to the arboreal environment. The plains bosk are, as suggested, usually more widely horned. "There are no bosk or kaiila in the islands," said Tajima. "But since the ship of Tersites has proven that Thassa can be crossed, if with great hazard, such stock may be brought to the islands, perhaps in the next few years. And the only tharlarion I have discovered about I could lift in one hand."
To one side there was a tank for water and there were several racks from which hung meat, probably tabuk, forest tarsk, and forest bosk. . . . The forest bosk tends to be territorial, and, as I have already suggested, it can be quite dangerous. Swordsmen of Gor Book 29 Page 251 "Only if I permitted it," said Tajima. "The tusks of the forest tarsk, too, could tear me in two, and I could be rent by the horns of the forest bosk, but, like the wind, I do not intend to put myself beneath their tusks or horns."
"There is provender aplenty in the kitchens, " he said, "forest tarsk, long-haired bosk, even tabuk. The Pani hunters provide well."
Each player, in turn, drops a bone, one of several in his supply. The bone Imnak had dropped was carved in the shape of a small tabuk. Each of the bones is carved to resemble an animal, such as an arctic gant, a northern bosk,
"What lazy animals those sleen are," said Imnak. "They are not even really hungry, but they are keeping us in mind. They should be out hunting snow bosk, or basking sea sleen, or burrowing and scratching inland for hibernating leems." We then, six of us, as if by instinct, formed a small defensive circle, dangerous to approach, not unlike that of the snow bosk of Ax Glacier, defending themselves from the attack of predatory sleen.
"Who would pursue the Voltai tarsk into a thicket, the wild bosk into the high grass?" said a fellow. There was some danger of intruding into the territory of the wild bosk, but I did not much fear them. They would not be likely to seek me out. "We dare not go into the forest shackled, naked, and unarmed," said Tuza. "There are wild tarsk, sleen, forest bosk, panthers!" "And beware the wild bosk," said Thurnock. "It can double back and attack suddenly from the brush."
Once I startled a small band of deer and found myself in the midst of their bounding shapes buffeting me in the darkness. "Perhaps," suggested Gorm, "it is diseased or injured, and can no longer hunt the swift deer of the north?" "Meat is also available, Tarl Cabot tarnsman," he said. "I have seen to it. Coast gull, vulo, tarsk, verr, and mountain deer."
I walked about her. "You would make a pretty poodle," I told her. I used the English expression 'poodle,' of course, as the animal is unknown on Gor. Horses and dogs did not exist on Gor. Goreans, on the whole, knew them only from legends, which, I had little doubt, owed their origins to forgotten times, to memories brought long ago to Gor from another world. Such stories, for they were very old on Gor, probably go back thousands of years, dating from the times of very early Voyages of Acquisition, undertaken by venturesome, inquisitive creatures of an alien species, one known to most Goreans only as the Priest-Kings. "I come from far off," she said, "from another world, one called Earth, brought here like a dog or horse, stripped and sold like a pig in a public, open market. But, forgive me. Master does not know those animals."
"That is not an urt," said the proprietor. "They usually come out after dark. There is too much noise and movement for them during the day." The small animal skittered backward, with a sound of claws on the boards. Its eyes gleamed in the reflected light of the lamp. "Generally, too, they do not come this high," said the proprietor. "That is a frevet." The frevet is a small, quick, mammalian insectivore. "We have several in the house," he said. "They control the insects, the beetles and lice, and such." Boabissia was silent. "Not every insula furnishes frevets," said the proprietor. "They are charming as well as useful creatures. You will probably grow fond of them. You will probably wish to keep your door open at night, for coolness, and to give access to them. They cannot gnaw through walls like urts, you know." "Is it far now?" I asked. "No," said the proprietor. "We are almost there. It is just under the roof." "It seems we have come a long way," I said. "Not really," he said. "We are not really so high up. The flights are short." We then climbed another flight, to the next landing. "Oh!" said Boabissia, recoiling. "You see," said the proprietor. "You will come to like the frevets." We watched a large, oblong, flat-bodied black object, about a half hort in length, with long feelers, hurry toward a crack at the base of the wall. "That is a roach," he said. "They are harmless, not like the gitches whose bites are rather painful. Some of them are big fellows, too. But there aren't many of them around. The frevets see to it. Achiates prides himself on a clean house."
On the floor itself are also found several varieties of animal life, in particular marsupials, such as the armored gatch, and rodents, such as slees and ground urts. Several varieties of tarsk, large and small, also inhabit this zone. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 312
In the lower branches of the "ground zone" may be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to man. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 312
Horses and dogs did not exist on Gor. Goreans, on the whole, knew them only from legends, which, I had little doubt, owed their origins to forgotten times, to memories brought long ago to Gor from another world. Such stories, for they were very old on Gor, probably go back thousands of years, dating from the times of very early Voyages of Acquisition, undertaken by venturesome, inquisitive creatures of an alien species, one known to most Goreans only as the Priest-Kings. Savages of Gor Book 17 Page 16 "I come from far off," she said, "from another world, one called Earth, brought here like a dog or horse, stripped and sold like a pig in a public, open market. But, forgive me. Master does not know those animals."
Cernus of Ar wore a coarse black robe, woven probably from the wool of the bounding, two-legged Hurt, a domesticated marsupial raised in large numbers in the environs of several of Gor's northern cities. The Hurt, raised on large, fenced ranches, herded by domesticated sleen and sheared by chained slaves, replaces its wool four times a year. The House of Cernus, I had heard, had interests in several of the Hurt Ranches near the city. His slave, Cara, in a brief woolen tunic, one-piece, woven of the wool of the Hurt, sleeveless, barefoot on the deck, graced by his collar, stood behind him and to his left. I shaded my eyes. "Glass of the Builders," I said. I looked up at skeins of wool hanging from the wooden poles between the flat roofs. They were quite colorful. The finest wool, however, is sheared in the spring from the bellies of the verr and hurt, and would, accordingly, not be available until later in the season. The wool market, as was to be expected, was now slow. The wool of the hurt is usually used for male slave garments; it absorbs perspiration well; and rep-cloth is commonly used for female slave garments; it is quite thin and clings well to the curves of the female body. Her eyes clouded. "He has fallen on hard times," she said. "Warriors of Ar made hostel in his holdings, in their withdrawal to the south. He, in anger, spoke ill of Ar in their presence. Accordingly they burned his holdings and scattered his hurt and tharlarion." "I could be bred?" she said. "Of course," I said, "you are slave stock." "War," said a slave. "Trade," averred another. "Consider the cargos, rep-cloth, wool of the hurt, candles, mirrors, lamps, such things."
It was Luma, the chief scribe of my house, in her blue robe and sandals. Her hair was blond and straight, tied behind her head with a ribbon of blue wool, from the bounding Hurt, died in the blood of the Vosk sorp. Among the Kurii, in their various languages, were words referring to edible meat, food. These general terms, in their scope, included human beings. These terms were sometimes best translated as "meat animal" and sometimes "cattle" or, sometimes, simply "food." The human being was regarded, by Kurii, as falling within the scope of application of such terms. The term translated "cattle" was sometimes qualified to discriminate between four-legged cattle and two-legged cattle, of which the Kurii were familiar with two varieties, the bounding Hurt and the human. Tor, lying at the northwest corner of the Tahari, is the principal supplying point for the scattered oasis communities of that dry vastness, almost a continent of rock, and heat, and wind and sand. These communities, sometimes quite large, numbering in hundreds, sometimes thousands of citizens, depending on the water available, are often hundreds of pasangs apart. They depend on caravans, usually from Tor, sometimes from Kasra, sometimes even from far Turia, to supply many of their needs. To one side, quite close, there knelt four other girls, three in tunics of the wool of the bounding hurt, one in silk. "Is she your leader?" I asked one of the girls kneeling to the side, one of those in a tunic of the wool of the bounding hurt. "Verr are shorn," I said, "and so, too, is the bounding hurt." "Put it on for me," I said. "Yes, Master," she said. She rose to her feet and went to the side of the room where she knelt by a chest and took from it a white garment, of the wool of the bounding hurt. The most common prey of the wild tarn is the small single-horned, usually yellow-pelted, gazellelike creature called the tabuk. On the other hand, it is ready to prey upon, and sample, a variety of game. Too, it is not above raiding domesticated, as well as wild, herds of tarsk, verr or hurt, that the bounding hurt, valued for its wool. It can also, of course, be dangerous to human beings. Surely she was in no condition to be presented, now, to anyone, even a herder of tarsks, a lowly shearer of the bounding hurt. She turned about, frightened, the vessel of steaming black wine, wrapped in its thick cloths, from the wool of the bounding hurt, held in two hands. Clearly colder weather was anticipated. We had been issued woolen materials, woven from the fleece of the bounding hurt, Their leader was a large, spare man, clad in the wool of the bounding hurt, stained brown and black.
The kaiila is extremely agile, and can easily outmaneuver the slower, more ponderous high tharlarion. It requires less food, of course, than the tarn. A kaiila, which normally stands about twenty to twenty-two hands at the shoulder, can cover as much as six hundred pasangs in a single day's riding. The head of the kaiila bears two large eyes, one on each side, but these eyes are triply lidded, probably an adaptation to the environment which occasionally is wracked by severe storms of wind and dust; the adaptation, actually a transparent third lid, permits the animal to move as it wishes under conditions that force other prairie animals to back into the wind or, like the sleen, to burrow into the ground. The kaiila is most dangerous under such conditions, and, as if it knew this, often uses such times for its hunt. Nomads of Gor Book 4 Pages 13 - 14 The third rider placed himself, reining in suddenly, pulling the mount to its hind legs, and it reared snarling against the bit, and then stood still, its neck straining toward me. I could see the long, triangular tongue in the animal's head, behind the four rows of fangs. Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 14 I saw the kaiila tense, almost like larls, their flanks quivering, their large eyes intent upon me. I saw one of the long, triangular tongues dart out and back. Their long ears were laid back against the fierce, silken heads. Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 15 I was later to learn that kaiila are trained to avoid the thrown spear. It is a training which begins with blunt staves and progresses through headed weapons. Until the kaiila is suitably proficient in this art it is not allowed to breed. Those who cannot learn it die under the spear. Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 24 He did not buy the kaiila near the wagon of Yachi of the Leather Workers though it was apparently a splendid beast. At one point, he wrapped a heavy fur and leather robe about his left arm and struck the beast suddenly on the snout with his right hand. It had not struck back at him swiftly enough to please him, and there were only four needlelike scratches in the arm guard before Kamchak had managed to leap back and the kaiila, lunging against its chain, was snapping at him. "Such a slow beast," said Kamchak, "might in battle cost a man his life." I supposed it true. The kaiila and its master fight in battle as one unit, seemingly a single savage animal, armed with teeth and lance. Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 170 Harold and I chewed on some bosk meat roasted over a fire built on the marble floor of the palace of Phanius Turmus. Nearby our tethered kaiila crouched, their paws on the bodies of slain verrs, devouring them. Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 271 The small bow, interestingly, has never been used among tarnsmen; perhaps this is because the kaiila is almost unknown above the equator, Assassin of Gor Book 5 Page 365 The red salt of Kasra, so called from its port of embarkation, was famed on Gor. It was brought from secret pits and mines, actually, deep in the interior, bound in heavy cylinders on the backs of pack kaiila. Each cylinder, roped to others, weighed in the neighborhood of ten stone, or some forty pounds, a Gorean "Weight." A strong kaiila could carry sixteen such cylinders, but the normal load was ten. Even numbers are carried, of course that the load is balanced. A poorly loaded kaiila can carry far less weight than one on whom the burden is intelligently distributed. Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Page 20 Kaiila and verr are found at the oases, but not in great numbers. The herds of these animals are found in the desert. They are kept by nomads, who move them from one area of verr grass to another, or from one water hole to another, as the holes, for the season, smaller water sources are used in the spring, for these are the first to go dry, larger ones later in the year. No grass grows about these water holes because many animals are brought to them and graze it to the earth. They are usually muddy ponds, with some stunted trees about; centered in the midst of an extensive radius of grassless, cracked, dry earth. Meat, hides, and animal-hair cloth are furnished to the oases by the nomads. In turn, from the oases the nomads receive, most importantly, Sa-Tarna grain and the Bazi tea. They receive, as well, of course, other trade goods. Sa-Tarna is the main staple of the nomads. They, in spite of raising herds, eat very little meat. The animals are too precious for their trade value, and their hair and milk, to be often slaughtered for food. A nomad boy of fifteen will often have eaten meat no more than a dozen times in his life. Raiders, however, feast well on meat. The animals mean little to them and come to them cheaply. Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Pages 37 - 38 Then I passed a shop where the high, light kaiila saddles were being made. One could also buy there saddle blankets, quirts, bells and kaiila reins. The kaiila rein is a single rein, very light, plaited of various leathers. There are often ten to a dozen strips of tanned, dyed leather in a single rein. Each individual strip, interestingly, given the strength of the rein, is little thicker than a stout thread. The strips are cut with knives, and it requires great skill to cut them. The rein, carefully plaited, is tied through a hole drilled in the right nostril of the kaiila. It passes under the animal's jaw to the left. When one wishes to guide the animal to the left one draws the rein left; when one wishes to guide it right one pulls right, drawing the rein over the animal's neck, with pressure against the left cheek. To stop the animal one draws back. To start or hasten the animal, one kicks it in the flanks, or uses the long kaiila quirt. Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Page 56 The sand kaiila, or desert kaiila, is a kaiila, and handles similarly, but it is not identically the same animal which is indigenous, domestic and wild, in the middle latitudes of Gor's southern hemisphere; that animal, used as a mount by the Wagon Peoples, is not found in the northern hemisphere of Gor; there is obviously a phylogenetic affinity between the two varieties, or species; I conjecture, though I do not know, that the sand kaiila is a desert-adapted mutation of the sub-equatorial stock; both animals are lofty, proud, silken creatures, long-necked and smooth-gaited; both are triply lidded, the third lid being a transparent membrane, of great utility in the blasts of the dry storms of the southern plains or the Tahari; both creatures are comparable in size, ranging from some twenty to twenty-two hands at the shoulder; both are swift; both have incredible stamina; under ideal conditions both can range six hundred pasangs in a day; in the dune country, of course, in the heavy, sliding sands, a march of fifty pasangs is considered good; both, too, I might mention, are high-strung, vicious-tempered animals; in pelt the southern kaiila ranges from a rich gold to black; the sand kaiila, on the other hand, are almost all tawny, though I have seen black sand kaiila; differences, some of them striking and important, however, exist between the animals; most notably, perhaps, the sand kaiila suckles its young; the southern kaiila are viviparous, but the young, within hours after birth, hunt by instinct; the mother delivers the young in the vicinity of game; whereas there is game in the Tahari, birds, small mammals, an occasional sand sleen, and some species of tabuk, it is rare; the suckling of the young in the sand kaiila is a valuable trait in the survival of the animal; kaiila milk, which is used, like verr milk, by the peoples of the Tahari, is reddish, and has a strong, salty taste; it contains much ferrous sulfate; a similar difference between the two animals, or two sorts of kaiila, is that the sand kaiila is omnivorous, whereas the southern kaiila is strictly carnivorous; both have storage tissues; if necessary, both can go several days without water; the southern kaiila also, however, has a storage stomach, and can go several days without meat; the sand kaiila, unfortunately, must feed more frequently; some of the pack animals in a caravan are used in carrying fodder; whatever is needed, and is not available enroute, must be carried; sometimes, with a mounted herdsman, caravan kaiila are released to hunt tabuk; a more trivial difference between the sand kaiila and the southern kaiila is that the paws of the sand kaiila are much broader, the digits even webbed with leathery fibers, and heavily padded, than those of its southern counterpart. Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Pages 70 - 71 Too, she taught her skills useful to a Tahari female, the making of ropes from kaiila hair, the cutting and plaiting of reins, Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Page 72 On a rise, pushing back the burnoose, I stood in my stirrups and looked back. I saw the end of the caravan, more than a pasang away. It wound, slowly, gracefully, through the hills. At its very end came a man on a single kaiila. From time to time, he dismounted, gathering shed kaiila hair and thrusting it in bags at his saddle. The kaiila, unlike the verr and hurt, is never sheared. When it sheds its hair, however, the hair may be gathered, and, depending on the hair, various cloths can be made from it. There is a soft, fine hair, the most prized, which grows on the belly of the animal; there is an undercoating of hair, soft but coarser, which is used for most cloth; and there are the long, outer hairs. These, though still soft and pliant, are, comparatively, the most coarse. The hairs of this coat are used primarily for rope and tent cloth. Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Pages 73 - 74 It was in the late afternoon. We would stop in an Ahn or two for camp. Fires would be lit. The kaiila would be put in circles, ten animals to the circle, and fodder, by kaiila boys, would be thrown into the center of the circle. . . . At night the kaiila are hobbled. The slave girls, too, are hobbled. With the kaiila a simple figure-eight twist of kaiila-hair rope, above the spreading paws, below the knees, is sufficient. Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Page 81 I hoped that the beast had not been drugged. I lifted my hand near its eye; it blinked, even to the third lid, the transparent lid; very lightly I touched its flank; the skin shook, twitching, beneath the finger. Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Page 131 The zadit is a small, tawny-feathered, sharp-billed bird. It feeds on insects. When sand flies and other insects, emergent after rains, infest kaiila, they frequently alight on the animals, and remain on them for some hours, hunting insects. This relieves the kaiila of the insects but leaves it with numerous small wounds, which are unpleasant and irritating, where the bird has dug insects out of its hide. These tiny wounds, if they become infected, turn into sores; these sores are treated by the drovers with poultices of kaiila dung. Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Page 152 Similarly, the heavy cylinders of salt, mined and molded at Klima, are carried on the backs of salt slaves from storage areas at Klima to storage areas in the desert, whence they are tallied, sold and distributed to caravans. The cylinders are standardized at ten stone, or a Gorean "Weight," which is some forty pounds. A normal kaiila carries ten such cylinders, five to a side. A stronger animal carries sixteen, eight to a side. The load is balanced, always. It is difficult for an animal, or man, of course, to carry an unbalanced load. Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Page 238 I stepped again to one side. Down the corridor between tents, now those of the carvers of semiprecious stones, came four men, in the swirling garb of the Tahari. They were veiled. The first led a stately sand kaiila on which a closed, fringed, silken kurdah was mounted. Their hands were at their scimitar hilts. I did not know if the kurdah contained a free woman of high state or perhaps a prized female slave, naked and bejeweled, to be exhibited in a secret tent and privately sold. Beasts of Gor Book 12 Pages 46 - 47 I then saw a kaiila pass. It was lofty, stately, fanged and silken. I had heard of such beasts, but this was the first one I had seen. It was yellow, with flowing hair. Fighting Slave of Gor Book 14 Page 178 The lofty, silken kaiila is an extremely alert, high-strung beast. Savages of Gor Book 17 Page 48 The flanks of their prancing kaiila were lathered with foam. They snorted and, throwing back their heads, sucked air into their lungs. Their third lids, the transparent storm membranes, were drawn, giving their wild, round eyes a yellowish cast. Savages of Gor Book 17 Page 85 Grunt, moving the reins of the kaiila, pulled the beast's head away. I followed him. The kaiila in the area of the perimeter, those ridden by white men, are generally controlled by a headstall, bit and reins, in short, by a bridle, not by a nose rope, as is cultural in the Tahari. Different areas on Gor give witness to the heritage of differing traditions. The bridle used by the red savages, incidentally, usually differs from that used by the white men. The most common form is a strap, or braided leather tie, placed below the tongue and behind the teeth, tied about the lower jaw, from which two reins, or a single double rein, a single loop, comes back over the beast's neck. The jaw tie, serving as both bit and headstall, is usually formed of the same material as the reins, one long length of material being used for the entire bridle. Savages of Gor Book 17 Page 163 "The ear of his kaiila is notched," I said to Grunt. "Is that an eccentric mutilation or is it deliberate, perhaps meaningful?" "It is meaningful," said Grunt. "It marks the kaiila as a prize animal, one especially trained for the hunt and war." Savages of Gor Book 17 Page 261 We could now smell the animals clearly. My mount, a lofty black kaiila, silken and swift, shifted nervously beneath me. Its nostrils were flared. Its storm lids were drawn, giving its large round eyes a distinctive yellowish cast. I did not think that it, a kaiila purchased some months ago in the town of Kailiauk, near the perimeter, had ever smelled such beasts before, and certainly not in such numbers. Blood Brothers of Gor Book 18 Page 7 Hci's kaiila wore a jaw rope, looped over the back of its neck. This rope, however, is not used, or much used, in either the hunt or war. The rider guides the animal primarily by his knees. His hands, thus, are freed for the use of the bow, or other implements. There was, however, a rope looped about the neck of the kaiila. This rope is thrown to the side and behind the kaiila. If the rider, then, is dismounted in the tumult of the hunt, he may, hopefully, by seizing this rope, sometimes a strap, retain control over his mount and, hastily, safely, regain his seat. Hci's animal, incidentally, was a prize kaiila. This was indicated by its notched ears. The Kaiila notch both ears of such a kaiila. Certain other tribes, such as the Fleer, notch only one ear, usually the left. Blood Brothers of Gor Book 18 Page 52 The location of large herds of kaiila is sometimes marked by the presence of circling, swarming fleer. They come to feed on the insects stirred up in the grass, activated by the movements of the beasts' paws. Blood Brothers of Gor Book 18 Page 95 It is not unusual for a master to care for a slave's hair. Too, they will, upon occasion, groom kaiila and tie streamers and ribbons in their long manes. Blood Brothers of Gor Book 18 Page 118 And, even should they be detected, it would take time for word of them to reach his pavilion, as the swiftness of tarns was ours, and he, as kaiila were unknown in the islands, was limited to posts of runners, used to communicate between his camp, his towns, and capital. Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 78 "There are no bosk or kaiila in the islands," said Tajima. "But since the ship of Tersites has proven that Thassa can be crossed, if with great hazard, such stock may be brought to the islands, perhaps in the next few years. And the only tharlarion I have discovered about I could lift in one hand." Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 420 "Many arrangements were made in Brundisium, for my return," he said. "We shall bring kaiila and bosk, back to the islands, and the eggs of large tharlarion." Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 595 And races are popular, those of slaves, male and female, of the lofty kaiila, of tharlarion of various sorts, four-legged and two-legged, ponderous and fleet, and of the broad-winged, fierce, mighty tarns. Breeding lines are often kept in such matters. Breeding fees for champion animals can be exorbitant.
Even past me there thundered a lumbering herd of startled, short-trunked kailiauk, a stocky, awkward ruminant of the plains, tawny, wild, heavy, their haunches marked in red and brown bars, their wide heads bristling with a trident of horns; they had not stood and formed their circle, shes and young within the circle of tridents; they, too, had fled; She sobbed in anger when the tiny, cloth-enfolded needle, tipped with kanda, fell from her hair, caught, and drawn out, by the teeth of the comb of kailiauk tusk. "I will have it done in Schendi," I said. Usually a leather worker pierces ears. In Schendi there were many leather workers, usually engaged in the tooling of kailiauk hide, brought from the interior. Such leather, with horn, was one of the major exports of Schendi. Kailiauk are four-legged, wide-headed, lumbering, stocky ruminants. Their herds are usually found in the savannahs and plains north and south of the rain forests, but some herds frequent the forests as well. These animals are short-trunked and tawny. They commonly have brown and reddish bars on the haunches. The males, tridentlike, have three horns. These horns bristle from their foreheads. The males are usually about ten hands at the shoulders and the females about eight hands. The males average about four hundred to five hundred Gorean stone in weight, some sixteen hundred to two thousand pounds, and the females average about three to four hundred Gorean stone in weight, some twelve hundred to sixteen hundred pounds. The kailiauk in question, incidentally, is the kailiauk of the Barrens. It is a gigantic, dangerous beast, often standing from twenty to twenty-five hands at the shoulder and weighing as much as four thousand pounds. It is almost never hunted on foot except in deep snow, in which it is almost helpless. From kaiilaback, riding beside the stampeded animal, however, the skilled hunter can kill one with a single arrow. He rides close to the animal, not a yard from its side, just outside the hooking range of the trident, to supplement the striking power of his small bow. At this range the arrow can sink in to the feathers. Ideally it strikes into the intestinal cavity behind the last rib, producing large-scale internal hemorrhaging, or closely behind the left shoulder blade, thence piercing the eight-valved heart. Its most notable feature, probably, is its hide sheds. Under the roofs of these open sheds, on platforms, tied in bundles, are thousands of hides. Elsewhere, here and there, about the town, are great heaps of bone and horn, often thirty or more feet in height. These deposits represent the results of the thinnings of kailiauk herds by the red savages. A most common sight in Kailiauk is the coming and going of hide wagons, and wagons for the transport of horn and bones. The number of kailiauk in the Barrens is prodigious, for it affords them a splendid environment with almost no natural enemies. Most kailiauk, I am sure, have never seen a man or a sleen. The Barrens are traversed by a large number of herds. The four or five best-known herds, such as the Boswell herd, he for whom the Boswell Pass is named, and the Bento herd and the Hogarthe herd, named after the first white men who saw them, number, it is estimated, between two and three million beasts. The tremors in the earth from such a herd can be felt fifty pasangs away. It takes such a herd two to three days to ford a river. It has occasionally happened that enemy tribes have preyed on such a herd at different points and only afterwards, to their chagrin and amusement, realized their proximity to one another. Besides these major herds there are several smaller, identifiable herds numbering in the hundreds of thousands of animals. Beyond these, as would be expected, there are many smaller herds, the very numbers of which are not even calculated by the red savages themselves, herds which often range from a few hundred to several thousand animals. It is speculated that some of these smaller herds may be subherds of larger herds, separating from the major herd at certain points during the season, depending on such conditions as forage and water. If that is the ease then the number of kailiauk may not be quite as large as it is sometimes estimated. On the other hand, that their numbers are incredibly abundant is indubitable. These herds, too, interestingly enough, appear to have their annual grazing patterns, usually describing a gigantic oval, seasonally influenced, which covers many thousands of pasangs. These peregrinations, as would be expected, tend to take a herd in and out of the territory of given tribes at given times. The same herd, thus, may be hunted by various tribes without necessitating dangerous departures from their own countries. The kailiauk is a migratory beast, thusly, but only in a rather special sense. It does not, for example, like certain flocks of birds, venture annually in roughly linear paths from the north to the south, and from the south to the north, covering thousands of pasangs in a series of orthogonal alternations. The kailiauk must feed as it moves, and it is simply too slow for this type of migration. It could not cover the distances involved in the times that would be necessary. Accordingly the herds tend not so much to migrate with the seasons as to drift with them, the ovoid grazing patterns tending to bend northward in the summer and southward in the winter. The smell of the hide sheds, incidentally, gives a very special aroma to the atmosphere of Kailiauk. After one has been there for a few hours, however, the odor of the hides, now familiar and pervasive, tends to be dismissed from consciousness. "I will be able to get five hides of the yellow kailiauk for her," said the man. "She will be worth five hides of the yellow kailiauk to me," he said. "Then you will make a splendid profit on her," I said. "Yes," said he. A robe of yellow kailiauk, even in average condition, can bring as much as five silver tarsks. The sign for Kailiauk, as I had expected, was to hold up three fingers, suggesting the trident of horns adorning the shaggy head of this large, short-tempered, small-eyed, lumbering ruminant. "Tatankasa," said Canka. "'Red Bull'," translated Grunt. "It would make my heart heavy to have you killed," said Canka. The kailiauk bull is 'Tatanka'. The suffix 'sa' designates the color red, as in 'Mazasa', 'Red Metal', 'Copper'. The expression 'Kailiauk' is used by most of the tribes for the kailiauk, which is not an animal native to Earth. The expression 'Pte' designates the kailiauk female, or kailiauk cow. It is also used, colloquially, interestingly, for the kailiauk in general. This is perhaps because the "Pte" is regarded, in a sense, as the mother of the tribes. It is she, in the final analysis, which makes possible their hunting, nomadic life. Like many similar peoples, the red savages have generally a great reverence and affection for the animals in their environment. This is particularly true of the animals on which they depend for their food. The useless or meaningless slaughter of such animals would be unthinkable to them. "It looks like it is raining there," I said. "That is dust, in the wind," said Cuwignaka. "It is raised by the hoofs." "It is here," said Grunt. "There is no doubt about it." I looked into the distance. It was like a Vosk of horn and hide. "How long is it?" I asked. I could not even see the end of it. "It is probably about fifteen pasangs in length," said Grunt. "It is some four or five pasangs in width." "It can take the better part of a day to ride around it," said Cuwignaka. "How many beasts are numbered in such a group?" I asked. "Who has counted the stars, who has numbered the blades of grass," said Cuwignaka. "It is estimated," said Grunt, "that there are between some two and three million beasts there." "Surely it is the largest such group in the Barrens," I said. "No," said Grunt, "there are larger. Boswell claims to have seen one such group which took five days to swim a river." "How long would it take a group like this to swim a river?" I asked. "Two to three days," said Grunt. "I see," I said. The Boswell he had referred to, incidentally, was the same fellow for whom the Boswell Pass through the Thentis Mountains had been named. He was an early explorer in the Barrens. Others were such men as Diaz, Hogarthe and Bento. "We have come to see the Pte," said Cuwignaka. The expression 'Pte', literally, stands for the kailiauk cow, as 'Ta-tanka' stands for the kailiauk bull, but it is commonly used colloquially, more generally, to stand for the kailiauk in general. In a sense, the "Pte" may be considered the mother of the tribes, as it is through her that their nomadic life, in its richness and variety, becomes possible. More formally, of course, one speaks of the kailiauk. The expression 'kailiauk' is a Gorean word and, as far as I know, does not have an Earth origin. I looked beyond Hci to the beasts, some two to three pasangs away. The kailiauk is a large, lumbering, shaggy, trident-horned ruminant. It has four stomachs and an eight-valved heart. It is dangerous, gregarious, small-eyed and short-tempered. Adult males can stand as high as twenty or twenty-five hands at the shoulder and weigh as much as four thousand pounds. "Yes, Hci," said Cuwignaka, obediently. A Smooth Horns is a young, prime bull. Its horns are not yet cracked from fighting and age. The smoothness of the horns, incidentally, is not a purely natural phenomenon. The bulls polish them, themselves, rubbing them against sloping banks and trees. Sometimes they will even paw down earth from the upper sides of washouts and then use the harder, exposed material beneath, dust scattering about, as a polishing surface. This polishing apparently has the function of both cleaning and sharpening the horns, two processes useful in intraspecific aggression, the latter process improving their capacity as fighting instruments, in slashing and goring, and the former process tending to reduce the amount of infection in a herd resulting from such combats. Polishing behavior in males thus appears to be selected for. It has consequences, at any rate, which seem to be in the best interests of the kailiauk as a species. I could now hear the sound, clearly. It carried through the draw, the deep thudding, magnified by, intensified by, that narrow corridor, open to the sky, of dirt and rock. "Mount up," said Cuwignaka. "Hurry." I looked to the meat. Almost at the same time, suddenly, about a bend in the draw, turning, lurching, its shoulder striking the side of the draw, its feet almost slipping out from under it, in its turn, in the soft footing, covered with dust, its eyes wild and red, foam at its nostrils and mouth, some twenty-five hundred pounds or better in weight, snorting, kicking dust behind it, hurtled a kailiauk bull. I surveyed the gouged floor of the draw, the trampled, half-buried meat, the remains of the travois. Many of the bones, even, of the animal on which we had been working were crushed and flung about. The carcass itself, most of it, had been moved several feet and flattened, and lay half sunk in the dust of the draw. The force of even a single kailiauk, with its speed and weight, can be a fearful thing. In numbers, it is awesome to contemplate their power. Cuwignaka's upward thrust, however, was easily turned by the Yellow Knife's stout war shield, of rawhide thickened and hardened by shrinking over heated stones, from the neck, between the shoulders, or the humped back, behind the head, bearing the trident of the bull kailiauk. A prairie sleen in the Barrens, for example, has little difficulty in avoiding the charge of the lumbering kailiauk. A single prairie sleen could bring down a kailiauk, but, given the size and danger of the kailiauk, the menace of its strength and horns, it will commonly attack one only in a pack. The mighty trident-horned kailiauk of the plains goes about its business, ignoring the tiny zarlit fly.
the larl, a tawny leopardlike beast indigenous to the Voltai and several of Gor's ranges, standing an incredible seven feet high at the shoulder and feared for its occasional hunger-driven visitations to the civilized plains below. Tarnsman of Gor Book 1 Page 147 As the tarn wheeled upward, I heard the wild, uncanny hunting cry of the larl, piercing the dusk from somewhere in the peaks below. Even the tarn seemed to shiver in its flight. The hunting cry was answered from elsewhere in the peaks and then again from a farther distance. When the larl hunts alone, it hunts silently, never uttering a sound until the sudden roar that momentarily precedes its charge, the roar calculated to terrify the quarry into a fatal instant of immobility. But tonight a pride of larls was hunting, and the cries of the three beasts were driving cries, herding the prey, usually several animals, toward the region of silence, herding them in the direction from which no cries would come, the direction in which the remainder of the pride waited. The light of the three moons was bright that night, and in the resultant exotic patchwork of shadows below, I caught sight of one of the larls, padding softly along, its body almost white in the moonlight. It paused, lifted its wide, fierce head, some two or three feet in diameter, and uttered the hunting scream once more. Momentarily it was answered, once from about two pasangs to the west and once from about the same distance to the southwest. It appeared ready to resume its pace when suddenly it stopped, its head absolutely motionless, its sharp, pointed ears tense and lifted. I thought perhaps he had heard the tarn, but he seemed to show no awareness of us. I brought the bird somewhat lower, in long, slow circles, keeping the larl in view. The tail of the animal began to lash angrily. It crouched, holding its long, terrible body close to the ground. It then began to move forward, swiftly but stealthily, its shoulders hunched forward, its hind quarters almost touching the ground. Its ears were lying back, flat against the sides of its wide head. As it moved, for all its speed, it placed each carefully on the ground, first the toes and then the ball of the foot, as silently as the wind might bend grass, in a motion that was as beautiful as it was terrifying. Something unusual was apparently happening. Some animal must be trying to break the hunting circle. One would suppose that the larl might be unconcerned with a single animal escaping its net of noise and fear and would neglect an isolated kill in order to keep the hunting circle closed, but that is not true. For whatever reason, the larl will always prefer ruining a hunt, even one involving a quarry of several animals, to allowing a given animal to move past it to freedom. Though I suppose this is purely instinctive on the larl's part, it does have the effect, over a series of generations, of weeding out animals which, if they survived, might transmit their intelligence, or perhaps their erratic running patterns, to their offspring. As it is, when the larl loses its hunt, the animals which escape are those which haven't tried to break the circle, those which allow themselves to be herded easily. Suddenly, to my horror, I saw the quarry of the larl. It was a human being, moving with surprising alacrity over the rough ground. To my astonishment, I saw it wore the yellow cerements of the sufferer of Dar-Kosis, that virulent, incurable, wasting disease of Gor. Without bothering to think, I seized my spear and, dragging harshly on the four-strap, brought the tarn into a sharp, abrupt descent. The bird struck the ground between the diseased victim and the approaching larl. Rather than risk casting my spear from the safe but unsteady saddle of the tarn, I leaped to the ground, just as the larl, furious that it had been discovered, uttered the paralyzing hunting roar and charged. For an instant I could not move, literally. Somehow the shock of that great, wild cry gripped me in a steel fist of terror. It was uncontrollable, an immobility as much a physiological reflex as the jerking of a knee or the bunking of an eye. Then, as swiftly as it had come, that nightmarish instant of immobility passed and I set my spear to take the jolt of the larl's attack. Perhaps my sudden appearance had disoriented the beast or shaken its marvelous instincts, because it must have uttered its killing cry an instant too soon, or perhaps my muscles and nerves responded to my will more rapidly than it had anticipated. When, twenty feet away, the great, bounding beast, fangs bared, leaped for its prey, it encountered instead only the slender needle of my spear, set like a stake in the ground, braced by the half-naked body of a warrior of Ko-ro-ba. The spearhead disappeared from sight in the furry breast of the larl, and the shaft of the spear began to sink into it as the weight of the animal forced it deeper into its body. I leaped from under the tawny, monstrous body, narrowly escaping the slashings of its clawed forefeet. The spear shaft snapped and the beast fell to the earth, rolling on its back, pawing at the air, uttering piercing, enraged shrieks, trying to bite the toothpick-like object from its body. With a convulsive shudder, the great head rolled to one side and the eyes half closed, leaving a milky slit of death between the lids. With weapon groups of men hunt even the larl in its native haunts in the Voltai Range, that incredible pantherlike carnivore which may stand six to eight feet high at the shoulder. Some four days into the mountains I heard for the first time in my journey the sound of a thing other than the wind, the sighing of snow and the groaning of ice; it was the sound of a living thing; the sound of a mountain larl. The larl is a predator, clawed and fanged, quite large, often standing seven feet at the shoulder. I think it would be fair to say that it is substantially feline; at any rate its grace and sinuous power remind me of the smaller but similarly fearsome jungle cats of my old world. The resemblance is, I suppose, due to the mechanics of convergent evolution, both animals having been shaped by the exigencies of the chase, the stealth of the approach and the sudden charge, and by the requirement of the swift and devastating kill. If there is an optimum configuration for a land predator, I suppose on my old world the palm must go to the Bengal tiger; but on Gor the prize belongs indisputably to the mountain larl; and I cannot but believe that the structural similarities between the two animals, though of different worlds, are more than a matter of accident. The larl's head is broad, sometimes more than two feet across, and shaped roughly like a triangle, giving its skull something of the cast of a viper's save that of course it is furred and the pupils of the eyes like the cat's and unlike the viper's, can range from knifelike slits in the broad daylight to dark, inquisitive moons in the night. The pelt of the larl is normally a tawny red or a sable black. The black larl, which is predominantly nocturnal, is manned, both male and female. The red larl, which hunts whenever hungry, regardless of the hour, and is the more common variety, possesses no mane. Females of both varieties tend generally to be slightly smaller than the males, but are quite as aggressive and sometimes even more dangerous, particularly in the late fall and winter of the year when they are likely to be hunting for their cubs. I had once killed a male red larl in the Voltai Range within pasangs of the city of Ar. Now hearing the growl of such a beast I threw back my cloak, lifted my shield and held my spear ready. I was puzzled that I might encounter a larl in the Sardar. How could it have entered the mountains? Perhaps it was native. But on what could it live among these barren crags? For I had seen nothing on which it might prey, unless one might count the men who had entered the mountains, but their bones, scattered, white and frozen, were unsplintered and unfurrowed; they showed no evidence of having suffered the molestation of a larl's gnawing jaws. I then understood that the larl I had heard must be a larl of Priest-Kings, for no animal and no man enters or exists in the Sardar without the consent of Priest-Kings and if it was fed it must be at the hand of Priest-Kings or their servants. In spite of my hatred of Priest-Kings I could not help but admire them. None of the men below the mountains, the mortals, had ever succeeded in taming a larl. Even larl cubs when found and raised by men would, on reaching their majority, on some night, in a sudden burst of atavistic fury slay their masters and under the three hurtling moons of Gor lope from the dwellings of men, driven by what instincts I know not, to seek the mountains where they were born. A case is known of a larl who traveled more than twenty-five hundred pasangs to seek a certain shallow crevice in the Voltai in which he had been whelped. He was slain at its mouth. Hunters had followed him. One among them, an old man who had originally been one of the party that had captured the animal, identified the place. I advanced, my spear ready for its cast, my shield ready to be thrown over my body to protect it from the death throes of the thrashing beast should the cast be successful. My life was in my own hands and I was content that this should be so. I would have it no other way. I smiled to myself. I was First Spear, for there were no others. The most significant reason, however, becomes clear when the role of the last man on the file, who is spoken of as Last Spear, is understood. Once Last Spear casts his weapon he may not throw himself to the ground. If he should, and any of his comrades survive, they will slay him. But this seldom occurs for the Gorean hunters fear cowardice more than the claws and fangs of larls. Last Spear must remain standing, and if the beast still lives, receive its charge with only his drawn sword. He does not hurl himself to the ground in order that he will remain conspicuously in the larl's field of vision and thus be the object of its wounded, maddened onslaught. It is thus that, should the spears miss theft mark, he sacrifices his life for his companions who will, while the larl attacks him, make good their escape. This may seem cruel but in the long run it tends to be conservative of human life; it is better, as the Goreans say, for one man to die than many. First Spear is normally the best of the spearmen because if the larl is not slain or seriously wounded with the first strike, the lives of all, and not simply that of Last Spear, stand in considerable jeopardy. Paradoxically perhaps, Last Spear is normally the weakest of the spearmen, the least skilled. Whether this is became Gorean hunting tradition favors the weak, protecting him with the stronger spears, or tradition scorns the weak, regarding him as the most expendable member of the party, I do not know. The origin of this hunting practice is lost in antiquity, being as old perhaps as men and weapons and larls. I once asked a Gorean hunter whom I met in Ar why the larl was hunted at all. I have never forgotten his reply. "Because it is beautiful," he said, "and dangerous, and because we are Goreans." I had not yet seen the beast whose growl I had heard. The path on which I trod turned a few yards ahead. It was about a yard wide and hugged the side of a cliff, and to my left there was a sheer precipice. The drop to its base must have been at least a full pasang. I remembered that the boulders below were huge but from my present height they looked like grains of black sand. I wished the cliff were on my left rather than my right in order to have a freer cast of my spear. The path was steep but its ascent, here and there, was lightened by high steps. I have never cared to have an enemy above me, nor did I now, but I told myself that my spear might more easily find a vulnerable spot if the larl leapt downwards toward me than if I were above and had only the base of its neck as my best target. From above I would try to sever the vertebrae. The larl's skull is an even more difficult cast, for its head is almost continually in motion. Moreover, it possesses an unobtrusive bony ridge which runs from its four nasal slits to the beginning of the backbone. This ridge can be penetrated by the spear but anything less than a perfect cast will result in the weapon's being deflected through the cheek of the animal, inflicting a cruel but unimportant wound. On the other hand if I were under the larl I would have a brief but clean strike at the great, pounding, eight-valved heart that lies in the center of its breast. My heart sank for I heard another growl, that of a second beast. I had but one spear. I might kill one larl, but then I should almost certainly die under the jaws of its mate. For some reason I did not fear death but felt only anger that these beasts might prevent me from keeping my rendezvous with the Priest-Kings of Gor. I wondered how many men might have turned back at this point, and I remembered the innumerable white, frozen bones on the cliffs below. It occurred to me that I might retreat, and return when the beasts had gone. It seemed possible they might not yet have discovered me. I smiled as I thought of the foolishness of this, for these beasts before me must be the larls of Priest-Kings, guardians of the stronghold of Gor's gods. I glanced to the north. Then I opened the glass and studied the waters to the north. I snapped shut the glass. Above the waters to the north there was now a towering blackness. Overhead the white clouds swept past, like white, leaping Tabuk fleeing from the jaws of the black-maned larl. "As far as I know, there has not been a panther or larl in the vicinity of Venna in more than a hundred years," she said. It is not unusual that the hunted may become the hunter. The larl, for example, will commonly circle, or double back, and stalk its hunters. The larl is known on Gor. It is not known if it was native to Gor or, as many other forms of life, including humans, it was brought to that world by the mysterious Priest-Kings, whoever or whatever they might be. The ecological niche on the planet Earth, which is usually filled with large predators of a feline nature, such as the lion, the tiger, and such, is filled, or mostly, on Gor by the larl, and a diversity of smaller predators, primarily pantherine in form. The adult Gorean larl is usually in the range of seven feet at the shoulder and over a thousand pounds in weight. It is lithe, sinuous, agile, aggressive, ferocious, carnivorous, and, unlike the sleen, quadrupedalian. It has a broad skull, rather triangular in shape, and is fanged, and clawed. But the machine which now emerged, stalking, from the forest, must have been ten to twelve feet at the shoulder. Its weight would be difficult to ascertain without a better sense of its construction, but it was doubtless considerably heavier than a natural larl. Then, to my surprise, I heard, from deep within the forest, what was, unmistakably, the roar of a larl. "It is dangerous here," he said. "There may be animals." "That is possible," I said, "but I do not think there is much to fear in the reserve. The oddity of the ditch discourages the entrance of animals, and, as there is little grazing here, there would be few herbivores, and there being few herbivores, there will be few carnivores. Too, the human is unfamiliar prey to most carnivores, the panther, the sleen, the larl, and such. They will certainly attack humans, and humans are surely within their prey range, but, given a choice, they will usually choose prey to which they are accustomed, wild tarsk, wild verr, tabuk, and such." "There are no larls this far north," said Pertinax. "Yesterday, on the beach," I said, "I heard one." Pertinax paled. She had perhaps never seen a larl before, and even if she were familiar with these large carnivores, finding oneself in their vicinity, without viewing them through thick bars or ascertaining that they were, say, tethered on stout chains, would be enough to unnerve a heart more experienced and stouter than hers. In any event, I had certainly shared a similar apprehension upon my entrance into the pavilion. The fact that the beasts seemed somnolent and that they seemed to provoke little concern amongst the others in the pavilion had, of course, considerably, if not entirely, assuaged my apprehensions. The larl, of course, is never fully tamed. Like the tarn, it has a wild blood. Too, if one makes a sudden movement in its vicinity, for example, a paw may, as by a reflex, lash out and a hand may be half torn from a wrist, or an arm may be shredded. Miss Wentworth, desperately, clutched the sheet about her. Then she straightened her body. She now understood the two larls to be harmless. She was mistaken in this conjecture, but it was a rational conjecture considering that the two beasts were quiet, crouched in place, and that their presence seemed to be accepted without question by the others present. She might have been less confident had she known more about larls. Pretty obviously the two beasts were domestic larls, probably raised from cubhood, and trained to respond to certain commands. On the other hand, as noted earlier, no larl is ever fully tamed. A thousand generations of stalking and killing lay concealed, lay in wait, in every corpuscle of those pelted, passive giants. We were walking within a path, leading from the logging camp deeper into the forest. The path was lined with wands, on each side, and the guard larls, which were occasionally seen, would not intrude within the wands. At that moment, from afar off, perhaps two hundred to two hundred and fifty yards to our right and ahead, there was a terrible roar, surely of a larl, followed, a moment later, by a harrowing scream. Tajima seized my arm. "No!" he said. "Do not depart from the wands!" "Help is needed!" I said, pulling away. "No," said Tajima. "It is no longer needed. The kill has taken place. Do not disturb a larl when it is feeding." "Someone was beyond the wands," I said. "Now, and again," said Tajima, "some will flee the camp." The roar of the larl commonly startles and freezes the prey. Then the larl is upon it. At that moment we heard the roar of caged larls, as, down from the forest, came the cage wagons housing Lord Nishida's pets, of which there were some ten, as I had counted, two from the pavilion, and some eight, who had prowled the wands. The larl, as noted, is not native to the northern forests. The mountains are beautiful, but forbidding. They contain larls and sleen, and, in the lower ranges, wild tarsk, as well. As noted, at the higher altitudes, there is little to be found but wild verr and tiny snow urts. "This is the work of a larl," said Trachinos, "a pride of larls." "Who did not eat the kill?" said Desmond. "It must be," said Trachinos, "heads bitten away, an arm gone, part of a leg." "That is not the way a larl kills," said Lykos. "Commonly it pounces from behind, and bites through the back of the neck, or, approaching frontally, sinks its teeth in the shoulder, and, with its rear legs, disembowels the prey." It was the first larl I had seen, though I had heard much of them. It is a much larger animal than the sleen, and it has four, not six, legs. It lairs in dens, and does not burrow like the sleen in the wild. It is carnivorous, and it most commonly hunts in the day. The sleen, in the wild, is predominantly nocturnal. The larl is probably the most fearsome land predator on Gor. The sleen, on the other hand, is Gor's finest tracker. Domesticated sleen, tracking sleen, hunting sleen, herding sleen, guard sleen, war sleen, are relatively common on Gor. Domesticated larls are rare. Few people have seen one. Then I saw it, large, four-legged, some six or seven feet at the shoulder, with a wide, triangular-shaped head, lowered now, sunk now between its shoulders. It had a heavy, silken, reddishly tawny coat. Its paws were broad and thickly matted. Such a creature could move comfortably on rocky slopes, on ice, through snow. For all its size it moved with the sinuous, stealthy grace one might have expected of a smaller animal. The eyes were large, and the ears, tufted, bent forward. It sunk to its belly, and its long tail moved back and forth. The beast seemed passive, except that the agitation of the tail bore witness to an inward excitement. I had never seen such a beast this close. I had seen one, perhaps this one, weeks ago, on a slope across from the Cave's main portal, perhaps three or four hundred paces away. I suspected that the portal now was not guarded, or only sporadically guarded. I shrank back in the cage, as the beast, head down, moved a little toward me, and then crouched down. It moved a little more toward me, again, and was then again still. It did not pounce or charge. It did put its broad face near the bars. I saw its nostrils widen. It then put its snout literally against the bars, while I stayed as far back as I could. It made a small noise, as if puzzled. One large paw was put to the bars, but they were closely enough set that it could not enter the cage. I did see fangs. There was no blood about them. It then backed away, looked about the room, and exited through the gate. At this point there was another roar in the forest, but this one seemed mighty, as though it might have torn leaves from the trees. "That is no forest panther!" said a man. "No," said the newcomer, "it is a larl." "Larls are not this far north," said a man. "They do not range so," said another. "It is a trained beast, brought north," said the newcomer. "There are others, as well. It will accompany us to Tarncamp. Tarncamp has its established perimeter, marked by wands. One must not, without authorization, pass beyond the wands. Yesterday two deserters were torn to pieces." These were slender wands, a yard or so in height, planted in the soil, with a bit of cloth tied upon them. They occurred every several yards, or so. One was not permitted, without authorization, and accompaniment, to venture beyond the wands. The perimeter was patrolled by larls, usually released at night which were trained to track, seek out, and fall upon any who might be so foolish or unwary as to have left the camp without authorization or accompaniment. The beasts responded to certain signals associated with food, which signals were changed from time to time. One was reasonably safe if one knew the signals. The beasts were occasionally brought in, even at night, their normal release time, if lanes were to be opened, for one reason or another. To be sure, few knew when the larls were to be released, whether during the day or at night, though, as suggested, the night release was more common, probably because desertions took place most frequently under the cover of darkness. Whereas I had heard them in the forest, on our column's march to Tarncamp, I had not seen them. In any event, as far as I knew, our column had not been threatened. To be sure, we had kept to a particular trail, one, I had gathered, of several, and had been approaching, not attempting to exit, Tarncamp. "I do not think they exist " I said. "I found a fellow in a marsh beside the Cartius," he said, "bitten at the shoulder, ribs and intestines torn from his body, who cried out the words, 'Kur, Kur,' and died." "He was delirious," I said. "A larl commonly attacks in such a way, fastening on the neck or shoulder, and clawing out the belly, and organs." "Larls are rare in the locale of the Cartius," he said. Larls are not indigenous to the northern forests, and I was confident I was far beyond the range of those employed for patrolling by the Pani in the vicinity of Tarncamp and Shipcamp. Larls may pride but they usually frequent, as well, areas where game is abundant, and the prides themselves can be competitive. Larls, as noted, do not frequent the northern forests. It would not be practical for them to do so. Claiming and maintaining a territory can also figure in successful mating, as females of various species will seek out territory masters, and present themselves, wooing and seducing, for acceptance or rejection. Males without well-established territories often remain unmated. In this sense, in several species, the primary competition seems not so much directly for mates, as for food, and survival, for the achievement of territory, a consequence of which is likely to be access to one or more females, depending on the species. Only a fool rushes into a lair within which a larl might repose. "At least," said Aktis, "I do not have a large tooth, misshapen, which hangs over my lip, like a fang!" "It is a sign of force and power," said Thurnock. "Many a larl might envy it." "The larl and sleen are patient," I said. "They bide their time." Urts and jards take care not to wake the larl on whose kill they feed. "I beg you, Master," she said, "dissuade your party. Do not seek Bosk of Port Kar. Instead, if you wish, send gentle verr to seek the fanged, voracious larl." "Master persists in his madness," she said. "Forgo your dream of revenge. The verr is no match for the Larl." "You think you are in no danger," said Aktis, "because you see no danger. You think there are no sleen because you have not yet felt their teeth. You think you are safe until the larl claws at your gate. Are we truly ignorant, naive, simple, thoughtless fools, just as the other castes think we are?" My brothers, my caste brothers, put aside the timidity of the urt. Seize up the stealth and cunning of the sleen, the courage of the mighty larl. "I am feared in the court at Jad," he said. "I have enemies. Others have the ear of the glorious Lurius, who can do only so much. He is distracted by the affairs of the ubarate. He must delegate authority. His self-seeking minions manage much. Vulos are preferred to tarns, urts to larls. Preferments are wheedled. Rank is for sale. Offices are auctioned off. And I find myself on Thera."
"Then you are of the breed of corsairs," said a man, "wanting us to flee from a shadow, an invented foe, a larl that does not exist, so that you might despoil Mytilene at your leisure." The good officer, I think, should be such that, first, men would follow him gladly into a den of larls, and, second, one who, to the best of his ability, makes certain that he never, if it can be avoided, leads his men into a den of larls. "It is better to die as a well-fed larl than a starving verr," I said. "In passing the den of a larl," said Sakim, "it behooves one to tread softly." "One should not sing in the vicinity of a sleeping larl," said Thurnock. It was a Gorean saying, not unlike many others. Gorean, like most languages, furnishes many such sayings, almost one of which is likely to be applicable in any conceivable situation. "You are rushing into the jaws of the larl," said Sakim. "Sometimes a clever urt can escape the descending paw of the larl," I said. "It is unwise to wake the sleeping larl," said Thurnock. "She is much as a pathetic tabuk doe," I said, "pursued by swarms of larls and sleen, a vulnerable quarry universally sought, friendless and fleeing, nowhere to step, nowhere to hide, every hand turned against her." Do you think mighty Marlenus will welcome you? Does the verr challenge the larl? He may be fleeing pursuers, true; but, too, he may be leading them into a trap. It is not unknown for an old larl to feign decrepitude, thus bringing the throat of its young challenger into the range of his fangs. "You are mad," he said. "Not even a sleen will attack a larl, let alone four such Ubars of the Wild." "After our exit, we will leave Grendel to block the rear exit from the outside, while we circle about. His senses, like those of the Kur, which he so closely resembles, are sharp. He can hear sounds we cannot; he can take scent like the sleen and larl; what is night to us is but dusk to him." Whereas larls, panthers, and sleen can be quite dangerous, they seldom attack humans. Exceptions most often occur when they are startled, are unusually hungry, feel they are confronted and challenged, or sense an objectionable territorial intrusion. A little later Thurnock and Clitus had dragged Tramio out of the lair, and I, and the others, began to shout and pound our weapons together, creating a small din in the vicinity of the lair. The larl could easily have torn his way amongst us, scattering us, bleeding and dismembered, from its path, but larls, like some other forms of life, have genetic codings in the light of which some behaviors are likely to occur and others not. I shuddered. My hands bound behind me, I had been thrust into a sleen pen. I feared to be eaten alive. The large, serpentine, six-legged, fanged thing rushed to me, thrusting its snout against my body. "Do not be afraid," had called the second man. I was half dead with fright. I was drawn from the pen, because I could not move. I lay outside the gate, in the grass. The second man had then pointed to me, and cried out the name 'Janet' several times. He then turned to me. "You will run into the woods," he said. "I will not give the sleen the 'hunt and kill' command, but the 'hunt and herd' command. The sleen will then return you to my feet. Do not dally, or the sleen will feed." "Please untie my hands," I had begged. "Run!" he had said. How helpless one is when one's hands are tied behind one! And how casually, snugly and effectively they impose this simple tie on us! Some inches of cord and we are at their mercy! I had run, awkwardly, into the woods and had run no more than a few minutes, when, to my terror, I saw the sleen in front of me, snarling. In my running I had lost my way. I had no idea where the small encampment with its pen was. But the sleen knew. Then, driven, sobbing, frightened, the animal nipping at my ankles and calves, bloodying them, I was herded back to the encampment, and fell to my knees, gasping, before the second man. " Kajira," said he, "the sleen is Gor's finest tracker. It can follow a scent months old. It is single-minded and tenacious. It will follow the scent of a single verr through a flock of tabuk without a thought, for it is the verr's scent to which it had first addressed itself. Beware the sleen." He then cast a slab of meat to the sleen which pounced on it, held it down with its forepaws, and tore it apart.
Some four days into the mountains I heard for the first time in my journey the sound of a thing other than the wind, the sighing of snow and the groaning of ice; it was the sound of a living thing; the sound of a mountain larl. The larl is a predator, clawed and fanged, quite large, often standing seven feet at the shoulder. I think it would be fair to say that it is substantially feline; at any rate its grace and sinuous power remind me of the smaller but similarly fearsome jungle cats of my old world. The resemblance is, I suppose, due to the mechanics of convergent evolution, both animals having been shaped by the exigencies of the chase, the stealth of the approach and the sudden charge, and by the requirement of the swift and devastating kill. If there is an optimum configuration for a land predator, I suppose on my old world the palm must go to the Bengal tiger; but on Gor the prize belongs indisputably to the mountain larl; and I cannot but believe that the structural similarities between the two animals, though of different worlds, are more than a matter of accident. The larl's head is broad, sometimes more than two feet across, and shaped roughly like a triangle, giving its skull something of the cast of a viper's save that of course it is furred and the pupils of the eyes like the cat's and unlike the viper's, can range from knifelike slits in the broad daylight to dark, inquisitive moons in the night. The pelt of the larl is normally a tawny red or a sable black. The black larl, which is predominantly nocturnal, is manned, both male and female. The red larl, which hunts whenever hungry, regardless of the hour, and is the more common variety, possesses no mane. Females of both varieties tend generally to be slightly smaller than the males, but are quite as aggressive and sometimes even more dangerous, particularly in the late fall and winter of the year when they are likely to be hunting for their cubs. I had once killed a male red larl in the Voltai Range within pasangs of the city of Ar. Now hearing the growl of such a beast I threw back my cloak, lifted my shield and held my spear ready. I was puzzled that I might encounter a larl in the Sardar. How could it have entered the mountains? Perhaps it was native. But on what could it live among these barren crags? For I had seen nothing on which it might prey, unless one might count the men who had entered the mountains, but their bones, scattered, white and frozen, were unsplintered and unfurrowed; they showed no evidence of having suffered the molestation of a larl's gnawing jaws. I then understood that the larl I had heard must be a larl of Priest-Kings, for no animal and no man enters or exists in the Sardar without the consent of Priest-Kings and if it was fed it must be at the hand of Priest-Kings or their servants. In spite of my hatred of Priest-Kings I could not help but admire them. None of the men below the mountains, the mortals, had ever succeeded in taming a larl. Even larl cubs when found and raised by men would, on reaching their majority, on some night, in a sudden burst of atavistic fury slay their masters and under the three hurtling moons of Gor lope from the dwellings of men, driven by what instincts I know not, to seek the mountains where they were born. A case is known of a larl who traveled more than twenty-five hundred pasangs to seek a certain shallow crevice in the Voltai in which he had been whelped. He was slain at its mouth. Hunters had followed him. One among them, an old man who had originally been one of the party that had captured the animal, identified the place. I advanced, my spear ready for its cast, my shield ready to be thrown over my body to protect it from the death throes of the thrashing beast should the cast be successful. My life was in my own hands and I was content that this should be so. I would have it no other way. I smiled to myself. I was First Spear, for there were no others. In the Voltai Range bands of hunters, usually from Ar, stalk the larl with the mighty Gorean spear. Normally they do this in single file and he who leads the file is called First Spear, for his will be the first spear cast. As soon as he casts his weapon he throws himself to the ground and covers his body with his shield, as does each man successively behind him. This allows each man to have a clean cast at the beast and provides some protection once the spear is thrown. The most significant reason, however, becomes clear when the role of the last man on the file, who is spoken of as Last Spear, is understood. Once Last Spear casts his weapon he may not throw himself to the ground. If he should, and any of his comrades survive, they will slay him. But this seldom occurs for the Gorean hunters fear cowardice more than the claws and fangs of larls. Last Spear must remain standing, and if the beast still lives, receive its charge with only his drawn sword. He does not hurl himself to the ground in order that he will remain conspicuously in the larl's field of vision and thus be the object of its wounded, maddened onslaught. It is thus that, should the spears miss theft mark, he sacrifices his life for his companions who will, while the larl attacks him, make good their escape. This may seem cruel but in the long run it tends to be conservative of human life; it is better, as the Goreans say, for one man to die than many. First Spear is normally the best of the spearmen because if the larl is not slain or seriously wounded with the first strike, the lives of all, and not simply that of Last Spear, stand in considerable jeopardy. Paradoxically perhaps, Last Spear is normally the weakest of the spearmen, the least skilled. Whether this is became Gorean hunting tradition favors the weak, protecting him with the stronger spears, or tradition scorns the weak, regarding him as the most expendable member of the party, I do not know. The origin of this hunting practice is lost in antiquity, being as old perhaps as men and weapons and larls. I once asked a Gorean hunter whom I met in Ar why the larl was hunted at all. I have never forgotten his reply. "Because it is beautiful," he said, "and dangerous, and because we are Goreans." I had not yet seen the beast whose growl I had heard. The path on which I trod turned a few yards ahead. It was about a yard wide and hugged the side of a cliff, and to my left there was a sheer precipice. The drop to its base must have been at least a full pasang. I remembered that the boulders below were huge but from my present height they looked like grains of black sand. I wished the cliff were on my left rather than my right in order to have a freer cast of my spear. The path was steep but its ascent, here and there, was lightened by high steps. I have never cared to have an enemy above me, nor did I now, but I told myself that my spear might more easily find a vulnerable spot if the larl leapt downwards toward me than if I were above and had only the base of its neck as my best target. From above I would try to sever the vertebrae. The larl's skull is an even more difficult cast, for its head is almost continually in motion. Moreover, it possesses an unobtrusive bony ridge which runs from its four nasal slits to the beginning of the backbone. This ridge can be penetrated by the spear but anything less than a perfect cast will result in the weapon's being deflected through the cheek of the animal, inflicting a cruel but unimportant wound. On the other hand if I were under the larl I would have a brief but clean strike at the great, pounding, eight-valved heart that lies in the center of its breast. My heart sank for I heard another growl, that of a second beast. I had but one spear. I might kill one larl, but then I should almost certainly die under the jaws of its mate. For some reason I did not fear death but felt only anger that these beasts might prevent me from keeping my rendezvous with the Priest-Kings of Gor. I wondered how many men might have turned back at this point, and I remembered the innumerable white, frozen bones on the cliffs below. It occurred to me that I might retreat, and return when the beasts had gone. It seemed possible they might not yet have discovered me. I smiled as I thought of the foolishness of this, for these beasts before me must be the larls of Priest-Kings, guardians of the stronghold of Gor's gods. "The woods are before us," I said. "They are deep and dark. Bandits sometimes frequent them. In them are forest panthers and forest sleen, perhaps even the black larl. We are components in no ample, well-guarded caravan. Too, somewhere in these woods, if our intelligence is accurate, though doubtless far from the road, is the encampment of Decius Albus." Two fellows, swords drawn, detained a figure not three yards from me. "What says the yellow tabuk?" one of them hissed to the fellow detained. "Do not enter the den of the black larl," he responded. "Pass," I heard.
She had perhaps never seen a larl before, and even if she were familiar with these large carnivores, finding oneself in their vicinity, without viewing them through thick bars or ascertaining that they were, say, tethered on stout chains, would be enough to unnerve a heart more experienced and stouter than hers. In any event, I had certainly shared a similar apprehension upon my entrance into the pavilion. The fact that the beasts seemed somnolent and that they seemed to provoke little concern amongst the others in the pavilion had, of course, considerably, if not entirely, assuaged my apprehensions. The larl, of course, is never fully tamed. Like the tarn, it has a wild blood. Too, if one makes a sudden movement in its vicinity, for example, a paw may, as by a reflex, lash out and a hand may be half torn from a wrist, or an arm may be shredded. Miss Wentworth, desperately, clutched the sheet about her. Then she straightened her body. She now understood the two larls to be harmless. She was mistaken in this conjecture, but it was a rational conjecture considering that the two beasts were quiet, crouched in place, and that their presence seemed to be accepted without question by the others present. She might have been less confident had she known more about larls. Pretty obviously the two beasts were domestic larls, probably raised from cubhood, and trained to respond to certain commands. On the other hand, as noted earlier, no larl is ever fully tamed. A thousand generations of stalking and killing lay concealed, lay in wait, in every corpuscle of those pelted, passive giants. It was the first larl I had seen, though I had heard much of them. It is a much larger animal than the sleen, and it has four, not six, legs. It lairs in dens, and does not burrow like the sleen in the wild. It is carnivorous, and it most commonly hunts in the day. The sleen, in the wild, is predominantly nocturnal. The larl is probably the most fearsome land predator on Gor. The sleen, on the other hand, is Gor's finest tracker. Domesticated sleen, tracking sleen, hunting sleen, herding sleen, guard sleen, war sleen, are relatively common on Gor. Domesticated larls are rare. Few people have seen one. At this point there was another roar in the forest, but this one seemed mighty, as though it might have torn leaves from the trees. "That is no forest panther!" said a man. "No," said the newcomer, "it is a larl." "Larls are not this far north," said a man. "They do not range so," said another. "It is a trained beast, brought north," said the newcomer. "There are others, as well. It will accompany us to Tarncamp. Tarncamp has its established perimeter, marked by wands. One must not, without authorization, pass beyond the wands. Yesterday two deserters were torn to pieces." At that moment, to the right, high above the brush, higher than the blade of a war spear, we saw a broad, wide, triangular-shaped head. At this point the larl crouched at the edge of the camp. It was a gigantic creature. Even crouching its head was as high as that of a tall man. The larl, as it was a bred beast, was larger than the usual wild larl to the south. It may have weighed as much as a dozen panthers, three forest bosk. This sort of thing is common with bred animals, where the largest and the fiercest, and the most dangerous, may be bred, again and again, increment by increment, with the largest, the fiercest, and most dangerous. The same is true of domestic sleen. The wild sleen is agile and dangerous, but it is seldom a match for the bred sleen. "I remember a domestic sleen from a camp, a long time ago," I said. "I think it was even larger." "It probably was," said the first slave. "Domestic sleen are commonly larger and healthier than wild sleen."
On the jungle floor, as well, are found jungle larls and jungle panthers, of diverse kinds, and many smaller catlike predators. These, on the whole, however, avoid men. They are less dangerous in the rain forest, generally, than in the northern latitudes. I do not know why this should be the case. Perhaps it is because in the rain forest food is usually plentiful for them, and, thus, there is little temptation for them to transgress the boundaries of their customary prey categories. They will, however, upon occasion, particularly if provoked or challenged, attack with dispatch. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 312
At that moment we heard the roar of caged larls, as, down from the forest, came the cage wagons housing Lord Nishida's pets, of which there were some ten, as I had counted, two from the pavilion, and some eight, who had prowled the wands. The larl, as noted, is not native to the northern forests.
Some four days into the mountains I heard for the first time in my journey the sound of a thing other than the wind, the sighing of snow and the groaning of ice; it was the sound of a living thing; the sound of a mountain larl. The larl is a predator, clawed and fanged, quite large, often standing seven feet at the shoulder. I think it would be fair to say that it is substantially feline; at any rate its grace and sinuous power remind me of the smaller but similarly fearsome jungle cats of my old world. The resemblance is, I suppose, due to the mechanics of convergent evolution, both animals having been shaped by the exigencies of the chase, the stealth of the approach and the sudden charge, and by the requirement of the swift and devastating kill. If there is an optimum configuration for a land predator, I suppose on my old world the palm must go to the Bengal tiger; but on Gor the prize belongs indisputably to the mountain larl; and I cannot but believe that the structural similarities between the two animals, though of different worlds, are more than a matter of accident. The larl's head is broad, sometimes more than two feet across, and shaped roughly like a triangle, giving its skull something of the cast of a viper's save that of course it is furred and the pupils of the eyes like the cat's and unlike the viper's, can range from knifelike slits in the broad daylight to dark, inquisitive moons in the night. The pelt of the larl is normally a tawny red or a sable black. The black larl, which is predominantly nocturnal, is manned, both male and female. The red larl, which hunts whenever hungry, regardless of the hour, and is the more common variety, possesses no mane. Females of both varieties tend generally to be slightly smaller than the males, but are quite as aggressive and sometimes even more dangerous, particularly in the late fall and winter of the year when they are likely to be hunting for their cubs. I had once killed a male red larl in the Voltai Range within pasangs of the city of Ar. Now hearing the growl of such a beast I threw back my cloak, lifted my shield and held my spear ready. I was puzzled that I might encounter a larl in the Sardar. How could it have entered the mountains? Perhaps it was native. But on what could it live among these barren crags? For I had seen nothing on which it might prey, unless one might count the men who had entered the mountains, but their bones, scattered, white and frozen, were unsplintered and unfurrowed; they showed no evidence of having suffered the molestation of a larl's gnawing jaws. I then understood that the larl I had heard must be a larl of Priest-Kings, for no animal and no man enters or exists in the Sardar without the consent of Priest-Kings and if it was fed it must be at the hand of Priest-Kings or their servants. In spite of my hatred of Priest-Kings I could not help but admire them. None of the men below the mountains, the mortals, had ever succeeded in taming a larl. Even larl cubs when found and raised by men would, on reaching their majority, on some night, in a sudden burst of atavistic fury slay their masters and under the three hurtling moons of Gor lope from the dwellings of men, driven by what instincts I know not, to seek the mountains where they were born. A case is known of a larl who traveled more than twenty-five hundred pasangs to seek a certain shallow crevice in the Voltai in which he had been whelped. He was slain at its mouth. Hunters had followed him. One among them, an old man who had originally been one of the party that had captured the animal, identified the place. I advanced, my spear ready for its cast, my shield ready to be thrown over my body to protect it from the death throes of the thrashing beast should the cast be successful. My life was in my own hands and I was content that this should be so. I would have it no other way. I smiled to myself. I was First Spear, for there were no others. In the Voltai Range bands of hunters, usually from Ar, stalk the larl with the mighty Gorean spear. Normally they do this in single file and he who leads the file is called First Spear, for his will be the first spear cast. As soon as he casts his weapon he throws himself to the ground and covers his body with his shield, as does each man successively behind him. This allows each man to have a clean cast at the beast and provides some protection once the spear is thrown. The most significant reason, however, becomes clear when the role of the last man on the file, who is spoken of as Last Spear, is understood. Once Last Spear casts his weapon he may not throw himself to the ground. If he should, and any of his comrades survive, they will slay him. But this seldom occurs for the Gorean hunters fear cowardice more than the claws and fangs of larls. Last Spear must remain standing, and if the beast still lives, receive its charge with only his drawn sword. He does not hurl himself to the ground in order that he will remain conspicuously in the larl's field of vision and thus be the object of its wounded, maddened onslaught. It is thus that, should the spears miss theft mark, he sacrifices his life for his companions who will, while the larl attacks him, make good their escape. This may seem cruel but in the long run it tends to be conservative of human life; it is better, as the Goreans say, for one man to die than many. First Spear is normally the best of the spearmen because if the larl is not slain or seriously wounded with the first strike, the lives of all, and not simply that of Last Spear, stand in considerable jeopardy. Paradoxically perhaps, Last Spear is normally the weakest of the spearmen, the least skilled. Whether this is became Gorean hunting tradition favors the weak, protecting him with the stronger spears, or tradition scorns the weak, regarding him as the most expendable member of the party, I do not know. The origin of this hunting practice is lost in antiquity, being as old perhaps as men and weapons and larls. I once asked a Gorean hunter whom I met in Ar why the larl was hunted at all. I have never forgotten his reply. "Because it is beautiful," he said, "and dangerous, and because we are Goreans." I had not yet seen the beast whose growl I had heard. The path on which I trod turned a few yards ahead. It was about a yard wide and hugged the side of a cliff, and to my left there was a sheer precipice. The drop to its base must have been at least a full pasang. I remembered that the boulders below were huge but from my present height they looked like grains of black sand. I wished the cliff were on my left rather than my right in order to have a freer cast of my spear. The path was steep but its ascent, here and there, was lightened by high steps. I have never cared to have an enemy above me, nor did I now, but I told myself that my spear might more easily find a vulnerable spot if the larl leapt downwards toward me than if I were above and had only the base of its neck as my best target. From above I would try to sever the vertebrae. The larl's skull is an even more difficult cast, for its head is almost continually in motion. Moreover, it possesses an unobtrusive bony ridge which runs from its four nasal slits to the beginning of the backbone. This ridge can be penetrated by the spear but anything less than a perfect cast will result in the weapon's being deflected through the cheek of the animal, inflicting a cruel but unimportant wound. On the other hand if I were under the larl I would have a brief but clean strike at the great, pounding, eight-valved heart that lies in the center of its breast. My heart sank for I heard another growl, that of a second beast. I had but one spear. I might kill one larl, but then I should almost certainly die under the jaws of its mate. For some reason I did not fear death but felt only anger that these beasts might prevent me from keeping my rendezvous with the Priest-Kings of Gor. I wondered how many men might have turned back at this point, and I remembered the innumerable white, frozen bones on the cliffs below. It occurred to me that I might retreat, and return when the beasts had gone. It seemed possible they might not yet have discovered me. I smiled as I thought of the foolishness of this, for these beasts before me must be the larls of Priest-Kings, guardians of the stronghold of Gor's gods. I turned to see a stout man-at-arms step to the dais, carrying in his arms, folded in the furs of the scarlet larl, a girl. "Perhaps then," said Kamchak, "I should have sheets of crimson silk brought, and the furs of the mountain larl." Then I saw it, large, four-legged, some six or seven feet at the shoulder, with a wide, triangular-shaped head, lowered now, sunk now between its shoulders. It had a heavy, silken, reddishly tawny coat. Its paws were broad and thickly matted. Such a creature could move comfortably on rocky slopes, on ice, through snow. For all its size it moved with the sinuous, stealthy grace one might have expected of a smaller animal. The eyes were large, and the ears, tufted, bent forward. It sunk to its belly, and its long tail moved back and forth. The beast seemed passive, except that the agitation of the tail bore witness to an inward excitement. I had never seen such a beast this close. I had seen one, perhaps this one, weeks ago, on a slope across from the Cave's main portal, perhaps three or four hundred paces away. I suspected that the portal now was not guarded, or only sporadically guarded. I shrank back in the cage, as the beast, head down, moved a little toward me, and then crouched down. It moved a little more toward me, again, and was then again still. It did not pounce or charge. It did put its broad face near the bars. I saw its nostrils widen. It then put its snout literally against the bars, while I stayed as far back as I could. It made a small noise, as if puzzled. One large paw was put to the bars, but they were closely enough set that it could not enter the cage. I did see fangs. There was no blood about them. It then backed away, looked about the room, and exited through the gate.
Vika and I, clad in robes cut from the pelt of the snow larl I had slain, set out for the great black gate in the somber timber palisade that encircles the Sardar. Priest-Kings of Gor Book 3 Page 292
There was a sudden startled rattle of chains and I saw two huge, white larls frozen in the momentary paralysis of registering my presence, and then with but an instant's fleeting passage both beasts turned upon me and hurled themselves enraged to the lengths of their chains. My spear had not left my hand. Both animals were jerked up short as mighty chains, fastened to steel and bejeweled collars, terminated their vicious charge. One was thrown on its back, so violent was its rush, and the other stood wildly for a moment towering over me like a rearing giant stallion, its huge claws slashing the air, fighting the collar that held it from me. Then at the length of their chains they crouched, snarling, regarding me balefully, occasionally lashing out with a clawed paw as if to sweep me into range of their fearsome jaws. I was struck with wonder, though I was careful to keep beyond the range of their chains, for I had never seen white larls before. They were gigantic beasts, superb specimens, perhaps eight feet at the shoulder. Their upper canine fangs, like daggers mounted in their jaws, must have been at least a foot in length and extended well below their jaws in the manner of ancient saber-toothed tigers. The four nostril slits of each animal were flared and their great chests lifted and fell with the intensity of their excitement. Their tails, long and tufted at the end, lashed back and forth. The larger of them unaccountably seemed to lose interest in me. He rose to his feet and sniffed the air, turning his side to me, and seemed ready to abandon any intentions of doing me harm. Only an instant later did I understand what was happening for suddenly turning he threw himself on his side and his head facing in the other direction hurled his hind legs at me. I lifted the shield for to my horror in reversing his position on the chain he had suddenly added some twenty feet to the fearful perimeter of the space allotted to him by that hated impediment. Two great clawed paws smote my shield and hurled me twenty feet against the cliff. I rolled and scrambled back further for the stroke of the larl had dashed me into the radius of its mate. My cloak and garments were torn from my back by the stroke of the second larl's claws. I struggled to my feet. "Well done," I said to the larl. I had barely escaped with my life. Now the two beasts were filled with a rage which dwarfed their previous fury, for they sensed that I would not again approach closely enough to permit them a repetition of their primitive stratagem. I admired the larls, for they seemed to me intelligent beasts. Yes, I said to myself, it was well done. I examined my shield and saw ten wide furrows torn across its brassbound hide surface. My back felt wet with the blood from the second larl's claws. It should have felt warm, but it felt cold. I knew it was freezing on my back. There was no choice now but to go on, somehow, if I could. Without the small homely necessities of a needle and thread I should probably freeze. There was no wood in the Sardar with which to build a fire. Yes, I repeated grimly to myself, glaring at the larls, though smiling, it was well done, too well done. Then I heard the movement of chains and I saw that the two chains which fastened the larls were not hooked to rings in the stone but vanished within circular apertures. Now the chains were being slowly drawn in, much to the obvious frustration of the beasts. The place in which I found myself was considerably wider than the path on which I had trod, for the path had given suddenly onto a fairly large circular area in which I had found the chained larls. One side of this area was formed by the sheer cliff which had been on my right and now curved about making a sort of cup of stone; the other side, on my left, lay partly open to the frightful drop below, but was partly enclosed by another cliff, the side of a second mountain, which impinged on the one I had been climbing. The circular apertures into which the larls' chains were being drawn were located in these two cliffs. As the chains were drawn back, the protesting larls were dragged to different sides. Thus a passage of sorts was cleared between them, but the passage led only, as far as I could see, to a blank wall of stone. Yet I supposed this seemingly impervious wall must house the portal of the Hall of Priest-Kings. As the beasts had felt the tug of the chains they had slunk snarling back against the cliffs, and now they crouched down, their chains little more than massive leashes. I thought the snowy whiteness of their pelts was beautiful. Throaty growls menaced me, and an occasional paw, the claws extended, was lifted, but the beasts made no effort now to pull against the grim, jewel-set collars which bound them.
As well might a young larl with spotted coat be matched against a giant, tawny claw Ubar of the Voltai. Slave Girl of Gor Book 11 Page 233
The hunter pulled a pelt from the bundle of furs he carried. It was snowy white, and thick, the winter fur of a two-stomached snow lart. It almost seemed to glisten. The slaver's man appreciated its value. Such a pelt could sell in Ar for half a silver tarsk. He took the pelt and examined it. The snow lart hunts in the sun. The food in the second stomach can be held almost indefinitely. It is filled in the fall and must last the lart through the winter night, which lasts months, the number of months depending on the latitude of his individual territory. It is not a large animal. It is about ten inches high and weighs between eight and twelve pounds. It is mammalian, and has four legs. It eats bird's eggs and preys on the leem, a small arctic rodent, some five to ten ounces in weight, which hibernates during the winter. "How do you work your living?" I asked. "Are you a bandit?" "No," said he. "I am a trader. I trade north of Ax Glacier for the furs of sleen, the pelts of leem and larts." "Can you skin so many?" I asked. "No," she said. "We content ourselves with prime hide. Most of the animals we leave for the larts and sleen, and the jards." "I had them both for the pelt of a snow lart and the pelts of four leems," said Imnak, rather pleased with himself. Barbara looked angry. A metal panel slid up. I heard a squeal and a small animal, a lart, fled from within toward the opening. It happened quickly. The large six-digited paw of the beast closed about the lart, hideously squealing, and lifted it to its mouth, where it bit through the back of its neck, spitting out vertebrae. The lart, dead, but spasmodically trembling, was then held in the beast's mouth. It then, with its claws freed, opened its furs and, by feel, delicately, regarding me, fingered out various organs which it laid on the floor before it. In moments it had removed the animal from its mouth. Absently, removing meat from the carcass, it fed. The beast extended to me a thigh of the lart. "True," it said. "I see you understand us well." "It is to your advantage that there be native Kurii," I said. "Of course," he said, "yet they are seldom useful allies. They lapse too swiftly into barbarism." He lowered the bone with which he was picking his teeth and threw it, and the remains of the lart, to the side of the room. He then took a soft, white cloth from a drawer in the table on which the translator reposed, and wiped his paws. "Civilization is fragile," he said.
The hunter pulled a pelt from the bundle of furs he carried. It was snowy white, and thick, the winter fur of a two-stomached snow lart. It almost seemed to glisten. The slaver's man appreciated its value. Such a pelt could sell in Ar for half a silver tarsk. He took the pelt and examined it. The snow lart hunts in the sun. The food in the second stomach can be held almost indefinitely. It is filled in the fall and must last the lart through the winter night, which lasts months, the number of months depending on the latitude of his individual territory. It is not a large animal. It is about ten inches high and weighs between eight and twelve pounds. It is mammalian, and has four legs. It eats bird's eggs and preys on the leem, a small arctic rodent, some five to ten ounces in weight, which hibernates during the winter. The hunter drew forth from the bundle of furs two tiny pelts of the leem. These were brown, the summer coats of the animals. "Look," said the slaver's man, gesturing at the two girls, the blond and the dark-haired girl. "Two beauties!" The hunter drew forth two more pelts of the leem. "Not enough," said the slaver's man. "How do you work your living?" I asked. "Are you a bandit?" "No," said he. "I am a trader. I trade north of Ax Glacier for the furs of sleen, the pelts of leem and larts." I looked at the high meat racks, some with tiers, some twenty feet or more in height, to protect the meat from sleen, both those domesticated and the wild sleen that might prowl to the shores as the hunting, the leems hibernating, grew sparse inland. "I had them both for the pelt of a snow lart and the pelts of four leems," said Imnak, rather pleased with himself. Barbara looked angry. "What lazy animals those sleen are," said Imnak. "They are not even really hungry, but they are keeping us in mind. They should be out hunting snow bosk, or basking sea sleen, or burrowing and scratching inland for hibernating leems."
Far off, across the marsh, we could hear the noises of jungle birds, the howling of tiny, long-limbed primates. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 257 Monkeys and tree urts, and snakes and insects, however, can also be found in this highest level. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 311 In the second level, that of the canopies, is found an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches, mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel, the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and many more. Here, too, may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts, leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines, lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects, ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles and flies, and so on. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 311
Trees surrounded us. Overhead bright jungle birds flew. We could hear the chattering of guernon monkeys about.
In the lower branches of the "ground zone" may be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to man. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 312
The saru is found variously on Gor, but usually in tropical areas. For example, it is common in the jungles of the Ua. Also, I had learned from Tajima, it is found, here and there, in the home, so to speak, of the "strange men." The saru is a small, usually arboreal animal. It is usually regarded with amusement, or contempt. It figures in children's stories as a cute, curious, mischievous little beast, but also one that is stupid, vain, and ignorant. Although the saru, as far as I can tell, is not a monkey zoologically, it surely occupies a similar ecological niche, and resembles the monkey in its diet, habits, groupings, and such. It is tailless. I think it would not be amiss to think of the saru as a Gorean monkey. In any event Tajima, when he put the slave before him on her knees, in the stable, to be named, told her, in English, that there be no mistaking the matter, and she clearly understand what was being done to her, what 'Saru' meant, its connotations, and such. She was, in effect, he told her, going to be named "Monkey." "Yes Master," she whispered. "Saru," I said, "a slave, in effect 'Monkey'."
Panthers, too, hunted largely at night, but, unlike the sleen, were not invariably nocturnal. The panther, when hungry, or irritable, hunts. Hunters of Gor Book 8 Page 106 She looked back at me, over her shoulder, fear in her eyes. I climbed downward. The sleen is a burrowing animal. It seldom climbs. The panther can climb, but it is accustomed to take its hunting scents from the ground. "There are panthers," I said, "and beasts called larls. Such animals are very dangerous." "As far as I know, there has not been a panther or larl in the vicinity of Venna in more than a hundred years," she said. "It could have been wandering far outside its customary range," I said, "perhaps driven by hunger, or thirst." "They were not the tracks of a panther or larl," she said. "It is dangerous here," he said. "There may be animals." "That is possible," I said, "but I do not think there is much to fear in the reserve. The oddity of the ditch discourages the entrance of animals, and, as there is little grazing here, there would be few herbivores, and there being few herbivores, there will be few carnivores. Too, the human is unfamiliar prey to most carnivores, the panther, the sleen, the larl, and such. They will certainly attack humans, and humans are surely within their prey range, but, given a choice, they will usually choose prey to which they are accustomed, wild tarsk, wild verr, tabuk, and such." "We are probably too far north for panthers," I said. "One is more likely to encounter them in the forests to the south." "Good," said Pertinax. "Unless, of course, some range this far north, but that is unusual. There should, however, be sleen about." The sleen, as most predators, whether panthers, larls, or such, will stalk in such a manner as to approach the prey from downwind, from the direction toward which the wind is blowing. In this manner the scent of the prey is borne to them, and their own scent is carried backward, away from the prey. To such animals scent not only detects prey, but can be informative as to its distance, movements, numbers, and sex. Some predators, interestingly, will favor male prey over female prey, particularly in times of estrus. The favoring of male prey, it is conjectured, tends statistically, over time, to increase the number of prey animals. To be sure, risks are involved, as the male animal is usually wary, alert, aggressive, large, and armed, so to speak, wickedly horned, sharply hoofed, and such. In the distance, we again heard a roar, and shuddered. "That is a forest panther," he said. At this point there was another roar in the forest, but this one seemed mighty, as though it might have torn leaves from the trees. "That is no forest panther!" said a man. "No," said the newcomer, "it is a larl." "Larls are not this far north," said a man. "I do not think so," said Tyrtaios. "I suspect they do not concern themselves with such things. Nor should you. Perhaps they would enjoy it. I do not know. Rather, here, in the forest, one would not wish its whimperings, shrieks, or squeals to attract the attention of say, a passing sleen or panther." I knew that there were not only sleen in the forest, but panthers, as well. Larls are not indigenous to the northern forests, I was now familiar enough with the forest, of course, to realize I should seek shelter before the fall of darkness. Though both sleen and panthers hunt when hungry, they prowl most frequently in darkness. Both the sleen and the panther can leap well over their length, and may be found on stout branches several feet above the ground, but neither is a climbing animal, as one commonly thinks of climbing animals, probably because of their weight, which would render many branches precarious, either because of a bending, wavering instability or the possibility of breakage. I glanced to my left, and my attention was suddenly arrested, fearfully so, in a moment of terror. For an instant I could not move. Again, as I had long ago, on the first day of my escape from Shipcamp I thought I saw a beast's head in the shadows, looking at me, a large broad, motionless head. I had then regarded it with greater care, and found that it was no more than a misconstrued pattern in the forest, an artifact of perception, a misinterpreted mixture of brush and branches, light and shadow. It was no more than the creature of my fear. I laughed with relief. But then it emerged the brush, crouching, no taller than my waist. My eyes grew wide; my hand was raised before my mouth. I could not move. It was to my left, and between me and the river. Strangely it did not seem attentive to me. Rather it was looking beyond me, though, when I dared turn, I could see nothing there. Then the beast stood up fiercely, like a threatening, pulsating mountain, broad and braced, seething, its chest expanded, its paws spread, stood up to each tiny increment of its height, lifted its large shaggy head angrily to the afternoon sky, and roared, a terrible roar, much like those we had heard when in the camp of Genserich, but then far off, and then closer. From such a sound, even were the monster caged, I think uneasy, awed men might back away and women flee. Then from my right I heard, unmistakably, from within the brush somewhere, an answering, rumbling growl. I had occasionally sensed I might have shared the forest with some unseen companion, like a shadow amongst the trees, but I had dismissed this apprehension as, Ahn after Ahn, even following investigations, I had detected nothing. Too, if there were any warrant for my fears, why had I not, in all this time if it were a predator, been attacked? To bring down, and feed upon, a prey such as I might be, an unarmed kajira in the forest, would pose no difficulty to any likely predator. I lacked the stealth and speed of the tabuk, the horns of the forest bosk, the tusks of the tarsk boar. But clearly, now, there was not one, but two beasts, that which had emerged from the brush of the riverside, where, suddenly disturbed, it might have been drinking, and the other still unseen, in the brush to my right. I remained perfectly still. I think this was less wisdom than a consequence of the fact that I found myself unable to move. I suppose I was too frightened. But, too, more consciously, I did realize, even if I felt I could move, any swift movement on my part would be likely to trigger the pursuit response common in most predators. And turning one way, away from one beast even had I the agility and speed of the small, graceful tabuk, might have brought myself within the compass of the other. It seemed to me that my body, denying me the capacity for motion, possibly expressed a rationality deeper than one rationality itself might have recognized. I then saw the second beast. Its mottling would have rendered it almost invisible in the lights and shadows amongst the trees, its common background. There was tall grass and brush here, however, near the river. Seemingly it had availed itself here of this natural cover. However, that might be the grass now parted like a curtain as it pressed it aside. Half of it was then clearly visible. Its belly was low, but its head was up. It snarled. The jaws were half open. I had seen such teeth before, fangs, pierced and strung on necklaces and armlets of Panther Girls. It was clearly vicious, and determined, this beast, but, too, it was smaller than the beast which had appeared from the side of the river. The larger beast roared, again, but the smaller beast held its ground, crouched down, snarling. I suddenly felt miserably sick and helpless. I now had some sense of what was transpiring. The smaller beast had been following me, seemingly content, at least for the time being, for some reason, to do no more than keep me within its range. I had been unaware of its presence. I was unclear as to why, if it were about, it had not attacked. And, in following me, the smaller beast had strayed into the range of the larger beast. The panther, like the sleen, is highly territorial. The defense of territory selects for size, power, and ferocity. The Ubarship of a territory is not easily won, nor easily maintained. Territory, obviously, contains game for harvesting. If carnivores such as the panther and sleen were permissibly gregarious, the game within a territory would be soon depleted, and starvation would ensue. Larls may pride but they usually frequent, as well, areas where game is abundant, and the prides themselves can be competitive. Larls, as noted, do not frequent the northern forests. It would not be practical for them to do so. Claiming and maintaining a territory can also figure in successful mating, as females of various species will seek out territory masters, and present themselves, wooing and seducing, for acceptance or rejection. Males without well-established territories often remain unmated. In this sense, in several species, the primary competition seems not so much directly for mates, as for food, and survival, for the achievement of territory, a consequence of which is likely to be access to one or more females, depending on the species. The first beast then roared, again, terribly. I supposed these threatening displays were intended to be intimidating. Surely they seem so. The hair on my forearms and on the back of my neck rose. It is clearly in the interest of the territory master, wherever possible, to avoid combat. If it can bring about the backing down, or withdrawal, of a challenger, frightening the challenger, convincing the challenger that the challenge is ill-advised, the territory master survives unscathed, and the challenger, as well, who may then try elsewhere, perhaps with better fortune. If combat actually occurs, as it might one or both animals may be killed, and, if not, both may be weakened, bled, and impaired, with the consequence that the territory master is more vulnerable and the challenger is less well equipped to initiate a new challenge elsewhere. Despite the fearful roar of the larger beast, the smaller animal did not retreat, but, rather, came into view, fully, parting the grass, moving through it, and, to my uneasiness, came about me, not taking its eyes from those of the larger beast, and crouched down, tail lashing, growling, between the larger beast and myself. Then, to my further bewilderment and trepidation, the larger beast moved about me, so that, now it was behind my position, between me and the forest, and the smaller beast now placed itself between me and the river. Any thought that I might have had of reaching the river or slipping back into the forest, eluding the beasts as they concerned themselves with one another, was gone. They then began, each threatening and snarling, again and again, regarding one another, to traverse the perimeter of the circle in which I found myself the reluctant, trembling center. I stood there, watching, moving as little as possible. I could not understand why the smaller animal did not make away. I thought it no match for the larger beast. Then, sick, I thought I understood. Even a small sleen, I knew, will defend its food dish in the face of a larger animal. There are many animals, even animals commonly loyal, and friendly, between whom and their food it would be unwise, even dangerous, to place oneself. One does not attempt to remove a haunch of tarsk from even a pet sleen, once it has been given to him. It is then his. Few animals will surrender their food to another. Nature has apparently not favored that behavior. I suspected the smaller animal, though it was certainly large enough, and fearsome enough, had been with me since yesterday, when I had fled the camp of Genserich. If it had kept itself with me, as a subtle, lengthy, softly treading, breathing shadow, always nearby, there must have been a reason. The likely reason then became disturbingly clear to me. The panther, the sleen, the larl, seldom feed daily. Indeed, they may go days between meals. The smaller beast, I suspected, for some reason, was saving me. It had not yet been ready to feed. Suddenly the larger beast, as though some spring in that great body had been released, charged, scrambling, through the center of the circle, and I was buffeted, spinning, to the side, for it struck me in its passage, I felt its ribs, and it hurled itself on the smaller beast which was rolled to its back, and then, in a moment, they were rolling about, biting, and tearing at one another. I could scarcely follow their movements, so rapid they were, so swift and fierce was the tumult of their engagement. Then I saw the larger beast rear up from that loose, spattering tangle of fur and blood, its jaws on the throat of the smaller beast, and, itself rent, torn, and bloody, its flanks and shoulders red with the furrows of claw marks, it lifted the smaller body half from the ground, and shook it, and shook it long after it was without life, repeatedly, meaninglessly, in the pointless, spasmodic frenzy of the kill. It then lay down, its scarlet-flowing jaws still clenched on the throat of the smaller beast, whose body now lay across its paws. It was breathing heavily. An ear was half torn away. I could see bone at the side of its face. It was looking toward me. I did not know if it saw me or not. I was lying on my belly, where I had fallen, near the center of that circle whose periphery had been recently trodden by two dangerous beasts. I felt my hands pulled behind me and I heard the click of slave bracelets. Then a leash collar was buckled about my throat. "Kill it, please, kill it, Master," I begged. "No," he said. "It is dangerous!" I said. "It is not dangerous now," he said. "Perhaps later it will be dangerous." I recognized the voice. "You are fortunate you were not eaten," he said. "I might not have arrived in time." "I think I was followed since yesterday," I said. "Quite possibly," he said. "A panther not driven by hunger will often linger in the vicinity of prey, or follow it, at a convenient distance." "How did you find me?" I asked. "I speculated you would regard your escape from the camp as successfully accomplished, not irrationally, and would then, too soon perhaps, return to the river. I thus kept to the shoreline. To be sure, some fortune was involved. I feared, naturally enough, you might be tracked by panthers, or sleen, and thus, when I heard a particular roar, a typical roar of warning, of territorial claimancy, I conjectured a territorial intrusion might have occurred, either deliberately or inadvertently. In any case, I decided to investigate."
As I ran through the darkness I suddenly saw, before me, some fifty or sixty yards away, four pairs of blazing eyes, a pride of forest panthers. I pretended not to see them and, heart pounding, turned to one side, walking through the trees. At this time, at night, I knew they would be hunting. Our eyes had not met. I had the strange feeling that they had seen me, and knew that I had seen them, as I had seen them, and sensed that they had seen me. But our eyes had not directly met. We had not, so to speak, signaled to one another that we were aware of one another. The forest panther is a proud beast, but, too, he does not care to be distracted in his hunting. We had not confronted one another. I only hoped that I might not be what they were hunting. I was not. They turned aside into the darkness, padding away. Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 181 In certain of the cages, of heavy, peeled branches lashed together, there snarled and hissed forest sleen, in others there raged the dreadful, tawny, barred panthers of the northern forests. Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 210 Panther girls are arrogant. They live by themselves in the northern forests, by hunting, and slaving and outlawry. They have little respect for anyone, or anything, saving themselves and, undeniably, the beasts they hunt, the tawny forest panthers, the swift, sinuous sleen. Then she lifted her eyes to the forests beyond. We heard, as is not uncommon, the screams of forest panthers within the darkness of the trees. Cabot awaited the tearing of his body. "We are probably too far north for panthers," I said. "One is more likely to encounter them in the forests to the south." "Good," said Pertinax. "Unless, of course, some range this far north, but that is unusual. There should, however, be sleen about." In the distance, we again heard a roar, and shuddered. "That is a forest panther," he said. At this point there was another roar in the forest, but this one seemed mighty, as though it might have torn leaves from the trees. "That is no forest panther!" said a man. "No," said the newcomer, "it is a larl." "Larls are not this far north," said a man. I knew that there were not only sleen in the forest, but panthers, as well. Larls are not indigenous to the northern forests,
On the jungle floor, as well, are found jungle larls and jungle panthers, of diverse kinds, and many smaller catlike predators. These, on the whole, however, avoid men. They are less dangerous in the rain forest, generally, than in the northern latitudes. I do not know why this should be the case. Perhaps it is because in the rain forest food is usually plentiful for them, and, thus, there is little temptation for them to transgress the boundaries of their customary prey categories. They will, however, upon occasion, particularly if provoked or challenged, attack with dispatch. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 312
Few, incidentally, except in the armed parties, traverse the mountains on foot. It is difficult and dangerous to do so. They are not only rugged and precipitous, but are apparently alive with animals, such as rock panthers and sleen. Witness of Gor Book 26 Page 417
"I come from far off," she said, "from another world, one called Earth, brought here like a dog or horse, stripped and sold like a pig in a public, open market. But, forgive me. Master does not know those animals." Avengers of Gor Book 36 Page 43
In the second level, that of the canopies, is found an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches, mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel, the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and many more. Here, too, may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts, leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines, lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects, ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles and flies, and so on. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 311
Near one of the green stretches I saw what I first thought was a shadow, but as the tarn passed, it scattered into a scampering flock of tiny creatures, probably the small, three-toed mammals called qualae, dun-colored and with a stiff brushy mane of black hair. Tarnsman of Gor Book 1 Page 140 - 141 Small straight bows, of course, not the powerful long bow, are, on the other hand, reasonably common on Gor, and these are often used for hunting light game, such as the brush-maned, three-toed Qualae, the yellow-pelted, single-horned Tabuk, and runaway slaves.
(in context it seems there are no rabbits on Gor) "Is it difficult to 'gather' these girls?" I asked. "No," he said, "they are trapped more easily than the small animals you call rabbits. Consider your own case."
On the floor itself are also found several varieties of animal life, in particular marsupials, such as the armored gatch, and rodents, such as slees and ground urts. Several varieties of tarsk, large and small, also inhabit this zone.
It is at night that the sleen hunts, that six-legged, long-bodied mammalian carnivore, almost as much a snake as an animal. I had never seen one, but had seen the tracks of one seven years before. I caught a strange, unpleasant scent, much like a common weasel or ferret, only stronger. In that instant every sense was alert. I froze, an almost animal response. I was silent, not moving, seeking the shelter of stillness and immobility. My head turned imperceptibly as I scanned the rocks and bushes about the road. I thought I heard a slight sniffling, a grunt, a small doglike whine. Then nothing. It too had frozen, probably sensing my presence. Most likely it was a sleen, hopefully a young one. I guessed it had not been hunting me or I would not have been likely to have smelled it. It would have approached from upwind. Perhaps I stood thus for six or seven minutes. I then I saw it, on its six short legs, undulate across the road, like a furred lizard, its pointed, whiskered snout swaying from side to side testing the wind. I breathed a sigh of relief. I had hardly moved another step when, in a flash of lightning, I saw the sleen, this time a fully grown animal, some nineteen or twenty feet long, charging toward me, swiftly, noiselessly, its ears straight against its pointed head, its fur slick with rain, its fangs bared, its wide nocturnal eyes bright with the lust of the kill. A strange sound escaped me, an incredible laugh. It was a thing I could see, could feel, could fight! With an eagerness and a lust that matched that of the beast itself, I rushed forward in the darkness and when I judged its leap I lunged forward with the broad-headed spear of Gor. My arm felt wet and trapped, and was raked with fangs and I was spun as the animal squealed with rage and pain and rolled on the road. I withdrew my arm from the weak, aimlessly snapping jaws. Another flash of lightning and I saw the sleen on its belly chewing on the shaft of the spear, its wide nocturnal eyes unfocused and glazed. My arm was bloody, but the blood was mostly that of the sleen. My arm had almost rammed itself down the throat of the animal following the spear I had flung into its mouth. I moved my arm and fingers. I was unhurt. In the next flash of lightning I saw the sleen was dead. A shudder involuntarily shook me, though I do not know if this was due to the cold and the rain or the sight of the long, furred lizardlike body that lay at my feet. I tried to extract the spear but it was wedged between the ribs of the animal. Coldly I took out my sword and hacked away the head of the beast and jerked the weapon free. Then, as sleen hunters do, for luck, and because I was hungry, I took my sword and cut through the fur of the animal and ate the heart. It is said that only the heart of the mountain larl brings more luck than that of the vicious and cunning sleen. The raw meat, hot with the blood of the animal, nourished me, and I crouched beside my kill on the road to Ko-ro-ba, another predator among predators. I laughed. "Did you, Oh Dark Brother of the Night, think to keep me from Ko-ro-ba?" How absurd it seemed to me that a mere sleen should have stood between me and my city. Irrationally I laughed, thinking how foolish the animal had been. But could it have known? How could it have known that I was Tarl of Ko-ro-ba, and that I was returning to my city? There is a Gorean proverb that a man who is returning to his city is not to be detained. Was the sleen not familiar with that saying? I shook my head, to clear it of the wild thoughts. I sensed that I was irrational, perhaps a bit drunk after the kill and the first food I had had in several hours. Then, soberly, though I acknowledged it as a superstition, I performed the Gorean ritual of looking into the blood. With my cupped hands I drank a mouthful of blood, and then, holding another in my hands, I waited for the next flash of lightning. One looks into the blood in one's cupped hands. It is said that if one sees one's visage black and wasted one will die of disease, if one sees oneself torn and scarlet one will die in battle, if one sees oneself old and white haired, one will die in peace and leave children. The lightning flashed again, and I stared into the blood. In that brief moment, in the tiny pool of blood I held, I saw not myself but a strange face, like a globe of gold with disklike eyes, a face like none I had ever seen, a face that struck an eerie terror into my heart. The darkness returned, and in the next flash of lightning I examined the blood again, but it was only blood, the blood of a sleen I had killed on the road to Ko-ro-ba. I could not even see myself reflected in surface. I drank the blood, completing the ritual. I stood up, and wiped the spear as well as I could on the fur of the sleen. Its heart had given me strength. "Thank you, Dark Brother of the Night," I said to the animal. "Now that you know," she asked, "what will you do with me? Will it be the oil of tharlarions? Will you throw me to leech plants? Will you stake me out for your tarn, use me to bait a sleen trap?" We had been treated to exhibitions of juggling, fire swallowing, and acrobats. There had been a magician, who particularly pleased Kamchak, and a man who, whip in hand, guided a dancing sleen through its paces. He dismounted and picked up a lounging garment from the vast sleeping platform in the room, holding it to the noses of the two sleen. "Hunt," said Kamchak. The two sleen seemed to drink in the scent of the robe and then they began to tremble, and the claws on their wide, soft feet emerged and retracted, and their heads lifted and began to sway from side to side. As one animal they turned and pulled their keeper by the chain leashes to what appeared to be a solid wall, where they rose on their back two legs and set their other four legs against it, snarling, whimpering, hissing. "Break through the wall," said Kamchak. He would not bother to search for the button or lever that might open the panel. In a few moments the wall had been shattered, revealing the dark passage beyond. "Bring lamps and torches," said Kamchak. The two sleen were snarling and pulling at their collars. The tawny hair hanging from their jaws was flecked with the foam of their agitation. Their eyes blazed. The claws when they emerged and retracted and emerged again tore at the rug. He gestured with his head to the beast. "Also, he may smell the beast. Sleen are sometimes curious, and not infrequently resentful of the intrusion of strange animals into what they choose to regard as their territory." The head of a sleen, eyes blazing, its long needlelike teeth snapping, thrust through the small, broken window, the shutters splintered to the side. Snarling, it began to wiggle its shoulders, like a cat, through the opening. The beast at the side of the wall went wild. The man, suddenly distraught, cried out in fear, backing away from the window. I was on my feet, backed against the wall. The large, wide, triangular head of the sleen, its nocturnal eyes blinking against the sudden light of the fire, thrust further into the room, followed by its shoulders, then its right, clawed paw. The beast bellowed in fury, leaping up. The man, as though brought to his senses by the maddened cry of the beast, picked up the slave whip and ran to the window, striking the sleen, trying to drive it back through the window. But, as I watched in horror, I realized the sleen could not retreat. It now had two paws through the window and a third of its body. It squealed and hissed in fury, struck by the whip, and then it caught it in its teeth and tore it away from the man. I, bound, screamed and pressed against the wall. Then the man picked up a piece of wood, kindling, from near the fire, and struck the sleen. The wood broke across its neck. Another paw and leg, clawed, scrabbled through the window. The sleen has six legs. It is long, sinuous; it resembles a lizard, save that it is furred and mammalian. In its attack frenzy it is one of the most dangerous animals on Gor. Wildly the man bent down to the fire and picked up a piece of wood from the fire, burning, and thrust it toward the sleen. It squealed in pain, blinded in one eye. Then it caught the wood in its teeth and wrenched it away. Then another leg came through the window, and almost half of the animal's body thrust into the room. The man then screamed and fled to the door. He threw up the beams, unlocking it. The beast roared at him and he turned, terrified. I screamed. I could not understand. It was almost as though the beast had commanded him to remain. The sleen, hissing, one eye blazing, the other seared by the torch, maddened with pain, began to wiggle and squirm through the aperture. Once I nearly stumbled on a sleen, bending over a slain Tabuk, a slender, graceful, single-horned antelopelike creature of the thickets and forests. The sleen lifted its long, triangular jaws and hissed. I saw the moonlight on the three rows of white, needlelike teeth. I screamed and turned and fled away. The sleen returned to its kill. My men carried sleen nets, as though they might be sleen hunters. Such nets, however, would also be suitable for the snaring of female slaves. I fought the heavy, curved steel jaws, but they had locked shut. The Gorean slave trap is not held by a simple, heavy spring as would be the trap for a panther or sleen. Such a spring, by a strong man, with his hands, might be thrust open. This trap had sprung shut and locked. The heavy steel curved snugly about his ankle. The sharp teeth, biting deeply, fastened themselves in his flesh. It could only be opened by key. "There is little possibility of losing her," said Marlenus. "I had her bedding, a blanket, changed this morning. She thinks that she washed her blanket but I substituted another, an identical one, from another girl." "Tonight," I said, " she would not have slept on the cleaned blanket." "Of course not," said Marlenus. "And," I said, "in Laura there are trained sleen." "Yes," said Marlenus. "And given the scent of her blanket there will not be difficulty in picking her up, even if we begin to search days from now." The sleen is Gor's most perfect hunter. I thought of the fierce sleen, with their fangs and blazing eyes, long-bodied, six-legged, like a furred lizard. "Let the slave," said Vinca, "be now staked out for sleen." "No!" cried Mira. "No!" Swiftly Mira, blindfolded, found herself bound as before to the stakes, if anything more securely. Only now she lay there a bound slave. "Leave her for the sleen," said Vinca. "Command me!" cried Mira. "I will do anything for you! Anything! A slave begs to be commanded!" "It is too late," said Vinca. "I beg to serve you!" she wept. "I beg to serve you!" "It is too late," said Vinca. "No!" cried Mira. "Gag her," said Vinca. Again I thrust the heavy wadding of fur deep in Mira's mouth, and tied it securely in place with the strip, twisted, of panther skin. We then withdrew, leaving the slave Mira lashed helplessly between the stakes. We waited. As we expected, it did not take long. Soon, prowling about in the brush, some yards away, was a sleen, drawn by the smell of the fresh blood, her own, smeared on Mira's slave body. The sleen is a cautious animal. He circled her, several times. I could smell the animal. So, too, doubtless could the others, and Mira. She seemed frozen in the lashings. Movement will sometimes provoke the animal's charge, if within a certain critical distance, which, for the sleen, is about four times the length of his body. The sleen scratched about in the grass. It made small noises. Tiny hisses and growls. The prey did not move. It came closer. I could hear it sniffing. Then, puzzled, it was beside her. It thrust its snout against her body, and began to lick at the blood. I removed a pile from one of the tem-wood arrows and capped the arrow with a wadding of fur. Mira, blindfolded, helpless, threw back her head in terror. It would have been the scream of a bound slave, naked, staked out for sleen. But there was no sound for she had been gagged by a warrior. He had not even entitled her to utter a sound when the very jaws would be upon her. Her body pulled back, shuddering like that of a tethered tabuk set out by hunters for larls. First the sleen began to lick the blood from her body. Then it began to grow excited. Then it thrust forth its head and took her entire body, from her waist to the small of her back, in its jaws, and lifted it in the lashings. I loosed the padded arrow. It struck the sleen on the side of the snout. Startled, it growled with rage, and leaped back, away from the prey. Then it stood over her, hissing, snarling, defending its find against another predator. Then the two paga slaves other than Vinca came forward, dragging the carcass of a tabuk. I had felled it before seeking Mira in her camp. They threw the carcass to one side. After much snarling and growling the sleen turned to the side, its snout still stinging, and seized up the tabuk and disappeared in the brush. the status of the thrall, correspondingly, however, such as it was, declined; he was now regarded as much in the same category with the urts that one clubs in the Sa-Tarna sheds, or are pursued by small pet sleen, kept there for that purpose, A sleen, more than eleven feet in length, six-legged, slid past, its fur wiping against my thigh. A girl fled past us, a sleen, brown and black, padding at her heels. I saw it, in the darkness, emerging from the brush. I thought, at first, because of its sinuous movement, that it was a great snake, but it was not. I thought, seeing it, holding itself closely to the ground, but yet free of the ground, that it might be a long-bodied lizard. Then, as moonlight fell through the tree branches in a pattern across its snout and neck, I saw not scales, but rippled fur, long and thick. Its eyes caught the light and flashed like burning copper. It snarled. I gasped. It had six legs. It was perhaps twenty feet in length, perhaps eleven hundred pounds in weight. It approached sinuously, hissing. The man spoke soothingly to the beast. His spear faced it. It circled us, and the man turned, always, spear ready, facing it. I kept behind the man. Then the beast disappeared in the shadows. I collapsed at the man's feet, shuddering. He did not admonish me. I was not punished. He had not acted as though he particularly feared the beast. It was not simply that he was brave, and had hunted such animals, but, as I later understood, that he was familiar with the habits of such beasts. The beast had not been hunting us. Commonly such a beast scouts prey, surreptitiously, and then, unless suspecting a trap, as with a tethered victim, perhaps a staked-out girl, used as a lure, makes its swift, unexpected strike, its kill charge. The beast had been on another scent, probably that of tabuk, a small, single-horned antelopelike creature, its common game, and, on its trail, we had constituted only a distraction. Such a beast is a tireless and single-minded hunter. Domesticated, it is often used as a tracker. Once it sets out upon a scent it commonly pursues it unwaveringly. Evolution, in its case, has, among other things, apparently selected for tenacity. This is a useful feature, of course, in tracking. Fortunately ours had not been fine first scent that night which the beast, upon emerging from its lair, had taken. Had it been there would have been grim dealings. It is called a sleen. Tabuk's Ford is a rich village, but it is best known not for its agricultural bounty, a function of its dark, fertile fields in the southern basin of the Verl, but for its sleen breeding. I had dropped through the kennel door and, some feet below, struck the straw-strewn floor of the kennel. The kennel was a cage, a sleen cage, tipped on its side, fully barred, sunk mostly into the ground. The cage in its original attitude, when used for sleen, would have been some four feet in height, six feet in width and twelve feet in length. Tipped on its side, to better accommodate humans, it was some six feet in height and four by twelve feet in breadth and length. Verr are to be milked, the eggs of vulos gathered, and the sleen must be watered and fed, and their cages cleaned. "It is a harmless draught," he said. "Tup Ladletender and I, as young men," he said, "have fished and hunted sleen. Once I saved his life. We are brothers by the rite of the claws of sleen." Thurnus lifted his forearm where one might see a jagged scar. Ladletender, too, raised his arm, his sleeve falling back. On his forearm, too, there was such a scar. It had been torn by the claw of a sleen, in the hand of Thurnus; the same claw, in the hand of Ladletender, had marked the arm of Thurnus, their bloods had mingled, though they were of the peasants and merchants. "He now, has, too saved my life," said Thurnus. "I am pleased to have had the opportunity," said Ladletender. "I know little of sleen," she said. "I had thought it a sleen trained to hunt tabuk, in the company of archers, little more than an animal trained to turn and drive tabuk, and retrieve them." The sleen were now no more than two hundred yards away. The squealing was wild now, as they caught sight of the bound girl in the field. "They will tear me to pieces!" she wept. "Run, Lady Tina," suggested Ram. "They will tear me to pieces!" she wept, screaming. "It is the same chance," said he, "which I in your place would have had." The five sleen stopped now, tails thrashing, crouched down, shoulders high, heads low, eyes blazing. They were some fifty yards from the girl. Their nostrils were flared, their ears laid back against the sides of their broad, triangular heads. I saw the tongue of one darting in and out. They crept forward, there must be no mistake of losing the prey. The sleen charged. Ram, with his left hand on the tarn harness, managed to get his right hand on her arm. The tarn, given the sudden force on the one-strap, reared and, smiting the air with his mighty wings, lifted itself into the air. The girl screamed, dangling. One of the sleen leaped more than twenty feet into the air, tearing at her, but fell back to the turf, twisting, squealing. She who had been the Lady Tina was held safe in the arms of Ram, her master. He freed her hands that she might hold to him. With his knife he cut the rags from her hips and we watched them fall among the angry sleen who tore them to pieces. Never had I seen such beasts. They were darkly colored, usually brown, and some were black. They were, some of them, as much as twenty feet in length. Several must have weighed between twelve and fourteen hundred pounds. They were six legged, clawed, and doubly fanged. Their heads were wide and triangular, like those of vipers, but their bodies, long and sinuous, were thickly furred. They twisted and squirmed about one another. I had been held by the two men at the edge of the barrier, to see the attack on the first piece of lowered meat. The animals leaped for it, some of them thirty or more feet into the air. Some even caught and clung to it as it was being lowered, tearing at it and cutting at it with their hind pairs of feet. There was a stink in the place of the animals, and the noise of their snarling, their hissing, their squealing and challenge screams was ear-piercing and horrifying. "The animals you have seen are called sleen," she said. "They are used for many purposes on Gor. One purpose they are commonly used for is to hunt down and destroy slaves. That is the purpose, incidentally, for which the animals you have just seen have been trained." I thrust past them. Then I drew back, quickly. A brown sleen threw itself to the end of a short, heavy chain. It snarled. It bared its fangs. Such a beast could take a leg from a man at the thigh, with a single motion of those great jaws. Scouts are sometimes called sleen by the red savages. The sleen is Gor's most efficient and tenacious tracker. They are often used to hunt slaves. Too, the scout, often, in most tribes, wears the pelt of a sleen. This pelt, like a garment which is at one time both cowl and cape, covers both the head and back. It is perhaps felt that something of the sleen's acuity and tenacity is thus imparted to the scout. Some scouts believe that they become, when donning this pelt, a sleen. This has to do with their beliefs as to the mysterious relationships which are thought to obtain between the world of reality and the medicine world, that, at times, these two worlds impinge on one another, and become one. To be sure, from a practical point of view, the pelt makes an excellent camouflage. It is easy, for example, to mistake a scout, on all fours, spying over a rise, for a wild sleen. Such animals are not uncommon in the Barrens. Their most common prey is tabuk. We saw a small gray sleen, some seven or eight feet in length, lift up its bead. We urged our kaiila down the slope, into the shallow declivity between two low hills. My stomach twisted. We had smelled this before we had come upon it. The sleen permitted us to approach rather closely. It was reluctant to leave its location. There were insects on its brown snout, and about its eyes. Its lower jaw was wet. "Hei!" cried Grunt, slapping the side of his thigh. The beast seized another bite and, whipping about, on its six legs, with its almost serpentine motion, withdrew. Speusippus might not even rent sleen. By the time he could do so, he would recognize, as a rational man, that the scent presumably would have faded. Too, he had little of practical value in giving such beasts the initial scent. Too, it is expensive to rent sleen, and Speusippus, who was a poor man, might even lack the means to do so. It is much more expensive, for example, to rent a sleen than a slave. Sleen are often rented by the Ahn. Slaves are commonly rented by the day or week. "Sleen," said one of the men. It is true that sleen sometimes make kills swiftly and silently. I then pushed in between the sleen and the Kur. Belnar was inert, moved only by the beasts. His eyes were still open, staring upward. One of the sleen snarled, but it did not so much as look at me. Sleen are extremely single-minded beasts, even in feeding, and, as long as I did not attempt to interfere with it, or counter its will, I did not fear the Kur. The beast beside me then, almost inaudibly, but intensely, uttered an approximation of human vocables. The sleen, startling me, suddenly spun about, the five of them, six-legged, agile, sinuous and muscular, some nine or ten feet in length, and crowded about our legs, hissing, snarling, looking upward. "By the Priest-Kings!" cried a man, in horror. Suddenly, at the utterance of a hissed syllable, coupled with a fierce, directed gesture from the beast, a movement almost like throwing a weapon violently underhanded, one of the animals, fangs bared, lunged fiercely toward the men. In an instant it was under, and among, the spears, tearing and slashing. There were wild screams and a sudden breaking of ranks. The men had not expected this charge, and were not ready for it. Even if they had been regrouped and set, the distance was so short and the attack of the beast so precipitous and swift that there had been no time to align their weapons in a practical, properly angled, defensive perimeter. The beast, accordingly, had simply darted into what, from its point of view, was an obvious opening. Another sleen then, another living weapon, with another fierce syllable and gesture, was launched by the beast. Then another, and another, to scattering men, to wildly striking weapons, and then the last! "Behind the Ubar's box!" said the beast to me. "I think you will like Borko," he said. "What is it?" I whispered. My head was held down, back on the second step. "Keep your legs apart," he said. "It is a gray sleen. I raised it from a whelp. Ah, greetings, Borko! How are you, old fellow!" I would have screamed and reared up, but I was, thrust back, helpless, half strangled, scarcely able to utter a sound, to the step. So our masters can control us by our collars. To my terror, then, pushing over my body, to thrust its great jaws and head, so large I could scarcely have put my arms about them, into the hands and arms of my master, was an incredible beast. It had an extremely agile, active, sinuous body, as thick as a drum, and perhaps fourteen or fifteen feet long. It might have weighed a thousand pounds. Its broad head was triangular, almost viperlike, but it was furred. This thing was a mammal, or mammalian. Its eyes now had pupils like slits, like those of a cat in sunlight. So quickly then might its adaptive mechanisms have functioned. About its muzzle were gray hairs, grayer than the silvered gray of its fur. It had six legs. "The sleen," he said, "and especially the gray sleen, is Gor's finest tracker. It is a relentless, tenacious tracker. It can follow a scent that is weeks old, for a thousand pasangs." "A sleen does not exist who could follow the trail," said the small fellow. "You are not afraid of sleen?" asked the bearded fellow, skeptically. "No," said the small fellow. "What is more to be feared than sleen," he asked, "saving perhaps a larl?" "It is past noon," said the leader of the other men. "It is late in the day for a sleen to be abroad." The sleen is predominantly nocturnal. A sleen will usually follow the first scent it picks up when hunting, and then follow it tenaciously. There are stories of such beasts on the trail of something actually running between, or among, other animals, and even men, and paying them no attention. The head of the sleen remained immobile for more than twenty seconds. Had we not seen it, had we not known where it was, we might not have noticed it, even though it was only a matter of yards away. It is incredible how still such things can hold themselves. "Kill, Borko, kill!" he cried, indicating me with the point of his sword. I closed my eyes, sobbing. I felt then, however, the huge, cold snout of the beast thrusting itself under my left arm. I gasped, and cried out, softly. But there had been little, if anything, of menace in the gesture. Perhaps it was confirming my scent, prior to its attack. Then, again it rubbed its snout on my body. This seemed clearly an act of affection. I had seen it act so with Hendow himself. It was nuzzling me. Then I felt its large tongue lick across my body. "Good Borko! Good Borko!" cried Tupita. "Kill!" cried Mirus. "Kill her!" Borko looked at him, quizzically. "Very well, then, stupid beast," he said, "I shall do so myself!" He then raised his blade. Immediately the entire attitude of the sleen altered. It suddenly became alive with menace and hate. Its fur erected, its eyes blazed, it snarled viciously. Mirus, startled, stepped back. I think perhaps if the sleen had not known him from Brundisium, and as the friend of his master, he might have attacked him. Certainly, it seemed, as it was, he had no intention of letting him approach me. "It is protecting her!" cried Tupita, delightedly. "See! It will kill you if you try to hurt her! Come away! Let her go! Why fuss with a slave?" "How many are there?" I asked. "A hundred, or better," said Marcus. "And I assure you these sleen do not come cheap." I observed Octantius and his men being tied. Also I noted that their purses were being emptied. "We will take these fellows a few pasangs from Brundisium," said the leader of the mercenaries, "strip them and set them loose." "My thanks," said I, and my thanks were heartfelt. "Do not thank them," said Marcus. "They are sleen for hire. It is all in the contract." "Do you know with whom you are dealing?" I asked Marcus. "He is dealing with Edgar, of Tarnwald," said the leader of the mercenaries. "Of course," I said. "The mercenary sleen does not come cheap," said Marcus. Suddenly from my right emergent out of the dusk so quick so fierce so fast so large its head perhaps two feet in width the head large triangular its eyes blazing lunging toward the bars big the thing a hideous noise bars body pressing scratching I leaping back, screaming, it biting at the bars the fangs white grinding on the metal the snout thrusting against them the snarling, it couldn't get through, the growling the snarling I falling back twisting crying out then terrified on my hands and knees seeing it long thick like a gigantic furred thing snakelike lizardlike the thing it had sex legs its snout then pushing under the bottom crosspiece of the gate, trying to pry it up, to get at me I screaming! I had been unable to lift the gate, even an inch. But I saw the snout of that terrible triangular head, perhaps two feet wide at the base, push it up three or four inches and then it struck against some bolt, some bar or holding lever. It could not crawl under the gate. I could not get under it either. It then in frustration pressed its snout against the bars, filling the cave behind me with the waves of its enraged growling. I went to my stomach and put my hands over my ears. I shut my eyes. I shuddered. I could hear the gate creak as the beast pressed its weight against it. Ellen was lying on the shelf, her eyes closed against the sun, when suddenly, almost at her side, there was a loud, swift, scuffling noise and there was suddenly something large, extremely large, and alive, at least fifteen or twenty feet long, and weighing easily several hundred pounds, on the shelf beside her, something which had just arrived, scratching and twisting about, on its surface. It was almost over her. At the same time there was a powerful, feral odor, and she felt the heat of living breath on her body. She opened her eyes and screamed, and Jill, too, who was very close, screamed, and scrambled back to the length of her ankle chain. Ellen, as she was chained, had no such option at her disposal. She heard, not really understanding them for a moment or two, so wild and frightened were her own responses, similar sounds of fear and dismay from Lydia, Cichek and Emris. "Quiet, quiet, quiet!" called Targo, trying to settle his stock. "Greetings, Torquatus," he called. The beast, which was long, powerful, agile, muscular and sinuous, was darkly, heavily furred, brownish with black bars. Its curious serpentine head, viperlike, moved back and forth. Its tongue, licking outward, then withdrawing, was reddish. It was fanged, these, in two rows, being white and sharp. Its tail twitched, lashing back and forth, though not seemingly in anger, rather in excitement. Its entire body seemed curious, quick, vibrantly alive. It had a heavy leather collar. It thrust its large snout against Ellen's body, and under her arms, and between her thighs, and she screamed and twisted, and Targo told her to be quiet, and it licked her body, as though tasting her, and then drew its tongue back into the mouth, and then it moved about on the shelf, making its way over and about Ellen, sensing each of the occupants on the shelf, who were almost frozen with fear. "Greetings, Targo," said a bearded fellow in a rough tunic. "Back, Varcus," he called. "Back, boy. Down, boy. Heel, boy." The gigantic, sinuous creature twisted about on the shelf and, its forelegs first, and then its two pairs of hind legs, following, returned to the ground, in front of the shelf. Turning to the side, twisting in the chains, trembling, Ellen could not see it any longer. She surmised it must be in the vicinity of the bearded fellow. The beast's fur had been glossy and oily, and some of this oil had adhered to her body, and, for a moment, she had felt her right thigh in a mighty, almost prehensile grip, within the menacing softness of which she had sensed curved, knifelike hardnesses, like short, sheathed scimitars. She could still feel the roughnesses from the beast's swift, inquisitive investigations of her body, the forcible thrustings of its snout about her, its coldness, the rapid, exploratory movements of the hot, moist, rasplike tongue on her breasts and belly. Needless to say, the common prey of the wild sleen is not the human being, but the human being is not safe from them. He lies within their prey range. Indeed, they will attack animals larger than humans, kaiila, wild bosk, and such. Kardok, reaching bloodied arms into the midst of the frenzied, intent gray sleen, drew them, first one, and then the other, twisting, snarling, by the neck, from the body of his fellow, one with its jaws still filled with fur and meat, and bit each, in turn, through the back of the neck. The sleen had seemed not even aware of him, so intent, so fixed, they were on their business. "Do you hear it?" she asked. "Yes," he said. "Sleen." "They are animals," she said. "You have never seen one," he said. "No," she said. "Are they dangerous?" "Some are wild, some are domesticated, all are dangerous," he said. The sleen will commonly drag prey to a concealed location, where it may feed undisturbed, in solitude. Sometimes it buries part of the meat. The sleen is commonly nocturnal, usually emerging from its lair, or burrow, at night. It is in its way a single-minded beast and will follow a trail on which it has begun even through the midst of similar or different, even more desirable, prey animals. It is Gor's finest tracker. A common application of the sleen on Gor is the hunting of fugitive slaves. "Drive," said Cabot to the sleen, softly. To a trained animal it is not necessary to speak commands sharply, or harshly. Often one wants to issue them quietly, very quietly, even whispered, that a quarry may not be alerted to its presence. It may be recalled he had retrained the sleen in the forest, beginning with the translator, to substitute Gorean for Kur, such that the animal would now respond only to Gorean, and, as is usual with a sleen and single trainer, only to the particular trainer's commands. It would not do, obviously, for just any individual to be able to set so dangerous a beast into its behaviors. When masters change the beast must be retrained, or, if this proves impractical, killed. "Your scent has been taken," said Cabot to the slave. "Too, it has been associated with a particular name. The purpose of this should be clear. The name, together with a given command, initiates the sleen's behavior. For example, given the "kill" command the sleen will locate and destroy the quarry, given a "drive" command, it will conduct the quarry to a predetermined location, or, if the quarry should prove recalcitrant, tear it to pieces. There are other commands, too, as you may suspect, but most are obvious, and I decline to make clear their nature. If you understand the purport of what I am saying, nod affirmatively." "The sleen is territorial," I said. "It is unlikely there would be another in the vicinity." "It is dangerous here," he said. "There may be animals." "That is possible," I said, "but I do not think there is much to fear in the reserve. The oddity of the ditch discourages the entrance of animals, and, as there is little grazing here, there would be few herbivores, and there being few herbivores, there will be few carnivores. Too, the human is unfamiliar prey to most carnivores, the panther, the sleen, the larl, and such. They will certainly attack humans, and humans are surely within their prey range, but, given a choice, they will usually choose prey to which they are accustomed, wild tarsk, wild verr, tabuk, and such." "We are probably too far north for panthers," I said. "One is more likely to encounter them in the forests to the south." "Good," said Pertinax. "Unless, of course, some range this far north, but that is unusual. There should, however, be sleen about." I recalled one had been in the vicinity of Pertinax's hut, when Constantina, who had annoyed me, had been put outside, gagged and bound, hands tied behind her, feet crossed, pulled up, and fastened closely to her hands, on the leaves. It is an unpleasant tie. I hoped she had found it instructive. The common sleen burrows, and would have its den below the frost line. To be sure it is an adaptive, successful life form. In the vicinity of the Red Hunters, there are snow sleen. In certain waters, there are sea sleen, and so on. The sleen, as most predators, whether panthers, larls, or such, will stalk in such a manner as to approach the prey from downwind, from the direction toward which the wind is blowing. In this manner the scent of the prey is borne to them, and their own scent is carried backward, away from the prey. To such animals scent not only detects prey, but can be informative as to its distance, movements, numbers, and sex. Some predators, interestingly, will favor male prey over female prey, particularly in times of estrus. The favoring of male prey, it is conjectured, tends statistically, over time, to increase the number of prey animals. To be sure, risks are involved, as the male animal is usually wary, alert, aggressive, large, and armed, so to speak, wickedly horned, sharply hoofed, and such. "Sleen do not normally attack humans, do they?" asked Lord Nishida. "Not usually," I said. The mountains are beautiful, but forbidding. They contain larls and sleen, and, in the lower ranges, wild tarsk, as well. As noted, at the higher altitudes, there is little to be found but wild verr and tiny snow urts. It was the first larl I had seen, though I had heard much of them. It is a much larger animal than the sleen, and it has four, not six, legs. It lairs in dens, and does not burrow like the sleen in the wild. It is carnivorous, and it most commonly hunts in the day. The sleen, in the wild, is predominantly nocturnal. The larl is probably the most fearsome land predator on Gor. The sleen, on the other hand, is Gor's finest tracker. Domesticated sleen, tracking sleen, hunting sleen, herding sleen, guard sleen, war sleen, are relatively common on Gor. Domesticated larls are rare. Few people have seen one. Then I saw it, large, four-legged, some six or seven feet at the shoulder, with a wide, triangular-shaped head, lowered now, sunk now between its shoulders. It had a heavy, silken, reddishly tawny coat. Its paws were broad and thickly matted. Such a creature could move comfortably on rocky slopes, on ice, through snow. For all its size it moved with the sinuous, stealthy grace one might have expected of a smaller animal. The eyes were large, and the ears, tufted, bent forward. It sunk to its belly, and its long tail moved back and forth. The beast seemed passive, except that the agitation of the tail bore witness to an inward excitement. I had never seen such a beast this close. I had seen one, perhaps this one, weeks ago, on a slope across from the Cave's main portal, perhaps three or four hundred paces away. I suspected that the portal now was not guarded, or only sporadically guarded. I shrank back in the cage, as the beast, head down, moved a little toward me, and then crouched down. It moved a little more toward me, again, and was then again still. It did not pounce or charge. It did put its broad face near the bars. I saw its nostrils widen. It then put its snout literally against the bars, while I stayed as far back as I could. It made a small noise, as if puzzled. One large paw was put to the bars, but they were closely enough set that it could not enter the cage. I did see fangs. There was no blood about them. It then backed away, looked about the room, and exited through the gate. My heart began to pound. I gasped, trying to breathe. Then I think I lost consciousness. Then I could not move but stood still, as though paralyzed, my hand before my mouth. Not three yards away, its motion arrested, there was a paused, crouching sleen, a wild sleen. I knew it was a sleen, as I had seen them in Shipcamp, where some are kept and trained by sleen masters. I found them frightening animals. Domestic sleen are often larger and more aggressive than sleen in the wild, for they are bred carefully and selectively for a variety of purposes, war, herding, the hunt, and such. I think the beast was as startled to see me as I was to see it. Its belly low to the ground, its shoulder was no higher than a bit above my knee. It was some five to six feet in length, its body sinuous, snakelike. It must be a young animal, I thought as an adult sleen, even in the wild, for they range from eight to ten feet in length. It reminded me of a furred reptile, viper-headed, fanged. The eyes in that triangular, fanged head were full upon me. Its tail lashed back and forth. I could not move. I could not even have cried for help. Then the beast's head dipped, sweeping, to the ground. I heard it snuffling. Then its muzzle was almost at my feet. Its body literally rubbed against my leg as it snaked past me, and it continued on its way. I knew little about sleen, but I did know it was the planet's most adept, reliable, tenacious tracker. That is why they are often used in hunting. A flaw, or virtue, of the sleen as a hunter is its single-mindedness. As a flaw, once fastened on a scent and committed to it, it will ignore better, easier game for less desirable, more-difficult-to-obtain game; on the other hand, once committed to a scent it is likely to pursue it relentlessly, which, if one is after a particular quarry, might be I suppose, accounted a virtue. As noted, the sleen, in the wild, is predominantly nocturnal, usually emerging from its burrow at dusk, and returning to it in the early morning. The sleen, I gathered, was pursuing the tabuk, and, accordingly, I had been to it no more than an unexpected distraction. Still, what if another should come across my scent? I would hope it would not commit to it, but would ignore it in favor of more familiar game. But one does not know. Much depends on how hungry an animal is. The hungry sleen may attack even a larl, which is likely to kill it; in the far north I am told snow sleen will hunt in packs, rather like swarming sea sleen, but the sleen, generally, like the larl, is a solitary hunter. Older animals, of course, may be reduced to hunting slower, less-desirable prey. Where the sleen ranges, peasants, foresters, and such, commonly remain indoors at night, or, if venturing out, are likely to do so in armed groups. The hunts of wild sleen, of course, are not invariably successful, or the value of their range would be soon reduced by overhunting. In the wild, the sleen will usually return to its burrow by morning, and, after sleeping, seek a new trail the next night. Too, after a kill, many sleen, rather like certain reptiles, may remain asleep or quiescent for weeks, even months. This is not the case, however, with the domestic sleen, which are bred with different ends in view. They are restless, energetic, active, possess a rapid metabolism, sleep far less, and function well both diurnally and nocturnally. Their aggression, diverse behaviors, and such, are often triggered by private, secret, verbal signals, sometimes taken from only one person. Sometimes a bond, almost resembling affection, exists between the beast and its master. "Our sleen is waiting," he said, "near a rack of drying Tur-Pah, beyond the western end of the dock. I have tied him there. He is restless. He scratches at the earth. Your slave is a stupid little fool, even a barbarian. She put her blanket to the laundry, how clever; unaware that her scent saturates her chaining place in her kennel, that it lies in pools in each footstep she takes, that it lingers in grass, mud, and brush, even for a time in the very air through which she passes." Shortly thereafter, not far from the western edge of the dock, we encountered the sleen. It was a large, mottled beast, some nine feet long, brown and black. It became excited at his appearance. It began to whine, and tear at the turf, and writhe and twist about, almost like a snake. "I do not want it to kill the slave," I said. "It has not been given that command," he said. Its snout was to the forest its nostrils flared, its eyes keen, its long, sinuous body trembling. Its tether was taut. "Hold, hold," said Axel soothingly. He then freed the monster of its tether. The beast, though trembling, remained in place. Axel then donned a heavy pair of gloves, and attached a chain leash to the beast's heavy, thick, spiked collar. "Why the chain, why the gloves?" I asked. "He cannot chew through the chain," he said. "And I do not wish to lose a hand." "I gather he becomes excited," I said. "That is not unusual in a hunting sleen," he said. "Easy, easy, Tiomines," he said, soothingly. "It is unusual that it would be this agitated this early, is it not?" I asked. "The scent is very fresh," he said. "It must have been laid down Ahn ago," I said. "You know little of sleen," he said. It is not unheard of for sleen to follow a given scent for days, even one which may have been laid down weeks ago. "Sleen, sleen!" she cried. It was a large, long, agile, sinuous, six-legged thing, brown with patches of black, massive, like an immense furred lizard, low to the ground for its size, its belly almost in the leaves, a large broad, triangular head. "Do not strike it " called the leader. "It is not wild. See the collar, the leash!" Then he cried out, in alarm. "Do not touch the leash, Aeson. You are not the use master. Let it alone." "Is it hunting?" said a fellow. "It was," said the leader. The huge beast crouched there, at the edge of the camp, looking about. Then it shook its head, vigorously, as though to rid himself of some clinging parasite. It rose up a bit, and then sank down again. For such a large animal, seemingly agile, and sinuous, it had seemed momentarily unsteady. I did not understand this. "Kill it!" cried Tuza. "It is a beautiful beast, do not harm it " said the leader. "It is recovering," said one of the leader's men. "How much did you give it?" asked the leader of one of his men. "Enough to hold a sleen until morning," said the fellow. "I think not this sleen," said the leader. "It is a wondrous and mighty beast," said the fellow who had been addressed as Aeson. The muzzle of that broad head then lay upon the leaves. Its eyes were half closed. "Let it alone," said the leader. "Look at the nostrils," whispered Aeson. "Yes," said the leader. "It is taking scent," said Genak. I then saw the round eyes of the beast open widely. A low sound, a growl of sorts came from that monstrous form. "It has taken scent," said a fellow. The long, pointed ears of the beast then lay back against the sides of its head. "Kill it!" begged Tuza. Suddenly Tula and Mila, who were with me, withdrew from my side, backing away. I did not understand this. I suddenly found myself alone, no one within several feet of me. "Is it hunting?" asked the fellow who had asked this before. "It is, now," said the leader. I saw the eyes of the beast fasten upon me. It crouched down. "No!" I said. "Do not move!" said the leader to me. "She was a runaway!" screamed Tuza. "Kill her, before the beast goes mad in the camp." "Remain perfectly still," said the leader to me. The beast now crouched down, eyeing me, just a few feet from me. It began to growl. It scratched dirt, deeply furrowing it. Clearly it was becoming excited. Its tail began to lash. "It is going to attack," said a man. "Do not move," said the leader. "Remain perfectly still." Suddenly the beast, with a spattering of dirt behind it, rushed forward and I screamed and felt that broad snout thrusting against me, excitedly, prodding and rubbing. I put my hands before my eyes, and the snout, pushing here and there, explored me. My tunic was ripped on the side. There was saliva from its jaws on my thigh, and under the softness of its jaw's fur, the jaws rubbing against me, I felt the curved knives of fangs. The beast then, as though satisfied, circled me twice, and then crouched down, eyeing me, clearly ready to spring. "Do not move," the leader cautioned me. Then he turned to Aeson. "The beast is impatient," he said. "Free and bring the guests from our camp. Hurry!" The leader then turned again to me. "The sleen is uncertain what to do," he said. "This is dangerous, very dangerous. The use master is not present. It is he who must restrain the beast. Only he will know the signals. Only he can handle the leash with impunity." "In the wild," said a fellow, "when the hunt is done, the sleen attacks, kills, and feeds." "The use master is being fetched," said a man. "How much time is there?" asked a fellow. "I do not know," said the leader. Then he said to me, "Do not move." Then the sleen turned about, and faced the edge of the camp, the direction from which he had emerged from the forest, put back his head, and howled. "It is announcing the end of the hunt?" said a fellow. "No," said the leader. "That is not in the training." "What then?" asked a man. "It does not understand the absence of the use master," said the leader. "It has not encountered this situation before. It does not know what to do. It is puzzled, and frustrated." "The hunt is done," said a man. "It always feeds at the end of the hunt," said a fellow. "Blood will tip the scale," said a man. "How long does she have?" asked Genak. "It depends on the animal," said the leader. The beast had turned away from me. It could not see me. Was this not my opportunity? Would there be another? I turned about, and fled toward the river. I heard a scrambling in the dirt behind me, and stopped suddenly, almost falling, for the beast was now before me, between me and the river, head down, snarling. "It is going to feed!" I heard. Someone screamed, perhaps Tula. "Back away, slowly," called the leader, soothingly. "Return to where the sleen found you, where you were before, exactly. I recommend you kneel there, and remain extremely quiet." "That would have been the end of things," said a man. I now knelt where, and as, I had been told. "You disobeyed," said the leader. "Forgive me, Master," I whispered. "What you did was stupid and foolish," he said. "Yes, Master," I whispered. "She is a barbarian, Master," said Tula. "She knows no better." "If you try to rise to your feet now," said the leader to me, "the beast may well attack." "How much time does she have?" asked a man. "Very little I would suppose," said the leader. "There is one way to make sure of one's prey," said a man. "Certainly, kill it," said another. "See the beast," said a fellow. It was crouched down, trembling, ears back, the tail lashing back and forth. Clearly it was growing excited. My bolting had apparently ignited or stirred the whole animal. "She should not have run," said a man. "See the beast," said another. "It will not be long now." "The hunt is done, it wants to feed," said another. "Training is fragile," said a man. "Blood will have its way." "Kill it, Master, I beg of you!" called Donna. "Be silent," he said. "Please, Master!" she wept. "This beast is a prize animal," he said. "It is worth five, perhaps ten, of her." "Please," she cried. "This is a worthless piece of collar meat," he said, "sleen prey, thus a fled kajira. To see her torn to pieces will be an excellent example for other slaves." She sank to her knees, weeping. Did I think I was still on Earth? I was only a Gorean slave girl. In the market I would be worth far less than such a beast. "It tenses!" whispered a man. I bent down quickly and put my head down to the dirt, and my hands on my head. How can one prepare oneself for the claws, anchored in one's body, holding one, and then the fangs, mounted in that massive jaw, the tearing and feeding? Then I heard a man's voice. I did not recognize it. It spoke softly. "Gently, gently, noble friend," it said. "Well done, well done! Easy, easy, fellow the hunt is done. It is over. It is finished, well finished. Are you hungry, friend? Here is meat, much meat!" "Quite," I said. The massive brute lay curled about itself, sleeping. Axel could have reached out and touched him. Sometimes sleen can be not only affectionate, but possessive. I suspected it would be worth someone's life to attack Axel, if Tiomines were about. To be sure, I was not within the shield of those claws and fangs. The sleen was dragging the body about and shaking if which, I gather, opens, tears, and loosens meat. In its eagerness, by the shore, its fur was covered by mud. Twice it was half in the water. Rorton's head hung by skin to a part of the body. "Call him back!" I said to Axel. "No," said Axel. "It is in its frenzy. It will not hear. It will not respond. Do not approach it, lest you, too, be seized and torn." "Is it always like this?" I asked. "No," he said. "sometimes there is a simple bite through the back of the neck, and then the feeding. Do not interfere with the feeding. The tamest of sleen are extremely dangerous when feeding." I was now familiar enough with the forest, of course, to realize I should seek shelter before the fall of darkness. Though both sleen and panthers hunt when hungry, they prowl most frequently in darkness. Both the sleen and the panther can leap well over their length, and may be found on stout branches several feet above the ground, but neither is a climbing animal, as one commonly thinks of climbing animals, probably because of their weight, which would render many branches precarious, either because of a bending, wavering instability or the possibility of breakage. Even a small sleen, I knew, will defend its food dish in the face of a larger animal. There are many animals, even animals commonly loyal, and friendly, between whom and their food it would be unwise, even dangerous, to place oneself. One does not attempt to remove a haunch of tarsk from even a pet sleen, once it has been given to him. The panther, the sleen, the larl, seldom feed daily. Indeed, they may go days between meals. "He was prepared to attack," said my captor. "Did you not note the menace of the growl?" "You know little of sleen," said Axel. "The growl was one of recognition." "It sounded threatening enough," said my captor. "Only to one unfamiliar with sleen," said Axel. "He would not have attacked me?" said my captor. "No," said Axel. "You knew this?" said my captor. "Of course," said Axel. "I did not know it," said my captor. "Neither did Tyrtaios," said Axel. "Else others might have been consigned to accompany me." "You said the interval of separation had been sufficient," said my captor. "I wanted you to believe that," he said. "I see," said my captor. "The sleen is a terrible beast," said Axel, "but, too, it has a long memory, and it is capable of affection." "There is much I do not know of sleen," said my captor. "That was fortunate for me," said Axel. Sleen, I had learned, are large, sinuous, vicious, six-legged carnivores. In the wild, they are commonly burrowing animals and nocturnal. Domesticated and trained, they commonly serve as guard beasts and hunting beasts. They are Gor's keenest and most tenacious trackers. "If I meant you harm," I said, "I would not have worn this raiment, white and yellow, easily seen. I would have dressed like the night, have come in stealth, as the sleen." "Keep your wine, your liquid treasure, noble ladies," said Thurnock. "We are not the sort to require payment for a deed incumbent even on the honor of a sleen." "Perhaps," said Archelaos, "it is safer to deal with a hundred vulos than one tarsk boar, with ten verr than one sleen. "The map is large," I said. "One part looks much like another. But one looks for tracks. Even the nocturnal, stealthy sleen leaves tracks." "The larl and sleen are patient," I said. "They bide their time." "She is a barbarian. She is cheap. Who would want her for anything, save as sleen feed, or to cast her to eels in some garden pool?" "Regard the slave," I said to my agent. "See the small feet, the slim ankles, the sweet thighs, the delightful, well-formed, fundament, the slender waist, the joys of her figure, the soft shoulders, and the graceful, metal-encircled neck. Surely, you can think of some use for this exquisite object other than feeding it to sleen or eels." "You think you are in no danger," said Aktis, "because you see no danger. You think there are no sleen because you have not yet felt their teeth. You think you are safe until the larl claws at your gate. Are we truly ignorant, naive, simple, thoughtless fools, just as the other castes think we are?" My brothers, my caste brothers, put aside the timidity of the urt. Seize up the stealth and cunning of the sleen, the courage of the mighty larl. "All right," said Thurnock, "we will paint her green, the green of Thassa, green as night is to the sleen, green as high, tawny grass is to the larl." "Your men have stayed with you," said Thrasymedes. "They are as loyal as sleen." "As sleen with love, as sleen with honor," I said. "No cries of gladness or triumph," I called. "Emulate the sleen. Kill in silence. Do not alarm the herd!" There are beasts, such as the sleen, which can see in situations in which a human being could see nothing, situations in which a human being would find itself in pitch blackness. On the other hand, if there is no light whatsoever, then, of course, as in certain caves, even the sleen would be unable to see. "Night does not own mystery. The sleen is nocturnal, but it prowls at will. Mystery does not eschew the sun. Even in the light of day, much may be unseen, much may be invisible." "Let them wonder," said Sakim. "I do not think the High Admiral of the fleet will be aboard one of those vessels, each surveying the Tesephone like a hungry sleen eyeing a cornered tabuk. The High Admiral would be after bigger game, the Dorna." "It is done by means of a living island," said Sakim, "that island we speak of as the Brigand Island, a pathetic, enormous aquatic beast under the control of corsairs and mercenaries. It is that which has followed you. As a sleen, tenacious and swift, can follow scent on land, tenacious and swift, a living island can follow sounds, disturbances, stirrings, in the water, schooling fish, the wake of a passing vessel, and such. The enemy has taught the island to associate feeding with ships, so it seeks ships." "Overnight, last night, they followed like sleen," said Sakim. The sleen is Gor's finest, most tenacious tracker, but the senses of the Kur are prodigious, as well. Both can see in a light in which the average human would be helpless. Both can hear sounds which to the ear of the average human would be inaudible. The sleen is predominantly nocturnal, particularly in the wild. "You are mad," he said. "Not even a sleen will attack a larl, let alone four such Ubars of the Wild." A moment later, I stopped, abruptly, perfectly still, and I felt my left leg brushed by the coat of a running sleen. Even in the slim light of the white moon there was no mistaking the swift, low, serpentine gait of the animal. Seek the stealth of your burrow, friend, I thought, the night is loud and unpleasant. Whereas larls, panthers, and sleen can be quite dangerous, they seldom attack humans. Exceptions most often occur when they are startled, are unusually hungry, feel they are confronted and challenged, or sense an objectionable territorial intrusion.
"Good lad!" said my master, roughly fondling that great, fierce head. "We have been through much together, Borko and I," said my master. "He has even, twice, saved my life. Once when I was struck, unexpectedly, by one foolishly thought to be a friend, the origin of this scar," he said, indicating good-humoredly the hideous, jagged tissue at the left side of his face; "I told Borko to hunt. The fellow did not escape. Borko brought part of him back to me, in his jaws." I watched in terror as my master, over my body, scratched and pulled, and shoved, at that great head. Clearly he was inordinately fond of that terrible beast, and perhaps it of him. I saw his eyes. He lavished affection upon it. He cared more for it than his girls. I was certain. Perhaps it was the only thing he trusted, other than himself, the only thing he knew that he could rely upon, other than himself, the only thing, of all creatures he knew, who had proved its love and loyalty to him. If this were so, then perhaps it was not incredible that he might bestow upon it a fondness, or love, which he, betrayed perhaps by men, might withhold from others, from men, and slaves. "Do you know what you and Borko have in common?" he asked me. "We are both your animals, Master," I said. "Yes!" he said. "And do you know who is most valuable?" "No, Master," I said. "Borko," he said, "is a seasoned hunting sleen. Even to strangers he would bring a hundred times what you would bring in the market." I was silent. I was frightened with those huge jaws, the two rings of fangs, the long, dark tongue, over me. "But I would not sell him for anything," he said. "He is worth more to me than ten thousand such as you." "Yes, Master," I whispered. "Borko!" he said, sternly. "Borko." The beast pulled back its head, observing him. "Learn slave," he said. "Learn slave." I then began to whimper. "Hold still," said my master. The beast then began to push its nose and muzzle about me, thrusting it here and there, about me. I now understood why I had been spread as I had, on the steps. "The sleen," he said, "and especially the gray sleen, is Gor's finest tracker. It is a relentless, tenacious tracker. It can follow a scent that is weeks old, for a thousand pasangs." I whimpered, the beast's snout thrust between my thighs, sniffing. "Please, Master," I whimpered. I felt it nuzzling then at my waist and breasts. It was learning me. "Do you know what the sleen hunts?" he asked. "No, Master," I said. "In the wild it commonly hunts tabuk and wild tarsk," he said, "but it is an intelligent beast, and it can be trained to hunt anything." "Yes, Master," I whimpered. He held back my right arm, further, exposing more the armpit. "Do you know what Borko is trained to hunt?" he asked. "No, Master," I said. I felt the snout of the beast then poking about my throat, and under my chin, to the side, and then at the side of my neck. My master then held my left arm back further, exposing the armpit to the beast. "It is trained to hunt men, and slaves," he said. "No!" I wept. I squirmed, but my master held me steady, by the collar and my left wrist, held back. The beast thrust its snout against me, there, in the armpit, and then sniffed along the interior of my left arm, and then along the left side of my body. I whimpered in terror. "Try not to be afraid," he said. "That might excite Borko." "Yes, Master," I whimpered. Then the beast drew back its head. "Doreen," said my master to the beast, slowly, clearly. "Do-reen. Doreen." The beast again sniffed me. "Doreen," said my master, grinning, to the beast. "Doreen." I shuddered. The beast then drew back its head again. "Back, Borko," said my master, and the beast inched back, its eyes on me. I was shuddering. I dared not move. "Borko is trained to respond to a variety of signals," he said. "Yes, Master," I whispered. "He now knows you," he said. "Yes, Master," I said. "Whose are you?" he asked. "I am yours, Master!" I said, quickly. Do not try to escape," he said. "No, Master!" I said. "I will not try to escape!" "Borko, go back to your kennel," he said. "Go, now!" I considered again the sleen. "I think you will like Borko," had said my master, before I had seen the beast, when I had only heard him in the tunnel, and then entering the room. I recalled the huge head, the two rows of fangs, the dark tongue, the widely set eyes, the thrusting, prowling snout, the claws. It had been trained, I had learned, to hunt men, and slaves. Obediently it had withdrawn to its kennel at the word of my master. But just as swiftly, I was sure, it could be summoned forth again, and set about its master's bidding, implacably, unquestioningly, innocently, mercilessly, eagerly. I shuddered. That beast, I thought, if nothing else, would serve to keep good order among the women of Hendow, a taverner on Dock Street, in Brundisium. "What is her name?" called a man. "'Doreen'," said Mirus. "At least that is the name by which she is known to Borko." I shuddered, and the men laughed, seeing my fear. I did not think the nature of Hendow's Borko, that massive hunting sleen, was unknown to them. I was afraid in this room. I had been here before. It was the receiving chamber of my master, Hendow. Too, to one side was the panel which, opened, admitted the gray hunting sleen, Borko. Somewhere in the dark, simple, terrible brain of that beast my name and scent had been imprinted. It could now be commanded with respect to me, even in my absence. I thought of Borko, the gray sleen. When it was discovered that we were missing, he, or other such beasts, might be set upon our trail. My blanket, of course, had been left behind in the kennel. That would suffice for any hunting sleen. Borko, of course, did not need so typical a stimulus. He, knowing my name and scent, could be set on my trail by a mere verbal command. I shuddered. Through no fault of my own I feared I might be torn to pieces. A similar fate, of course, might befall Tupita. She, had been quite anxious, I recalled, to be swiftly out of Brundisium. "There is a sleen behind you!" cried Tupita. "Turn around! Turn around!" "That is not a wild sleen!" cried Mina. It wore a collar, a large, heavy, spiked collar. Mirus reeled about. He stood then, sword drawn, between the beast and us. Tela put her head back and screamed, wildly, shrilly, helplessly. The beast regarded us. "It is Borko, the sleen of Hendow!" cried Tupita. "It has come to kill us!" It had come after us, pursuing us, doubtless, as runaway slaves! I suddenly recalled the reference to an inquiry, or inquiries, in Argentum, that on the part of my former master, Tyrrhenius. I had been sold shortly thereafter. I also remembered that I had walked barefoot on the Viktel Aha, at the stirrup of Aulus, and, too, had so trod the camp of Pietro Vacchi. "No," said Mirus. "It is on one scent. It is after only one quarry." I saw the sleen view me. "Master," I called out to Mirus. "Defend me!" But he, both hands on the hilt of his sword, holding it at rest now, pointed downward, backed away. He stood between the beast and Tupita. Borko looked at him. He remembered him, doubtless, from Brundisium. Without taking his eyes off the sleen, by feel, Mirus cut the ropes that tied Tupita to the railing, and then cut free the binding fiber on her ankles, and wrists. "Do not mind me," wept Tupita. "Do not let him kill Tuka!" But Mirus held her by one arm, and backed away. "I find this," he said to me, "an acceptable and suitable vengeance, superior even to the sword, or to the thousand cuts, that you, my dear Doreen, or Tuka, or whatever masters now choose to call you, you stinking, worthless, curvaceous, treacherous slave slut, should be torn to pieces by a sleen!" "No!" screamed Tupita. "Kill, Borko, kill!" he cried, indicating me with the point of his sword. I closed my eyes, sobbing. I felt then, however, the huge, cold snout of the beast thrusting itself under my left arm. I gasped, and cried out, softly. But there had been little, if anything, of menace in the gesture. Perhaps it was confirming my scent, prior to its attack. Then, again it rubbed its snout on my body. This seemed clearly an act of affection. I had seen it act so with Hendow himself. It was nuzzling me. Then I felt its large tongue lick across my body. "Good Borko! Good Borko!" cried Tupita. "Kill!" cried Mirus. "Kill her!" Borko looked at him, quizzically. "Very well, then, stupid beast," he said, "I shall do so myself!" He then raised his blade. Immediately the entire attitude of the sleen altered. It suddenly became alive with menace and hate. Its fur erected, its eyes blazed, it snarled viciously. Mirus, startled, stepped back. I think perhaps if the sleen had not known him from Brundisium, and as the friend of his master, he might have attacked him. Certainly, it seemed, as it was, he had no intention of letting him approach me. "It is protecting her!" cried Tupita, delightedly. "See! It will kill you if you try to hurt her! Come away! Let her go! Why fuss with a slave?" Mirus then, in fury, held the blade with one hand. If he raised it, even a little, Borko growled, watching him. "Free the other girls, Master," said Tupita. "Then let us away, before the beasts return!" Mirus regarded her in rage. "At one time you used to muchly pleasure yourself with me," said Tupita. "Am I not still of interest to you? Have I become so unattractive? Have you forgotten? Is it so long ago?" Mirus made a noise, almost like an animal. "See Tela there," she said. "She was an overseer's girl. See Mina, and Cara! Both are beautiful! You can put sword claim on us all!" Mirus, in fury, lashed back with his hand, striking Tupita from him. She fell back, her mouth bloody, by the post to my right, that supporting the rail on that side. He wavered. Fresh blood shone then at the side of his head. He staggered. "Look!" cried Tupita, pointing across the meadow. Mirus sank to one knee. He was weak from the loss of blood. It seemed he could scarcely hold his sword. We looked where Tupita had pointed. Another figure was treading the meadow now, toward us. I could not mistake him, though he now seemed much different from when I had remembered him. "It is Hendow!" cried Tupita. "Yes!" I said. But it was not the Hendow I remembered from Brundisium. It had the same stature, and shoulders, and mighty arms, but it was now a bronzed, leaner Hendow, one even more terrible and fierce than I had known, one who held now in his hand a bloodied sword. "Mirus!" he cried. "Old friend! What are you doing here!" "Hendow!" said Mirus, tears in his eyes. "Beloved friend!" "You are hurt," said Hendow." "You are welcome here," said Mirus, weakly. "Forgive me, old friend, for thrusting you aside in Brundisium," said Hendow. "I was a fool." "How did you find us here?" asked Mirus. "I was following Borko," said Hendow. "Then I heard a scream." That would have been Tela's scream. Others, too, of course, might have heard that scream. "Masters, let us away!" said Tupita. "Your sword is bloody," observed Mirus. "I met one who disputed my passage," said Hendow. "Let us away, please, Masters!" said Tupita. "Kneel," said Hendow to her, with terrible, savage authority. Immediately Tupita knelt, and was silent. Hendow came toward me, and crouched down before me. "Good Borko," he said. "Good Borko!" The sleen pushed his snout against him, and licked his bared arm. Hendow touched me on the side of the head, with extreme gentleness. "Are you all right?" he asked. "Yes, Master," I said. Borko crouched low, his front shoulders a bit higher than his head. He growled. "I free you, Borko, old friend," said Hendow. "Go. Return to the wild. Go. You are free!" But the beast remained where it was, beside its master. "As you will," said Hendow. "The choice is yours, my friend." "Alcinous and Portus are anxious to be on their way," said the newcomer. "It will soon be dark." He looked at the body of Borko, in the grass. The collar had been removed by the second beast. "There may be sleen about," he said. "That is a domestic sleen," said the small fellow. "It was killed by our friend here," said the wounded man, ironically, indicating the beast that had slain Borko.
It was long since I had seen those exquisite features, that olive skin, the green eyes, the sweet lips, that shimmering, glossy torrent of hair as black as the pelt of the black sleen of Anango. "Why does the yellow-pelted tabuk frequent groves of ka-la-na trees?" I asked. "Why is the black sleen nocturnal?"
The others might go overboard, and trust that the canal sleen and the Tamber sharks have not yet scented the blood in the water.
In the morning, to my dismay, Elizabeth Cardwell was not to be found. Kamchak was beside himself with fury. Aphris, knowing the ways of Gor and the temper of Tuchuks, was terrified, and said almost nothing. "Do not release the hunting sleen," I pleaded with Kamchak. "I shall keep them leashed," he responded grimly. With misgivings I observed the two, six-legged, sinuous, tawny hunting sleen on their chain leashes. Kamchak was holding Elizabeth's bedding a rep-cloth blanket for them to smell. Their ears began to lay back against the sides of their triangular heads; their long, serpentine bodies trembled; I saw claws emerge from their paws, retract, emerge again and then retract; they lifted their heads, sweeping them from side to side, and then thrust their snouts to the ground and began to whimper excitedly; I knew they would first follow the scent to the curtained enclosure within which last night we had observed the dance. "She would have hidden among the wagons last night," Kamchak said. "I know," I said," the herd sleen." They would have torn the girl to pieces on the prairie in the light of the three Gorean moons. "She will not be far," said Kamchak. He hoisted himself to the saddle of his kaiila, a prancing and trembling hunting sleen on each side of the animal, the chains running to the pommel of the saddle. "What will you do to her?" I asked. "Cut off her feet," said Kamchak, "and her nose and ears, and blind her in one eye then release her to live as she can among the wagons." Before I could remonstrate with the angry Tuchuk the hunting sleen suddenly seemed to go wild, rearing on their hind legs, scratching in the air, dragging against the chains. It was all Kamchak's kaiila could do to brace itself against their sudden madness. "Hah!" cried Kamchak. I spied Elizabeth Cardwell approaching the wagon, two leather water buckets fastened to a wooden yoke she carried over her shoulders. Some water was spilling from the buckets. Aphris cried out with delight and ran to Elizabeth, to my astonishment, to kiss her and help with the water. "Where have you been?" asked Kamchak. Elizabeth lifted her head innocently and gazed at him frankly. "Fetching water," she said. The sleen were trying to get at her and she had backed away against the wagon, watching them warily. "They are vicious beasts," she observed. The nearest solid land was about one hundred pasangs to the north, but it was open land, and, there, on the edges of the delta, there were log outposts of Port Kar, where slave hunters and trained sleen, together, patrolled marshes' edges. The vicious, six-legged sleen, large-eyed, sinuous, mammalian but resembling a furred, serpentine lizard, was a indefatigable hunter. He could follow a scent days old with ease, and then, perhaps hundreds of pasangs, days, later, be unleashed for the sport of the hunters, tear his victim to pieces. I expected there was not likely to be escape for slaves to the north. That left the delta, with its interminable marshes, and the thirst, and the tharlarion. Hunting sleen are trained to scent out and destroy escaped slaves. Let her stay in the marshes until she had had her pretty fill, and then let her crawl whimpering back to the portals of the house of Bosk, whining and scratching like a tiny domestic sleen for admittance, to be taken back! Pet sleen are taught to heel; it is common for a southern master to care more for his pet sleen than his girls. Near the center of the camp, but somewhat to the south and east of the center, like the verr, the tarsk, the bosk, was another herd of Kurii animals; it, too, resided in its pen, a wide pen, more than a quarter of a pasang in diameter, formed of poles and crossbars, lashed together; this pen, however, was patrolled by prowling, domesticated sleen; the animals huddled together, within the pen, hundreds of them, terrified of the sleen; these were herd sleen, trained to group and control animals. Sometimes the foraging squads of the Kurii had been accompanied by trained sleen, often four of them. Twice, in my reconnoitering, I had had to kill such beasts. The sleen have various uses; some are merely used as watch animals or guard animals; others are used as points in the advance of squads, some trained to attack putative enemies, others to return to the squad, thus alerting it to the presence of a possible enemy; others are even more highly trained, and are used to hunt humans; of the human-hunting sleen, some are trained merely to kill, and others to hurry the quarry to a Kurii holding area; one type of sleen is trained to destroy males and herd females, distinguishing between the sexes by scent. A sleen may bring a girl in, stumbling and weeping, from pasangs away, driving her, as Kurii take little notice, through their very camp, until she is entered into a herd. Four days ago I had seen a girl drive, in which several sleen, fanning out over a large area of territory, had scented out scattered, hiding slave girls and, from various points, driven them into a blind canyon, where a waiting Kur had swung shut a wooden gate on them, fastening them inside. Sleen are also used to patrol the large return marches of groups of foraging expeditions, those marches between the temporary holding areas and the main camp. Girls may also be hunted down by trained sleen, tireless hunters. I fled for the cage. I must reach it! I threw myself into the cage on my hands and knees. I turned wildly and seized the bar and flung it down behind me. The snout of the beast thrust viciously part way between the bars. It snarled, and squealed and hissed. I shrank back in the tiny cage. On the other side of the bars of the vertically sliding, lowered gate the blazing eyes of the sleen regarded me. I cried out with misery. Had I run more slowly it would have caught me and torn me to pieces. It turned its head and, with its double row of white fangs, bit at the bars. I heard the scraping of the teeth on the bars; it pulled the cage, moving it, until it caught against the chain and stake which anchored it. Then it moved about the cage on its six legs, its long, furred body angrily rubbing against the bars. It tried to reach me from another side. I knelt head down, shuddering, my hands over my head, in the center of the tiny cage. Once its snout thrust against me, and I whimpered. I smelled its breath, felt the heat of it on my flesh. The bars were wet where it had bit at them; the ground, too, about the cage was wet where the beast's saliva, in its frenzy, its lust for killing, had dampened the clawed dust. "Back," called Thurnus, coming to the sleen and putting a rope on its neck, dragging it away from the cage. "Gentle! Gentle, Fierce One!" coaxed Thurnus. He thrust his head near the large, brown snout, cooing and clicking, his hands in the rope on its throat. He whispered in its ear. The beast became pacified. Thurnus took a great piece of meat and threw it to the animal, which began to devour it. "Excellent," said Clitus Vitellius. I knelt in the slave cage, my hands on its bars. I had locked myself in the slave cage. When I had flung down the vertically sliding gate behind me, two notched projections, bolts, welded to the flat bar at the gate's bottom had slipped into iron-enclosed spring catches, heavy locks, one on the bottom left, one on the bottle right, the gate being thus secured. I could not open these locks. They responded to a key, slung on the string about the neck of Thurnus. It is necessary to engage the locks not only because the animal follows so closely and the gate must be swiftly lowered, but because if the locks are not engaged, it will thrust its snout beneath the bottom of the gate, between the bottom of the gate and the floor of the cage, and, throwing its head up, fling up the gate, and have access to the cage's occupant. The choices are simple. Either she locks herself in the cage, imprisoning herself helplessly at the pleasure of the cage owner, or the animal destroys her. I, frightened, watched the sleen tear at the meat. I knelt in the cage, my fists, white-knuckled, clenched on the bars. The cage is tiny, but stout. I could kneel in it, or crouch, or sit, with my legs drawn up. I could not extend my body, nor stand upright. The roof of the cage was about the height of a man's belt. It is so constructed that it can be linked with other cages, or tiered. Though there is a wooden floor to the cage, the wood is placed over bars. The entire cage, thus, is barred. The bars, and their fastenings, were heavy. The cage in which I had locked myself would hold not only a girl; it would also have easily and efficiently held a strong man. It was, accordingly, an all-purpose slave cage. I looked up through the bars. Clitus Vitellius did not look at me. Already I had been given to Thurnus. The cage was in a sleen training pit, surrounded by a low, wooden wall and floored with sand. Within the walls were several individuals, my sisters in bondage, those still the property of Clitus Vitellius, one of whom was encaged like myself, Chanda, who was sitting in her cage, wrapping a cloth about her bleeding leg; Thurnus; another of his girls, Sandal Thong; some men assisting Thurnus; and Clitus Vitellius, and some of his men. Within the ring, too, were some eight sleen, tied on short tethers to stakes, at the sides; and a rack of meats, and poles, and ropes and whips, used in the training of the animals. Outside the low walls, several individuals observed the proceedings, the balance of the men of Clitus Vitellius, some villagers, including some peasant boys, and Melina, veiled, the slack, fat companion of the huge Thurnus. Melina regarded me. I did not meet her eyes, but looked down, into the dust. I was a pretty slave girl who had been given to her companion. I did not care to meet her eyes. I hoped she would not be cruel to me. But she was of the peasants, and I was only a slave. I looked across the sand to Chanda. She, too, was locked in a tiny cage. She sat on the boards, hunched over, her legs drawn up, and slowly wrapped a piece of white cloth about her bleeding calf. The blood stained through the cloth. The bit of a garment that she wore had also been torn by the beast who had pursued her. It, too, afterward had been fed. When it had been fed, it had been tethered with the others. The men discussed the animals, and their merits. I held the bars and, head down, eyes closed, pressed my forehead against the bars. What hope had a girl for escape on a world which contained sleen? I and Chanda had been used for purposes of demonstration. Sleen had been dragged to us, to take our scent. We had been held by men while the animals had taken our scent. Then Chanda had been released. She had been run first. Then I had been released. I had been run shortly after her. I had run wildly, in misery over having been given away by Clitus Vitellius. I had fully determined, in my hysteria and misery, to escape. What a foolish slave girl I was! I had run wildly. I had almost fainted when a brown, sinuous shape sped past me. I saw it turn Chanda, and, snarling, begin its attack. She fled back toward the training pit. I saw her stumble once, and the beast seize her leg, and she screamed, and then she was again on her feet, running, her hands extended before her. The girl either permits herself to be herded expeditiously, swiftly, or she dies. I turned to flee. I screamed. It was there, in front of me. It lifted its head. I stumbled back, my hand flung before my face. It snarled hideously. Distracted by the first sleen that in pursuit of Chanda, I had not even seen this sleen, whose brain was alive with my scent, circle me and approach. "No! No!" I cried. "Go away! Please, go away!" It crouched there, not five feet from me, its head lifted, hissing, snarling. "Please go away!" I wept. I saw its belly lower itself to the ground, the head still lifted, watching me. Its tail lashed; its eyes blazed. It inched forward. It had two rows of fangs. I looked to the left and right. It squealed hideously. It came closer. It was a precisely trained beast, but no training is perfect. It is a balancing of instincts and conditioning. It is never perfect. The beast, at the nearness and intensity of my scent, was becoming uncontrollable. The critical attacking distance for a sleen in the wild is about twenty feet. This distance, in a herd sleen, of course, is much smaller. I could see its excitement mount. The fur about its neck rippled and bristled. Then I saw it gather its four hind legs beneath it. With a cry of misery I turned and fled. I ran back toward the training pit and the open cage that had been designated for occupancy by the Earth-girl slave. I ran wildly, helplessly. It ran behind me, snapping and snarling. I felt its breath on my legs. It cut with its teeth at my heels. I gasped. I fought for breath. It drove me faster and faster. The beast was well trained. It knew well how to herd a slave girl. It had a sense of the distance, and of my limitations; its speed and endurance which, I suspect, was superior to my own. It had herded other girls. It kept me at my limits, not permitting me to think, but only to run, frenziedly, madly, a driven, herded slave girl, seeking her cage. I was at its mercy. It set me the pace which I must make, if I would live. I cried out with misery, running. It drove me perfectly. My only hope of survival was to reach the cage, and lock myself within it, where I would await, confined, the pleasure of a master. I threw myself into the cage on my hands and knees and, wildly, turned and flung down the gate behind me, it securely locking. The beast tried to reach me, but could not do so. I was safe within the cage, but locked within it, at the mercy of a master. I had been herded. What hope had a girl for escape on a world which contained sleen? How completely we belonged to our masters! There are many varieties of sleen, and most varieties can be, to one extent or another, domesticated. The two most common sorts of trained sleen are the smaller, tawny prairie sleen, and the large, brown or black forest sleen, sometimes attaining a length of twenty feet. In the north, I am told the snow sleen has been domesticated. The sleen is a dangerous and fairly common animal on Gor, which has adapted itself to a variety of environments. There is even an aquatic variety, called the sea sleen, which is one of the swiftest and most dreaded beasts in the sea. Sea sleen are found commonly in northern waters. They are common off the coast of Torvaldsland, and further north. In the wild, the sleen is a burrowing, predominantly nocturnal animal. It is carnivorous. It is a tenacious hunter, and an indefatigable tracker. It will attack almost anything, but its preferred prey is tabuk. It mates once a year in the Gorean spring, and there are usually four young in each litter. The gestation period is some six months. The young are commonly white furred at birth, the fur darkening by the following spring. Snow sleen, however, remain white-pelted throughout their life. Most domestic sleen are bred. It is difficult to take and tame a wild sleen. Sometimes young sleen, following the killing of the mother, are dug out of a burrow and raised. If they can be taken within the first two months of their life, which seems to be a critical period, before they have tasted blood and meat in the wild, and made their own kills, there is apparently a reasonably good chance that they can be domesticated; otherwise, generally not. Although grown, wild sleen have been caught and domesticated, this is rare. Even a sleen which has been taken young may revert. These reversions can be extremely dangerous. They usually take place, as would be expected, in the spring, during the mating season. Male sleen, in particular, can be extremely restless and vicious during this period. The mating of sleen is interesting. The female, if never before mated, flees and fights the male. But he is larger and stronger. At last he takes her by the throat and throws her upon her back, interestingly, belly to belly, beneath him. His fangs are upon her throat. She is at his mercy. She becomes docile and permits her penetration. Shortly, thereafter, their heat growing, they begin, locked together by legs and teeth, to roll and squeal in their mating frenzy. It is a very fierce and marvelous spectacle. It is not unusual for slave girls, seeing this, to kneel at their master's feet and beg their caress. After the female sleen has been taken thusly once, no longer need she be forced. She follows the male, often rubbing against him, and hunts with him. Sometimes she must be driven away with snarls and bites. Sleen, interestingly, often pair for life. Their rutting, however, is usually confined to the spring. Sometimes slave girls are called she-sleen, but I do not think this expression is completely apt. Sexual congress in the human is not confined to a particular season. We are not she-sleen. The heat of the she-sleen occurs in the spring. We are slave girls. Our masters keep us in heat constantly. I looked across the sand to Chanda's cage. She had finished wrapping the cloth about her cut calf. I hoped the wound was not deep. No one seemed to be concerned about her. I gathered that her leg would not be scarred, and that her value would not be lowered. If her leg did scar, with the result that her block value was diminished, it must be recalled that Clitus Vitellius, my former master, had had her for nothing. Sleen are used for a multitude of purposes on Gor, but most commonly they are used for herding, tracking, guarding and patrolling. The verr and the bosk are the most common animals herded; tabuk and slave girls are the most common animals tracked; the uses to which the sleen is put in guarding and patrolling are innumerable; it is used to secure borders, to prowl walls and protect camps; it may run loose in the streets after curfews; it may lurk in the halls of a great house after dark; it may deter thieves from entering locked shops; it may stand sentry upon wharves and in warehouses; there are many such uses to which the sinuous beasts may be put; an interesting use which might be mentioned is prisoner control; a tiny circle is drawn and the prisoner must kneel, or assume some prescribed position, within it; then, should the prisoner attempt to rise to his feet, leave the circle, or break the position in the slightest, the beasts tears him to pieces. Aside from these common uses, sleen are put to other uses, too. In Thentis, for example, sleen are used to smell out contraband, in the form of the unauthorized egress of the beans for black wine from the Thentian territories. They are sometimes, too, used by assassins, though the caste of assassins itself, by their caste codes, precludes their usage; the member of the caste of assassins must make his own kill; it is in their codes. Some sleen are used as bodyguards; others are trained to kill in the arena; others perform in exhibitions and carnivals. There are many uses to which such animals are put. The herding, tracking and control of beautiful slave girls is but one use. Sleen are trained variously. The five most common trainings are those of the war sleen, which may also be utilized as a bodyguard; the watch sleen, to guard given precincts; the herding sleen, which will kill only if the quarry refuses to be herded rapidly and efficiently to a given destination, usually a pen or slave cage; the trailing sleen, which is used, in leash, to follow a scent; and the hunter, which is trained to hunt and kill. It is next to impossible to use a hunter as a trailer, because, when the quarry is near, and the killing fever is on it, it will even turn and attack its leash holder, to free itself for the strike on the quarry. A trailer is usually a smaller beast, and one more easily managed, but it is, when all is said and done, a sleen, and trailers not unoften, at the hunt's end, their instincts preponderating, break loose for the kill. When they begin to become unmanageable they must sometimes be killed. The hunters are used generally, of course, in the pursuit of fugitives, free or slave. Unleashed, they are not retarded in their hunt by the lagging of their keepers. I was terrified of sleen. I had seen how they could tear apart great pieces of meat. Most houses in which female slaves may be found, it might be mentioned, as it may be of interest to some, would not have sleen. The sleen is, as least in civilized areas, a rare, expensive and dangerous beast. They do about in some areas in the wild, as, for example, in the surrounding mountains. The sleen often burrows, and it is predominantly nocturnal. There are also several varieties of the animal apparently, adapted to diverse environments. The most common sleen in domestication, as I understand it, is the forest sleen. It is also the largest, animal for animal. There are also, as I understand I, prairie sleen, mountain sleen and snow sleen. There is a short-haired variety found in some tropical areas, the jungle sleen. And one variety, it seems, is adapted for an aquatic environment, the sea sleen. The rent sleen had given their lives to defend him, who was only a rent master. Although sleen are muchly despised on Gor, and feared, they are respected, as well. The sleen, it is said, is the ideal mercenary. "Do you hear it?" she asked. "Yes," he said. "Sleen." "They are animals," she said. "You have never seen one," he said. "No," she said. "Are they dangerous?" "Some are wild, some are domesticated, all are dangerous," he said. It may also be recalled that his colleague, Ramar, so to speak, was a carefully bred domestic sleen, of unusual size and ferocity. Indeed, such animals are often used to hunt and kill wild sleen. Ramar, who had served as an arena animal, successful again and again, had also been trained, as would have been expected of most domestic sleen, in a number of other behaviors. He could, for example, hunt a quarry, keep it in place, drive it, and kill it. For example, a domestic sleen is also likely to heel the master, and also on the left. It was the first larl I had seen, though I had heard much of them. It is a much larger animal than the sleen, and it has four, not six, legs. It lairs in dens, and does not burrow like the sleen in the wild. It is carnivorous, and it most commonly hunts in the day. The sleen, in the wild, is predominantly nocturnal. The larl is probably the most fearsome land predator on Gor. The sleen, on the other hand, is Gor's finest tracker. Domesticated sleen, tracking sleen, hunting sleen, herding sleen, guard sleen, war sleen, are relatively common on Gor. Domesticated larls are rare. Few people have seen one. Then I could not move but stood still, as though paralyzed, my hand before my mouth. Not three yards away, its motion arrested, there was a paused, crouching sleen, a wild sleen. I knew it was a sleen, as I had seen them in Shipcamp, where some are kept and trained by sleen masters. I found them frightening animals. Domestic sleen are often larger and more aggressive than sleen in the wild, for they are bred carefully and selectively for a variety of purposes, war, herding, the hunt, and such. I think the beast was as startled to see me as I was to see it. Its belly low to the ground, its shoulder was no higher than a bit above my knee. It was some five to six feet in length, its body sinuous, snakelike. It must be a young animal, I thought as an adult sleen, even in the wild, for they range from eight to ten feet in length. It reminded me of a furred reptile, viper-headed, fanged. The eyes in that triangular, fanged head were full upon me. Its tail lashed back and forth. I could not move. I could not even have cried for help. Then the beast's head dipped, sweeping, to the ground. I heard it snuffling. Then its muzzle was almost at my feet. Its body literally rubbed against my leg as it snaked past me, and it continued on its way. I knew little about sleen, but I did know it was the planet's most adept, reliable, tenacious tracker. That is why they are often used in hunting. A flaw, or virtue, of the sleen as a hunter is its single-mindedness. As a flaw, once fastened on a scent and committed to it, it will ignore better, easier game for less desirable, more-difficult-to-obtain game; on the other hand, once committed to a scent it is likely to pursue it relentlessly, which, if one is after a particular quarry, might be I suppose, accounted a virtue. As noted, the sleen, in the wild, is predominantly nocturnal, usually emerging from its burrow at dusk, and returning to it in the early morning. The sleen, I gathered, was pursuing the tabuk, and, accordingly, I had been to it no more than an unexpected distraction. Still, what if another should come across my scent? I would hope it would not commit to it, but would ignore it in favor of more familiar game. But one does not know. Much depends on how hungry an animal is. The hungry sleen may attack even a larl, which is likely to kill it; in the far north I am told snow sleen will hunt in packs, rather like swarming sea sleen, but the sleen, generally, like the larl, is a solitary hunter. Older animals, of course, may be reduced to hunting slower, less-desirable prey. Where the sleen ranges, peasants, foresters, and such, commonly remain indoors at night, or, if venturing out, are likely to do so in armed groups. The hunts of wild sleen, of course, are not invariably successful, or the value of their range would be soon reduced by overhunting. In the wild, the sleen will usually return to its burrow by morning, and, after sleeping, seek a new trail the next night. Too, after a kill, many sleen, rather like certain reptiles, may remain asleep or quiescent for weeks, even months. This is not the case, however, with the domestic sleen, which are bred with different ends in view. They are restless, energetic, active, possess a rapid metabolism, sleep far less, and function well both diurnally and nocturnally. Their aggression, diverse behaviors, and such, are often triggered by private, secret, verbal signals, sometimes taken from only one person. Sometimes a bond, almost resembling affection, exists between the beast and its master. The larl, as it was a bred beast, was larger than the usual wild larl to the south. It may have weighed as much as a dozen panthers, three forest bosk. This sort of thing is common with bred animals, where the largest and the fiercest, and the most dangerous, may be bred, again and again, increment by increment, with the largest, the fiercest, and most dangerous. The same is true of domestic sleen. The wild sleen is agile and dangerous, but it is seldom a match for the bred sleen.
He then turned about, to the slave. "I thought I recognized this animal," he said. "From the arena. It is the one called Ramar. It is a valuable beast, a fighting sleen. It might kill ten sleen, or a hundred humans. That it should be released is interesting."
In certain of the cages, of heavy, peeled branches lashed together, there snarled and hissed forest sleen, Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 210 Suddenly I lifted my head a bit. I smelled the odor of sleen. The door to my chamber which, in my house, I did not keep locked, moved slightly. Instantly I moved from the couch, startling the chained girl. I stood, bent, tensed, beside the couch. I did not move. The snout of the beast thrust first softly through the opening, moving the door back. I heard the girl gasp. "Make no sound," I said. I did not move. I crouched down. The animal had been released. Its head was now fully through the door. Its head was wide and triangular. Suddenly the eyes took the light of the lamp and blazed. And then, the head moving, its eyes no longer reflected the light. It no longer faced the light. Rather it was watching me. The animal was some twenty feet in length, some eleven hundred pounds in weight, a forest sleen, domesticated. It was double fanged and six-legged. It crouched down and inched forward. Its belly fur must have touched the tiles. It wore a leather sleen collar but there was no leash on the leash loop. I had thought it was trained to hunt tabuk with archers, but it clearly was not tabuk it hunted now. I knew the look of a hunting sleen. It was a hunter of men. It swiftly inched forward, then stopped. When in the afternoon I had seen it in its cage, with its trainer, Bertram of Lydius, it had not reacted to me other than as to the other observers. It had not then, I knew, been put upon my scent. It crept forward another foot. I did not think it had been loose from its cage long, for it would take such a beast, a sleen, Gor's finest tracker, only moments to make its way silently through the halls to this chamber. The beast did not take its eyes from me. I saw its four hind legs begin to gather under it. Its breathing was becoming more rapid. That I did not move puzzled it. It then inched forward another foot. It was now within its critical attacking distance. I did nothing to excite it. It lashed its tail back and forth. Had it been longer on my scent I think I might have had less time for its hunting frenzy would have been more upon it, a function in part of the secretions of certain glands. Very slowly, almost imperceptibly, I reached toward the couch and seized one of the great furs in my right hand. The beast watched me closely. For the first time it snarled, menacingly. Then the tail stopped lashing, and became almost rigid. Then the ears lay back against its head. It charged, scratching and scrambling, slipping suddenly, on the tiles. The girl screamed. The cast fur, capelike, shielding me, enveloped the leaping animal. I leaped to the couch, and rolled over it, and bounded to my feet. I heard the beast snarling and squealing, casting aside the fur with an angry shaking of its body and head. Then it stood, enraged, the fur torn beneath its paws, snarling and hissing. It looked up at me. I stood now upon the couch, the ax of Torvaldsland in my hand. I laughed, the laugh of a warrior. "Come my friend," I called to it, "let us engage." It was a truly brave and noble beast. Those who scorn the sleen I think do not know him. Kurii respect the sleen, and that says much for the sleen, for its courage, its ferocity and its indomitable tenacity. The girl screamed with terror. The ax caught the beast transversely and the side of its head struck me sliding from the great blade. I cut at it again on the floor, half severing the neck. "It is a beautiful animal," I said. I was covered with its blood. I heard men outside in the hall. Thurnock, and Clitus, and Publius, and Tab, and others, weapons in hand, stood at the door. "What has happened?" cried Thurnock. "Secure Bertram of Lydius," I said. Men rushed from the door. I went to fetch a knife from my weapons. They lay beside and behind the couch. I shared bits of the heart of the sleen with my men, and, together, cupping our hands, we drank its blood in a ritual of sleen hunters. "Bertram of Lydius has fled," cried Publius, the kitchen master. I had thought this would be true. I had looked into the blood, cupped in my hands. It is said that if one sees oneself black and wasted in the blood, one will perish of disease; if one sees oneself torn and bloody, one will perish in battle; if one sees oneself old and gray one will die in peace and leave children. But the sleen did not speak to me. I had looked into the blood, cupped in my hands, but had seen nothing, only the blood of a beast. It did not choose to speak to me, or could not. There are many varieties of sleen, incidentally, adapted to diverse environments; the most formidable, as far as I know, is the forest sleen. There is also a sand sleen, a snow sleen, even some aquatic varieties, types of sea sleen, and so on. They are very greatly in size, as well. Some sleen are quite small and silken, and sinuously graceful, no larger than domestic cats. They are sometimes kept as pets. "There are many sorts of sleen," said Laura. "Most common are the forest sleen and prairie sleen. The forest sleen are larger, and are solitary hunters, or, if mated, pair hunters; the prairie sleen are smaller, and commonly hunt in packs. Some sleen are bred and trained for certain purposes, hunting slaves, and such. The forest sleen commonly buries its dung, thereby tending to conceal its presence; the prairie sleen, running in packs, and more widely ranging, commonly, does not. Sleen have a strong, unmistakable odor. A forester or plainsman, or a sleen hunter, or one trained, can sometimes detect their scent more than two hundred yards away. Caravans in forests often keep verr or tabuk with them, tethering them in the camp at night, as the agitation of such animals sometimes gives warning of the presence of sleen in the vicinity. Sleen, of course, like larls, commonly hunt with the wind blowing toward them. Thus they have your scent and you do not have theirs." We had begun to move generally southeastward, across the grasslands. We did not encounter more sleen. Such beasts, burrowing, six-legged, sinuous, carnivorous, unless on a scent, tend to be territorial. Perhaps as early as the morning following our departure from our earlier camp, that which had been the scene of such conflict and carnage, we had traversed, and left behind, their usual hunting range. The prairie sleen is, incidentally, I have been told, much smaller than the forest sleen, which can upon occasion reach lengths of eighteen feet and weights of several hundred pounds. "The woods are before us," I said. "They are deep and dark. Bandits sometimes frequent them. In them are forest panthers and forest sleen, perhaps even the black larl. We are components in no ample, well-guarded caravan. Too, somewhere in these woods, if our intelligence is accurate, though doubtless far from the road, is the encampment of Decius Albus."
It was the first larl I had seen, though I had heard much of them. It is a much larger animal than the sleen, and it has four, not six, legs. It lairs in dens, and does not burrow like the sleen in the wild. It is carnivorous, and it most commonly hunts in the day. The sleen, in the wild, is predominantly nocturnal. The larl is probably the most fearsome land predator on Gor. The sleen, on the other hand, is Gor's finest tracker. Domesticated sleen, tracking sleen, hunting sleen, herding sleen, guard sleen, war sleen, are relatively common on Gor. Domesticated larls are rare. Few people have seen one. "You are the beast," said Lucilius. "I am Kur. And you owe me your life." "Only in the sense that one might owe it to a guard sleen," said Marlenus. Happily, the men of Gordon and the raiders did not have sleen. Guard sleen can be trained to prowl the perimeters of a camp. In this way, they can attack intruders and any, too, who might attempt to leave the camp without authorization, deserters, fleeing slaves, spies, and such.
"Beware of the herd sleen," said Kamchak. Aphris turned white. "If you attempt to leave the wagons at night they will sense you out and rip my pretty little slave girl in pieces." Below us, in the broad valley, the camp of the Kurii lay still in darkness. We heard, below, the howling of a sleen, lonely. I wondered if Kurii dreamed. I supposed they did. "It is almost time," said Ivar Forkbeard to me. I nodded. Then, from below, we heard the hunting cry of a sleen, and then of two others, then others. I did not envy Hilda, Ivar's slave. The Kurii would take little note of the sleen. Their cries were neither of alarm nor of fury. They were only gathering in another animal, perhaps a new one, wandered too close to the camp, or a stray, to be expeditiously returned to its herd. The first light then began to touch the valley. From the noises of the sleen we could detect the progress of their hunt, and the location of the imbonded daughter of Thorgard of Scagnar. "There," said Ivar, pointing. They caught her north of the bosk herd. We could see her white body, and the dark, sinuous, furred shapes converging upon it. Then she was surrounded, and she stopped. Then the spleen opened a passage for her, indicating to her which direction she was to go. Where else she turned she was met with the fangs and hisses of the accompanying animals. When she tried to move in any direction other than that of the opened passage they snapped at her, viciously. A single snap could tear off a hand or foot. Then two of the sleen fell in behind her and, snarling and snapping at her heels, drove her before them. We saw her fleeing before them, trying to escape the swift, terrible jaws. We feared, more than once, that they would kill her. A female who cannot be herded is destroyed by the herding sleen. It was the first larl I had seen, though I had heard much of them. It is a much larger animal than the sleen, and it has four, not six, legs. It lairs in dens, and does not burrow like the sleen in the wild. It is carnivorous, and it most commonly hunts in the day. The sleen, in the wild, is predominantly nocturnal. The larl is probably the most fearsome land predator on Gor. The sleen, on the other hand, is Gor's finest tracker. Domesticated sleen, tracking sleen, hunting sleen, herding sleen, guard sleen, war sleen, are relatively common on Gor. Domesticated larls are rare. Few people have seen one.
"For a time," I said, "you are denied human speech. If you have needs and desires, try to make them known as might an animal, say, a house sleen."
In the morning, to my dismay, Elizabeth Cardwell was not to be found. Kamchak was beside himself with fury. Aphris, knowing the ways of Gor Book and the temper of Tuchuks, was terrified, and said almost nothing. "Do not release the hunting sleen," I pleaded with Kamchak. "I shall keep them leashed," he responded grimly. With misgivings I observed the two, six-legged, sinuous, tawny hunting sleen on their chain leashes. Kamchak was holding Elizabeth's bedding a rep-cloth blanket for them to smell. Their ears began to lay back against the sides of their triangular heads; their long, serpentine bodies trembled; I saw claws emerge from their paws, retract, emerge again and then retract; they lifted their heads, sweeping them from side to side, and then thrust their snouts to the ground and began to whimper excitedly; I knew they would first follow the scent to the curtained enclosure within which last night we had observed the dance. "She would have hidden among the wagons last night," Kamchak said. "I know," I said," the herd sleen." They would have torn the girl to pieces on the prairie in the light of the three Gorean moons. "She will not be far," said Kamchak. He hoisted himself to the saddle of his kaiila, a prancing and trembling hunting sleen on each side of the animal, the chains running to the pommel of the saddle. "What will you do to her?" I asked. "Cut off her feet," said Kamchak, "and her nose and ears, and blind her in one eye then release her to live as she can among the wagons." Before I could remonstrate with the angry Tuchuk the hunting sleen suddenly seemed to go wild, rearing on their hind legs, scratching in the air, dragging against the chains. It was all Kamchak's kaiila could do to brace itself against their sudden madness. "Hah!" cried Kamchak. I spied Elizabeth Cardwell approaching the wagon, two leather water buckets fastened to a wooden yoke she carried over her shoulders. Some water was spilling from the buckets. Aphris cried out with delight and ran to Elizabeth, to my astonishment, to kiss her and help with the water. "Where have you been?" asked Kamchak. Elizabeth lifted her head innocently and gazed at him frankly. "Fetching water," she said. The sleen were trying to get at her and she had backed away against the wagon, watching them warily. "They are vicious beasts," she observed. The nearest solid land was about one hundred pasangs to the north, but it was open land, and, there, on the edges of the delta, there were log outposts of Port Kar, where slave hunters and trained sleen, together, patrolled marshes' edges. The vicious, six-legged sleen, large-eyed, sinuous, mammalian but resembling a furred, serpentine lizard, was a indefatigable hunter. He could follow a scent days old with ease, and then, perhaps hundreds of pasangs, days, later, be unleashed for the sport of the hunters, tear his victim to pieces. I expected there was not likely to be escape for slaves to the north. That left the delta, with its interminable marshes, and the thirst, and the tharlarion. Hunting sleen are trained to scent out and destroy escaped slaves. Their senses are unusually keen. Tuchuks, in the south, as I recalled, had also used sleen to hunt slaves, and, of course, to protect their herd. I watched the garment and fiber thrown on the flames. It would not be used to give my scent to domesticated sleen, trained to hunt slaves. "If we had hunting sleen," said the other, "and could find her trail, we would have her in our bracelets before dusk." "It is said that you have the finest hunting sleen on Gor," said Eito. "They are good hunters," said Hassan. "They have been bred for it." "The trail of the slave Asdan was said to be two months old," said Eito. "That of the slave Hippias was three," said Hassan. "Amazing," marveled Eito. I pressed myself against the shoulder of Hassan, and kissed and licked, softly, at the side of his neck. "What brings you to Ar, if I may ask," asked Eito. "I am hunting," said Hassan. "I, my men, and the animals." "And what luckless slave is now your quarry?" inquired Eito. "No slave," said Hassan, chewing on the leg of a roasted vulo, tearing meat from it with his teeth. "I thought you hunted only slaves," said Eito. "Kassim, the rebel pretender to the throne of Tor, whom my animals tore to pieces, was no slave," said Hassan. "Thank you, Mistress," I said. I leaped to my feet, sick. "I anticipated some difficulty in the matter of the sleen," he said. "First of all, we must understand that the sleen are merely following a scent. They recognize a scent, of course, but not know, in a formal or legal sense, whose scent they are following. For example, a sleen can certainly recognize the scent of its master but it, being an animal, does not know, of course, whether its master is, say, a peasant or a Ubar. Indeed, many sleen, whereas they will respond to their own names, do not even know the names of their masters. I am sure the type of point I am making is well understood. Accordingly, let us suppose we now wish a sleen to locate someone, say, a Tatrix. We do not tell the sleen to look for a Tatrix. We give the sleen something which, supposedly, bears the scent of the Tatrix, and then the sleen follows that scent, no differently than it might the scent of a wild tarsk or a yellow-pelted tabuk. The crucial matter then is whether the sleen is set upon the proper scent or not. Now fifteen hundred gold pieces is a great deal of money. Can we not imagine the possibility, where so much money is at stake, that a woman closely resembling the Tatrix, as this woman, for example, might be selected as a quarry in a fraudulent hunt? It would not be difficult then, in one fashion or another, to set sleen upon her trail. A scrap of clothing would do, a bit of bedding, even the scent of a footprint. The innocent woman is then captured and, later, presented in a place such as this, the reward then being claimed." "As you will note," said Hassan to Claudius and the high council, "the seal on this bundle has not been broken. Here, too, is the letter from Menicius." The letter was examined. Claudius himself then broke the seal on the bundle and handed clothing to one of the sleen keepers. One soldier came and crouched down behind me, holding me from the back by the upper arms. Another so served Sheila, to my left. We were not to be permitted to move from our places. I saw one of the keepers holding the clothing beneath the snout of one of the sinuous, six-legged beasts. The specific signals between masters and sleen, signals which, in effect, convey such commands as "Attack," "Hunt," "Stop," "Back," and so on, are usually verbal and private. Verbality is important as many times the sleen, intent upon a scent, for example, will not be looking at the master. The privacy of the signals is important to guarantee that not just anyone can start a sleen on a hunt or call one away from it. The signals to which they respond, then, are idiosyncratic to the given beast. They are generally not unique; however, to a given man and beast. For example, in an area where there are several sleen and several keepers, the keepers are likely to know the signals specific to the given beasts. In his fashion any beast may be controlled by any of the associated trainers or keepers. These signals, too, are usually kept written down somewhere. In this fashion, if a keeper should be slain, or change the locus of his employment, or something along those lines, the beast need not be killed. Suddenly the beast, on its chain leash, leapt towards us Sheila and I screamed, pulling back. I actually felt the body of the beast, its oily fur, the muscles and ribs beneath it, brush me, lunging past me. Sheila tried to scramble back, wild in her chains, but, held, could not do so. She threw her head back, her eyes closed, sobbing and screaming, begging the masters for mercy. The frenzied sleen tried to reach Sheila. Its claws scratched and slipped on the tiles. It snapped and bit at her, its eyes blazing, its fangs, long, wild, white, moist, curved, gleaming, were but inches from her enslaved beauty. A word was spoken. The sleen drew back. It was thrown meat. Sheila, her eyes glazed, hair before her face, looked numbly at the animal. She was still held by the soldier. Had she not been I think she might have slumped to the tiles. How helpless we are, naked and in our chains, before masters. How they can do with us whatever they wish! "The clothing with which the sleen was put on the scent of the woman on our right could have been imbued with her scent at any time, of course," said Ligurious. "For example, it could have been put in the sack with her for a night, when she was being brought to Argentum. I have here, however and I now break the seal, clothing which is actually that of the former Tatrix of Corcyrus. See? Already she cringes and shrinks back. She knows that by this clothing she will be exactly and incontrovertibly identified as the former true Tatrix of Corcyrus." I watched in horror as Ligurious tossed the clothing, piece by piece, to one of the sleen keepers. One of the pieces was the brief, sashed, yellow-silk robe I had been fond of. It was the first garment I had ever worn on Gor. "That one garment," said Miles of Argentum, indicating a scarlet robe, with a yellow, braided belt, "appears to be that in which she put her curves on the day of my audience with her, that having to do with the scrolls of protest." "It is," Ligurious assured him. I also saw there garments which looked like those I had worn to the song drama with Drusus Rencius, and had worn later with him on the walls of Corcyrus. "Surely you recognize that garment?" asked Ligurious, indicating a purple robe with golden trim, and a golden belt. "Yes," said Miles of Argentum. "That is the garment she wore when she was captured." "By you," said Ligurious. "Yes, by me," said Miles. "But she did not wear it long, did she?" asked Ligurious. "No," he grinned. There was laughter from the tables. I did not doubt but what these garments were genuine. The last garment, for example, was undoubtedly really that which had been taken from me in the throne room of Corcyrus, before the very throne itself, before I had been taken naked and in chains outside, into the courtyard, to be placed in a golden cage. These garments, Ligurious had informed me in the throne room of Argentum, before placing me in the golden sack, from which I had been rescued by Drusus Rencius, had been smuggled out of Corcyrus. He had probably paid much to obtain them. The last pieces were all items of intimate feminine apparel, which had been worn next to my body. I was embarrassed to see them. Now that I was a slave, of course, I would have been grateful to have even so much to wear publicly. But when I had worn them they had been the garments of a free woman. Thus, when I saw them now it was as one who had once been a free woman that I was embarrassed. Few free women care to have their intimate garments exhibited publicly before men. I then saw the sleen, a different sleen, thrust its snout deeply into the pile of garments. I could hear it snuffling about in them. I saw the keeper, too, take the intimate garments, wadded in his hand, and thrust them beneath the animal's snout. He then held one of the longer, sliplike garments open from the bottom, and, to my horror, I saw the beast, sniffing and growling, thrust its snout deeply into the garment. My scent, from my intimacies, would doubtless be strongest in such a place. I shrank back, even further. The hands of the soldier behind me, on my arms, forbade me further retreat. In a moment the sleen leaped forward. I closed my eyes and screamed. I felt the hot breath of the animal on my breasts. I seemed surrounded by its snarling. I heard the scratching and slipping of its claws on the tiles, the rattle and tightening, and rattle and tightening, again, of the links of the chain leash, in its lunges toward me. I sensed its force, its terribleness, its eagerness. I heard the snapping of its jaws. Could the keeper judge the distances unerringly? Could he hold the animal? What if the chain broke? I opened my eyes. In that instant the beast was again lunging toward me. In that instant, in a flash, I saw the cavernous maw, the fangs, the long, dark tongue, the blazing eyes, the intentness, the single-mindedness, the power, the eagerness of the beast. I threw back my head and screamed miserably. "Pity!" I begged. "I beg mercy, my masters!" I cried, a terrified slave, addressing them all, in my terror, as though they might be my legal masters. Then the sleen, with a word, was withdrawn, and thrown meat. I trembled. Were it not for the hands of the soldier behind me, on my arms, I might have collapsed. I saw Drusus Rencius looking at me with scorn. I did not care. I was not a warrior. I was a girl, and a slave. "Thus, you see," said Ligurious, "who was the true Tatrix of Corcyrus." "Each woman, it would seem," said Claudius, "has been identified as such, one in virtue of the articles of Hassan and one in virtue of the articles with which you have furnished us." "Please, no, Master!" wept Sheila. Then she lowered her head, cringing, for she had spoken without permission. The soldier behind her looked to Hassan, who nodded. He then cuffed her to her side from behind with the back of his hand and then ordered her again to her knees, to which position she struggled in her chains. Menicius, meanwhile, had thrown the garments, in a silken, fluttering wad, to one of the sleen masters who thrust them beneath the snout of the beast. In a moment it was moving swiftly about the room its nose to the floor, and then, suddenly, taking the scent, lunged murderously, claws slipping on the tiles, toward Sheila. Inches from her body, the chain on its collar jerked taut, it was held back. She screamed but could not withdraw, held mercilessly, immobility, on her knees, in place, by the soldier behind her. "The identification is made," said Claudius, and, with a wave of his hand, signaled the sleen keeper to divert and pacify his beast. A word was whispered. The sleen, suddenly in the superbness of its training, drew back. It seemed, suddenly calm. Its tail no longer lashed back and forth. Its tongue, from the heat of its activity, lolled forth from its mouth, dripping saliva to the tiles. I could see, too, the imprint of its paws, in dampness, on the tiles. The sleen tends to sweat largely through its mouth and the leathery paws of its feet. It fell upon the meat which it was thrown. I suddenly leapt to the beast whose neck I had broken, l looked to the men on the hill. They had not yet released the sleen. I tore away a tusk, breaking it loose, from the side of the jaw of the dead animal. Then, feverishly, with a will, I thrust it through its pelt and, pulling and tearing, using my hands, and teeth, as well, I began to remove its skin. Perhaps they would think I had gone mad. Yet I did not think it would take Flaminius long to grasp my intent. I looked wildly back to the crest of the hill. Already the sleen, unleashed, were racing down the grassy slope. I continued my work. I tore loose part of the skin. I ran the side of my hand, like a knife, between it and organs and hot fat. I put my foot on the rib cage and, pressing down, then releasing the pressure, then pressing down, and releasing again, I turned the rib cage, drawing the pelt, rip by rip, away from it. I turned again to see the progress of the sleen. They could be upon me now in but Ihn. I could see their eagerness, their eyes. I tore the pelt mostly away from the animal. I had no time to remove the lolling, dangling head. With my foot, thrusting, I removed most of the remaining body and entrails from the hide, and clutching it, with both hands, wrapping it about my hips, I entered the pack. Part of the hide was still warm on my skin It was wet and sticky about me. My legs and thighs were bloody from it. I wedged between urts. Their fur was warm and oily. I felt their ribs through it, the movement of muscles beneath it. Noses pushed toward me. I pushed on, fighting to make my way through the bodies. Almost at the same instant the sleen reached the pack and plunged toward me. One climbed over the bodies of the closely packed urts, snapping and snarling. Its jaws came within a foot of me, and then it fell between the startled urts, it spinning about then, confused. I kept pushing through the urts, toward the other side of the pack, more than a hundred and fifty yards away. Behind me I suddenly heard again that hideous squeal of an urt, once more the stranger-recognition signal. The sleen is a tenacious tracker, I told myself. It is a tireless, determined, tenacious tracker. Such thoughts had run through my mind earlier, when I had first come to the edge of the pack. They had then seemed provocatively, somehow significantly, but with no full significance which I had then grasped, lurking, prowling, at the borders of my understanding. Now I realized the thought with which my mind must have then been toying, the marvelous, astounding possibility which at that time I had not fully grasped, that possibility which would have seemed then, had I been fully aware of it, so disappointingly remote, yet so intriguing. But had I not acted upon this understanding, immediately, almost instinctively, whose earlier significance only now came fully home to me? I had. What had once been only a hint, a puzzling, intriguing thought which I had scarcely understood, had, in the thicket of circumstances, in the crisis of an instant, become a coercive modality of action, that path upon which one must boldly and irrevocably embark. I had required only the mechanism of my passage. Given that, everything, luminously, like the pieces of a puzzle, had fallen into place. Nothing could follow me through the urts. Nothing, not even sleen. I pressed on. Behind me I heard the intensification and multiplication of the squeals. The sleen is a tenacious tracker. In its way it is an admirable animal. It does not give up; it will not retreat. I turned about to look back. I could see three swarming locations in the pack, almost as though gigantic tawny insects infested the area, clambering about atop each other. I saw a sleen rearing up on its hind legs, its shoulders and head emergent from the hill of swarming, clambering urts. An urt was clutched lifeless in its jaws. It shook it savagely. Then it fell back under the urts, and I could no longer see it. I pushed on. Then I could not move further. Too many urts, seemingly intent upon me, crowded about me. I was ringed. Then it seemed I stood in a clear place, an open place, an empty place, a central place, almost like a dry, lonely pool, separated out from, isolated in the midst of, those tawny bodies. I did not move. Necks craned towards me, noses twitching and sniffing. I did not move. Through the bodies an urt came pressing towards me. It was a large urt, darkly furred. It had one tusk broken at the side of its jaw. It was about four feet high at the shoulder, extremely large for this type of animal. It had a silvered snout. I recognized it. It was the urt Nim Nim had earlier identified as the leader of the pack. It began to sniff me, its nose moving and twitching. "Tal, ugly brute," I said, softly. I turned, keeping it in sight as it circled me, sniffing. Then it had completed its circuit. Those small, myopic eyes peered up at me. "You are a stinking, ugly brute," I whispered. It sniffed me again, beginning at my feet and then lifting its head until it seemed, again, to look me in the eyes. When it had lowered its head I had lowered the pelt I grasped, holding it about me, that it might be near its nose. When it had lifted its head I had raised the pelt, too, keeping it muchly between us. It did not seem muchly concerned with the head of the urt, which was still, by the skin, attached to the pelt. Its responses in this situation I assumed, I trusted, I hoped, would be activated almost exclusively by smell, and not by the smell of blood, or human, but by the smell of the pelt, by the pack odor. I breathed a sigh of relief. It had turned away. The animals now returned to their business. Again was the pack tranquil, save where some animals, here and there, fed on sleen. "Farewell, ugly brute," I said. I then began, again, to press through the urts, wading through the pack. Once, a few yards before me and to my right, I saw a small, elongated head rise up suddenly, peering at me. Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it disappeared. Again, then, I could see only the animals. This was the only concrete sign I had to suggest that there might be urt people traveling with the pack. "Sleen are variously trained," said the beast to me. "These in the pit respond to verbal signals, regardless of their source. They were of little use to me when I was chained at the stake, as they were set upon me, as upon a target. On the other hand, I am not now in the position of the target, or prey, but in that of the trainer." "Such signals are secret," I said. "They are carefully guarded. You could not know them. How could you know them?" "I heard them whispered to the sleen," it said. "Just because you cannot hear such sounds at such distances, does not mean that the sleen cannot, or that I cannot." "Ten sleen," said the pit master, "have been given his scent." I was startled to hear this. I did not want to be touched by the animals. I feared them terribly. One must have been fifteen feet in length, and the other close to twenty. I could not have begun to put my arms about one. The leg just above the paw in the larger animal must have been some six inches in thickness. They were leashed, the leashes going to rings on huge leather collars, four to five inches in width, an inch or two in thickness. I dreaded even that they might rub against me, those huge bodies, with their glossy, oily fur. It was easy to see how men might not be able to control such beasts. Their tongues lolled out now. They seemed passive enough, at the moment. Their breath was heavy, a sort of panting, as they padded along with us, but it was regular, and showed no signs of particular excitement. Perhaps they were merely being exercised. Their heads, broad at the back, tended to taper toward the snout, rather like those of vipers. The length of their body, too, with its six legs, tended to suggest a furred serpent, or reptile. Such things are mammalian or mammalianlike, however, in the sense of giving live birth and suckling the young. Two of the black-tunicked men clung to each leash. Again the black-tunicked men did not wish pit guards present. Once again they had been dismissed. Even with two men on a leash I did not think they would be able to hold the animals if they should be determined to go their won way. But, to be sure, these were hunting sleen, and not intended to hunt on the leash, but rather only when unleashed. I cried out a little as one of the beasts brushed past me. I had felt its ribs, like iron bands beneath the smooth, rippling muscles, sheathed in the oily pelt. Even in that brief, smooth touch I had sensed a considerable force, like a wave in the sea. But such beasts are not only powerful. They are extremely agile as well, and can easily top a thirty-foot wall. Over a short distance they can outrun fleet game. Their front claws, used in burrowing, can tear through heavy doors. Sometimes it takes ten spears to kill one. The heavy collars were removed from the throats of the two sleen. There is a difference in custom here with various sorts of sleen, which might be remarked. War sleen, watch sleen, fighting sleen, and such, when freed, would normally retain the collars, which are often plated and spiked, for the protection of the throat. With hunting sleen, on the other hand, the collars are usually removed. There are two views on this matter. One view is that the collar might jeopardize the hunt, for example, that it might be caught in a branch, or be somehow utilized to restrain the animal before it has located its quarry. The other is that the removal of the collar returns the beast to its state of natural savagery, that it removes from it any inhibitions which might have resulted from its familiarity with human beings. Certainly it is difficult to recollar a hunting sleen until it has made its kill, until it has been pacified, sated with the predestinated blood and meat. The two views, of course, are not mutually exclusive. When the collars were removed the behavior of the two animals was significantly altered. They seemed to become a great deal more restless. Usually, of course, such things hunt in the open. One urinated in the passageway. Its urine has an unusually strong odor. In the wild, urine and feces are used to mark territories. The head of the larger animal moved from side to side. The smaller animal began to make a tiny, excited, anticipatory noises. I had heard such noises before meat had been thrown to them. Saliva fell from the jaws of the larger animal. It moved between the men to put its head against the thigh of the pit master. It was only he, one supposes, of those in the corridor, it recognized. "Beware," said the pit master. "Where sleen are concerned, there is always danger." "Do you think I do not know that the pits of Treve are renowned for the reliability of their hunters?" said the leader of the strangers. "You cannot always depend upon sleen," said the pit master. "Hi, hi," said the leader of the strangers, slapping his thigh, calling the animals to him. "Be careful," said the lieutenant. "Here," said the leader of the strangers, crouching down, thrusting the blanket to the snouts of the beasts. "Here, take scent, take scent." The two animals, eagerly, tails lashing, thrust their snouts into the wadded blanket. The larger animal then, as had the smaller, earlier, in its excitement, loosed its urine. This is apparently a behavior selected for in the evolution of the sleen. I do not think that it is simply a device to clear the bladder prior to strenuous activity, for example, to avoid discomfort in the chase. I think, rather, it has to do, at least in part, with the common prey of the sleen in the wild, which is usually the tabuk, a single-horned antelopelike creature. A filled bladder, gored, releases wastes into the ventral cavity, with considerable danger of infection. If the bladder is cleared prior to the wound the chance of infection is considerably reduced. Over thousands of generations of sleen this behavior has, I suspect, been selected for, as it contributes to the survival of the animal, and its consequent capacity, obviously, thereafter, to replicate itself. "Scent! Hunt!" said the leader of the strangers. "Scent! Hunt!" The blanket was literally torn from the grasp of the leader of the strangers, who then stood up, watching the sleen. They began to scratch at it, and seized parts of it in their jaws, ripping it. At one point it fluttered, shaken, in the passage, like a flag. "Scent! Hunt! Scent! Hunt!" urged the leader of the strangers. The two beasts looked up from the blanket, it torn in shreds beneath their paws. "They are beauties," said the leader of the strangers, "beauties." "It is done," said the officer of Treve angrily. "They have taken the scent." "Watch them!" said a man. I had never seen sleen hunt in a situation such as this. I had seen them, in a little demonstration which had been staged for my benefit, one I was never likely to forget, seek out and rip apart particular pieces of meat, pieces of meat which had been given particular names. The smaller of the two sleen was one which had been imprinted with my own scent and name. I knew a given command could set it upon me. Both of these sleen had also been imprinted, I knew, with the scent, and some name, or signal, associated with the peasant, and could be set upon him. On the other hand, the pit master had not volunteered the appropriate signals to the leader of the strangers. This was not surprising, of course, given the pit master's obvious reservations concerning the intentions of the black-tunicked men. One does not need such signals, of course, when one has at one's disposal an article of such utility as the quarry's robes, or tunic, or blanket. "Scent! Hunt!" said the leader of the strangers. "I do not understand," said a man. "Surely they have the scent now," said another. The sleen had not left the area. The larger one snarled, menacingly. "Scent! Hunt!" cried the leader of the strangers. The larger sleen turned in a circle, as though confused. Then it ran down the corridor for a few yards. "It is hunting!" cried a man. But then the animal stopped, and turned about. "It is coming back," said a man. The large sleen thrust past the leader of the strangers and ran a few paces down the corridor behind us. In this it was accompanied by the smaller animal. Then they turned about, together, and returned. They went again to the shreds of the blanket. Then they lifted their snouts into the air, and then they put them to the floor of the corridor. "What is wrong with them?" asked the lieutenant. "They seem confused," said the pit master. "They are stupid animals. Said a man. "Scent! Hunt!" said the leader of the strangers. The two sleen now turned about, then they crouched down, their bellies no more than an inch or so from the floor. I heard a very low growl from one of them. Their tails moved back and forth. I saw their ears lie back, against their heads. "What is wrong with them?" said another. The eyes of the first sleen, the larger, the more aggressive, fixed on the leader of the strangers. He stepped back. The larger sleen snarled. There was no mistaking the menace in that sound. I could now detect a rumble in the throat of the smaller animal. It, too, seemed to regard the leader of the strangers. "Something is wrong," said a man. The leader of the strangers too another step back and drew his blade. He held the hilt with two hands. Then the larger sleen, scarcely lifting its belly from the floor, crawled quickly forward a foot or two, snarling, and stopped. His companion, to his right, did the same. I knew little or nothing of sleen, but the intent, the agitation the excitement of the animals, was evident. Again the two sleen, first the larger, then the smaller, approached, and stopped. "Draw," said the leader of the strangers. But before blades could leave their sheaths the first animal scrambled forward, snarling, charging, its hind feet scratching and slipping, spattering urine back, just for an instant, on the floor of the passage. The second animal was at its shoulder, scarcely a fang's breadth behind. The leader of the strangers struck wildly down at the first animal, slashing its jaw and the side of its face, turned to orient its jaws to its prey, cutting into it, with his blade, and the force of its charge struck him back and the beast, shoulders hunched, was on him, he on his back, screaming, the other beast now, too, at his body, seizing it in its jaws, tearing it toward itself in its frenzy. The lieutenant and some five of the black-tunicked men, shouting, kicking, crying out with horror, crowded about the intent animals, cutting down at them with blades, trying to stab into those active, twisting bodies. The larger beast lifted its head from the leader of the strangers, its jaws flooded with blood, part of the body in its grip, it bleeding itself from the stroke of the leader's blade. The smaller animal continued to feed, being struck with stroke after stroke. Neither animal, in its excitement seemed to be aware of, or even to feel, the attack of the other men. Again and again the blades cut and stabbed at them. One man cried out in pain, wounded, by the thrust of another. Then, suddenly the larger animal, snarling, turned about with blurring speed, caught another man in its jaws, shaking him. A blade then found its heart, and in its death throes, not releasing its new prey, it rolled and shook, and half of it fell free to the side. The smaller animal continued to feed until its vertebrae, at the base of the skull, had been severed. When it became clear that the animals were dead the men stopped hacking and thrusting at their bodies. Then they drew back, almost as though in shock, their reddened blades lowered. They were breathing heavily, with their exertion. Blood was about, and the parts of two men. I drew back even more, trying not to let it, in its flow, touch me. I understood for the first time now, clearly, that there was a certain pitch in this part of the passage. This could be determined from the path taken by the blood. Some of it now, tricking, running here and there, was better than twenty yards down the passage. One could see the reflection of the lamps in it. I did not look at the pieces of the leader of the strangers, or of his fellow, caught by the larger beast. The two sleen were masses of blood and hacked fur. Two paws, even, had been cut away, one supposed after the animals had died, the hacking, frenziedly, irrationally, prolonged. The lieutenant looked at the pit master. "Sleen are unpredictable," he said. "They are erratic beasts." "It is a sleen," said Lydia. "Beware of them. They are extremely dangerous. The man is doubtless a huntsman, or a renter of sleen, used for tracking. There are many varieties of training for such beasts. A common form of training is to associate a name with a scent, and then, if one wishes, to associate the name with one or more commands. In your case, if one wanted the sleen to take a scent print of you, your name, or some code name, would be associated with your scent. That name, or code name, could then be used in conjunction with another command to set the beast on your trail. They are wondrous trackers and can follow a scent several days old, even through a city. The common commands are the "kill" command and the "herd" command. Given the "kill" command the sleen pursues and kills, and eats, the quarry. Given the "herd" command, the beasts drive the quarry to a predetermined destination." "What if one resists being driven?" asked Ellen. "Then the sleen reverts to the "kill" command," said Lydia. "The quarry, if recalcitrant, is killed and eaten, almost at the first sign of resistance." Ellen trembled. "Sometimes a slave is driven for miles," said Lydia, "until, exhausted, her feet bleeding, she finds herself before a cage, into which she must hurry, crawling, closing the gate, which locks, behind her." Ellen lay back in the chains, and closed her eyes, in misery. She now understood her slavery in a new dimension. "To be sure," said Lydia, "sometimes the sleen is leashed, and men accompany it. In this way they come upon the quarry while the sleen is still within their control. At this point a "desist" command may be uttered, which command is known, of course, only to the beast and the huntsman, or huntsmen, at which point the sleen will, or should, abandon the hunt." "'Should'?" asked Ellen. "Sleen are temperamental," said Lydia. "One cannot always count upon them. They may, for example, have had a long, frustrating hunt and desire an elating, compensatory victory of blood and feasting; or they may just be ravenously hungry. Too, much depends on the beast and its relationship to its master. Some sleen are incredibly loyal to the master, and will die for them. Others seem to regard the master as little more than a partner in the hunt, almost as though he were another sleen, albeit an unusual one, with whom a prize might be contested." "What does the master do if the sleen refuses to abandon the hunt?" asked Ellen. "The safest thing to do is unleash the animal," said Lydia. "One might try to kill it, of course. A sword, or ax, blow at the spinal column, just below the back of the head, is the easiest way to do this, given that one has the leash in hand." "That would be dangerous, would it not?" asked Ellen. "Very dangerous," said Lydia. "A wounded sleen is not a pleasant thing to have in one's vicinity. There are stories of sleen whose head is half severed from the body finishing the hunt, and dying across the body of the quarry, snarling defiance at the master. Too, sometimes the master is first killed by the beast, who has doubtless seen him as a surprising and unwelcome impediment to its hunt. Such sleen then normally revert to the wild. They tend to be extremely dangerous, possibly because they are familiar with the ways of men and have tasted human flesh." "And must they then be hunted with other sleen?" asked Ellen. "No sleen will hunt another sleen," said Lydia. "She is stupid," said Jill. "Yes," said Cichek. "But then," said Ellen, "would it not be advisable, if possible, to wrap oneself in the pelt of a sleen, or such, to elude them?" "See," said Lydia, "she is only ignorant, not stupid." "She is still stupid," said Jill. "Anyone knows that that mixture of scents disturbs and infuriates sleen and hastens their hunt." "She would have no way of knowing that," said Lydia. "How then," asked Ellen, somewhat emboldened, "are such sleen hunted?" "Sometimes by great encirclements," said Lydia, "but as the sleen is commonly nocturnal in the wild and can burrow quickly that is seldom effective. The usual method is to stake out a verr or slave girl, at night, and then, when the sleen comes to feed, concealed hunters attempt to kill it, usually with the quarrels of crossbows, sometimes with long arrows, the arrows of the great bow, the peasant bow. If the hunters are successful, they regard themselves as fortunate." "The hunters are fortunate!" said Ellen. "Well, the verr or slave girl, as well, of course," said Lydia. "Do not fear," said Emris. "You give every sign of one who is going to wriggle well, and so you would not be likely to be staked out unless you displeased your master." Ellen saw the six riders, on tharlarion, in the hands of two of which were the leashes of two gray hunting sleen, which crouched down, their rear haunches trembling, as though readying themselves for a charge. Their hunt had been successful, and they were now ready for a reward, a feeding. "The sleen are restless," said one of the riders, in the background. "Step away from the body," said the first rider. Selius Arconious stepped back. At a sign from the first rider, a fellow in the back suddenly cried out to the sleen, "Now!" Ellen screamed as the two gray bodies scrambled past her. There was oil from the pelt of one on her bound arm, as she twisted away. They might have trailed her, presumably from a scent lingering in her cage, from before her sale. But she had not been and, it seemed, was not now designated their reward. The rope on her neck whipped behind her, sped by a rushing rear paw. She pulled back, suddenly, frightened, as the two gray hunting sleen, slithering, bellies close to the grass, moved past her, to take shelter beneath the wagon. They looked at her, with large eyes. Sleen, in general, are not fond of water. It does not deter them, however, in the tenacity of pursuit; when hunting they will enter the water, and swim, unhesitatingly, single-mindedly. There is, however, an animal called the sea sleen, which is aquatic. There seems to be some dispute as to whether the sea sleen is a true sleen or not. The usual view, as she understands it, is that it is a true sleen, adapted to an aquatic environment. She felt the drenched fur of one of the sleen rub against her arm. There was a powerful odor to the two beasts, accentuated doubtless by the dampening of the fur. This odor was very clear in the cool, washed air. She pulled at the bracelets. They held her to the wheel. She was sure the sleen were harmless at present, particularly if she did not make sudden moves, or annoy them. On the other hand, she knew that at a mere command such beasts might unhesitantly tear her to pieces. "Send the sleen out to scout?" suggested one of the soldiers. "Do you expect them to come back and report?" asked the officer. "We have no scent to put them on. I doubt they would leave the camp." "They are hunting sleen, not war sleen," said a soldier. One of the beasts turned toward the fellow who had rented the hunting sleen in Brundisium, the fellow of the spokesman and Mirus. He backed away, putting his arms before his face, crying out. But the beast hesitated for, suddenly, the two gray hunting sleen, rented for mere coin at Brundisium, had placed themselves, crouching, shoulders hunched, ears laid back, snarling, between the sleenmaster and itself. "Command them!" cried Selius Arconious, wildly. "Command them to attack!" "Attack! Kill! Kill!" said the sleenmaster, hoarsely, scarcely able to speak. Instantly the two sleen sprang toward the startled beast. Sleen, when wild, or released, commonly trail silently. When leashed, however, and used as controlled hunting animals, they often drag against their leashes, and harnesses, attempt to hurry the hunters, growl in frustration, and sometimes utter an angry squealing sound, as though protesting the supposed dalliance of the leash masters, the seemingly unnecessary length of the hunt, which they, released, might have terminated long ago, and perhaps even the possible further flight and possible unexpected elusiveness of a prey whose trail they have already located and are readily pursuing. A sleen is a dangerous animal, and a hungry sleen is additionally dangerous, and one who expects to be rewarded for a successful hunt, and is not so rewarded, is extremely dangerous. Such a beast may turn upon its leash-holder. When sleen are used in hunting slaves, if the slave is to be recaptured, and not slain, the hunters usually carry meat with them, to reward the beast once the prey is in custody. The hunting sleen was a much larger animal, and had been bred through generations not only for its hunting skills, but for size, ferocity, and aggressiveness. Such animals are sometimes used in sleen fights, on which bets are made. There is amongst some species, including Kurii, a common belief that the wild animal is somehow superior to the domestic animal, but this is usually false. The domestic animal has been bred from the wild animal to be its superior. Wild animals are on the whole smaller, lack stamina, are malnourished, infested with parasites, and short-lived. The domestic animal is usually larger, better fed, longer-lived, healthier, and trainable, with respect to virtues ranging from stamina to patience, to restraint, to techniques of stalking, attacking, and killing. For example, the wolf hound of Earth was originally bred to kill wolves. "Drive," said Cabot to the sleen, softly. To a trained animal it is not necessary to speak commands sharply, or harshly. Often one wants to issue them quietly, very quietly, even whispered, that a quarry may not be alerted to its presence. It may be recalled he had retrained the sleen in the forest, beginning with the translator, to substitute Gorean for Kur, such that the animal would now respond only to Gorean, and, as is usual with a sleen and single trainer, only to the particular trainer's commands. It would not do, obviously, for just any individual to be able to set so dangerous a beast into its behaviors. When masters change the beast must be retrained, or, if this proves impractical, killed. "Your scent has been taken," said Cabot to the slave. "Too, it has been associated with a particular name. The purpose of this should be clear. The name, together with a given command, initiates the sleen's behavior. For example, given the "kill" command the sleen will locate and destroy the quarry, given a "drive" command, it will conduct the quarry to a predetermined location, or, if the quarry should prove recalcitrant, tear it to pieces. There are other commands, too, as you may suspect, but most are obvious, and I decline to make clear their nature. If you understand the purport of what I am saying, nod affirmatively." "It is an excellent tracker," I said. Indeed, the sleen was a tenacious, indefatigable tracker, the finest on Gor. Its tracking skills had doubtless been evolved for the pursuit of game, but, in the domesticated sleen, often carefully bred for generations, they often proved of great value to humans. It was not unusual for a sleen to locate and pursue a track which might have been laid down several days earlier. There have been documented cases of a sleen locating and following a trail put down more than a month earlier. An obvious application of sleen is in hunting, say, tabuk, wild tarsk, and such. A related application of sleen is in tracking fugitives, slave girls foolish enough to think they might escape, and such. Depending on the commands issued, the sleen will either destroy and feed on the quarry, or drive it to a preappointed destination, usually a cage, the gate of which the quarry, if it wishes to live, must close, and swiftly, therewith locking itself within. There are also guard sleen, which guard granaries, storerooms, warehouses, and such. They may, too, patrol the perimeters of camps, to prevent intrusions and unauthorized departures. Many a slave girl has been turned back at a camp's periphery, sometimes to be hurried back to her master, by the fangs of a sleen to whom her value and beauty are a matter of utter indifference. Sleen may also be used to guard prisoners, holding them in place. Too, some sleen are used for herding. They may be used, for example, to herd stripped free women, not yet embonded, to whom the coffle might seem an indignity. Many such women are only too eager then to be permitted to seek refuge within a warrior's tent, within which they will serve as, and be used as, a slave. After a free woman has been used as a slave she is usually branded. After that, what else is she good for? She may then be coffled, without reservation. An interesting application, similar to the above, occurs when free women, in the hope of escaping looters, chains, and flames, hurry by postern gates and obscure exits from a fallen city into the surrounding countryside. Those who are not promptly taken into custody, running into the arms of enemy soldiers, fallen into fragilely roofed siege ditches, rather like capture pits, finding themselves unable to scale walls of circumvallation, caught in slave wire, taken in slave snares or slave traps, and such, may be sought by trained sleen. Each woman is likely to mean silver in the coffers of the conquerors. The sleen are trained then to round up, herd, and drive these women to the enclosures, say, corrals or pens, waiting for them. Some sleen are even trained to hold down and tear the garmenture from such women before starting them on their journey toward their readied facilities of incarceration. Recalcitrant quarry are eaten. In any event, there are numerous uses for domestic sleen, far more than it would be practical or convenient to enumerate. Some other uses, which might be mentioned in passing, for mere purposes of illustration, would be that of the bodyguard, and that of an animal used for sport, as in racing, or fighting. Ramar, for example, had been bred primarily as an arena animal, and, in his matches, had been a favorite amongst Kur gamblers. It was the first larl I had seen, though I had heard much of them. It is a much larger animal than the sleen, and it has four, not six, legs. It lairs in dens, and does not burrow like the sleen in the wild. It is carnivorous, and it most commonly hunts in the day. The sleen, in the wild, is predominantly nocturnal. The larl is probably the most fearsome land predator on Gor. The sleen, on the other hand, is Gor's finest tracker. Domesticated sleen, tracking sleen, hunting sleen, herding sleen, guard sleen, war sleen, are relatively common on Gor. Domesticated larls are rare. Few people have seen one. Then I could not move but stood still, as though paralyzed, my hand before my mouth. Not three yards away, its motion arrested, there was a paused, crouching sleen, a wild sleen. I knew it was a sleen, as I had seen them in Shipcamp, where some are kept and trained by sleen masters. I found them frightening animals. Domestic sleen are often larger and more aggressive than sleen in the wild, for they are bred carefully and selectively for a variety of purposes, war, herding, the hunt, and such. I think the beast was as startled to see me as I was to see it. Its belly low to the ground, its shoulder was no higher than a bit above my knee. It was some five to six feet in length, its body sinuous, snakelike. It must be a young animal, I thought as an adult sleen, even in the wild, for they range from eight to ten feet in length. It reminded me of a furred reptile, viper-headed, fanged. The eyes in that triangular, fanged head were full upon me. Its tail lashed back and forth. I could not move. I could not even have cried for help. Then the beast's head dipped, sweeping, to the ground. I heard it snuffling. Then its muzzle was almost at my feet. Its body literally rubbed against my leg as it snaked past me, and it continued on its way. I knew little about sleen, but I did know it was the planet's most adept, reliable, tenacious tracker. That is why they are often used in hunting. A flaw, or virtue, of the sleen as a hunter is its single-mindedness. As a flaw, once fastened on a scent and committed to it, it will ignore better, easier game for less desirable, more-difficult-to-obtain game; on the other hand, once committed to a scent it is likely to pursue it relentlessly, which, if one is after a particular quarry, might be I suppose, accounted a virtue. As noted, the sleen, in the wild, is predominantly nocturnal, usually emerging from its burrow at dusk, and returning to it in the early morning. The sleen, I gathered, was pursuing the tabuk, and, accordingly, I had been to it no more than an unexpected distraction. Still, what if another should come across my scent? I would hope it would not commit to it, but would ignore it in favor of more familiar game. But one does not know. Much depends on how hungry an animal is. The hungry sleen may attack even a larl, which is likely to kill it; in the far north I am told snow sleen will hunt in packs, rather like swarming sea sleen, but the sleen, generally, like the larl, is a solitary hunter. Older animals, of course, may be reduced to hunting slower, less-desirable prey. Where the sleen ranges, peasants, foresters, and such, commonly remain indoors at night, or, if venturing out, are likely to do so in armed groups. The hunts of wild sleen, of course, are not invariably successful, or the value of their range would be soon reduced by overhunting. In the wild, the sleen will usually return to its burrow by morning, and, after sleeping, seek a new trail the next night. Too, after a kill, many sleen, rather like certain reptiles, may remain asleep or quiescent for weeks, even months. This is not the case, however, with the domestic sleen, which are bred with different ends in view. They are restless, energetic, active, possess a rapid metabolism, sleep far less, and function well both diurnally and nocturnally. Their aggression, diverse behaviors, and such, are often triggered by private, secret, verbal signals, sometimes taken from only one person. Sometimes a bond, almost resembling affection, exists between the beast and its master. Shortly thereafter, not far from the western edge of the dock, we encountered the sleen. It was a large, mottled beast, some nine feet long, brown and black. It became excited at his appearance. It began to whine, and tear at the turf, and writhe and twist about, almost like a snake. "I do not want it to kill the slave," I said. "It has not been given that command," he said. Its snout was to the forest its nostrils flared, its eyes keen, its long, sinuous body trembling. Its tether was taut. "Hold, hold," said Axel soothingly. He then freed the monster of its tether. The beast, though trembling, remained in place. Axel then donned a heavy pair of gloves, and attached a chain leash to the beast's heavy, thick, spiked collar. "Why the chain, why the gloves?" I asked. "He cannot chew through the chain," he said. "And I do not wish to lose a hand." "I gather he becomes excited," I said. "That is not unusual in a hunting sleen," he said. "Easy, easy, Tiomines," he said, soothingly. "It is unusual that it would be this agitated this early, is it not?" I asked. "The scent is very fresh," he said. "It must have been laid down Ahn ago," I said. "You know little of sleen," he said. It is not unheard of for sleen to follow a given scent for days, even one which may have been laid down weeks ago. "Sleen, sleen!" she cried. It was a large, long, agile, sinuous, six-legged thing, brown with patches of black, massive, like an immense furred lizard, low to the ground for its size, its belly almost in the leaves, a large broad, triangular head. "Do not strike it " called the leader. "It is not wild. See the collar, the leash!" Then he cried out, in alarm. "Do not touch the leash, Aeson. You are not the use master. Let it alone." "Is it hunting?" said a fellow. "It was," said the leader. The huge beast crouched there, at the edge of the camp, looking about. Then it shook its head, vigorously, as though to rid himself of some clinging parasite. It rose up a bit, and then sank down again. For such a large animal, seemingly agile, and sinuous, it had seemed momentarily unsteady. I did not understand this. "Kill it!" cried Tuza. "It is a beautiful beast, do not harm it " said the leader. "It is recovering," said one of the leader's men. "How much did you give it?" asked the leader of one of his men. "Enough to hold a sleen until morning," said the fellow. "I think not this sleen," said the leader. "It is a wondrous and mighty beast," said the fellow who had been addressed as Aeson. The muzzle of that broad head then lay upon the leaves. Its eyes were half closed. "Let it alone," said the leader. "Look at the nostrils," whispered Aeson. "Yes," said the leader. "It is taking scent," said Genak. I then saw the round eyes of the beast open widely. A low sound, a growl of sorts came from that monstrous form. "It has taken scent," said a fellow. The long, pointed ears of the beast then lay back against the sides of its head. "Kill it!" begged Tuza. Suddenly Tula and Mila, who were with me, withdrew from my side, backing away. I did not understand this. I suddenly found myself alone, no one within several feet of me. "Is it hunting?" asked the fellow who had asked this before. "It is, now," said the leader. I saw the eyes of the beast fasten upon me. It crouched down. "No!" I said. "Do not move!" said the leader to me. "She was a runaway!" screamed Tuza. "Kill her, before the beast goes mad in the camp." "Remain perfectly still," said the leader to me. The beast now crouched down, eyeing me, just a few feet from me. It began to growl. It scratched dirt, deeply furrowing it. Clearly it was becoming excited. Its tail began to lash. "It is going to attack," said a man. "Do not move," said the leader. "Remain perfectly still." Suddenly the beast, with a spattering of dirt behind it, rushed forward and I screamed and felt that broad snout thrusting against me, excitedly, prodding and rubbing. I put my hands before my eyes, and the snout, pushing here and there, explored me. My tunic was ripped on the side. There was saliva from its jaws on my thigh, and under the softness of its jaw's fur, the jaws rubbing against me, I felt the curved knives of fangs. The beast then, as though satisfied, circled me twice, and then crouched down, eyeing me, clearly ready to spring. "Do not move," the leader cautioned me. Then he turned to Aeson. "The beast is impatient," he said. "Free and bring the guests from our camp. Hurry!" The leader then turned again to me. "The sleen is uncertain what to do," he said. "This is dangerous, very dangerous. The use master is not present. It is he who must restrain the beast. Only he will know the signals. Only he can handle the leash with impunity." "In the wild," said a fellow, "when the hunt is done, the sleen attacks, kills, and feeds." "The use master is being fetched," said a man. "How much time is there?" asked a fellow. "I do not know," said the leader. Then he said to me, "Do not move." Then the sleen turned about, and faced the edge of the camp, the direction from which he had emerged from the forest, put back his head, and howled. "It is announcing the end of the hunt?" said a fellow. "No," said the leader. "That is not in the training." "What then?" asked a man. "It does not understand the absence of the use master," said the leader. "It has not encountered this situation before. It does not know what to do. It is puzzled, and frustrated." "The hunt is done," said a man. "It always feeds at the end of the hunt," said a fellow. "Blood will tip the scale," said a man. "How long does she have?" asked Genak. "It depends on the animal," said the leader. The beast had turned away from me. It could not see me. Was this not my opportunity? Would there be another? I turned about, and fled toward the river. I heard a scrambling in the dirt behind me, and stopped suddenly, almost falling, for the beast was now before me, between me and the river, head down, snarling. "It is going to feed!" I heard. Someone screamed, perhaps Tula. "Back away, slowly," called the leader, soothingly. "Return to where the sleen found you, where you were before, exactly. I recommend you kneel there, and remain extremely quiet." "It is fortunate he did not stop her by cutting or tearing her; and smell or taste blood," said Genak. "That would have been the end of things," said a man. I now knelt where, and as, I had been told. "You disobeyed," said the leader. "Forgive me, Master," I whispered. "What you did was stupid and foolish," he said. "Yes, Master," I whispered. "She is a barbarian, Master," said Tula. "She knows no better." "If you try to rise to your feet now," said the leader to me, "the beast may well attack." "How much time does she have?" asked a man. "Very little I would suppose," said the leader. "There is one way to make sure of one's prey," said a man. "Certainly, kill it," said another. "See the beast," said a fellow. It was crouched down, trembling, ears back, the tail lashing back and forth. Clearly it was growing excited. My bolting had apparently ignited or stirred the whole animal. "She should not have run," said a man. "See the beast," said another. "It will not be long now." "The hunt is done, it wants to feed," said another. "Training is fragile," said a man. "Blood will have its way." "Kill it, Master, I beg of you!" called Donna. "Be silent," he said. "Please, Master!" she wept. "This beast is a prize animal," he said. "It is worth five, perhaps ten, of her." "Please," she cried. "This is a worthless piece of collar meat," he said, "sleen prey, thus a fled kajira. To see her torn to pieces will be an excellent example for other slaves." She sank to her knees, weeping. Did I think I was still on Earth? I was only a Gorean slave girl. In the market I would be worth far less than such a beast. "It tenses!" whispered a man. I bent down quickly and put my head down to the dirt, and my hands on my head. How can one prepare oneself for the claws, anchored in one's body, holding one, and then the fangs, mounted in that massive jaw, the tearing and feeding? Then I heard a man's voice. I did not recognize it. It spoke softly. "Gently, gently, noble friend," it said. "Well done, well done! Easy, easy, fellow the hunt is done. It is over. It is finished, well finished. Are you hungry, friend? Here is meat, much meat!" Sleen, I had learned, are large, sinuous, vicious, six-legged carnivores. In the wild, they are commonly burrowing animals and nocturnal. Domesticated and trained, they commonly serve as guard beasts and hunting beasts. They are Gor's keenest and most tenacious trackers. "You could not have escaped," I said. "The men, if they wished, could overtake you. They could hire hunting sleen. This beast, of which I had heard, given the scent of her blanket, might then lead her pursuers to her, or, depending on the command, herd her back to the shore, where her pursuers, perhaps encamped, would be waiting.
Is not the striped jungle sleen more beautiful than the tawny prairie sleen or the snow sleen of Ax Glacier?
What self-respecting rapist or slaver would be abroad at this hour? What would he expect to find? A miniature domestic sleen among the garbage cans? To be sure, at that time, I did not know about the miniature, silken sleen that are sometimes kept as sinuous pets. Some sleen are quite small and silken, and sinuously graceful, no larger than domestic cats. They are sometimes kept as pets. She was, in effect, a primitive, appetitious, uninhibited, untutored, ignorant little animal. She had not been taught any human speech, Gorean or otherwise, and could understand little of Kur, probably no more than a miniature sleen, her name, and some simple commands.
Pet sleen are taught to heel; the status of the thrall, correspondingly, however, such as it was, declined; he was now regarded as much in the same category with the urts that one clubs in the Sa-Tarna sheds, or are pursued by small pet sleen, kept there for that purpose, it is common for a southern master to care more for his pet sleen than his girls. To be sure, at that time, I did not know about the miniature, silken sleen that are sometimes kept as sinuous pets. Some sleen are quite small and silken, and sinuously graceful, no larger than domestic cats. They are sometimes kept as pets. Even a small sleen, I knew, will defend its food dish in the face of a larger animal. There are many animals, even animals commonly loyal, and friendly, between whom and their food it would be unwise, even dangerous, to place oneself. One does not attempt to remove a haunch of tarsk from even a pet sleen, once it has been given to him. "Men often speak freely before a slave, as before other domestic animals," I said, "pet sleen, saddle tharlarion, and such. Slaves are meaningless and, as such, are often taken for granted. Often they come and go, scarcely being noticed. One thinks little of their presence. They may hear things and see things which others might not, without arousing suspicion." "Because of a minor infraction, accidentally brushing the robe of Talena of Ar, our prisoner, he was, though not slain, thanks to my intercession, refused an oar in Cos," said Seremides. "While I still stood in favor with the Ubar, I found him a position in the Mariner's Pleasure, a tavern in Jad. He is a simple, harmless fellow who would, without a thought, give his life for me. He trails me about like a pet sleen. It is sometimes embarrassing." "Later," I said, "we may mix some fruit, or a little meat, in the bowl. You may also hope to be fed by hand eventually, or allowed to bite at and swallow food cast to the floor, like a pet sleen." "For a time," I said, "you are denied human speech. If you have needs and desires, try to make them known as might an animal, say, a house sleen." "The burdens of office can be weighty and grievous," he said. "Command, like the bridge of a knife ship, the top of a mountain, the watchful tower of a border outpost, can be lonely. It is not unusual for a challenged and harried man to unburden himself, even to the corner of a tent, to a shadow, to a lit candle, to a glowing brasier, or a pet sleen."
farther I to one side I saw a pair of prairie sleen, smaller than the forest sleen but quite as unpredictable and vicious, each about seven feet in length, furred, six-legged, mammalian, moving in their undulating gait with their viper's heads moving from side to side, continually testing the wind; If I were found on the plains near the camps or the bosk herds I knew I would be scented out and slain by the domesticated, nocturnal herd sleen, used as shepherds and sentinels by the Wagon Peoples, released from their cages with the falling of darkness. These animals, trained prairie sleen, move rapidly and silently, attacking upon no other provocation than trespass on what they have decided is their territory. They respond only to the voice of their master, and when he is killed or dies, his animals are slain and eaten. As we passed among the wagons I leaped back as a tawny prairie sleen hurled itself against the bars of a sleen cage, reaching out for me with its six-clawed paw. There were four other prairie sleen in the cage, a small cage, and they were curling and moving about one another, restlessly, like angry snakes. They would be released with the fall of darkness to run the periphery of the herds, acting, as I have mentioned, as shepherds and sentinels. They are also used if a slave escapes, for the sleen is an efficient, tireless, savage, almost infallible hunter, capable of pursuing a scent, days old, for hundreds of pasangs until, perhaps a month later, it finds its victim and tears it to pieces. "There are many sorts of sleen," said Laura. "Most common are the forest sleen and prairie sleen. The forest sleen are larger, and are solitary hunters, or, if mated, pair hunters; the prairie sleen are smaller, and commonly hunt in packs. Some sleen are bred and trained for certain purposes, hunting slaves, and such. The forest sleen commonly buries its dung, thereby tending to conceal its presence; the prairie sleen, running in packs, and more widely ranging, commonly, does not. Sleen have a strong, unmistakable odor. A forester or plainsman, or a sleen hunter, or one trained, can sometimes detect their scent more than two hundred yards away. Caravans in forests often keep verr or tabuk with them, tethering them in the camp at night, as the agitation of such animals sometimes gives warning of the presence of sleen in the vicinity. Sleen, of course, like larls, commonly hunt with the wind blowing toward them. Thus they have your scent and you do not have theirs." "Sleen will take him," said another soldier. "Prairie sleen." "Prairie sleen," said a soldier. "He was a fool to leave the camp," said another. "I do not like it," said another soldier. "Sleen will follow the scent. He will have brought sleen to the vicinity of the camp." "They may have been about in any event," said one of the soldiers. "We saw two in the vicinity, some pasangs away, whilst we were in flight." "Yes," said another soldier. "They may have caught the scent of the gray sleen, the hunting sleen," said another, "and surmised them to be tracking, and then followed, for days, hoping to share the kill." We had begun to move generally southeastward, across the grasslands. We did not encounter more sleen. Such beasts, burrowing, six-legged, sinuous, carnivorous, unless on a scent, tend to be territorial. Perhaps as early as the morning following our departure from our earlier camp, that which had been the scene of such conflict and carnage, we had traversed, and left behind, their usual hunting range. The prairie sleen is, incidentally, I have been told, much smaller than the forest sleen, which can upon occasion reach lengths of eighteen feet and weights of several hundred pounds. "I was well prepared to pay for it," she said. "Night fell. I hobbled on, in the moonlight. Once I stopped, in terror, frozen, for I noted the sinuous passage of a prairie sleen. It passed within a dozen yards of me, rapidly, its snout to the ground." "It was not on your scent," I said. Sleen can be terribly dangerous to humans, but the human is not its familiar prey. The sleen, in the wild a burrowing, largely nocturnal animal, is a tenacious, obsessive, single-minded hunter, a supreme tracker. On one scent it will often pass by, even ignore, more ample or superior prey. A prairie sleen in the Barrens, for example, has little difficulty in avoiding the charge of the lumbering kailiauk. A single prairie sleen could bring down a kailiauk, but, given the size and danger of the kailiauk, the menace of its strength and horns, it will commonly attack one only in a pack. "I saw it!" said the slave. "It is a sleen, a prairie sleen," said another slave, who had joined us, on our knees, looking out. "I thought that sleen in the wild were nocturnal," I said. "Commonly," said the first slave, "but it is not unusual for them to hunt when hungry."
Is not the striped jungle sleen more beautiful than the tawny prairie sleen or the snow sleen of Ax Glacier?
At that moment, on opposite sides of the arena, from gates at the level of the sand, there emerged two large sleen. "They are starving," said Peisistratus. Both animals seemed to rush toward the meat. One reached it first, and thrust his muzzle into it, tearing it, ripping out gluts of meat, and gorging them, but then the other sleen was upon it, and the two animals rolled in the sand, in a frenzy of snapping, and clawing, and in moments the jaws of each were bloody, and gouts of fur had been torn from the pelt of each, and then, suddenly, one had the throat of the other, and tore it open, and then, as the torn animal crouched down bleeding, and subsided, and rolled to its side, the victor busied himself with the meat. Cabot saw necklaces of strung coins being exchanged in the tiers. "Ramar has taken the meat six times," said Peisistratus. "He permits the other sleen to reach the meat first, and find distraction in it, and then he attacks." "I see," said Cabot. A Kur, with a long pole, with a hook on its end, sunk it into the meat, and drew the meat, the sleen, Ramar, feeding and following, through one of the gates at the level of the sand. "Do you hear it?" she asked. "Yes," he said. "Sleen." "They are animals," she said. "You have never seen one," he said. "No," she said. "Are they dangerous?" "Some are wild, some are domesticated, all are dangerous," he said. "It sounds in pain," she said. "Yes," said Cabot. "It may be wounded, torn, dying." "It is over there," she said. "Be careful," said Cabot. He bent his bow, and set an arrow to the string. This was not an unwise act on the part of the human, Tarl Cabot. Many sleen are clever animals, and it is not unknown for some, particularly older animals, to pretend to be disabled or incapacitated, in order to encourage curious animals to approach them, often to their subsequent instruction and sorrow. The slave threw her hand before her mouth, and half screamed. Her eyes wide. The large beast lifted his head and snarled. "Steady," said Cabot to the slave. "I have never seen such a thing!" she said. "It is a big one," said Cabot, lowering the bow. "Its head," she said, "it is like a snake, a viper!" "Not at all," said Cabot, "but the width, the triangularity, is typical." "Its legs!" she said. "It is hard to tell as it lies," said Cabot, "but there are six." The sleen exposed its fangs and hissed at Cabot. The slave leapt back. "It can't reach you," said Cabot. "The rear leg on the left, the bloody leg. You can see the teeth of the trap buried in it." "It is wild," she said. "No," said Cabot. "See, the collar." "How is it loose?" she asked. "I do not know," said Cabot, "but I suspect it, and others, were released into the habitats." "For what reason?" she asked. "To kill humans," said Cabot. The slave shuddered. "The trap may have been set by our colleagues," said Cabot, "to protect, as they could, their human allies." The sleen lunged toward them, briefly, and then screamed with pain. There was the sound of the heavily linked chain which held it in place. "It cannot reach you," said Cabot. "Let us leave," said the slave, looking about. "It will die in misery here," said Cabot. "It will bleed to death, or it will starve. The leg will never be of use to it again." "Then kill it," said the slave. "It is a magnificent animal," said Cabot. "It is a monster," said the girl. "Kill it, in kindness, or come away!" Cabot put down his bow, and approached the sleen more closely, but did not come within its reach. He then turned about, to the slave. "I thought I recognized this animal," he said. "From the arena. It is the one called Ramar. It is a valuable beast, a fighting sleen. It might kill ten sleen, or a hundred humans. That it should be released is interesting." "How is that?" asked the slave, keeping back. "It would indicate, I suppose," said Cabot, "that Lord Agamemnon is concerned with the revolution, that he takes it seriously, truly, and that he recognizes that its humans may pose some threat to his forces, that their opposition is not negligible." "Lord Agamemnon is afraid?" asked the slave. "I doubt that," said Cabot. "But I find it encouraging that he might be concerned." The sleen snarled. The slave backed away, further. "Let us get away from here," she said. "You see," said Cabot. "He may not know the extent of the revolution, of the unrest, and he may not be certain as to who is loyal to him, and who is not." "Come away, Master," she said, "please." "I cannot leave this powerful, beautiful thing to die here," said Cabot. "Then kill it, Master," she said, "and come away. I am frightened. It is a terrible thing. And there may be Kurii about." "True," said Cabot. "Keep watch." "What are you going to do?" asked the slave. "No!" she said. "Come away, Master! Please, Master, come away!" Cabot held his hands open, and spoke soothingly to the beast. "It is used to Kur!" said the slave. "Gorean will do," said Cabot. "Even English. It does not know Kur, any more than it knows Gorean or English. Some simple commands perhaps, perhaps its name, that would be all." He continued to speak soothingly to the sleen. It regarded him, and snarled. "Come away, Master!" said the slave. "Come away, please, Master!" "I will not hurt you," said Cabot, soothingly to the beast. "Be calm, be patient, big fellow." "He cannot understand you," said the slave. "Not as you understand me," said Cabot, "but in other ways, by the slow movements of the body, not threatening, the softness of the voice, the gentleness of its tones." The sleen again snarled. "It could reach you!" whispered the slave. "Come away, Master!" "Yes," said Cabot, softly, elatedly. "It could reach me now." "Please, Master!" "But it has not," said Cabot. The beast turned its head, to watch Cabot, warily, as he moved slowly to the clamped, sharpened, viselike teeth of the trap. Cabot, for a human being, was quite strong. Doubtless many are stronger, but, for a human being, he was quite strong. Cabot set his hands between the teeth of the trap and, sweating, straining, eased them a little open, and his hands were covered with blood and torn hair, and the sleen watched him, and Cabot, grunted, fighting for breath, and opened the teeth a bit more, and a little more, and then the sleen, with a scream of pain, drew its useless leg from the trap's jaws, leaving skin and flesh clinging to the teeth, and scrambled away, and Cabot, gratefully, reduced his grip on the jaws of the trap, and then he jerked his fingers away, and it snapped shut, the teeth fitting together, on nothing. Cabot then sat on the bloodied ground, trying to catch his breath. "Are you all right, Master?" asked the slave. "Yes," said Cabot. "Where is the sleen?" "It is gone," said the slave. Cabot looked up, quickly. The animal was moving through the gate, a large animal, dragging something. It was making no effort to conceal its presence. Clearly it was not hunting. "Ho," said Cabot. "Tal, welcome, friend." Cabot went to greet the large, sinuous thing. He would not close the gate behind it, for such things can become uneasy, even dangerous, if they feel closed in. Cabot knelt down and fondled the large, triangular, viperlike, furred head. It was better than eighteen inches in width at its widest point. He held it against his chest. "You have continued to guard the camp," observed Cabot, "though it is empty. Perhaps you were protecting it, perhaps you were waiting, patiently, for our return, wondering what had become of us, and it is only I who have returned." There was a rumbling in the chest of the beast. This sound is not formed in the larynx. The noise is seldom heard by a human being. "I am pleased to see you, as well," said Cabot. "You bring me a gift, I see. It is part of a tarsk, which was buried, and you have dug it out of the ground for me, to share it. I think I may not eat it, but I appreciate the thought." Cabot, curious, did wipe some dirt and leaves from the meat, which smelled, and put it to his tongue. After a time such meat, as it spoils, will form cadaverine alkaloids, which are potently toxic. Animals who might, long ago, have found the taste of such things agreeable would fail to replicate their genes. Similarly, animals who happened to find the taste disagreeable, say, in the case of humans, offensively bitter, would survive. It is not an inexplicable happenstance that foods which nourish beasts tend to have an agreeable taste to them and those unlikely to nourish them tend to have a disagreeable taste to them. The tastes may originally have been randomly allotted in a population, distributed with indifference, but the consequences of these tastes would weigh quite differently in the scales of life and death. A trail of misery and death in one case, and of health and vitality in another, lies at the roots, here and elsewhere, of what might seem to be a thousand matters of coincidence, but are no more coincidences, or inexplicable accidents, than the scimitarlike sharpness of the larl's fangs, or the erratic, bounding fleetness of the tabuk. Is not each the artist and designer of the other? Does not each, in his way, make the other more beautiful? And thus are played out the dark games of the Nameless One. The meat was not yet bitter, and so Cabot supposed it edible, if not palatable. Once the cadaverine alkaloids are formed not even the flocking, despised jard will feed. Cabot pretended to partake a bit of the meat and Ramar, the giant arena sleen, lamed in the left hind leg from a steel-toothed trap, began to tear at it contentedly, holding it down with his paws, and pulling at it, bit by bit, with his teeth. The rumbling in the animal's chest continued, as it fed, undiminished, for, as noted, the sound does not emanate from the animal's larynx, or throat, but its chest. "I am hungry for meat, friend," said Cabot. "After the supplies brought from the war camp, I have had little but berries, and, near the womb tunnel, some roots dug out from under the snow. So perhaps we will go hunting in the morning. I think you would like that. We may even make a fire. I would suppose you have never had cooked meat. I wonder if you would like it." Ramar continued to feed, contentedly. Cabot then emerged from the brush, his bow relaxed. At his side, low, crouched, crept a great sleen. Cabot had little doubt that any harm done to him would be at great risk to an assailant, particularly with the power weapons to the side. "You are hungry," he said. "Eat." Roast tarsk, brought down but an Ahn before, in the dusk, skinned and gutted, was on the spit, and grease hissed, when it fell to the fire. The two Kurii crouched down by the tarsk and watched Cabot. "I have fed earlier from this, and my friend," said Cabot. "Eat." Both Kurii piteously seized at the meat. They clutched it, hot and burning, and crammed it into their jaws. Cabot was puzzled at their hunger, for Kurii have a storage stomach. But perhaps they had not had an opportunity to fill it, or had long ago exhausted its contents. Cabot wondered at what might be the contents of the metal box, which contained, he supposed, some artifact, some device, perhaps some treasure. Ramar did not take his eyes from the pair of Kurii. Ramar, the sleen, lay outside the gate, watching the arrivals, contesting the entry of none. The female slaves edged through the gate, knowing they must enter, but did their best to keep as much distance as was possible between themselves and the huge, watchful, six-legged, viperlike carnivore. It may be recalled, from some time ago, that Cabot, perhaps surprisingly, given that he stood high in the forest camp, and was of the scarlet caste, had tended to the grooming of the scout, Flavion, an office commonly attended to, amongst the lords, by clients and sycophants, and, most often, in most cases, including that of the lords, by menials, in particular, human females, pets, and slaves. Cabot had performed this office with diligence, cleaning the fur with his fingers, and then brushing and combing it. Indeed, he had even wiped the fur down with a soft cloth, for several Ehn, until it shone with a high, oily gloss. The cloth with which he had performed this task he had saved, wrapping it tightly in a leather wrapper which had been kept in his wallet, or pouch. It may also be recalled that his colleague, Ramar, so to speak, was a carefully bred domestic sleen, of unusual size and ferocity. Indeed, such animals are often used to hunt and kill wild sleen. Ramar, who had served as an arena animal, successful again and again, had also been trained, as would have been expected of most domestic sleen, in a number of other behaviors. He could, for example, hunt a quarry, keep it in place, drive it, and kill it. The sudden snap of the metal was followed, almost instantly, by a long, weird scream of Kur pain. "Well done, Ramar," whispered Cabot. The sleen had grasped Cabot's intention, as he had hoped. First, Ramar had been given the scent from the cloth, and, though the scent was old, it was not difficult for a sleen to follow once it had picked it up, which it had, in the forest. They had then, at a distance, trailed their unsuspecting quarry. A mere word from Cabot dissuaded the mighty animal, once it was within some hundreds of yards of its prey, from rushing forward and attacking it. At this point most domestic sleen would require a leash. Ramar was doubtless muchly puzzled by this arrest of the chase, but he offered no resistance to Cabot's will, though he doubtless suspected that some fault or inadvertence lay within it. That night, giving the sleen the "stay" command, Cabot had made his way to the quarry's camp, and, silently, attended to its reconnoitering. The quarry was alone. This did not please Cabot, but it did not dismay him either. It made sense to him that the quarry would be alone. Had he been in the quarry's place he would have behaved similarly. The next morning Cabot with his hunting companion made his way to a locale familiar to them both, but one the companion was reluctant to enter, except upon the most urgent, quiet bidding. Ramar crouched back, watching, while Cabot, with a considerable effort, struggled with the huge spring which, if one of its several pedals was tripped, would fling shut the sharpened teeth of the device. It clicked, and was set, and Cabot, sweating, sat beside it for a time. He then beckoned Ramar closer and the giant beast warily, reluctantly, approached. Cabot did not let him come too close. Cabot then wiped the cloth with the quarry's scent liberally about the sharp metal teeth. He put the cloth to the beast's snout, and then, again, rubbed it on the metal teeth. He pointed to the cloth and then to the teeth, again and again. Ramar backed away, belly low. Cabot then, carefully, to the best of his ability, concealed the trap. "Do you understand, friend?" Cabot asked the sleen. Ramar lifted his head, and peered at Cabot. Then he looked at the trap, and growled. "If not, I suppose it does not matter much," said Cabot. "But you may understand. I wonder if you do." The sleen had been taught to drive, of course. The common termination of the drive, of course, is commonly a pen, or cage. Many is the female slave who, to save her life, driven, has fled to the cage, scrambled within it, and flung down the gate, locking herself helpless, weeping, within it. Later, when the master checks the cage, he will find her within, at his pleasure. "Drive," said Cabot to the sleen, softly. To a trained animal it is not necessary to speak commands sharply, or harshly. Often one wants to issue them quietly, very quietly, even whispered, that a quarry may not be alerted to its presence. It may be recalled he had retrained the sleen in the forest, beginning with the translator, to substitute Gorean for Kur, such that the animal would now respond only to Gorean, and, as is usual with a sleen and single trainer, only to the particular trainer's commands. It would not do, obviously, for just any individual to be able to set so dangerous a beast into its behaviors. When masters change the beast must be retrained, or, if this proves impractical, killed. Ramar padded away, amongst the closely set trees. Cabot had good reason to believe the sleen would not be in much danger. This had to do with his activity the preceding night in the quarry's small, rough camp. Too, the quarry would be reluctant to expend charges except in cases of the utmost necessity. Where might he find others? Too, whereas many Kurii, large Kurii, might manage, at least with good fortune, to survive the attack of a typical sleen, say, a smaller, wild sleen, the quarry, though large for a human, was not large for a Kur, and Ramar was an unusually large, dangerous animal. Cabot followed the drive, but unseen, and at a distance. It gradually became clear to him, to his gratification, that the quarry was being encouraged to move in smaller and smaller circles, centering on a particular area. "Excellent, excellent, Ramar," Cabot breathed, to himself. "How intelligent you are. What a joy you are, what a champion amongst beasts you are." In a few Ehn Cabot had come to the trap. In it the Kur writhed. Blood flowed about the clamped leg. It struggled to its feet and tried to drag the trap on its chain to where it had lost the rifle, flung from his hands, when the teeth had unexpectedly, viciously, snapped shut. It could move the trap, his leg bleeding in the grass and leaves which had concealed the trap, only to the end of the chain, which encircled a nearby tree, and was locked about it. The Kur threw himself prostrate and reached toward the weapon, scratching toward it. But it was a foot beyond its grasp. Cabot sat down, cross-legged, near the rifle, and Ramar crouched down, placidly, beside him. The beast had been given the 'drive' command, not the 'kill' command. Cabot switched on his translator. "Tal," he said. "You!" said Flavion, scarcely able to speak, for the pain. "Open the trap! Help me! I am caught!" "We lost track of you, after the escape of the Lady Bina, and the business of the cattle humans, the killing squad, and such." "Free me!" screamed Flavion, his visage contorted with agony. "Why?" asked Cabot. "I will lose my leg!" screamed Flavion. It was interesting how the urgency and horror of his utterance was rendered by the translator, calmly, precisely, unemotionally. "That is possible," agreed Cabot. Surely the metal teeth had bitten deeply. "I will reward you, richly!" cried Flavion. "Oh?" said Cabot. "Yes, yes," screamed Flavion, then daring not move, lest he further injure his gripped limb. "Perhaps you think I am not aware of what has occurred in the world," said Cabot. "I am aware of it, however, as you doubtless are, as well. Agamemnon and the riches of the world are no longer at your disposal. Too, I suspect Lord Arcesilaus, Lord Grendel, and several others, would be pleased to see you." "Is the sleen yours?" said Flavion. "No," said Cabot. "It is a friend." "It is Ramar, is it not?" "Yes." "Restrain it!" "I do not think he needs restraining," said Cabot. "He seems contented. He is not hungry." "I did not know it was he," said Flavion, in pain. "I thought there were more than one." "Just one," said Cabot. The first day in the forest, Ramar, the great sleen, had joined them. To her terror, and horror, she had been put on her back on the leaves, and the sleen, at Cabot's urging, had taken her scent. She felt the hot breath of the beast on her body, the hairy snout, the licking tongue, the inhaling nostrils. She cried out with misery, and squirmed, and was turned, and positioned, in one manner or another, to facilitate the beast's work. "Oh!" she protested. "Oh!" And then again, "Oh!" and "Oh!" And then, "Please, no! Please, no! Oh! Oh!" "Be silent, slave," she was told. And the beast continued its work. Then she was again supine, and the beast was to the side, and Cabot stood over her, looking down on her. Her scent had been taken, as a slave's scent is taken. She felt raped. But, did she not know she was a slave? Cabot then crouched beside her, and took her by one arm, its hand braceleted behind her. He looked to Ramar, and then shook the slave, and said, "Cecily, Cecily." She looked at Cabot, with horror. This was a name she despised, a name fit, in her view, only for a shopgirl. Too, she knew, by now, that it would be recognized in Gorean markets as an Earth-girl name, the sort of name to be fastened on only the lowest and most degraded of slaves. Such names are sometimes given to Gorean slaves as punishment names. Gorean men often bid intensely for Earth girls, but not because they wish to show them respect, and such. Rather they want to have on their chain one of the lowest and most helplessly delicious of slaves. "Your scent has been taken," said Cabot to the slave. "Too, it has been associated with a particular name. The purpose of this should be clear. The name, together with a given command, initiates the sleen's behavior. For example, given the "kill" command the sleen will locate and destroy the quarry, given a "drive" command, it will conduct the quarry to a predetermined location, or, if the quarry should prove recalcitrant, tear it to pieces. There are other commands, too, as you may suspect, but most are obvious, and I decline to make clear their nature. If you understand the purport of what I am saying, nod affirmatively." "Ramar," I said, "must be freed." "Is that wise?" she asked. "I do not know," I said. "But it was for this reason that I had him brought to Gor." I had first seen Ramar in an arena on the Steel World, a milieu in which his ferocity, might, and cunning, in virtue of dozens of bloody victories, were renowned. Bred for dark sports, trained to hunt and kill, he was a prize of his breed, a champion of his kind. Later, in the insurrection, he, and other sleen, as Agamemnon grew more desperate, uncertain, and frightened, had been freed, that they might hunt down, destroy, and devour his foes, in particular ill-armed humans who might be party to the rebellion. A Kur, unarmed, is a match for a sleen. A Kur, armed, has little to fear, unless taken unawares. In turn, the revolutionaries, primarily the rebel Kurii, primarily on behalf of their human allies, had set a number of heavy, metal traps, more than two-hundred pounds in weight, baited with haunches of tarsk, traps fastened by heavy chains to large stakes sunk deeply into the ground, and in one such trap this beautiful animal, this great, fierce, dangerous, six-legged, sinuous monster, Ramar, had been caught. In this trap, held by its steel teeth, clamped deeply into his left rear leg, to the bone, bleeding and tortured, jerking against the stake and chain, then quiescent and silent, he would have died, of prolonged pain, or thirst. He was a large, noble animal, and beautiful in the hideous way in which a sleen can be beautiful, and it did not please me that such a creature should perish so miserably. Doubtless unwisely, I managed, with great difficulty, to open the trap, and the beast, freed, withdrew, vanished, limping, into the brush. He had not attacked me. Perhaps it had not occurred to him to do so. Later, we had encountered one another now and again. I think some record of this is elsewhere available. Following the denouement of the insurrection on the Steel World in question and, seemingly, in virtue of some interaction or agreement between Priest-Kings and victorious Kurii, it was determined that I, and others, were to be returned to Gor. Might we have hoped that our labors on the Steel World had pleased, or, at least, appeased, Priest-Kings? Could such forms of life be mollified? And could they not then have been satisfied, at last, and have seen fit, in their wisdom, to free us from their interests? Certainly we had, or some of us, however unintentionally or inadvertently, served them. Surely they now had less to fear from one of the greatest and most dangerous of the Kurii, Lord Agamemnon, an ambitious, skilled, determined, brilliant, gifted, implacable foe. In any event I had not been slain, or returned to the horrors of the Prison Moon. I now found myself again on Gor. I had then little hope that Priest-Kings had finished with me, as I would have fervently desired. Had that been so should I not have been returned, liberated and thanked, perhaps even bountifully rewarded, to my holding in Port Kar? But I was here, somehow, on this remote beach, the forest behind me. In leaving the Steel World I had brought Ramar with me. He deserved, I thought, the woods or forests, the plains or mountains, the openness and freedom, of Gor, not the steel platings and inserted gardens, the contrived geography, of a Steel World. Let him live as a sleen, in a world fit for him. Indeed, let men live in worlds fit for them. Too many live in their own Steel Worlds, and know not this, know not their prisons. "He will turn wild," she said. "He is wild," I said. "He will become dangerous," she said. "He is dangerous now," I said. I unbuckled the thick, spiked collar from the throat of the giant, lame sleen, Ramar, and pointed behind us, to the forest. The large, round eyes regarded me, as though quizzically. "Yes," I said, "friend. Go." A protestive growl emanated from the throat of the beast. It wound its body about me, moving, curling about me. I thrust the heavy body from me. "Go," I said, sternly. "Yes, it is my wish." "He does not want to go," she said. "Go," said I, to the sleen. I then, impulsively, knelt down and seized the massive body about the neck, and buried my face in the fur of his shoulder. "You are crying," she said. "No," I said. I then stood, and wiped my eyes with the back of my forearm. "You are crying," she said. I scorned to respond to so foolish an allegation. Ramar whimpered. "The forest is there!" I said to him, turning his head with my hand toward the forest. "That is your world!" I said, pointing. "Go! Go!" I watched the sleen take its leave, its left, hind foot marking the sand, where he dragged it behind him. Then he was gone. As noted, this was the morning of our third day at sea. "It is falling behind," said one of the mariners. "It has been with us since the Alexandra," said the other. "It weakens," said the first. "It is foundering," said the second. "It is drowning," said the first. How odd, I thought, that a sea sleen would be with us from the Alexandra. Perhaps they frequented these waters. Still we were far from shore, and the sea sleen, as other forms of predatory sea life, tends to range the fishing banks, so to speak, shallower waters closer to shore where sea plants can get sunlight, these plants then forming the basis of a rich marine ecology. But we were now far from shore. Too, sea sleen commonly swam in packs. They were seldom alone. "How could a sea sleen drown?" I asked. "That beast is mad," said the first fellow. "That is not a sea sleen," said the second mariner, turning about. "That is a land animal. See the width of the head, the jaws." The sea sleen is an unusual animal, presumably related somehow to the varieties of land sleen. Its body is much narrower, and the head is narrow and knifelike. The six powerful appendages attached to that long, narrow body are flippered, not clawed. It is not fully clear whether the sea sleen is a marine adaptation of the sleen or a similar but independently evolved animal. Its body is snakelike, and it approaches its prey silently, gliding, usually from the rear right or left, and propels itself, when making its strike, by the sudden lashing of its tail. It is the fastest creature in the sea. Its greatest moment of danger is at its birth, for the mother's casting of the offspring and blood into the water stimulates the investigation of predators, in particular that of the nine-gilled Gorean shark. At such times several male sea sleen will ring the mother and infant, protecting them. The narrow snout of the sea sleen, driven into the shark at great speed, can destroy the capacity of gills to extract oxygen from the water, and crush cartilage. The razorlike teeth aligned in two rows within the narrow, triangular jaws, too, some eighteen inches in length, can seize, shake, and tear the head from many varieties of shark. The mother, within the ring, has only a few Ehn within which she must bring the infant to the surface, for its first breath. "It is not a sea sleen?" I said. "No," said the first mariner. "It is exhausted," said the other. "It is an amazing beast," said the first mariner. "It has been with us since the Alexandra. It swims all night, in the darkness, following us, somehow keeping up with us, and we with a fair wind. It must have incredible strength." "Which now fails," said the other. "As it must," said the first. "And so it dies," said the other. "It has followed the ship?" I said. "Yes, Commander," said the first of the two mariners. "But why, why?" I asked. "It is mad," said the first. "In any event, it drowns," said the second mariner. "We must now be about our duties." "Ho!" I cried, suddenly, frightened, to the officer of the watch, and climbed the steps past the helm deck, to the stern castle. "Commander?" he said. "The glass," I said to him, with urgency. "Give me your glass!" He removed the sling from his shoulder, to which was attached the case which holstered the glass of the Builders. At the high rail of the stern castle I saw, now far behind, the small motion in the water, now scarcely visible, even with the glass, in the swelling waves, which marked the point beyond which our mysterious companion could not proceed, that point which marked for it the end of a journey it could not complete. I cast aside my sword and scabbard. "Stop, Commander! Do not!" I heard the officer of the watch cry out, and then I saw the flash of the mighty rudder to my right, and entered the cold waters of gleaming Thassa. I encircled the mighty neck of the beast with my arm, and felt the throb of blood in the throat. It lived. I kicked my way to the surface, and was thrown yards to my right by the wash of water, and went under, and came up, again, and gasped for breath, half blinded by the water, still clinging to that massive, furred neck, and the beast's head was then, too, out of the water and I heard an explosive exhalation of air, and then I felt through the fur, the expansion of the throat, as massive lungs drew in a volume of air, and there was then an expellation of air and water, choking and eruptive, and the breath was like a burst of smoke in the cold air, and then, again, the beast breathed, and it seemed to rise from the water, pulling me upward, half out of the water, and breathed again, and was then beside me, and we were cast about, together, in the waves. In swells we would be lifted twenty or thirty feet into the air and would then swirl downward into the troughs, to be lifted again and slide downward again, and again. My body began to numb in the water, and my legs and arms began to lose feeling and stiffen, and my arm slipped from the neck of the beast and I was separated from it, surely for yards, and then I felt it beneath me, rising up, and my body was gripped, firmly, gently, in those wide jaws, and lifted up, and my head, gasping, my eyes lashed with wind and salt water, was above the surface, and I breathed. It seemed somehow, in these moments, the beast had renewed its vitality, and had come alive again. I did not think I could last long in waters of this temperature. My head above the water, the jaws released me, and I clung to the fur at its neck. My fingers seemed to stiffen and freeze, and lose their strength, but they were clenched in the fur, fastened there, like cold hooks in that cold, soaked fur. We would die together. It would be madness to put a longboat into that sea. I began, insanely, to count the Ihn, curious to know how long it would be until I lost consciousness, as though it might matter. Then I fought to feel, and to continue to feel, for all the torment and misery, to continue to feel. I determined to count to another Ehn, and then another. I lost consciousness and awakened, and again lost consciousness and again awakened. It seemed there was only the eternal rushing of the water, the lifting and falling, again and again, and the cold, and the large body beside me, to which I numbly clung. I caught sight of the sky over the water. I thought it beautiful. I lost consciousness, again. I do not know how long I was in the water. I awakened, again, in the misery and violence, and heard a low, vibratory rumble beside me, that odd emanation from a large thoracic cavity. My fingers began to slip from the fur. I could cling to it no longer. "Commander!" I heard, as though from far off. "Kill the beast!" I heard. "It is attacking the commander!" "No!" I cried, hoarsely. I hoped they could hear me, if they were truly there. "No! No!" I became dimly aware of the bulwarks of a pitching galley, her mast down, her oars outboard, about me. I reached out with my right arm, and caught an oar. It was drawn inward, toward the thole port. I felt hands reach down, over the rail, and seize me, and was drawn inboard, over the rail. "You went overboard," said Pertinax. "Are you all right?" inquired Tajima. One of the nested galleys had been launched. "You are fortunate the officer of the watch saw you," said a man. "Kill the sleen," said a mariner. "Do not," I said. "Bring it aboard." "No," said a man, "such beasts are dangerous." "It is half dead," said another. "Leave it," said an oarsman. "No," I said. "Stop!" cried Pertinax, reaching for me. I went over the rail, and was in the water, making my way toward the sleen, now some yards abeam. I caught it by the neck, and drew it toward the galley. "Oars down!" I said. "Into the water, down!" "Comply!" cried Tajima to the nearest oarsmen. "Four oars went under the water, and I drew the body of the sleen over two of them. "Oars up!" I said, from the water. "Bring them inboard, blades out, close to the hull." The body of the sleen then, though with difficulty, for its weight, was lifted from the water. "Take it on board!" I cried. "Surely not!" said an oarsman. "Now!" I said. "Comply," said Tajima, and he himself, followed by Pertinax, entered the water beside the hull, to roll the body of the sleen closer to the hull. "See the size of it," said a mariner. "It will tear your arm off!" said an oarsmen. "Get ropes, lift," said a mariner. I was aided aboard, again, and Tajima and Pertinax, in the freezing water, encircled the body of the sleen with ropes, and it was lifted aboard. "Bring blankets," said Torgus, who had commanded the galley, adding, "for both." "This thing, recovered, could kill everyone on board," said an oarsman. "Yes," I said, shivering, "but it will not do so." Tajima and Pertinax were then assisted in boarding. "You did not fall overboard, did you?" said Pertinax. "Perhaps not," I said. With one blanket I tried, as I could, to dry the fur of the sleen, and put two others about it. "So we have here," said Torgus, "three fools." "And a beast brought on board," said an oarsman. "Fitting for a voyage of madness," said a mariner. Tajima, Pertinax, and I, shuddering and miserable, then availed ourselves of blankets. "Put about," said Torgus. "Return to the ship." "I could use a cup of kal-da," said an oarsman. "So could we all," said another. "This is a sleen," said Tajima, looking down. A rumbling emanated from within its thoracic cavity. Then it closed its eyes, and slept. "His name," I said, "is Ramar." It was the day following Ramar's arrival on board. It was now toward the tenth Ahn, the Gorean noon, and Lord Nishida and I were met on the main deck, amidships. Ramar was below, caged in the same hold as Lord Nishida's larls. I had looked in on him several times. He had usually slept. Twice he had taken broth, and then slept again. How odd, I thought, had been that pursuit. I could not understand what might have been its motivation. Surely he could have died. Why should he, a mere beast, and a land beast, too, have essayed so long, dubious, and dangerous a journey? It made no sense. He could have lived in the forest on game, eventually made his way south, and such. Would that not have been best for him? Yet he had followed the great ship. How unaccountable, how inexplicable, I thought, had been that stubborn, single-minded, unremitting pursuit. It was absurd. Perhaps the beast was indeed mad, as a mariner had suggested. It made no sense. In four or five days, perhaps ten, I expected him to be muchly recovered from his ordeal. The heart was sound. It had not burst. He had not died in the freezing sea. Many lives, and tarns, had been lost in the massacre at the first encampment, and many more lives had been lost in the defeat of the exploratory force. The great sleen, lame Ramar, first encountered on a steel world, had been housed at the first encampment. I did not know his fate. As the body had not been found, and no reports had been made of his whereabouts, it was supposed he had disappeared during the confusion of the attack. I did not think any Ashigaru would have paused in the tumult of the fighting to attend to the discomfiting of so dangerous a beast. Few would have been so unwise, or so much at leisure, as to attack it, and I doubted that any would have been so foolish as to challenge its departure. Indeed, knowing Ramar I doubted he would have left the encampment without feeding. "The humor of barbarians is fascinating," he said. Then he looked down at the large, shaggy, sinuous beast by my side Ramar, the lame sleen, brought from the camp of tarns, some one hundred and twenty pasangs north of the holding of Temmu. I learned he had often patrolled the perimeter of that camp, in the sleen's territorial manner, as we had hoped, this much increasing its security, and he had on more than one occasion dealt with interlopers, or spies, who had attempted to infiltrate its precincts. This was determined by guards who detected the remains. He rubbed that large, triangular head against my leg, and I fondled his head, roughly. Had it been another's hand, it might have been snapped away. "And sleen, too," said Captain Nakamura. "They have many uses." "I take it your gear is stowed," I said. "Yes," said Pertinax, "yesterday, not long after yours." "Good," I said. "I shall see you on board." I then looked to the large sleen, tying beside me. "Ramar," I said, "go with Pertinax." "Are you not boarding now?" asked Pertinax. "I want to feel the broad, solid planks of the wharf beneath my feet," I said. "We will be long enough at sea." I watched Pertinax, with his leashed charges, ascend the gangplank. Ramar, with his limping gait, was close behind. I waved to him, and hurried to the gangplank. I had no sooner crossed it than the mariners drew it inboard.
Shortly thereafter, not far from the western edge of the dock, we encountered the sleen. It was a large, mottled beast, some nine feet long, brown and black. It became excited at his appearance. It began to whine, and tear at the turf, and writhe and twist about, almost like a snake. I knew enough of sleen to know that any well-trained animal, which I took Tiomines to be, could be set upon anyone but its master, or Use Master, with as little as a word, or gesture, whatever the "kill" command might be, usually a word, as a word need only be heard and a gesture must be seen. Whereas Tiomines could doubtless, in one savage rush, reach the leader and tear off an arm or head, it would be his last attack. He would be transfixed by more than one spear before he could feed. Axel did not wish to lose the sleen. Too, I would not have given much for our chances either, had he been foolish enough to set Tiomines on the newcomer. The massive brute lay curled about itself, sleeping. Axel could have reached out and touched him. Sometimes sleen can be not only affectionate, but possessive. I suspected it would be worth someone's life to attack Axel, if Tiomines were about. To be sure, I was not within the shield of those claws and fangs. I wondered if our relative freedom, and even our lives, might not have something to do with the presence of Tiomines, who was not only dangerous, but, happily, valuable.
"Greetings, Targo," said a bearded fellow in a rough tunic. "Back, Varcus," he called. "Back, boy. Down, boy. Heel, boy." The gigantic, sinuous creature twisted about on the shelf and, its forelegs first, and then its two pairs of hind legs, following, returned to the ground, in front of the shelf. Turning to the side, twisting in the chains, trembling, Ellen could not see it any longer. She surmised it must be in the vicinity of the bearded fellow.
"We will attend to the body," said Genserich. "What is left of it," said a man. "Leave it for urts," said Aeson, "or cast it into the river, for eels, for river sleen." The river sleen is a small animal, seldom more than two or three feet in length, including the tail. Few weigh more than two or three stone. It is not to be confused with the common sleen, or the aquatic sleen, the sea sleen, which are large animals.
whereas there is game in the Tahari, birds, small mammals, an occasional sand sleen, Tribesmen of Gor Book 10 Page 71 There are many varieties of sleen, incidentally, adapted to diverse environments; the most formidable, as far as I know, is the forest sleen. There is also a sand sleen, a snow sleen, even some aquatic varieties, types of sea sleen, and so on. They are very greatly in size, as well. Some sleen are quite small and silken, and sinuously graceful, no larger than domestic cats. They are sometimes kept as pets.
I did once carry, however, a hold of chained slaves, and, another time, a hold filled with the furs of the northern sea sleen. Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 138 And behind them, in a rich swirling cloak of the white, spotted sea sleen, sword in hand, looking wildly about, was another man, one I did not know. Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 300 "The Venna and Tela have arrived from Scagnar," she said, "with full cargoes of the fur of sea sleen. My information indicates that highest prices currently for such products are being paid in Asperiche." "You will eat it," said the Forkbeard, "or you will be stripped and put to the oar." She looked at him with horror. "That will not violate you, my pretty," said the Forkbeard. Twice in the afternoon Gorm struck away sea sleen from the girl's body. Once he thrust away one of the white sharks of the northern waters, The second of the sea sleen it had been which, with its sharp teeth, making a strike, but falling short, had torn away her green velvet gown on the right side from the hip to the hemline; a long strip of it, like a ribbon, was in its teeth as it darted away. Near him, beside the high seat, sat his woman, Bera, her hair worn high on her head, in a kirtle of yellow wool with scarlet cape of the fur of the red sea sleen, and, about her neck, necklaces of gold. The sea sleen, vicious, fanged aquatic mammals, apparently related to the land forms of sleen, are the swiftest predators to be found in Thassa; further, they are generally conceded to be the most dangerous; they tend, however, to frequent northern waters. Occasionally they have been found as far south, however, as the shores of Cos and the deep inlets of Tyros. "I think not," said Samos. "Their winter stores of food, from the ice hunting, will last them for a time. Then they must hunt elsewhere. Perhaps some can live by fishing until the fall, and the return of the black sea sleen." The red hunters lived as nomads, dependent on the migrations of various types of animals, in particular the northern tabuk and four varieties of sea sleen. "There is here an iceberg," said Samos, pointing to the map, "which is not following the parsit current." Samos had said, literally, of course, 'ice mountain'. The parsit current is the main eastward current above the polar basin. It is called the parsit current for it is followed by several varieties of migrating parsit, a small, narrow, usually striped fish. Sleen, interestingly, come northward with the parsit, their own migrations synchronized with those of the parsit, which forms for them their principal prey. The four main types of sea sleen found in the polar seas are the black sleen, the brown sleen, the tusked sleen and the flat-nosed sleen. There is a time of year for the arrival of each, depending on the waves of the parsit migrations. Not all members of a species of sleen migrate. Also, some winter under the ice, remaining generally dormant, rising every quarter of an Ahn or so to breathe. This is done at breaks in the ice or at gnawed breathing holes. The head of a sleen, glistening, smooth, emerged from the water. It was a medium-sized, adult sea sleen, some eight feet in length, some three to four hundred pounds in weight. The head of a sleen, glistening, smooth, emerged from the water. It was a medium-sized, adult sea sleen, some eight feet in length, some three to four hundred pounds in weight. "That, I think, is a rogue sleen," said Imnak. "It is a broad-head, and they are rare in these waters in the fall. Too, see the gray on the muzzle and the scarring on the right side of the head, where the fur is gone?" "Yes," I said. "I think it is a rogue," he said. "Also, see the way he is watching you?" "Yes," I said. "I think it has been hunted before," he said. "Perhaps," I said. Generally a sleen watches you warily and then, as you approach, submerges. Normally, though it is swift to attack an object moving about in the water, like a swimmer, it will not attack a vessel. Its attack instincts are apparently not triggered by that configuration, or perhaps there is no stimulating smell or familiar pressure patterns, such as it would commonly associate with its prey or a vulnerable object, in the water, from the passage of the craft and the stroke of the paddle. This sleen, however, did not seem to be watching us warily. Rather there was something rather menacing in its attitude. I dropped the harpoon for it would be an extremely difficult cast to strike the animal head on. The bone point of the harpoon, thrown, would probably not penetrate the skull and it would be difficult to strike the submerged, narrow forepart of the body knifing toward the kayak. I thrust the lance point into the rushing, extended, double-fanged jaws and it penetrated through the side of the mouth, tearing, the animal's face a yard up the shaft. It reared six feet out of the water vertically beside the slender hide vessel. With two hands on the shaft I forced the twisting body to fall away from the craft. One of the large flippers struck me, buffeting me, spinning me and the vessel about, the animal then slipping free of the shaft of the lance. It circled the craft its mouth hot with blood flowing into the cold water. It was then I retrieved the harpoon again from the water by its line, for it had been once more struck away from me. I set the light harpoon into the notch on the throwing board and, even mittened, an instant before the beast turned toward me, grunted, snapping the throwing board forward and downward, speeding the shaft toward the enraged animal. The bone head, vanishing, sunk into its withers and it snapped downward, diving, bubbles breaking up to the surface, and swift blood. The line snapped out from its tray darting under the water. In moments the harpoon shaft and foreshaft bobbed to the surface, but the bone harpoon head, its line taut, turning the head in the wound, held fast. I played the line as I could. The animal was an adult, large-sized broad-head. It was some eighteen to twenty feet in length and perhaps a thousand pounds in weight. At the length of the line I feared the kayak and myself would be drawn under the water. Imnak, too, came to the line, and, straining, together we held it. The two kayaks dipped, stems downward. "He is running," said Imnak. He released the line. The kayak spun and then nosed forward. I held the line being towed by the beast somewhere below the water. "Loose the line!" called Imnak. "He is running to the ice!" I saw a pan of ice ahead. "Loose the line!" called Imnak. But I did not loose the line. I was determined not to lose the beast. I held the line in my left hand, wrapped about my wrist. With the lance in my right hand I thrust against the pan of ice. Then the lance slipped on the ice and the line slipped to the side and I in the kayak was dragged up on the ice skidding across it and then slipped loose of it and slid into the water to the side. "It is running to the sea!" called Imnak, following me as he could in his own vessel. Then the line went slack. "It is turning," said Imnak. "Beware!" But in a few moments I saw the body of the sleen rise to the surface, rolling, buoyant. It was some sixty feet from the kayak. "It is not dead," said Imnak. "I know," I said. It was easy to see the breath from its nostrils, like a spreading fog on the cold water. The water had a glistening, greasy appearance, for it had begun to freeze. It was dark about the animal, from the blood. We brought our kayaks in close, to finish the animal with our lances. "Beware," said Imnak. "It is not dead." "It has lost much blood," I said. "It is still alive," he said. "Beware." We nosed our kayaks on each side of the beast, approaching it from the rear. "It is not breathing now," I said. "It has been hunted before," said Imnak, "and lived." "It is dead," I said. "It is not breathing." "It has been hunted before, and lived," said Imnak. "Let us wait." We waited for a time. "Let us tow it home," I said. "It is dead." I poked the beast with the tip of my lance. It did not respond, but moved inertly in the water. "It is dead," I said. "Let us draw it home now behind us." "I would not be eager to turn my back on him," said Imnak. "Why not?" I asked. "He is not dead," said Imnak. "How can you be sure?" I asked. "He is still bleeding," said Imnak. The hair rose on the back of my neck. Somewhere in that great body, apparently lifeless in the water, there still beat its heart. "It is a broad-head," said Imnak. "It is pretending." "It is losing blood," I said. "Too, it must soon breathe." "Yes," said Imnak. "It will soon make its move. Be ready." "We could go in with lances now," I said. "It is waiting for our closer approach," said Imnak. "Do not think its senses are not keen." "We shall wait?" I asked. "Yes," said Imnak. "Of course. It is bleeding. Time is on our side." We waited in the polar dusk. After a time Imnak said, "Be ready. I have been counting. It must soon breathe." We readied our lances, one of us on each side of the beast. Suddenly with a great, exploding noise, expelling air, the sleen leaped upward. At the height of its leap we struck it with our lances. It pulled free of the lances and, sucking in air, spun and dove. Again the harpoon line darted downward. "We struck it fairly!" said Imnak. "Watch out!" he cried. The line had grown slack. I peered downward into the water. Then I felt the swell of the water beneath me, clearly through the taut hide of the kayak. I thrust downward with the lance and was half pulled from the kayak, myself and the vessel lifted upward, as the sleen's impaled body reared up almost beneath the craft. Imnak struck again at it from the side. It fell back in the water and I, jerking free the lance, thrust it again into the wet, bloody pelt. It attacked again, laterally in the water, fangs snapping, and I pressed it away with the lance. Imnak struck it again. It thrashed, bloody in the icy water. It turned on Imnak and I thrust my lance deeply into its side, behind the right foreflipper, seeking, hunting, the great, dark heart. It expelled air again. I pulled the lance free to drive it in again. The beast regarded me. Then it rolled in the water. "It is dead," said Imnak. "How do you know?" I asked. "The nature of your stroke, and its depth," said Imnak. "You have penetrated to the heart." "Its heart is centered," I said. "Consider the blood on your lance," he said. I noted it. New blood was splashed more than twenty-eight inches along the shaft. There are many varieties of sleen, incidentally, adapted to diverse environments; the most formidable, as far as I know, is the forest sleen. There is also a sand sleen, a snow sleen, even some aquatic varieties, types of sea sleen, and so on. They are very greatly in size, as well. Some sleen are quite small and silken, and sinuously graceful, no larger than domestic cats. They are sometimes kept as pets. How odd, I thought, that a sea sleen would be with us from the Alexandra. Perhaps they frequented these waters. Still we were far from shore, and the sea sleen, as other forms of predatory sea life, tends to range the fishing banks, so to speak, shallower waters closer to shore where sea plants can get sunlight, these plants then forming the basis of a rich marine ecology. But we were now far from shore. Too, sea sleen commonly swam in packs. They were seldom alone. "How could a sea sleen drown?" I asked. "That beast is mad," said the first fellow. "That is not a sea sleen," said the second mariner, turning about. "That is a land animal. See the width of the head, the jaws." The sea sleen is an unusual animal, presumably related somehow to the varieties of land sleen. Its body is much narrower, and the head is narrow and knifelike. The six powerful appendages attached to that long, narrow body are flippered, not clawed. It is not fully clear whether the sea sleen is a marine adaptation of the sleen or a similar but independently evolved animal. Its body is snakelike, and it approaches its prey silently, gliding, usually from the rear right or left, and propels itself, when making its strike, by the sudden lashing of its tail. It is the fastest creature in the sea. Its greatest moment of danger is at its birth, for the mother's casting of the offspring and blood into the water stimulates the investigation of predators, in particular that of the nine-gilled Gorean shark. At such times several male sea sleen will ring the mother and infant, protecting them. The narrow snout of the sea sleen, driven into the shark at great speed, can destroy the capacity of gills to extract oxygen from the water, and crush cartilage. The razorlike teeth aligned in two rows within the narrow, triangular jaws, too, some eighteen inches in length, can seize, shake, and tear the head from many varieties of shark. The mother, within the ring, has only a few Ehn within which she must bring the infant to the surface, for its first breath. I could see, some hundred yards off, dark on the ice, the bodies of two sea sleen. There must be a breathing hole there. When approached, they would disappear beneath the ice, for it was they who were being approached. On the other hand, some, seen first beneath the surface, a detectable, sinuous, twisting, moving body, a foot or two below, would suddenly emerge, beside the ship, snouts raised above the surface, with an explosive exhalation of breath, and then a drawing inward of air, these come to open water about the ship, to breathe. It was they who approached. It was eerie to look into the large, round, dark eyes of a sea sleen, peering at one from the icy water. The sea sleen will attack a human in the water, which it will see as food, but it is unlikely to attack one on the ice. Its usual prey is parsit fish, or grunt. In the case of the northern shark it is both prey and predator. Some sea sleen hunt in packs, and these will attack other sea mammals, even large sea mammals, such as whales, which they will attack in swarms, in a churning, bloody frenzy. We were instructed to stand in truce with these marine predators. If one came on the ice, we would push it back in the water with poles. One caught at a pole and snapped it apart with one swift, wrenching closure of its wide, double-fanged jaws, like a toothed trap door set low in that broad, viperlike head. In time one might need them for food. Thus, one welcomed them to come to the side of the ship, to breathe. To be sure, the sea sleen, like its confreres on land, is an intelligent animal, and we did not think it unlikely that it might prove quite dangerous if it were attacked, or thought it necessary to protect a breathing hole. "We will attend to the body," said Genserich. "What is left of it," said a man. "Leave it for urts," said Aeson, "or cast it into the river, for eels, for river sleen." The river sleen is a small animal, seldom more than two or three feet in length, including the tail. Few weigh more than two or three stone. It is not to be confused with the common sleen, or the aquatic sleen, the sea sleen, which are large animals. "She approaches," said Seremides, "as silent as the sea sleen." "Learn their plans, their sailing orders, the targets of their raids," I said. "Take them at sea. Heavily then the advantage is on your side. What are six or seven ships against twenty, twenty naval vessels, manned by trained crews, vessels fierce and swift, like hungry sea sleen, armed with snouts of iron?" "There must be many predators at a fishing ground," I said, "sharks, sea sleen, fanged eels, wide-mouthed grunts, and such." "Many mariners, and others, have claimed to see strange things at sea, serpents, monsters, and such," I said. "Tricks of light, configurations of waves, surfacing sea sleen, tricks of the atmosphere, shapes detected in fog?" said Sakim. "One who grasps the fur of a sea sleen or the tail of a shark is unwise," said Thurnock. "But there is the Brigand Island," said Sakim. "It can trail us, like a sleen of the sea."
"I think not," said Samos. "Their winter stores of food, from the ice hunting, will last them for a time. Then they must hunt elsewhere. Perhaps some can live by fishing until the fall, and the return of the black sea sleen."
Near him, beside the high seat, sat his woman, Bera, her hair worn high on her head, in a kirtle of yellow wool with scarlet cape of the fur of the red sea sleen, and, about her neck, necklaces of gold.
And behind them, in a rich swirling cloak of the white, spotted sea sleen, sword in hand, looking wildly about, was another man, one I did not know. Raiders of Gor Book 6 Page 300
The men of the country of Ax Glacier fish for whales and hunt snow sleen. They cannot farm that far to the north. Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 139 The red hunters are generally a kind, peaceable folk, except with animals. Two sorts of beasts are kept in domestication in the north; the first sort of beast is the snow sleen; the second is the white-skinned woman. At the end of the wall Imnak wept, seeing the strewn fields of slaughtered tabuk. The fur and hide of the tabuk provides the red hunters not only with clothing, but it can also be used for blankets, sleeping bags and other articles. The hides can serve for harnesses for the snow sleen and their white-skinned, female beasts. I saw a woman putting out a pan for a domestic snow sleen to lick clean. "I am grateful," I said. I looked at it. It was a snow sleen, easily identified by the thickness of the coat, the narrowness of the ears, the breadth of the paws. The men hurried to their huts to gather weapons. There are upon occasion wild snow sleen in the tundra, half starved and maddened by hunger. They constitute one of the dangers of traveling in the winter. Such sleen, together with the cold and the darkness, tend to close the arctic in the winter. No simple trader ventures north in that time. "Observe the sleen," said Imnak. The animal, some nine feet in length, twisting, was awake, and restless. Its ears were lifted, its nostrils distended. The claws in the wide, soft paws emerged, and then retracted. It did not seem to be angry. It lifted its snout to the wind. "It has taken the scent of something," I said. "It is excited, but not disturbed." said Imnak. "What does this mean?" I asked. "That we are in great danger," said Imnak. "There are sleen in the vicinity." "But we are far out on the ice," I said. "The danger is thus much greater," said Imnak. "Yes," I said, understanding him. If the snow sleen had taken the scent of sleen in this area it might well be one or more sleen wandering on the ice, sleen driven by hunger from the inland areas. Such animals would be extremely dangerous. Our sleen suddenly threw back his head and emitted a long, high-pitched, hideous, shrill squeal. "It will revert," said Imnak. "Shall I kill it while there is still time?" I asked Imnak. "Tie its jaws, and bind it," said Imnak. "The madness will pass." I took the binding fiber with which the girls had been tethered. "I see them now!" cried Arlene. "There! There!" The sleen squirmed but I, forcing it to its side in the snow, lashed shut its jaws. I then tied together its three sets of paws. "Put it in the shelter," said Imnak. I unhitched the sleen's harness from the sled and, by the harness, still on the animal, dragged it into the shelter. "Its struggles will break the wall, or put out the lamp," I said. "Do not permit that to happen," said Imnak. I tied the forepaws of the sleen to its rearmost hind paws, the power, or spring, paws. Its struggles would now be considerably circumscribed and the mighty leverage it could exert would largely be dissipated in the circle of its bonds. Imnak now, with a knife, cut down at the ice some twenty feet from the partially erected shelter. The sleen were now some two hundred yards away, swift, frenzied. Imnak hurried to the low wall of the half-erected shelter. There, instead of joining us, he took from Poalu a slice of meat and, in the other hand, the handle of the water kettle. He hurried to the hole he had cut in the ice. He thrust the meat on the blade of the knife and then thrust the handle of the knife down into the hole he had cut in the ice. He poured the water then into the hole in the ice, about the handle of the knife. He waited only a moment, for the water, poured into the icy hole in the subzero temperatures, froze almost instantly, anchoring the knife with the solidity of a spike in cement. One of the larger animals circled the meat on the knife twice and then, suddenly, bit at it, to tear it from the blade. He ripped the meat from the blade, making away with it, his jaws cut by the knife's edge. There was then hot fresh blood on the knife. Another sleen, frenzied with the smell, ribs protruding from its fur, racked with hunger, hurried to the knife, licking at the blood. As it did so, of course, the blade, anchored fixedly in the ice, cut its mouth, its lips and tongue. In the frenzy of its hunger the sleen, further stimulated by the newly shed blood, redoubled its efforts to lap it up. Another animal, larger, bit at it, and shouldered it from the blade, it then licking at the blood, unwittingly cutting itself, its mouth and tongue, as well. There was dark blood, frozen about the stained, exposed blade. One sleen attacked the first animal, which was profusely bleeding at the mouth. In a raging, vicious tangle of whirling fur and snapping jaws the two animals fought. One's throat was ripped open and, instantly, four or five dark shapes on the ice attacked the fallen animal, thrusting their heads, fangs tearing, feeding, into its belly. It squealed hideously. Other sleen tried to thrust into the orgy. Two or three scrambled literally onto the backs of the feeders, trying to push down between them. Other sleen ran to the knife. The blood on it, in the moment it had been left alone, had frozen on the steel. Two sleen fought to lick the frozen blood from the blade. Instantly as the blade cut their lips and tongue there was again hot, fresh blood on the steel. A sleen can kill itself in this manner, licking at the blade until it bleeds to death. He took a long strip of baleen, about fifteen inches in length, and, with his knife, sharpened both ends, wickedly sharp. He then, carefully, folded the baleen together, with S-type folds. Its suppleness permitted this, but it was under great tension, of course, to spring straight again, resuming its original shape. He then tied the baleen, tensed as it was, together with some stout tabuk sinew. The sinew, of course, held the baleen together, in effect fastening a stout spring into a powerfully compressed position. If the sinew should break I would not have wished to be near that fierce, compressed, stout strip of sharpened baleen. "Put it away," I said to Imnak. Imnak made several of these objects. He then inserted them into several pieces of meat, one in each piece of meat. He threw one of these pieces of meat, containing the compressed baleen, outside the shelter. "Now, let us sleep," he said. "It is a horrifying thing you are doing, Imnak," I said to him. "Do you wish to live?" he asked. "Yes," I said. "Then do not object," he said. "It is us or it is the sleen." They were detaching many of the snow sleen from the sleds, to be used as attack sleen. There are many varieties of sleen, incidentally, adapted to diverse environments; the most formidable, as far as I know, is the forest sleen. There is also a sand sleen, a snow sleen, even some aquatic varieties, types of sea sleen, and so on. They are very greatly in size, as well. Some sleen are quite small and silken, and sinuously graceful, no larger than domestic cats. They are sometimes kept as pets. Is not the striped jungle sleen more beautiful than the tawny prairie sleen or the snow sleen of Ax Glacier?
"The sleen," he said, "and especially the gray sleen, is Gor's finest tracker. It is a relentless, tenacious tracker. It can follow a scent that is weeks old, for a thousand pasangs." "It is an excellent tracker," I said. Indeed, the sleen was a tenacious, indefatigable tracker, the finest on Gor. Its tracking skills had doubtless been evolved for the pursuit of game, but, in the domesticated sleen, often carefully bred for generations, they often proved of great value to humans. It was not unusual for a sleen to locate and pursue a track which might have been laid down several days earlier. There have been documented cases of a sleen locating and following a trail put down more than a month earlier. It was the first larl I had seen, though I had heard much of them. It is a much larger animal than the sleen, and it has four, not six, legs. It lairs in dens, and does not burrow like the sleen in the wild. It is carnivorous, and it most commonly hunts in the day. The sleen, in the wild, is predominantly nocturnal. The larl is probably the most fearsome land predator on Gor. The sleen, on the other hand, is Gor's finest tracker. Domesticated sleen, tracking sleen, hunting sleen, herding sleen, guard sleen, war sleen, are relatively common on Gor. Domesticated larls are rare. Few people have seen one. "You keep sleen?" I asked. "I have one," he said. "Is it a good tracker?" I asked. "What sleen is not?" he asked. Shortly thereafter, not far from the western edge of the dock, we encountered the sleen. It was a large, mottled beast, some nine feet long, brown and black. It became excited at his appearance. It began to whine, and tear at the turf, and writhe and twist about, almost like a snake. "I do not want it to kill the slave," I said. "It has not been given that command," he said. Its snout was to the forest its nostrils flared, its eyes keen, its long, sinuous body trembling. Its tether was taut. "Hold, hold," said Axel soothingly. He then freed the monster of its tether. The beast, though trembling, remained in place. Axel then donned a heavy pair of gloves, and attached a chain leash to the beast's heavy, thick, spiked collar. "Why the chain, why the gloves?" I asked. "He cannot chew through the chain," he said. "And I do not wish to lose a hand." "I gather he becomes excited," I said. "That is not unusual in a hunting sleen," he said. "Easy, easy, Tiomines," he said, soothingly. "It is unusual that it would be this agitated this early, is it not?" I asked. "The scent is very fresh," he said. "It must have been laid down Ahn ago," I said. "You know little of sleen," he said. It is not unheard of for sleen to follow a given scent for days, even one which may have been laid down weeks ago.
"Put out a bowl of honey in the woods and the small, thick-furred tree sleen will come from afar to find it," said Seremides.
War sleen were set upon us! Vagabonds of Gor Book 24 Page 155 In the corridors they met the war sleen and the hunting sleen of the pits. Witness of Gor Book 26 Page 488 "Send the sleen out to scout?" suggested one of the soldiers. "Do you expect them to come back and report?" asked the officer. "We have no scent to put them on. I doubt they would leave the camp." "They are hunting sleen, not war sleen," said a soldier. It was the first larl I had seen, though I had heard much of them. It is a much larger animal than the sleen, and it has four, not six, legs. It lairs in dens, and does not burrow like the sleen in the wild. It is carnivorous, and it most commonly hunts in the day. The sleen, in the wild, is predominantly nocturnal. The larl is probably the most fearsome land predator on Gor. The sleen, on the other hand, is Gor's finest tracker. Domesticated sleen, tracking sleen, hunting sleen, herding sleen, guard sleen, war sleen, are relatively common on Gor. Domesticated larls are rare. Few people have seen one. "What is it?" asked a man, perhaps back, in the kitchen, back from the door. "I do not know!" screamed a man. "Press through the door," urged a man. "Force your way through," said another. "It is in the darkness, a larl, I think, ravenous." "Not in Ar!" cried a man. "A war sleen!" gasped another. It is dangerous, of course, to mount a battle-shy tarn. It may turn on its rider, or it may become difficult or impossible to control, thus jeopardizing both itself and its rider. Normally, tarns, like war sleen, both mighty beasts, recover, returning eventually to their nature, habits, and training. Indeed, some become even more belligerent and dangerous, almost as if, somehow, having tasted shame or pusillanimity, perhaps sensing they have disappointed themselves, or their keepers or riders, they are eager to redeem themselves.
It might, too, be a Vosk turtle. Some of them are gigantic, almost impossible to kill, persistent, carnivorous. Yet, if it had been a tharlarion or a Vosk turtle, it might well have broken the surface for air. It did not. This reasoning also led me to suppose that it would not be likely to be anything like a water sleen or a giant urt from the canals of Port Kar. These two, even before the tharlarion or the turtle, would by now, presumably, have surfaced to breathe. Nomads of Gor Book 4 Pages 204 - 205
In the second level, that of the canopies, is found an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches, mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel, the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and many more. Here, too, may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts, leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines, lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects, ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles and flies, and so on. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 311
In the second level, that of the canopies, is found an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches, mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel, the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and many more. Here, too, may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts, leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines, lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects, ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles and flies, and so on. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 311
In the lower branches of the "ground zone" may be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to man. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 311 In the lower branches of the "ground zone" may be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to man. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 312
Gripped in the talons of the tarn was the dead body of an antelope, one of the one-horned, yellow antelopes called tabuks that frequent the bright Ka-la-na thickets of Gor. The antelope's back had been broken, apparently in the tarn's strike, and its neck and head lolled aimlessly to one side. Tarnsman of Gor Book 1 Page 145 Once I brought the carcass of a tabuk, one of Gor 's single-horned, yellow antelopes, which I had felled in a Ka-la-na thicket, to the hut of a peasant and his wife. Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 48 The tabuk is the most common Gorean antelope, a small graceful animal, one-horned and yellow, that haunts the Ka-la-na thickets of the planet and occasionally ventures daintily into its meadows in search of berries and salt. It is also one of the favorite kills of a tarn. and in the same case but in a different corner was a small herd, no more than five adult animals, a proud male and four does, of tabuk, the single-horned, golden Gorean antelope. When one of the does moved I saw that moving beside her with dainty steps were two young tabuk, the first I had ever seen, for the young of the tabuk seldom venture far from the shaded, leafy bowers of their birth in the tangled Ka-la-na thickets of Gor. Their single horns were little more than velvety stubs on their foreheads and I saw that their hide, unlike that of the adults, was a mottled yellow and brown. When one of the attendant Muls happened to pass near the case the two little tabuk immediately froze, becoming almost invisible, and the mother, her bright golden pelt gleaming, began to prance away from them, while the angry male lowered his head against the Mul and trotted in a threatening manner to the plastic barrier. Small straight bows, of course, not the powerful long bow, are, on the other hand, reasonably common on Gor, and these are often used for hunting light game, such as the brush-maned, three-toed Qualae, the yellow-pelted, single-horned Tabuk, and runaway slaves. In the distance, near the yellowish thicket, I saw a small, yellowish animal moving, delicately. It was far off and I could not see it well. I thought it might be a deer or gazelle. It disappeared into the thicket. There were small birds about, and I saw a scurrying brush urt, flowers, even a lovely, yellowish Tabuk fawn. I crossed two tiny streams. I stumbled, screaming, then running again. I might have been a golden-pelted tabuk, but I was a girl! I felt again weak. I felt like a golden-pelted tabuk, lying between the paws of the black-maned mountain larl. The flesh of a desert tabuk which dies in the desert, perhaps separated from its herd, and unable to find water, if undisturbed by the salivary juices of predators, remains edible for several days. The external appearance of the animal, beyond this, can remain much the same for centuries. "Have you heard," he asked, "of the herd of Tancred?" "No," I said. "It is a herd of northern tabuk," said Samos, "a gigantic herd, one of several. The herd of Tancred winters in the rims of the northern forests south and east of Torvaldsland. In the spring, short-haired and hungry, they emerge from the forests and migrate northward." He indicated the map. "They follow this route," he said, "emerging from the forest here, skirting Torvaldsland here, to the east, and then moving west above Torvaldsland, to the sea. They follow the shore of Thassa north, cross Ax Glacier here, like dark clouds on the ice, then continue to follow the shore north here, until they then turn eastward into the tundra of the polar basin, for their summer grazing. With the coming of winter, long-haired and fat, they return by the same route to the forests. This migration, like others of its kind, occurs annually." "Yes?" I said. "It seems not to have occurred this year," he said. I looked at him, puzzled. "Red hunters of the polar basin, trading for tea and sugar, have reported the failure of the herd to appear." "That is puzzling," I said. "It is more serious than that," he said. "It means the perishing of the men of the polar basin, or their near starvation. They depend on the tabuk in the summer for food." The red hunters lived as nomads, dependent on the migrations of various types of animals, in particular the northern tabuk and four varieties of sea sleen. It was early morning. Ram sat upright in the grass. I stood near the tarn, which had returned in the night, its beak smeared with blood and the hairs from the small yellow tabuk, of the sort which frequent Ka-la-na thickets. I cleaned its beak and talons with dried grass. I had already saddled the beast. "There are many bales of hide on the wharves," I said. "From Kassau, and the north," he said. "Did the herd of Tancred this year emerge from the forests?" I asked. "Yes," said the man. "I have heard so." "But," said I, "it has not yet crossed Ax Glacier?" "I would not know of that," he said. "On the wharves," I said, "there are thousands of hides." "From the northern herds," he said. "Are there traders come south from the north?" asked Ram. "Few," said the man. "Is it common," I asked, "for the hides to be so plentiful in Lydius in the spring?" Normally hide hunters prefer the fall tabuk, for the coats are heavier. "I do not know," said the man. "I am new in Lydius." He looked at us, smiling. "May I serve, Masters?" he asked. "We will be served by our own girls," said Ram. "We will send them shortly to the vat." "As masters wish," beamed Sarpelius, and turned about and left us. "Never have there been hides in this quantity in Lydius," said Ram to me, "either in the spring or fall." "They are perhaps from the herd of Tancred," I said. "There are other herds," he said. "That is true," I said. But I was puzzled. If the herd of Tancred had indeed emerged from the forests why had it not yet crossed Ax Glacier? Surely hunters, even in great numbers, could not stay the avalanche of such a herd, which consisted of doubtless two to three hundred thousand animals. It was one of the largest migratory herds of tabuk on the planet. Unfortunately for the red hunters, it was also the only one which crossed Ax Glacier to summer in the polar basin. To turn such a herd from its migratory destination would be less easy than to turn the course of a flood. Yet, if reports could be believed, the ice of Ax Glacier had not yet, this year, rung to the hooves of the herd. We stood on a high platform, overlooking the wall. It extended to the horizons. "It is more than seventy pasangs in length," she said. "Two to three hundred men have labored on it for two years." Beyond the wall there milled thousands of tabuk, for it had been built across the path of their northward migration. They stretched for pasangs to the south, grazing. "For the time," I said. I looked out over the milling tabuk. They were northern tabuk, massive, tawny and swift, many of them ten hands at the shoulder, a quite different animal from the small, yellow-pelted, antelopelike quadruped of the south. On the other hand, they, too, were distinguished by the single horn of the tabuk. On these animals, however, that object, in swirling ivory, was often, at its base, some two and one-half inches in diameter, and better than a yard in length. A charging tabuk, because of the swiftness of its reflexes, is a quite dangerous animal. Usually they are killed from a distance, often from behind shields, with arrows. Suddenly a tabuk, better than eleven hands at the shoulder, thrust through the opening, buffeting men aside. Floodlike, like a tawny, thundering avalanche, blurred, snorting, tossing their heads and horns, the tabuk sped past me. I saw the leader, to one side, on a hillock, stamping and snorting, and lifting his head. He watched the tabuk streaming past him and then he bounded from the hillock, and, racing, made his way to the head of the herd. More tabuk now, a river better than sixty feet wide, thundered past me. I heard logs splintering, and saw them breaking and giving way. They fell and some, even, on the backs of the closely massed animals, were carried for dozens of yards, wood floating and churned, tossed on that tawny, storming river, that relentless torrent of hide and horn, turned toward the north. I moved to my left as more logs burst loose. In minutes the river of tabuk was more than two hundred yards wide. The ground shook beneath me. I could hardly see nor breathe for the dust. At the end of the wall Imnak wept, seeing the strewn fields of slaughtered tabuk. The fur and hide of the tabuk provides the red hunters not only with clothing, but it can also be used for blankets, sleeping bags and other articles. The hides can serve for harnesses for the snow sleen and their white-skinned, female beasts. Too they may be used for buckets and tents, and for kayaks, the light, narrow hunting canoes of skin from which sea mammals may be sought. Lashings, harpoon lines, cords and threads can be fashioned from its sinews. Carved, the bone and horn of the animal can function as arrow points, needles, thimbles, chisels, wedges and knives. Its fat and bone marrow can be used as fuel. Too, almost all of the animal is edible. Even its eyes may be eaten and, from its stomach, the half-digested mosses on which it has been grazing. "I was after tabuk," she said, "but others, too, were abroad that day, who sought a slower, softer game." My hostess laughed, and the slave clasped the bars yet more tightly. "I did not suspect they were in the vicinity," said the slave. "That is not unusual," I said. Such men, of course, commonly know their business. "I spotted a tabuk, and set off in hot pursuit, across the fields," she said. "It was an agile, wily beast, and led me a splendid chase. Intent upon it I did not note the other riders, closing in upon me. The tabuk harried to exhaustion, helpless, lying gasping on the grass, I rode to it, my crossbow ready. It would not be a difficult shot. I would enter my bolt into its heart. I took aim. But the bow was lifted from me. 'Greetings,' said a man. 'How dare you interfere!' I cried. 'The tabuk is mine!' 'No,' he said, 'it is you who are ours.' "It is dangerous here," he said. "There may be animals." "That is possible," I said, "but I do not think there is much to fear in the reserve. The oddity of the ditch discourages the entrance of animals, and, as there is little grazing here, there would be few herbivores, and there being few herbivores, there will be few carnivores. Too, the human is unfamiliar prey to most carnivores, the panther, the sleen, the larl, and such. They will certainly attack humans, and humans are surely within their prey range, but, given a choice, they will usually choose prey to which they are accustomed, wild tarsk, wild verr, tabuk, and such." Too, the tarn commonly attacks from the air. It is not unknown for tabuk to graze in its presence, if it has alighted. I saw a tabuk, small, graceful, single-horned, here in the woods brown pelted, startled, lift its head from a water-filled declivity, and dart away. They are lovely animals, round-eyed, and alert. Usually there is more than one about. I saw a tabuk, small, graceful, single-horned, here in the woods brown pelted, startled, lift its head from a water-filled declivity, and dart away. They are lovely animals, round-eyed, and alert. Usually there is more than one about. I cried out, as a small body, no higher than my waist when it struck the ground at my side, bounded past me. I could have touched it. It disappeared amongst the trees. I had glimpsed it only briefly, but it was a tabuk. I did not know if it were the one I had seen earlier, or not. It had paid me no attention; perhaps it had not even noticed me, or cared to notice me. I found that surprising, for it is difficult to approach a tabuk, as they are alert, skittish animals. The strike of a tarn can break the back of a tabuk or kaiila, which can then be fed on in the grass or borne away to a nest. Two fellows, swords drawn, detained a figure not three yards from me. "What says the yellow tabuk?" one of them hissed to the fellow detained. "Do not enter the den of the black larl," he responded. "Pass," I heard. Indeed, societies have known for centuries that many animals will retreat before lines of women and children shouting and beating on pots and pans, women and children who may be herding the animals, such as the giant, tawny northern tabuk toward waiting hunters.
Then he emerged from the other side of the wagon. He carried, across his shoulders, the body of a freshly killed grass tabuk. Fel Doron threw the small tabuk to the grass before them.
In the lower branches of the "ground zone" may be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to man. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 312 There must therefore, somehow, be some light, perhaps a tiny bit of light from the moons, or even the stars, filtered through the cover of clouds. Whereas this might be so small that it was scarcely detectable by a human, it might be more than adequate for a different sort of animal, something like a tarsier, or cat, or lion, something with different, more efficient nocturnal adaptations. Dancer of Gor Book 22 Page 371
if I were lucky, a slice of roast tarsk, the formidable six-tusked wild boar of Gor's temperate forests. Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 76 I looked up. The slave boy, Fish, had emerged from the kitchen, holding over his head on a large silver platter a whole roasted tarsk, steaming and crisped, basted, shining under the torchlight, a larma in its mouth, garnished with suls and Tur-Pah. The men cried out, summoning him to their table. It had been on one side, a land side, of that last remaining fortress of Henrius Sevarius, that Lysias, Henrak, and others had emerged from a postern, carrying the heavy sack which they had hurled into the canal, that sack from which I had saved the boy. Fish put down the whole roasted tarsk before the men. He was sweating. He wore a single, simple rep-cloth tunic. I had had a plate collar hammered about his neck. I had had him branded. The men ordered him away again, that he might fetch yet another roasted tarsk from the spit which he had been turning slowly over the coal fires during the afternoon. He sped away. There was a clear space before my great table, in which, from time to time, during the evening, entertainments had been provided, simple things, which even I upon occasion found amusing, fire eaters and sword swallowers, jugglers and acrobats, and magicians, and slaves, riding on one another's shoulders' striking at one another with inflated tarsk bladders tied to poles. I had meat brought for the tarn, great chunks of tarsk, thighs and shoulders, which I had thrown before it, on the cold deck. It tore at them greedily. I had had the bones removed from the meat. If it had been bosk I would not, but the bones of the tarsk are thinner and splinter easily. "Watch out!" I said. The tarsk, a small one, no more than forty pounds, tusked, snorting, bits of leaf scattering behind it, charged. It swerved, slashing with its curved tusks, and I only managed to turn it aside with the point of the raider's spear I carried, one of four such weapons we had had since our brief skirmish with raiders, that in which we had obtained our canoe, that which had occurred in the marsh east of Ushindi. It had twisted back on me with incredible swiftness. The blond-haired barbarian screamed. I thrust at it again. Again it spun and charged. Again I thrust it back. There was blood on the blade of the spear and the animal's coat was glistening with it. Such animals are best hunted from the back of kaiila with lances, in the open. They are cunning, persistent and swift. The giant tarsk, which can stand ten hands at the shoulder, is even hunted with lances from tarnback. It snuffled and snorted, and again charged. Again I diverted its slashing weight. One does not follow such an animal into the bush. It is not simply a matter of reduced visibility but it is also a matter of obtaining free play for one's weapons. Even in the open, as I was, in a clearing among trees, it is hard to use one's spear to its best advantage, the animal stays so close to you and moves so quickly. Suddenly it turned its short wide head, with that bristling mane running down its back to its tail. "Get behind me!" I called to the girl. It put down its head, mounted on that short, thick neck, and, scrambling, charged at the blond-haired barbarian. She stumbled back, screaming, and, the animal at her legs, fell. But in that moment, from the side, I thrust the animal from her. It, immediately, turned again. I thrust it again to the side. This time, suddenly, before it could turn again, I, with a clear stroke, thrust the spear through its thick-set body, behind the right foreleg. Peggy's body gleamed with sweat. She had small feet, and lovely, high arches. Her body was superb. She had retained, by means of diet and exercise, her block measurements, those measurements which were hers when she, after having been prepared for sale, was marketed from a slave block. The master commonly has a record of such measurements and many masters, using a tarsk scale, used for small livestock, and slave tapes, periodically check their lovely properties, making certain that they are maintaining the measurements. "I thought you could find no roots." I smiled. "Some were left in the garden," she said. "I remembered them. I came back for them. There was very little left though. Others obviously had come before me. These things were missed. They are poor stuff. We used to use the produce of that garden for tarsk feed." "They are fine roots," I said, "and splendid Suls." The wagons often move. There must be new grazing for the bosk. There must be fresh rooting and browse for the tarsk and verr. The needs of these animals, on which the Alars depend for their existence, are taken to justify movements, and sometimes even migrations, of the Alars and kindred peoples. We were not in Samnium, but in Market of Semris. This is a much smaller town, south, and somewhat to the east, of Samnium. It is best known, interestingly enough, ironically enough, as an important livestock market. In particular, it is famed for its sales of tarsks. Too, of course, there are markets here for slaves. Still later that afternoon some groups of small, fat, grunting, bristly, brindled, shaggy-maned, hoofed, flat-snouted, rooting animals had been herded in, also with pointed sticks, and they, too, had been guided into identical cages. We had looked out of our cage, our fingers hooked in the mesh, to other cages, some of them with girls in them, some with the fat, flat-snouted, grunting, short-legged, brindled quadrupeds. "Those are tarsks," said one of the Gorean girls. We had come to a long, narrow, wooden, calked, semicircular tanklike container, about two feet wide and ten feet long, half buried in the dirt, its forward edge reached by a low ramp. It was filled with a dark fluid. Here we had to wait while a group of fifteen tarsks, one by one, herded up the ramp, plunged into the fluid and swam to the other side where, scrambling out of the container, they shook themselves, and hastened down the descent ramp. We shuddered. None of us, I am sure, cared to enter that dark fluid. "Do not swallow the fluid," he said. We looked at one another, from our hands and knees. We would be sure not to do so. We needed no encouragement in the matter. Clearly it would not be simple water. "You, first, two-legged tarsk," he said to Ila. "Yes, Master!" she said, hastening to obey, hurrying up the ramp on all fours and plunging into the dark fluid. In an instant she was in the center of the container. A little past that point, one of the men, reaching over the side of the structure, thrust her head under the fluid. Then, in a moment, she was scrambling out of the container. "Stay on your feet," she was told. "Yes, Master," she said, now at the foot of the descent ramp, shivering, holding her arms about herself, Ila, we noted, to our satisfaction, was now properly deferential. Too, she was quick to obey. It seemed she had learned her lesson yesterday, that she was, like us, a woman and a slave. As she had been the first into the first cage yesterday, and we had had, for the most part, to back out of the narrow enclosures, it was natural that she had been at the head of our group this morning, I, for what it was worth, whether it was meaningful or not, whether it was a tribute to my beauty, or an indication of my assumed esthetic inferiority to the others, or a matter of accident, of simple happenstance or original positioning, with no significance, or height or whatever, was again at the end of the group. To be sure, I was neither the tallest nor the shortest of the group. One of the Gorean girls, Tutina, was smaller than I. It was, thus, I think, only an accident in its way, at least with respect to what was going on this morning, that Ila had been chosen to be the first to enter the fluid. The man had not even seemed to remember that she had been refractory, or resistant, the day before. He was thus kindly, I think, letting her begin again. I could see a long corridor, dimly lit with lamps. It was, like the exposition area, floored with dirt. That made sense, as doubtless tarsks, those of the four-footed variety, those bristly, squat, grunting animals, as opposed to the two-footed variety, those soft, smooth, shapely animals, were often conducted through it. Tarsks were sold in this place, I thought. I observed the long; narrow, low-walled wooden conduit, leading up and forward, I could not see where it led. Tarsks were herded through it, with pointed sticks. It was a tarsk shoot. Tarsks were sold in this place. I heard a voice behind me, from the dust. It was only when the ground had shaken near me, and I had spun half about, almost buffeted by a saddle tharlarion, and saw the running mercenary caught between the shoulder blades with the point of the lance, thrown then to the dust, rolling and bloody, and saw the tharlarion trampling the body, then turning about in a swirl of dust, the rider lifting the bloodstained lance, that I registered the voice I heard. "Tarsk!" it had said. That is a command used often in tarsk hunting, a signal to ride the animal down, plunging your lance into its back or side. A tarsk is a piglike animal. The boars are tusked, and can be quite large. They are also territorial and fierce. Many hunters have lost their lives in their pursuit. The sows are smaller and lack tusks. The male keeps them in his group, or, so to speak, in his harem. "I could be bred?" she said. "Of course," I said, "you are slave stock." The cages, of heavy, cable-like woven wire, are made for tarsks, not kajirae. One cannot stand in them. They are long, narrow and low. Thus, more than one can be placed on a sideless, flat-bedded wagon, roped in place. Too, like the common slave cages designed for kajirae, they may be stacked. I hooked my fingers in the wire, and looked out, frightened, from my knees. The Tarsk Market has its name, obviously enough I suppose, because it is a general market for tarsks. Certainly the smell of tarsk was all about. And there was little doubt, from the condition of the cage, that the previous occupants of the cage had been tarsks. The Voltai tarsk, as some forest tarsk, are much larger than the common tarsk. They are often ten to twelve hands at the shoulder. The beast tends to be territorial and aggressive. It is particularly dangerous when wounded. At that moment from somewhere on the other side of the wagons, I heard Jane scream, and Astrinax cry out, "Tarsk, tarsk!" Trachinos turned about, startled. I heard something, several things, seemingly large things, scrambling, and grunting and squealing, descending the hillside on the other side of the wagon. "Into the wagon!" said Desmond. Something from the other side buffeted the wagon, and it tipped toward us, and I heard a squeal, angry and piercing. Then, emerging from under the wagon, half lifting the wagon with its passage, was a large, harry, humped, four-footed form, shaggy and immense, and it sped past. The wagon righted itself. I had had a glimpse of tiny, reddish eyes, a wide head, and a flash of four curved, white tusks, two like descending knives, two like raised knives, on each side of a wide, wet jaw. One tarsk, snorting, spun about, head down, to face the riders. They were then about him, lances thrusting. I saw blood on the hump running in the dust with which the beast was covered, and the beast then, with an enraged squeal, charged the nearest hunter. The tharlarion, its jaws unbound, moved to the side, and bit at the tarsk as it lunged past. The rider lost his saddle, and plunged to the dirt. The tarsk spun about to charge, again, but the tharlarion, apparently trained, interposed its body between the tarsk and the rider, its head down, jaws gaping. The beast never reached either the tharlarion or the rider, for its body had been penetrated by three lances, which pinned it in place. The dismounted rider then hurried about the beast, and leapt on it from behind, seized its long hump mane, and plunged his dagger into its side. The lances, which are smoothly pointed, to allow for an easy retrieval, were removed from the animal. The dismounted rider then regained his saddle and he and the others, sped about the wagon, raising dust following the first rider, and the running tarsk. The struck beast rolled in the dirt, bleeding, blood coming in gouts from its mouth, as the heart might beat, reddening the tusks, and then, after a time, it lay still, beside the wagon. "Tarsk normally do not cluster and run like that," said Master Desmond. "There is provender aplenty in the kitchens, " he said, "forest tarsk, long-haired bosk, even tabuk. The Pani hunters provide well." "The challenger is a cripple," called the judge to the stands. "Withdraw your match!" "It is not withdrawn," called the voice back. This announcement was met with some derisive commentary. Too, there was some hissing, and some sounds reminiscent of the bleating of verr and the grunting of tarsks. No, they were tiny, clanking bells, of the sort that might be fastened on a rooting tarsk or a grazing verr, that their location might be more easily noted by local tenders. "Perhaps," said Archelaos, "it is safer to deal with a hundred vulos than one tarsk boar, with ten verr than one sleen. "One is held each year," he said, "and they alternate amongst the major islands, and amongst the larger towns on the islands. Last year it was on Thera, at Sybaris, the year before on Daphna, at Pylos. You will enjoy the fair. There are many festivities and exhibitions, dozens of markets and sales. You can see prize verr and tarsks. There are always acrobats, fire eaters, jugglers, and rope dancers. Merchants, with their goods, come from as faraway as Cos and Tyros, even from Brundisium on the continent." "I expect that you will enjoy the fair," said Sakim, "and that your men will enjoy it, as well, even if they are not interested in prize verr and tarsks. One can always peruse slaves in the markets, and there is no dearth of brothel and tavern tents." "One does not discuss such things with a tarsk, a verr, a slave." A fellow with a stick was herding an immense tarsk past. That you would not have seen at a Sardar Fair. "What a splendid animal," marveled Thurnock. "What is justice?" I asked. "Is it just that we roast captives on spits, that we bait our hooks with the flesh of prisoners, that we feed our enemies, bound and screaming, to starving tarsks?" These were small sharks, most less than a foot in length, but they often traveled in groups. In an Ehn or so, thrashing in the water, they could eat a full-grown tarsk to the bones. "Still," insisted Thurnock. "If you wish," I said, "it is irrational to risk the loss of property, particularly when it might have some monetary value, however negligible." "True," said Thurnock, "why risk the loss of even a vulo, a verr, or tarsk?"
Among the animals I saw many verrs; some domestic tarsks, their tusks sheathed; Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 171 I heard the squealing of a domestic tarsk running nearby, its feet scuttling in the woven rence of the island, as on a mat. A child was crying out, chasing it. A small domesticated tarsk, grunting and snuffling, pattered across rence matting that was the surface of the island. One of the slavers, a man with a conical helmet, called the animal to him. He scratched it behind the ears and then threw it squealing out into the marsh. There was a rapid movement in the water and it was gone. "That your prisoner, whom I gather is important to you, may be presented with drama, with flair, nothing so common, so mundane and predictable, as being led in like a pet tarsk."
In the forests there were sleen and panthers, and fierce tarsks. Hunters of Gor Book 8 Page 67
The giant tarsk, which can stand ten hands at the shoulder, is even hunted with lances from tarnback. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 346
"That your prisoner, whom I gather is important to you, may be presented with drama, with flair, nothing so common, so mundane and predictable, as being led in like a pet tarsk."
I heard a snuffling, and grunting, to one side, and stopped. There were three small tarsks there, rooting, only a few paces away. Some tarsks are extremely large, so large that they are sometimes hunted in the open plains with lances, from tarnback, but these were no larger than verr. The boar can be dangerous, with its short temper and curved, slashing tusks, but I saw no boar here, and, in any event, they are most dangerous in the spring, when marking out territory. They were rooting, of course, and this meant food. I waited for a time, and then, when they had drifted on, rooting elsewhere, investigated their rooting place, with its turned, gouged ground. I found some small, tuberous roots which had been missed, or rejected. I did not know what they were, but from the texture of the root and its starchiness, I would have supposed some tiny variety of wild Sul.
This afternoon, late, when we had come inland, almost in the dusk, she had become entangled in the web of a rock spider, a large one. They are called rock spiders because of their habit of holding their legs folded beneath them. This habit, and their size and coloration, usually brown and black, suggests a rock, and hence the name. It is a very nice piece of natural camouflage. A thin line runs from the web to the spider. When something strikes the web the tremor is transmitted by means of this line to the spider. Interestingly the movement of the web in the air, as it is stirred by wind, does not activate the spider; similarly if the prey which strikes the web is too small, and thus not worth showing itself for, or too large, and thus beyond its prey range, and perhaps dangerous, it does not reveal itself. On the other hand, should a bird, such as a mindar or parrot, or a small animal, such as a leaf urt or tiny tarsk, become entangled in the net the spider swiftly emerges. It is fully capable of taking such prey. When the blond-haired barbarian stumbled into the web, screaming, trying to tear it away from her face and hair, the spider did not even reveal itself. I pulled her away from the net and slapped her to silence. Curious, as she, sobbing, cleaned herself with leaves and saliva, I located the gentle, swaying strand which marked the location of the spider. It, immobile on the ground, was about a foot in diameter. It did not move until I nudged it with a stick, and it then backed rapidly way.
These were the first Voltai tarsk I had seen. Though they were shorter and squatter, they were like small bosk. Several might have come to my shoulder. Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 404 "What of the meat?" asked Astrinax. "Some we will put over our saddles," said Kleomenes, "some we will leave for you. We will break the tusks loose from the jaws. The tusks of Voltai tarsk sell well in Venna." "You are professional hunters then," said Astrinax. "No," said Kleomenes, "we hunt for the sport, the chase, the kill." "It is a dangerous sport" said Astrinax. "So, then," said Kleomenes, "it races the blood, it sharpens the eye and is thus, for that, the better sport." "And the tusks sell well," said Trachinos. "That, too, noble friend," said Kleomenes.
"The sleen," he said, "and especially the gray sleen, is Gor's finest tracker. It is a relentless, tenacious tracker. It can follow a scent that is weeks old, for a thousand pasangs." I whimpered, the beast's snout thrust between my thighs, sniffing. "Please, Master," I whimpered. I felt it nuzzling then at my waist and breasts. It was learning me. "Do you know what the sleen hunts?" he asked. "No, Master," I said. "In the wild it commonly hunts tabuk and wild tarsk," he said, "but it is an intelligent beast, and it can be trained to hunt anything." "It is dangerous here," he said. "There may be animals." "That is possible," I said, "but I do not think there is much to fear in the reserve. The oddity of the ditch discourages the entrance of animals, and, as there is little grazing here, there would be few herbivores, and there being few herbivores, there will be few carnivores. Too, the human is unfamiliar prey to most carnivores, the panther, the sleen, the larl, and such. They will certainly attack humans, and humans are surely within their prey range, but, given a choice, they will usually choose prey to which they are accustomed, wild tarsk, wild verr, tabuk, and such." The last race, just witnessed, was one of quadrupedalian tharlarion. These are bred for endurance and speed, but, even so, they are ponderous beasts, and no match for the more typical racing tharlarion, which is lighter and bipedalian. It is also carnivorous and more aggressive. In the race they commonly have their jaws bound shut. There have been several cases in which such beasts, before a race, or in the stable or exercise yards, have attacked their competitors, even their handlers. They are occasionally used for scouting or communication. Some hunt wild tarsk with lances from their saddles. The mountains are beautiful, but forbidding. They contain larls and sleen, and, in the lower ranges, wild tarsk, as well. As noted, at the higher altitudes, there is little to be found but wild verr and tiny snow urts.
The most interesting precaution, at least to me, was the provision of nesting sites on the almost vertical slopes for the Uru, which is a small, winged, vartlike mammal. This mammal, which usually preys on insects and small urts, like several species of birds, is communally territorial. When disturbed, it shrieks its warning and it is soon joined by a clamoring swarm of its fellows. In this way, a natural alarm system is obtained. Moreover, if a nesting site is closely approached, the Uru is likely to attack the intruder. It is a small mammal, but, shrieking and flying at the face of a climber, one precariously clinging to an almost vertical surface, it is, I am told, at least in such a situation, something most unpleasant to encounter. Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 384 Urts and jards take care not to wake the larl on whose kill they feed. My brothers, my caste brothers, put aside the timidity of the urt. Seize up the stealth and cunning of the sleen, the courage of the mighty larl. "I am feared in the court at Jad," he said. "I have enemies. Others have the ear of the glorious Lurius, who can do only so much. He is distracted by the affairs of the ubarate. He must delegate authority. His self-seeking minions manage much. Vulos are preferred to tarns, urts to larls. Preferments are wheedled. Rank is for sale. Offices are auctioned off. And I find myself on Thera." Some ships, crowded together, sterns to the dock, protected themselves from other ships with thick coils of cushioning rope dangling over their gunwales. Others, at higher-priced wharfage, had their hulls parallel to the pier. Their mooring ropes, fastened to shore cleats at stem and stern, with their conical or disklike urt guards, would, as they lifted and tightened, shed water in a rain of sunlit droplets, and then, again, relaxing, would loop downward, settling again into the water. "An urt could not squeeze free of this place," said Thurnock. "An ost could not do so." "Honor," said Thurnock, "is what parts men from the urt and ost." "But nobly," said Thurnock. "I do not care to rush into meaningless, unavailing darkness, like some quivering urt." "Sometimes a clever urt can escape the descending paw of the larl," I said. "They would grasp at such a bargain," said Clitus. "As would a hungry urt or a cunning ost," said Thurnock. "The other corsair ships withdraw," said Clitus. "They follow the first. They depart, masts now high, sails filled with the wind of fear, like terrified urts." "But we have his word," I said. "Better the word of an urt or ost," said Thurnock. "Be silent," warned Calla. "You will panic the others. The urts are more afraid of you than you of them. They are not aggressive. They are not starving; you are not bound helplessly. This is a hold, not a prison, not a punishment place. Be silent!"
The bounding urt is fond of dried tospits, men less so.
Already the bosk were growing uneasy at the smell of death and already the grass about the camp was rustling with the movements of the tiny brown prairie urts, scavengers, come to feed. Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 266
There were small birds about, and I saw a scurrying brush urt, flowers, even a lovely, yellowish Tabuk fawn. I crossed two tiny streams. "At the edge of a thicket to the northeast, days ago," said the second man, "we found the bones of brush urts!" "Yes," said the first man, "and, nearby, in this thicket, there is a small game trail." "It is hard to hunt in a Ka-la-na thicket," said the second man. "More importantly," said the first man, "brush urts tend to use such trails." Some animals fled past me, away from the din, tabuk and brush urts. I heard a tiny scurrying, of a tiny brush urt, in the darkness.
This reasoning also led me to suppose that it would not be likely to be anything like a water sleen or a giant urt from the canals of Port Kar. These two, even before the tharlarion or the turtle, would by now, presumably, have surfaced to breathe. Nomads of Gor Book 4 Pages 204 - 205 I heard one of the giant canal urts twist in the water somewhere beneath me. . . . Somewhere I heard the squealing and thrashing of two of the giant urts fighting in the water, among the floating garbage. The giant urts, silken and blazing-eyed, living mostly on the garbage in the canals, are not stranger to bodies, both living and dead, found cast into their waters. "Knife!" I said. I was handed a knife. "Do not, Captain!" cried Thurnock. Already I could see the sleek, wet muzzles of urts, eyes like ovals of blazing copper, streaking through the dark waters toward the bag. I leaped into the cold waters, the knife between my teeth. The sack, filling with water, began to sink, and, as I reached it, it had slipped beneath the water. I cut it open and seized the bound arm of the body inside it. I heard an arrow flash into the water near me and heard a high-pitched pain squeal from one of the web-footed canal urts. Then there was the sound of biting and tearing and thrashing in the water, as other urts attacked the injured one. Knife again between my teeth, pulling the bound thing from the sack, I shoved its head above the water. It was gagged as well as bound, and I saw its eyes wild, inches over the murky waters of the canal. It was a boy, perhaps sixteen or seventeen years old. I brought it to the edge of the canal and one of my men, lying on his stomach, extending his hand downward, caught him under the arm. Then I saw Clitus' net flash over my head and heard the confused protesting squeal of another urt, and then Clitus, again and again, was thrusting into the dark waters with his trident. I felt my leg then caught in the jaws of an urt, like triple bands of steel, set with needles, and was dragged beneath the surface. I thrust my thumbs in its ears and tore its head back from my leg. The mouth kept reaching for me, head turned to the side, trying for the throat. I let it free and as it snapped at me I knocked its jaws up and slipped behind it, my left arm locked about its broad, furred throat. I got the knife from between my teeth and, with it, sometimes half out of the water, sometimes beneath it, thrashing and twisting, thrust the blade a dozen times into its hide. "It's dead!" cried Clitus. I released it, kicking it back away from me. It disappeared beneath the water, dragged under by other urts. Men were hurrying along the narrow walks lining the canals. I could see the shining eyes of urts, their noses and heads dividing the torchlit waters silently, their pointed, silken ears laid back against the sides of their heads. Another urt's head, sleek and glistening, surfaced near the boat, then it submerged. "In Port Kar," I said, "a girl who is not pleasing is not unoften bound hand and foot, and thrown naked, as garbage, to the urts in the canals." "It could be anyone," said Samos. "Perhaps she will be bought by an urt hunter or an oar maker. What then?" "Then she is owned by an oar maker or an urt hunter," I said. "And we shall consider a new plan." Urt hunters swim slave girls, ropes on their necks, beside their boats in the dark, cool water of the canals, as bait for urts, which, as they rise to attack the girl, are speared. Urt hunters help to keep the urt population in the canals manageable. The auctioneer was now calling off her measurements, and her collar, and wrist and ankle-ring size. He had jotted these down on her back with a red-grease marking stick. "Will not an urt hunter give me at least two tarsks for her?" called out the auctioneer good-humoredly, but with some understandable exasperation. "She is not worth tying at the end of a rope and using in the water as a bait for urts," called out a man, the fellow who had first suggested that she be removed from the sales position. I heard an urt splash softly into the water, ahead of me and to my left. I looked over the low roof of the barge's cabin to the canal beyond. A hundred or so feet away there was the small boat of an urt hunter. His girl, the rope on her neck, crouched in the bow. This rope is about twenty feet long. One end of it is tied on her neck and the other end is fastened on the boat, to the bow ring. The hunter stood behind her with his pronged urt spear. These men serve an important function in Port Kar, which is to keep down the urt population in the canals. At a word from the man the girl, the rope trailing behind her, dove into the canal. Behind the man, in the stern, lay the bloody, white-furred bodies of two canal urts. One would have weighed about sixty pounds, and the other, I speculate, about seventy-five or eighty pounds. I saw the girl swimming in the canal, the rope on her neck, amidst the garbage. It is less expensive and more efficient to use a girl for this type of work than, say, a side of tarsk. The girl moves in the water which tends to attract the urts and, if no mishap occurs, may be used again and again. Some hunters use a live verr but this is less effective as the animal, squealing, and terrified, is difficult to drive from the side of the boat. The slave girl, on the other hand, can be reasoned with. She knows that if she is not cooperative she will be simply bound hand and foot and thrown alive to the urts. This modality of hunting, incidentally, is not as dangerous to the girl as it might sound, for very few urts make their strike from beneath the surface. The urt, being an air-breathing mammal, commonly makes its strike at the surface itself, approaching the quarry with its snout and eyes above the water, its ears laid back against the sides of its long, triangular head. To be sure, sometimes the urt surfaces near the girl and approaches her with great rapidity. Thus, in such a situation, she may not have time to return to the boat. In such a case, of course, the girl must depend for her life on the steady hand and keen eye, the swiftness, the strength and timing, the skill, of the urt hunter, her master. Sometimes, incidentally, a master will rent his girl to an urt hunter, this being regarded as useful in her discipline. There are very few girls who, after a day or two in the canals, and then being returned to their masters, do not strive to be completely pleasing. I looked beyond Samos to the boat and urt hunter in the canal. The girl climbed, shivering, into the bow of the boat, the wet rope on her neck. In the bow of the boat, crouching there, nude and shivering, she coiled, in careful circles, in the shallow, wooden rope bucket beside her, the central length of the rope, that between her neck and the bow ring. Only then did she reach for the thick woolen blanket, from the wool of the hurt, and clutch it, shuddering, about her. Her hair, wet, was very dark against the white blanket. She was comely. I wondered if she were being rented out for discipline, or if she belonged to the urt hunter. It was not easy to tell. I looked beyond Samos, to the canal beyond. The urt hunter, with his girl and boat, rowing slowly, was taking his leave. He would try his luck elsewhere. She looked at me, her eyes wide, frightened. "What you can make us do," she gasped. I stroked her head, gently. I had once seen a similar hysteria in an urt hunter's girl, in Port Kar. She had barely missed being taken by a giant urt in the canals. But the spear thrust of the hunter had been unerring and turned the urt at the last instant and the second thrust had finished it off. Girls in Port Kar will do almost anything to keep the rope off their neck and keep out of the canals. To be sure it is normally only low girls or girls who may have displeased a master in some respect who are used for such work. "It could be urts," said a man. "it is near the time of the year for their movements." Certain species of urts migrate twice a year. At such times, annually, it is usually necessary only to avoid them. People usually remain indoors when a pack is in their vicinity. There is little danger from these migrations unless one finds oneself in their direct path. The urt, on the whole, most species of which are quite small, large enough to be lifted in one hand, does not pose much direct threat to human beings. They can destroy Sa-Tarna fields and force their way into granaries. Similarly urts of the sort which live on garbage cast into the canals will often, unhesitantly, attack swimmers. Certain forms of large, domesticated urt, incidentally, should be excepted from these remarks. They are especially bred for attacking and killing. Such animals, however, are inferior to sleen for such purposes. They also lack the tracking capabilities of the sleen. Similarly they lack its intelligence. There was at least one good additional reason, incidentally, for supposing that whatever might be perplexing the brigands was not urts. The urts do not make their kills neatly and silently. They normally attack in a pack. It is usually a messy business. There is usually much blood and screaming. The Pani, I was sure, would be loyal to their lord, their daimyo, Lord Nishida, for that seemed to be their way, and a cornered mercenary, one with no hope of a higher fee or escape, much like the cornered seventy-pound canal urt of Port Kar, is a most desperate and dangerous foe. To my left there was a sudden stir, and splash, in the water, and I spun about on the walkway in time to see a large urt submerge, it ears back, its wet, glistening fur slipping beneath the water. I then moved, uneasily, more toward the center of the walkway. I had been to the left, as Goreans keep to the left side of paths, walkways, roads, stairs, and such. In this way, as most Goreans, as most humans, are right-handed, one's weapon hand faces oncoming traffic. The canal urts, some of which are quite large, are scavengers, and live, for the most part, off garbage in the canals. That is, in effect, their function. They clean the canals. On the other hand, many urts, particularly the larger ones, are aggressive and will attack anything in the water. It is not wise to swim in the canals. Indeed, as the sea gates must be frequently opened and closed, to facilitate ships moving to and from the Arsenal, and inner harbors, to the Tamber, an occasional shark finds its way into the city. The number of urts in the canals are reduced by licensed urt hunters. The usual arrangement is a hunter, in a small boat, accompanied by a slave girl. The hunter is armed with an urt spear, which is essentially a light harpoon with its attached rope, the coils of which are layered in a wooden bucket near the bow of the craft. The slave girl has a rope tied about her waist. This rope is several yards long and is fastened to a stout ring in the boat. The urt then is essentially fished for. The girl, serving as bait, swims near the boat. The hunter, in the bow, his spear ready, watches for urts. When an urt is sighted, the girl moves closer to the boat. Should the urt turn in the water and orient itself toward the bait, the hunter rises to his feet, the spear ready. Much may then happen very quickly, as the urt, in the water, over short distances, can move with great swiftness. Ideally it approaches, low in the water, like a furred streak, little but eyes and snout visible. More dangerously it approaches more slowly, but wholly submerged, either rising in the water below the prey or from the side. In any event, as the urt rushes to make its strike, to seize its prey, the hunter launches his harpoon. The slave girls of urt hunters are often called urt girls. For such slaves that designation is not derogatory, but merely descriptive. It may, however, when applied to other women, be used as an epithet, as though it were comparing the girl, or woman, to an urt. The slavery of the urt girl is not regarded as a desirable slavery. As the girl is attached to the boat by the rope, she is seldom in great danger. She may even be dragged to the boat, the urt still clinging to her body. The urt, in such a case, is an exposed, easy target. Even an ax might strike it. Urt girls are often recognized by means of the scarring on legs and arms. In some cities, free women found guilty of criminal offenses are remanded to Port Kar, with the understanding that they will be branded and collared, and used as urt girls. They cast garbage into the water and spear the tharlarion when it rises to the surface to seize the garbage." "I see," I said. Something very much like that was done in Port Kar, as well, only a tethered, swimming slave is used to attract the canal urts.
Some Silver Masks were discovered even in the sewers beneath the city and these were driven by giant, leashed urts through the long tubes until they crowded the wire capture nets set at the openings of the sewers. "It could be urts," said a man. "it is near the time of the year for their movements." Certain species of urts migrate twice a year. At such times, annually, it is usually necessary only to avoid them. People usually remain indoors when a pack is in their vicinity. There is little danger from these migrations unless one finds oneself in their direct path. The urt, on the whole, most species of which are quite small, large enough to be lifted in one hand, does not pose much direct threat to human beings. They can destroy Sa-Tarna fields and force their way into granaries. Similarly urts of the sort which live on garbage cast into the canals will often, unhesitantly, attack swimmers. Certain forms of large, domesticated urt, incidentally, should be excepted from these remarks. They are especially bred for attacking and killing. Such animals, however, are inferior to sleen for such purposes. They also lack the tracking capabilities of the sleen. Similarly they lack its intelligence. There was at least one good additional reason, incidentally, for supposing that whatever might be perplexing the brigands was not urts. The urts do not make their kills neatly and silently. They normally attack in a pack. It is usually a messy business. There is usually much blood and screaming.
The girls were as quiet as tiny, silken field urts in the presence of forest panthers, being conducted in their cage between the ranks of the soldiers. As with nets, with snares there is a great variety of types and uses. Some are fine enough to set for field urts and others stout enough for tharlarion. "Titanic forces could be locked in battle," said Desmond of Harfax, "forces compared to which men are small, weak, and fragile things, little more than field urts scampering about in the grass, amidst the tread of trampling tharlarion."
She had, thrust in her belt, the binding fiber she had used for snares. We always took it with us, of course, when we moved. Over her shoulder she had two small, furred animals, hideous forest urts, about the size of cats, and in her left hand she carried four small, green-and-yellow-plumaged birds. In the forests, this afternoon, Thurnock and Rim, who were familiar with such matters, the first as a peasant, and the second as an outlaw of the forests, had set snares. Their catch, returned to the Tesephone, in a cage, covered with canvas, carried on the back of Thurnock, had been six, rather large forest urts, about the size of tiny dogs. My master looked upward, at the moons. From through the trees, on the other side of the camp, came what I took to be the sound of a bird, the hook-billed, night-crying fleer, which preys on nocturnal forest urts. Similarly I did not fear forest urts or tarsk, though the boar can be dangerous. I heard a small bird cry and tensed as I heard a scurrying in the leaves, marking the passage of a startled forest urt. I heard the nibbling of forest urts near the body. Swarms of such small creatures, sometimes in their hundreds, can clean the flesh from a tharlarion in a matter of Ahn.
In the lower branches of the "ground zone" may be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to man.
Some twenty feet below the level of the door, in the absolute darkness, with brutal impact, I struck bottom, a stone floor covered with wet straw. Ost's body struck mine almost at the same time. I fought for breath. My vision seemed ringed with gold and purple specks. I was dimly conscious of being seized by the mouth of some large animal and being tugged through a round tunnellike opening. I tried to struggle, but it was useless. My breath had been driven from me, the tunnel allowed me no room to move. I smelled the wet fur of the animal, a rodent of some kind, the smells of its den, the soiled straw. I was aware, far off, of Ost's hysterical screams. For some time the animal, moving backwards, its prey seized in its jaws, scrambled through the tunnel. It dragged me in a series of quick, vicious jerks through the tunnel, scraping me on its stone walls, lacerating me, ripping my tunic. At last it dragged me into a round, globelike space, lit by two torches in iron racks, which were set into the fitted stone walls. I heard a voice of command, loud, harsh. The animal squealed in displeasure. I heard the crack of a whip and the same command, more forcibly uttered. Reluctantly the animal released its grip and backed away, crouching down, watching me with its long, oblique blazing eyes, like slits of molten gold in the torchlight. It was a giant urt, fat, sleek and white; it bared its three rows of needlelike white teeth at me and squealed in anger; two horns, tusks like flat crescents curved from its jaw; another two horns, similar to the first, modifications of the bony tissue forming the upper ridge of the eye socket, protruded over those gleaming eyes that seemed to feast themselves upon me, as if waiting the permission of the keeper to hurl itself on its feeding trough. Its fat body trembled with anticipation. The whip cracked again, and another command was uttered, and the animal, its long hairless tail lashing in frustration, slunk into another tunnel. An iron gate, consisting of bars, fell behind it. Some Silver Masks were discovered even in the sewers beneath the city and these were driven by giant, leashed urts through the long tubes until they crowded the wire capture nets set at the openings of the sewers. Somewhere I heard the squealing and thrashing of two of the giant urts fighting in the water, among the floating garbage. The giant urts, silken and blazing-eyed, living mostly on the garbage in the canals, are not stranger to bodies, both living and dead, found cast into their waters.
In the second level, that of the canopies, is found an incredible variety of birds, warblers, finches, mindars, the crested lit and the common lit, the fruit tindel, the yellow gim, tanagers, some varieties of parrot, and many more. Here, too, may be found snakes and monkeys, gliding urts, leaf urts, squirrels, climbing, long-tailed porcupines, lizards, sloths, and the usual varieties of insects, ants, centipedes, scorpions, beetles and flies, and so on. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 311
Who distinguishes one gray urt from another gray urt, and few would pay much attention to the difference between a gray urt and a red urt. They are all urts. Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 488
On the floor itself are also found several varieties of animal life, in particular marsupials, such as the armored gatch, and rodents, such as slees and ground urts. Several varieties of tarsk, large and small, also inhabit this zone. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 312
His eyes, like those of an urt, one of the small horned rodents of Gor, were set obliquely in his skull. Outlaw of Gor Book 2 Page 60 The urt is a loathsome, horned Gorean rodent; some are quite large, the size of wolves or ponies, but most are very small, tiny enough to be held in the palm of one hand. I found the tiny galley. In one corner, hunched over, nibbling, I saw an animal, about the size of a small dog. It lifted its snout and hissed at me, the hair about its neck and on its back suddenly bristling out with a crackle. I screamed. It seemed twice the size it had been. It crouched over a metallic container, round, not unlike a covered plate, that had been sprung open. The animal was silken. Its eyes blazed. It was mottled, and tawny. It opened its mouth and hissed again. I saw it had three rows of needlelike teeth. It had only four legs, unlike the small animal I had seen earlier. Two hornlike tusks protruded from its jaw. Another two hornlike projections emerged from its head, just over its black, gleaming, wicked eyes. I was wild with hunger. I opened a cabinet. It was empty, save for some cups. I screamed and began to throw the cups, which were metal, at the animal, hysterically. It snarled and, the cups banging behind it on the metal of the wall, darted past me. Its silken body struck my leg as it ran from the galley. It had a long, whipping, hairless tail. I shut the door of the galley, crying.
Inside the stockade, given the feast of the village, the column would widen, spreading to cover in its crowded millions every square inch of earth, scouring each stick, each piece of straw, hunting for each drop of grease, for each flake of flesh, even if it be no more than what might adhere to the shed hair of a hut urt.
This afternoon, late, when we had come inland, almost in the dusk, she had become entangled in the web of a rock spider, a large one. They are called rock spiders because of their habit of holding their legs folded beneath them. This habit, and their size and coloration, usually brown and black, suggests a rock, and hence the name. It is a very nice piece of natural camouflage. A thin line runs from the web to the spider. When something strikes the web the tremor is transmitted by means of this line to the spider. Interestingly the movement of the web in the air, as it is stirred by wind, does not activate the spider; similarly if the prey which strikes the web is too small, and thus not worth showing itself for, or too large, and thus beyond its prey range, and perhaps dangerous, it does not reveal itself. On the other hand, should a bird, such as a mindar or parrot, or a small animal, such as a leaf urt or tiny tarsk, become entangled in the net the spider swiftly emerges. It is fully capable of taking such prey. When the blond-haired barbarian stumbled into the web, screaming, trying to tear it away from her face and hair, the spider did not even reveal itself. I pulled her away from the net and slapped her to silence. Curious, as she, sobbing, cleaned herself with leaves and saliva, I located the gentle, swaying strand which marked the location of the spider. It, immobile on the ground, was about a foot in diameter. It did not move until I nudged it with a stick, and it then backed rapidly way.
I could tell my ankle was bleeding, from the feeling of the wound and the wetness about my shin and on the wood. I tried with my right foot to press against the wound, to stanch the flow of blood. I saw the blazing, coppery eyes of the long-haired ship urt on the other side of the mesh. I had let the shin of my left foot rest against the mesh. "Let me out!" I screamed. "Let me out!" Sometimes an urt manages to force its way through the mesh, or between one of the vertical cage lids, one at each end of the cage, and the cage. The girl then, chained as she is, is at its mercy.
I found the tiny galley. In one corner, hunched over, nibbling, I saw an animal, about the size of a small dog. It lifted its snout and hissed at me, the hair about its neck and on its back suddenly bristling out with a crackle. I screamed. It seemed twice the size it had been. It crouched over a metallic container, round, not unlike a covered plate, that had been sprung open. The animal was silken. Its eyes blazed. It was mottled, and tawny. It opened its mouth and hissed again. I saw it had three rows of needlelike teeth. It had only four legs, unlike the small animal I had seen earlier. Two hornlike tusks protruded from its jaw. Another two hornlike projections emerged from its head, just over its black, gleaming, wicked eyes. I was wild with hunger. I opened a cabinet. It was empty, save for some cups. I screamed and began to throw the cups, which were metal, at the animal, hysterically. It snarled and, the cups banging behind it on the metal of the wall, darted past me. Its silken body struck my leg as it ran from the galley. It had a long, whipping, hairless tail. I shut the door of the galley, crying. I saw a frightened mountain urt scurry past. Higher in the mountains the urts have a mottled pelt or one which is white.
I saw a frightened mountain urt scurry past. Higher in the mountains the urts have a mottled pelt or one which is white.
Quarrels like a rain of metal struck the shaken screens. Had it not been for the screens I fear the deck would have been raked with death. The planks bristled like the back of the poison-spined urt.
The urt shields were still fastened to the mooring ropes, circular plates, preventing small port urts from boarding the ship. The urts which had been placed in the lower hold, before making landfall in Lydius, those which had figured in my interrogation of the panther girls, Tana and Ela, had been removed the following morning. Thurnock and Rim, with snares and nets, and by the light of tharlarion oil lamps, had captured them. Hunters of Gor Book 8 Page 64
Already the bosk were growing uneasy at the smell of death and already the grass about the camp was rustling with the movements of the tiny brown prairie urts, scavengers, come to feed. Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 266
Who distinguishes one gray urt from another gray urt, and few would pay much attention to the difference between a gray urt and a red urt. They are all urts. Rebels of Gor Book 33 Page 488
That scent, I knew, a distillation of a hundred flowers, nurtured like a priceless wine, was a secret guarded by the perfumers of Ar. It contained as well the separated oil of the Thentis needle tree; an extract from the glands of the Cartius river urt; and a preparation formed from a disease calculus scraped from the intestines of the rare Hunjer Long Whale, the result of the inadequate digestion of cuttlefish. Fortunately, too, this calculus is sometimes found free in the sea, expelled with feces. It took more than a year to distill, age, blend and bond the ingredients.
I could tell my ankle was bleeding, from the feeling of the wound and the wetness about my shin and on the wood. I tried with my right foot to press against the wound, to stanch the flow of blood. I saw the blazing, coppery eyes of the long-haired ship urt on the other side of the mesh. I had let the shin of my left foot rest against the mesh. "Let me out!" I screamed. "Let me out!" Sometimes an urt manages to force its way through the mesh, or between one of the vertical cage lids, one at each end of the cage, and the cage. The girl then, chained as she is, is at its mercy. There were eight slave platforms in the hold, each with six tiers. These platforms were separated by narrow aisles; also they did not adjoin the sides of the hold, thus allowing a passage between them and the wall of the hold on both the left and right side of the ship. On each tier of each platform there were five girls. There were, thus, two hundred and forty girls in the hold. A cunning mesh and cage arrangement is incorporated into the platforms. The slatted wood of the tiers, on which the girls lay, permits cage mesh to pass unimpeded from the roof of the sixth tier to the bottom of the first tier. The mesh is cleated to the wood of each tier. Each girl, in effect, has her own meshed cage, separate from that of the others. Thus, if an urt manages to enter one area he has at his mercy only one captive, not five. The top of the sixth tier and the bottom slats of the I first tier are sheathed in tin, to prevent being gnawed by urts. Mesh, too, heavy and sturdy, closes off the ends of the slave cubicles formed. In the mesh at the ends of the cubicle formed, both the end at the girl's feet and that at her head, there is a tiny gate. The girl may be placed in the cage, or removed from it, from either end. She normally inches her way into the cubicle from the top end and one slaver, from the bottom, secures her ankles in their irons, then shutting that gate, and another secures her wrists in their irons, then shutting that gate. Each girl thus has to herself a small, rectangular cage area, surrounded on four sides by mesh, on the bottom by the slatted wood of the tier, and on the top by the wood of the tier above her, unless she is on the sixth tier, and then she has above her, of course, the ceiling of her cubicle, the bottom of the platform roof. She is chained in such a way as to preclude movement which might tear at the mesh or break it, thus making possible the entry of urts, which might eat at her, lowering her price, and to preclude her tearing hysterically with her hands and fingernails at her own body, bloodying herself, perhaps scaring herself, again lowering her price, in her attempt to obtain relief from the bites and itching consequent upon the infestation and depredation of the numerous, almost constantly active ship lice. The first tier is raised from the floor of the hold by some eighteen inches, providing a crawl space. The open spaces between the tin-sheathed, wood slats on the first tier are covered, from the bottom, by cleated mesh, which prevents urts from entering from the bottom. The crawl space between the floor of the hold and the first tier is cleaned once a day. Each girl, all in all, has a space private to her slavery of some twenty-five inches in width, by some eighteen inches in height, by some six feet five inches in length. In this space she is chained helplessly. Of the six tiers in my platform, I was on the fourth. I heard the man loosen the small gate behind my head. I did not know why he did this. "Master?" I asked. He let the gate then swing down on its hinges, and lie against its bolts. He did not snap it shut. "Master?" I asked, frightened. He turned away. I heard him on the ramp. "Master!" I screamed, terrified. "I will be silent! I will be silent!" I turned my head wildly, trying to look back. "Please, Master!" I begged. "Please! I will be silent, Master!" The sharp, furred, cold snout of an urt could now, as the gate lay against its bolts, thrust between the gate and the side of the cage. The animal might now swiftly, furtively, slither into the cage which I, helplessly chained, must then share with it. "Master!" I screamed. I was terrified of urts. "Master, please," I screamed. "I will be silent! I will be silent!" I heard him pause on the ramp. He turned and returned to my cage. "I will be silent, Master," I whispered, terrified. "I will be silent, Master," I whispered. "Please, Master." He snapped shut the tiny gate, and left. In a few moments the hatch closed and we were again in total darkness. The ship shifted in the water, and I could hear the waves against the hull. In a few minutes, the man gone, I heard the urt, it or another, moving about on the wood between the meshes. I gritted my teeth so that I would not cry out from the misery of the lice. I drew my feet and hands, in their chains, as near the center of my space as I could. I made no sound.
On the other hand, the forage and firewood we had gathered suggested that we might be venturing further, and higher, more steeply, into the Voltai. As one goes higher into the mountains vegetation grows thinner. After a time, one is likely to encounter little but wild verr, and tiny snow urts, amongst the crags. Conspirators of Gor Book 31 Page 386 The mountains are beautiful, but forbidding. They contain larls and sleen, and, in the lower ranges, wild tarsk, as well. As noted, at the higher altitudes, there is little to be found but wild verr and tiny snow urts.
I think a mountain has little to fear from a pebble, a draft tharlarion from a stable urt." Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 103
I now went to it, and, for the first time, regarded it with care. Amongst the animals portrayed on the poster, snow larls, large striped urts, snarling sleen, performing tharlarion, prancing kaiila, there was another, where the poster was half torn. It was a beast, much like Master Grendel. It was clearly Kur.
I found the tiny galley. In one corner, hunched over, nibbling, I saw an animal, about the size of a small dog. It lifted its snout and hissed at me, the hair about its neck and on its back suddenly bristling out with a crackle. I screamed. It seemed twice the size it had been. It crouched over a metallic container, round, not unlike a covered plate, that had been sprung open. The animal was silken. Its eyes blazed. It was mottled, and tawny. It opened its mouth and hissed again. I saw it had three rows of needlelike teeth. It had only four legs, unlike the small animal I had seen earlier. Two hornlike tusks protruded from its jaw. Another two hornlike projections emerged from its head, just over its black, gleaming, wicked eyes. I was wild with hunger. I opened a cabinet. It was empty, save for some cups. I screamed and began to throw the cups, which were metal, at the animal, hysterically. It snarled and, the cups banging behind it on the metal of the wall, darted past me. Its silken body struck my leg as it ran from the galley. It had a long, whipping, hairless tail. I shut the door of the galley, crying.
The tiny urt, a common rodent of Gorean cities, was bringing a silver tarn disk in the markets. Tarnsman of Gor Book 1 Page 187 Already the bosk were growing uneasy at the smell of death and already the grass about the camp was rustling with the movements of the tiny brown prairie urts, scavengers, come to feed. Nomads of Gor Book 4 Page 266 I heard a tiny scurrying, of a tiny brush urt, in the darkness. Captive of Gor Book 7 Page 289 "It could be urts," said a man. "it is near the time of the year for their movements." Certain species of urts migrate twice a year. At such times, annually, it is usually necessary only to avoid them. People usually remain indoors when a pack is in their vicinity. There is little danger from these migrations unless one finds oneself in their direct path. The urt, on the whole, most species of which are quite small, large enough to be lifted in one hand, does not pose much direct threat to human beings. They can destroy Sa-Tarna fields and force their way into granaries. Similarly urts of the sort which live on garbage cast into the canals will often, unhesitantly, attack swimmers. Certain forms of large, domesticated urt, incidentally, should be excepted from these remarks. They are especially bred for attacking and killing. Such animals, however, are inferior to sleen for such purposes. They also lack the tracking capabilities of the sleen. Similarly they lack its intelligence. There was at least one good additional reason, incidentally, for supposing that whatever might be perplexing the brigands was not urts. The urts do not make their kills neatly and silently. They normally attack in a pack. It is usually a messy business. There is usually much blood and screaming. Suddenly, from down the passageway, we saw, blazing in the reflected light of a lamp, two eyes. "Sleen!" cried a man, alarmed. We screamed, and tried to draw back, but were held in place. "No," said the pit master. "It is an urt." It was crouched down, before us. It was large, but not large for those I had seen in the pits. It probably weighed no more than twenty or thirty pounds. Most species of urts are small, weighing less than a pound. Some are tinier than mice. "Will the urt charge?" asked the lieutenant. "I do not know," said the pit master. "I would not approach it too closely." "Is it dangerous?" "Quite." "Kill it," said the lieutenant. "Perhaps your colleague, Gito, can turn it," suggested the pit master. "No, no!" said Gito. But the urt did turn then, of its own accord, and scampered back down the passageway. The other, which had been behind it, hesitated for a moment, and then followed it. I stifled a scream as something, small and furtive, scurried by, claws scratching on the stones. "Do not be concerned," said Florian. "It is a tiny urt. You have little to fear from such quick, ugly, little things unless you are bound helplessly and left for their attentions."
Monkeys and tree urts, and snakes and insects, however, can also be found in this highest level. Explorers of Gor Book 13 Page 311
I came forward, again, and looked. In the water, swirling about, were several dark, sleek shapes. I had never seen anything like them. They seemed like some form of rodent, but they were far too large. They were not like the six-legged creatures. I had seen before, that on the ledge, that on the surface of the tower. "Urts," said the female slave with the torch. I saw some of these things now, their fur wet, their ears back against the sides of their heads, leaping upward, trying to reach the cage. Then the cage stopped descending. The free woman tried to draw herself higher into the cage. I could see in the torchlight, a moment before it broke the surface, one of the beasts, swimming rapidly upward from it, erupting from it, and I saw its full body, shedding water, its neck extended, its jaws open, its forepaws down against its body, streamlining its shape, its hind legs extended, it leaping upward, then yards above the surface of the torn, dark pool, and then it seemed to pause in the air, and then, snarling, just short of the cage, it dropped back into the pool. Water splashed up. It drenched the cage, the feet of the free woman. I felt it even on my body, where I stood. Other beasts, too, now essayed the leap. They, gathering force, swimming swiftly in ever widening, preparatory circles just under the water, would plunge down, yards from the cage, and then ascend rapidly, spearing upward, snapping, from the water. Then, in rage, in frustration, they would drop back in the water. Closer and closer they came. The brunette slave held the torch back that its flame might not be extinguished by the drenching water. One of the beasts caught a bottom circling bar of iron in its teeth. It swung for a moment from the cage. Its forepaws fought for purchase at the cage, but the claws scratched futilely on the dangling solid gate, forcing it back on its hinges. The free woman screamed. It snapped at the free woman, in this action losing its hold on the cage. Again she screamed, the thing just below her. Then, snarling and squealing, it fell back into the water. Its jaws had been no more than inches from the feet of the free woman. Another beast leaped upward, falling just short of her, its snout actually within the opened cage. Some beasts did not leap upward but remained patiently, tensely quiescent in the wide circle in the water, a circle ranging about the cage. They lay there, almost flat in the water, mostly submerged. One could see their nostrils, their eyes, the top of their glistening heads, the ears back against the sides of the heads. Their bodies were oriented in such a way as to face the center of the circle. The free woman could climb no higher in the cage. She clung within it, sobbing and hysterical, like a small, wet, trembling, terrified bird. Up leapt another of the beasts and it caught a hem of her ragged robes in its teeth and tore a strip from them, which it bore with it back to the dark pool. That had occurred in my first day in the depths, when she was still the occupant of a dangling slave cage, suspended over a pool to which large aquatic rodents, one variety of urt, had access. Suddenly, from down the passageway, we saw, blazing in the reflected light of a lamp, two eyes. "Sleen!" cried a man, alarmed. We screamed, and tried to draw back, but were held in place. "No," said the pit master. "It is an urt." It was crouched down, before us. It was large, but not large for those I had seen in the pits. It probably weighed no more than twenty or thirty pounds. Most species of urts are small, weighing less than a pound. Some are tinier than mice. "Will the urt charge?" asked the lieutenant. "I do not know," said the pit master. "I would not approach it too closely." "Is it dangerous?" "Quite." "Kill it," said the lieutenant. "Perhaps your colleague, Gito, can turn it," suggested the pit master. "No, no!" said Gito. But the urt did turn then, of its own accord, and scampered back down the passageway. The other, which had been behind it, hesitated for a moment, and then followed it. The smell of blood was strong in the passageway. The passageway, too, was loud with the squealing of the beasts. From within, over the urt pool, we could still hear the screaming of the woman. "It is a dead urt!" said a man, suddenly. "We heard a cry," said another. "It was human." The fellow who had been pulling the urts aside now stood back. His hands and forearms were covered with blood, but much of it, I am sure, was from the fur and jaws of the urts. He had been bitten at least twice. His left sleeve was in shreds. The urts now dragged the body of the dead urt, now half eaten, its bones about, to the wall, where they continued their feeding. "He must have been attacked on the other side of the gate," said a man. One of the black-tunicked fellows went to the bars of the gate peering though, into the darkness. "Bring a lamp," he said. "How did the urt die?" asked a man. Urts seldom attack their own kind unless their fellow behaves in an erratic fashion, as it might if injured or ill. The prisoner had apparently lifted the panels to the urt nest, permitting them access to the walkway, the gate having been raised to permit them, or some at least, into the passageway, the gate then being lowered. It is terribly dangerous, of course, to trap an urt against a barrier, as it will then fight with terrible ferocity. To approach the gate would have trapped them in this fashion, thus making them his allies. But his plan, it seemed, had been even subtler than this. Urts on the other side of the barrier, the men approaching, the corridor dark, necessitating the bringing of light into it, he had apparently, probably with his own body, if not blood, lured urts back, close to the gate. He had then cried out, as though under attack, and, doubtless at the same time, during that seemingly agonized, hideous cry, fired into the urts at point-blank range, thereby killing or wounding one of them, and initiating the feeding frenzy. By the time it had been determined that the victim was another urt the men would have been within range. I was sure now that the one man who had clung, so closely, so stiffly, to the bars, had been struck, though them, with a thrust of the sword, to the heart. It was sure he had not come back with us. The prisoner would then have lifted the crossbow, the quarrel set, and fired again, though the bars, at the man with the lamp, the light illuminating the target. He had killed two men in this fashion and, had the urts behaved differently, might have accomplished the destruction of one r two others. The lieutenant had four men left. I did not look at the remains of the man who lay in the passage. The urts had been much at him. It was he who had requested first short earlier. He had been left where he was, that the urts would be less dangerous, from a heavy feeding. I heard a girl scream. An urt, on the walkway, at their approach, had scrambled over the railing, and dived into the pool. Fecha held her torch over the pool. We could see ripples in the water there. And I saw the wet, glistening head of an urt, just at the surface. The head was very smooth. They swim with their ears back, flat against the head. This was not the urt which had just entered the pool. That one had dived in far back and to our right. I heard urts in the pool below. Some, it seemed, had just entered it, from the tunnel leading to the nest. The noises about the walkway may have aroused their curiosity. Too, once they had come to the tunnel opening, which was beneath the surface of the pool, reached from the nest, on a higher level, on the other side, they may have seen the light from the lamps and torches on the water. Such things were probably associated in their minds with the possibility of food. There were several urts in the pool area. I knew, and, save for their fellow, and what they had had of the man by the gate, they had not eaten for two days. They would doubtless, most of them, be hungry. The guard had been dismissed. When one urt leaves the nest, others tend to follow. We waited, about the railing. The urts continued to feed. The remains of the bodies rolled about in the water, under the stress of the feeding. Sometimes they were tugged under, and then, again, in a moment, surfaced. They were pulled back and forth. In dealing with urts there are certain things to keep in mind. One does not intrude into their nest. One tries to avoid placing oneself between them. And one never denies them an avenue of escape. "He is alive, somewhere," said the lieutenant. "I am sure of it." "That seems improbably," said the officer of Treve. "The body of Tensius shows that he is alive," said the lieutenant. "If he had been killed by urts his body would have made that clear. It would have been a mass of bites, or the throat would have been gone. The condition of the body, on the other hand, shows that it was not attacked by urts until either it was dead of unable to defend itself. And he would not have drowned unless he had been held under the water, in which case the prisoner is alive. I am sure Tensius was stabbed, and the wound washed free of blood." "A water urt was found in the valley three days ago," said the officer of Treve, studying the board.
Some twenty feet below the level of the door, in the absolute darkness, with brutal impact, I struck bottom, a stone floor covered with wet straw. Ost's body struck mine almost at the same time. I fought for breath. My vision seemed ringed with gold and purple specks. I was dimly conscious of being seized by the mouth of some large animal and being tugged through a round tunnellike opening. I tried to struggle, but it was useless. My breath had been driven from me, the tunnel allowed me no room to move. I smelled the wet fur of the animal, a rodent of some kind, the smells of its den, the soiled straw. I was aware, far off, of Ost's hysterical screams. For some time the animal, moving backwards, its prey seized in its jaws, scrambled through the tunnel. It dragged me in a series of quick, vicious jerks through the tunnel, scraping me on its stone walls, lacerating me, ripping my tunic. At last it dragged me into a round, globelike space, lit by two torches in iron racks, which were set into the fitted stone walls. I heard a voice of command, loud, harsh. The animal squealed in displeasure. I heard the crack of a whip and the same command, more forcibly uttered. Reluctantly the animal released its grip and backed away, crouching down, watching me with its long, oblique blazing eyes, like slits of molten gold in the torchlight. It was a giant urt, fat, sleek and white; it bared its three rows of needlelike white teeth at me and squealed in anger; two horns, tusks like flat crescents curved from its jaw; another two horns, similar to the first, modifications of the bony tissue forming the upper ridge of the eye socket, protruded over those gleaming eyes that seemed to feast themselves upon me, as if waiting the permission of the keeper to hurl itself on its feeding trough. Its fat body trembled with anticipation. The whip cracked again, and another command was uttered, and the animal, its long hairless tail lashing in frustration, slunk into another tunnel. An iron gate, consisting of bars, fell behind it. Ost blubbered helplessly for mercy, his thin neck wiggling in the yoke. The guardsman laughed. "One sight of the white urt and he admitted all." I caught the scent of a large furred animal and the odor of tarn spoor. I emerged onto the roof, my eyes half shut against the intense light. There were three men on the roof, two guardsmen and the man with the wrist straps, who had served as the master of the dungeons of Tharna. He held, leashed, the large, sleek white urt which I had encountered in the pit inside the palace door. The two guardsmen were fixing a carrying basket to the harness of a large brown-plumaged tarn. The reins of the tarn were fixed to a ring in the front of the basket. Inside the basket was a woman whose carriage and figure I knew to be that of Dorna the Proud, though she now wore only a simple silver mask of Tharna. "Stop! I cried, rushing forward. "Kill!" cried the man in wrist straps, pointing the whip in my direction, and unleashing the urt, which charged viciously toward me. Its ratlike scamper was incomprehensibly swift and almost before I could set myself for its charge it had crossed the cylinder roof in two or three bounds and pounced to seize me in its bared fangs. My blade entered the roof of its mouth pushing its head up and away from my throat. The squeal must have carried to the walls of Tharna. Its neck twisted and the blade was wrenched from my grasp. My arms encircled its neck and my face was pressed into its glossy white fur. The blade was shaken from its mouth and clattered on the roof. I clung to the neck to avoid the snapping jaws, those three rows of sharp, frenzied white lacerating teeth that sought to bury themselves in my flesh. It rolled on the roof trying to tear me from its neck; it leaped and bounded, and twisted and shook itself. The man with wrist straps had picked up the sword and with this, and his whip, circled us, waiting for an opportunity to strike. I tried to turn the animal as well as I could to keep its scrambling body between myself and the man with wrist straps. Blood from the animal's mouth ran clown its fur and my arm. I could feel it splattered on the side of my face and in my hair. Then I turned so that it was my body that was exposed to the blow of the sword carried by the man in wrist straps. I heard his grunt of satisfaction as he rushed forward. An instant before I knew the blade must fall I released my grip on the animal's neck and slipped under its belly. It reached for me with a whiplike motion of its furred neck and I felt the long sharp white teeth rake my arm but at the same time I heard another squeal of pain and the grunt of horror from the man in wrist straps. I rolled from under the animal and turned to see it facing the man with wrist straps. One ear had been slashed away from its head and fur on its left side was soaked with spurting blood. It now had its eyes fixed on the man with the sword, he who had struck this new blow. I heard his terrified command, the feeble cracking of that whip held in an arm almost paralyzed with fear, his abrupt almost noiseless scream. The urt was over him, its haunches high, its shoulders almost level with the roof, gnawing. I looked over the low roof of the barge's cabin to the canal beyond. A hundred or so feet away there was the small boat of an urt hunter. His girl, the rope on her neck, crouched in the bow. This rope is about twenty feet long. One end of it is tied on her neck and the other end is fastened on the boat, to the bow ring. The hunter stood behind her with his pronged urt spear. These men serve an important function in Port Kar, which is to keep down the urt population in the canals. At a word from the man the girl, the rope trailing behind her, dove into the canal. Behind the man, in the stern, lay the bloody, white-furred bodies of two canal urts. One would have weighed about sixty pounds, and the other, I speculate, about seventy-five or eighty pounds. I saw the girl swimming in the canal, the rope on her neck, amidst the garbage. It is less expensive and more efficient to use a girl for this type of work than, say, a side of tarsk. The girl moves in the water which tends to attract the urts and, if no mishap occurs, may be used again and again. Some hunters use a live verr but this is less effective as the animal, squealing, and terrified, is difficult to drive from the side of the boat. The slave girl, on the other hand, can be reasoned with. She knows that if she is not cooperative she will be simply bound hand and foot and thrown alive to the urts. This modality of hunting, incidentally, is not as dangerous to the girl as it might sound, for very few urts make their strike from beneath the surface. The urt, being an air-breathing mammal, commonly makes its strike at the surface itself, approaching the quarry with its snout and eyes above the water, its ears laid back against the sides of its long, triangular head. To be sure, sometimes the urt surfaces near the girl and approaches her with great rapidity. Thus, in such a situation, she may not have time to return to the boat. In such a case, of course, the girl must depend for her life on the steady hand and keen eye, the swiftness, the strength and timing, the skill, of the urt hunter, her master. Sometimes, incidentally, a master will rent his girl to an urt hunter, this being regarded as useful in her discipline. There are very few girls who, after a day or two in the canals, and then being returned to their masters, do not strive to be completely pleasing. I saw a frightened mountain urt scurry past. Higher in the mountains the urts have a mottled pelt or one which is white.
The most interesting precaution, at least to me, was the provision of nesting sites on the almost vertical slopes for the Uru, which is a small, winged, vartlike mammal. This mammal, which usually preys on insects and small urts, like several species of birds, is communally territorial. When disturbed, it shrieks its warning and it is soon joined by a clamoring swarm of its fellows. In this way, a natural alarm system is obtained. Moreover, if a nesting site is closely approached, the Uru is likely to attack the intruder. It is a small mammal, but, shrieking and flying at the face of a climber, one precariously clinging to an almost vertical surface, it is, I am told, at least in such a situation, something most unpleasant to encounter. Mariners of Gor Book 30 Page 384
Perhaps most I dreaded those nights filled with the shrieks of the vart pack, a blind, batlike swarm of flying rodents, each the size of a small dog. They could strip a carcass in a matter of minutes, each carrying back some fluttering ribbon of flesh to the recesses of whatever dark cave the swarm had chosen for its home. Moreover, some vart packs were rabid. There were several other creatures in the cases but I am not sure of their classification. I could, however, recognize a row of brown varts, clinging upside down like large matted fists of teeth and fur and leather on the heavy, bare, scarred branch in their case. I saw bones, perhaps human bones, in the bottom of their case. The important point, however, in the circumstances was that Kamras had proposed the sword as the weapon of his encounter with Kamchak, and poor Kamchak was almost certain to be as unfamiliar with the sword as you or I would be with any of the more unusual weapons of Gor, say, the whip knife of Port Kar or the trained varts of the caves of Tyros. Port Kar, crowded, squalid, malignant, is sometimes referred to as the Tarn of the Sea. Her name is a synonym in Gorean for cruelty and piracy. The fleets of tarn ships of Port Kar are the scourge of Thassa, beautiful, lateen-rigged galleys that ply the trade of plunder and enslavement from the Ta-Thassa Mountains of the southern hemisphere of Gor to the ice lakes of the North; and westward even beyond the terraced island of Cos and the rocky Tyros, with its labyrinths of vart caves. I had wanted to see both Tyros and Cos. "Another loot-girl taken by our noble Captain, Bejar, in his brilliant capture of the Blossoms of Telnus," called the auctioneer. He was also the slaver, Vart, once Publius Quintus of Ar, banished from that city, and nearly impaled, for falsifying slave data. He had advertised a girl as a trained pleasure slave who, as it turned out, did not even know the eleven kisses. The Vart is a small, sharp-toothed winged mammal, carnivorous, which commonly flies in flocks. In the lower branches of the "ground zone" may be found, also, small animals, such as tarsiers, nocturnal jit monkeys, black squirrels, four-toed leaf urts, jungle varts and the prowling, solitary giani, tiny, cat-sized panthers, not dangerous to man. They were no more concerned with their own survival than might have been a cloud of varts descending on an isolated tabuk or verr. The most interesting precaution, at least to me, was the provision of nesting sites on the almost vertical slopes for the Uru, which is a small, winged, vartlike mammal. This mammal, which usually preys on insects and small urts, like several species of birds, is communally territorial. When disturbed, it shrieks its warning and it is soon joined by a clamoring swarm of its fellows. In this way, a natural alarm system is obtained. Moreover, if a nesting site is closely approached, the Uru is likely to attack the intruder. It is a small mammal, but, shrieking and flying at the face of a climber, one precariously clinging to an almost vertical surface, it is, I am told, at least in such a situation, something most unpleasant to encounter. The tiniest sound, the scuttling of an urt, the fluttering of a vart, come over the walls from the countryside, almost made me scream with fear. "Such as he," said Kurik, "like the vart, is a creature of the night."
A flock of verr, herded by a maid with a stick, turned, bleating on the sloping hillside. Marauders of Gor Book 9 Page 81 "You," he said, "gather verr dung in your kirtle and carry it to the sul patch!" The beast had been taken southeast of Ar, while moving southeast. Such a path would take it below the eastern foothills of the Voltai and to the south. It was incredible. "Who would enter such a place?" asked Samos. "Caravans, crossing it," I said. "Nomads, grazing their verr on the stubble of verr grass." "Water! Water!" called the man. "Water," I said. I looked at the man to whom I had spoken earlier. "Does he live near here?" I asked. "No," said the man, "he lives by the east gate, near the shearing pens for verr." Standing afoot, in the dust, with his lance, the nomad watched us turn away. Behind him was a herd of eleven verr, browsing on brownish snatches of verr grass. He would have defended the small animals with his life. Their milk and wool was his livelihood, and that of his family. Verr are to be milked, the eggs of vulos gathered, and the sleen must be watered and fed, and their cages cleaned. The girl moves in the water which tends to attract the urts and, if no mishap occurs, may be used again and again. Some hunters use a live verr but this is less effective as the animal, squealing, and terrified, is difficult to drive from the side of the boat. The wagons often move. There must be new grazing for the bosk. There must be fresh rooting and browse for the tarsk and verr. The needs of these animals, on which the Alars depend for their existence, are taken to justify movements, and sometimes even migrations, of the Alars and kindred peoples. I then tied their hands behind their backs. Ropes were found in the wagon and we tied them by the necks to the back of the wagon. Verr, too, and female slaves, and such, are often tethered to the back of wagons. "There it is," I said. Before us we could see some fellows on foot, some arriving, and some departing. Two wagons were approaching. A man passed us carrying a cage of vulos. Toward the perimeter a man and a boy were herding a small flock of verr into the camp. "The challenger is a cripple," called the judge to the stands. "Withdraw your match!" "It is not withdrawn," called the voice back. This announcement was met with some derisive commentary. Too, there was some hissing, and some sounds reminiscent of the bleating of verr and the grunting of tarsks. No, they were tiny, clanking bells, of the sort that might be fastened on a rooting tarsk or a grazing verr, that their location might be more easily noted by local tenders. "Perhaps," said Archelaos, "it is safer to deal with a hundred vulos than one tarsk boar, with ten verr than one sleen. "I beg you, Master," she said, "dissuade your party. Do not seek Bosk of Port Kar. Instead, if you wish, send gentle verr to seek the fanged, voracious larl." "Master persists in his madness," she said. "Forgo your dream of revenge. The verr is no match for the larl." "One is held each year," he said, "and they alternate amongst the major islands, and amongst the larger towns on the islands. Last year it was on Thera, at Sybaris, the year before on Daphna, at Pylos. You will enjoy the fair. There are many festivities and exhibitions, dozens of markets and sales. You can see prize verr and tarsks. There are always acrobats, fire eaters, jugglers, and rope dancers. Merchants, with their goods, come from as faraway as Cos and Tyros, even from Brundisium on the continent." "I expect that you will enjoy the fair," said Sakim, "and that your men will enjoy it, as well, even if they are not interested in prize verr and tarsks. One can always peruse slaves in the markets, and there is no dearth of brothel and tavern tents." "One does not discuss such things with a tarsk, a verr, a slave." "A child, herding verr," said Xanthos, "noted the approach of the bandits, in their long lines, and alerted the village. "It would be dishonorable to lure us forth, trusting and unarmed," he said, "and then fall upon us, butchering us like defenseless verr." "Remember," said Clitus, "it is not a kaiila, a verr, a bounding hurt, even a vulo. It is a living island, gigantic and sluggish." The irate, half-starved citizens of Mytilene fell upon them, slaughtering them like penned verr. "The wall holds," I said. "It is like shooting penned verr," he said. "It is better to die as a well-fed larl than a starving verr," I said. "Still," insisted Thurnock. "If you wish," I said, "it is irrational to risk the loss of property, particularly when it might have some monetary value, however negligible." "True," said Thurnock, "why risk the loss of even a vulo, a verr, or tarsk?" At the same time our men, bearing swords, axes, knives, and even clubs, rushed out from behind the screens, sure footed from the bits of nails fastened in their sandals and boots, and fell, like butchers on verr, on the numerous discomforted and often helpless foes, most unable to regain or maintain their footing. Do you think mighty Marlenus will welcome you? Does the verr challenge the larl?
I passed fields that were burning, and burning huts of peasants, the smoking shells of Sa-Tarna granaries, the shattered, slatted coops for vulos, the broken walls of keeps for the small, long-haired domestic verr, less belligerent and sizable than the wild verr of the Voltai Ranges. The verr, the domestic verr, is a placid, contented, gregarious, grazing beast, raised for meat. Flocks of verr might figure in bucolic pageants or dramas dealing with the romances of shepherds and shepherdesses. What other contribution to an entertainment might be expected of verr? What else could be their role? Too, these were familiar verr, not the related beast, the larger, belligerent, territorial mountain verr I had heard of, horned and agile, which are dangerous to approach, particularly on precipitous slopes. To observe a flock of verr might be soothing, but I saw little in it that would be likely to be denominated amusing or enjoyable, a spectacle, or such.
the agile and bellicose Gorean mountain goat, the long-haired, spiral-horned verr, Tarnsman of Gor Book 1 Page 147 The verr was a mountain goat indigenous to the Voltai. It was a wild, agile, ill-tempered beast, long-haired and spiral-horned. Among the Voltai crags it would be worth one's life to come within twenty yards of one.
"It is dangerous here," he said. "There may be animals." "That is possible," I said, "but I do not think there is much to fear in the reserve. The oddity of the ditch discourages the entrance of animals, and, as there is little grazing here, there would be few herbivores, and there being few herbivores, there will be few carnivores. Too, the human is unfamiliar prey to most carnivores, the panther, the sleen, the larl, and such. They will certainly attack humans, and humans are surely within their prey range, but, given a choice, they will usually choose prey to which they are accustomed, wild tarsk, wild verr, tabuk, and such." The mountains are beautiful, but forbidding. They contain larls and sleen, and, in the lower ranges, wild tarsk, as well. As noted, at the higher altitudes, there is little to be found but wild verr and tiny snow urts. |       | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
