The Dragons of Heorot - Larry Niven, ebook
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Campfire'Once upon a long, long time ago, our parents and grand-parents left a place called Earth. They travelled across thestars in a ship called Geographic to find paradise. Buttheir paradise turned into a living hell.. .'The campfire jetted white flame as it reached a gumpocket in the horsemane log. The flame held for almost aminute, then died back to glowing coals. A cast-iron skilletbalanced on firestones sizzled in the embers. A sudden gustmomentarily sent sparks toward the misty night sky andthe stars frozen overhead.A dozen wide-eyed youngsters were packed shoulder-tight on makeshift seats of logs and stones, huddledexpectantly in the dying firelight. They had waited alltheir lives for this night.Justin Faulkner's voice growled, caressed, leapt, burnedhotter than the ebbing flames. 'From the stars they came,'he stage-whispered, 'seeking to build homes where nohuman had ever walked. Avalon was a land untamed,stretching beneath a sky strange to human eyes. A para-dise for the taking. These men and women were the best,the smartest and the bravest Earth could offer, two hun-dred chosen from eight billion people. Our parents. Theyare the Earth Born. But they didn't know the truth abouttheir new world, a truth that you -' his long, sensitivefingers, sculptor's fingers, bunched and stabbed as if eachand every child was guilty of unspeakable crimes - 'youStar Born, have never been told . . . until now. Until thisweek. Until tonight.'Justin's voice carried the authority and infinite wisdomof all his nineteen years. None of the children was olderthan thirteen. Now they were youngsters, Grendel Biters.Tonight would be their first step toward becomingGrendel Scouts. At dawn they had left the human settle-ment called Camelot and hiked across the plain, alongthe Miskatonic River, then up Mucking Great Mountainalong the minor tributary called the Amazon. Lunch anddinner had been little more than stream water.Their curious and eager shining eyes were black andbrown and blue and jade, carrying genetic gifts from everypeople of Earth. Their limber young bodies were as perfectas the night stars, their minds filled with dreams moreincandescent still. These were the exhausted young inher-itors of a world new to Man.'... the rivers were filled with a fish they called samlon.And they caught the fish, and ate the fish . . .' Justinslipped a knife from his belt sheath. He poked its pointabout in the smoking pan, skewering a morsel of sizzlingmeat. He held it up, worrying the ragged, black-burntchunk of flesh with his teeth. Then he passed both panand knife to his right, to a ten-year-old girl with blondeshoulder-length hair.She bit gingerly at first, then harder to tear a pieceloose. The texture resembled tough beef, not at all likefish. She chewed - and the meat bit back. She clawed ather throat, gasping, but managed to pass both pan andknife to her right. A boy dark-skinned as the surroundingnight made a choking sound and whispered, 'Water . . .'Their eyes misted. Some struggled with wretchedcoughs, but no one moved. The pan circled the campfireuntil there was nothing left but smoking iron.'But one night the river which gave life to the colonybrought death. Even now, even here, high up on MuckingGreat, if the wind is very quiet, on a night like tonight,you can hear old Misk calling . . .'Justin trailed off. With superbly theatrical timing, thewind dwindled to a murmur. There in the distance roaredthe mighty Miskatonic, rushing past the foot of MuckingGreat... or was that only the Amazon?'The samlon developed legs, and teeth, and a taste forhuman blood. They became . . . grendels. They clawedtheir way from the river, gasped air and found it good.They moved so fast that other animals looked like statuesto them. They slaughtered everything they saw. Our par-ents fought back, but it was no use. The camp was lost.Cadmann Weyland led the survivors here to his strong-hold on Mucking Great, where they made their last stand.'And there' - Justin's thin finger cast an unsteadyshadow toward the irregular chunk of stone calledSnailhead Rock - 'that was where my father died, torn topieces by the ravening horde. And there on the verandahis where Phyllis McAndrews was killed, still screamingreports to the orbiting crew of Geographic. And there -'Justin was lost in the story now, beginning to hyperventi-late - 'others were caught, torn apart and devoured byfrenzied grendels moving faster than eyes could see. Downthere by the cliff edge ' - the dark hid it - 'two men waitedin a wrecked skeeter while grendels battered the walls inwith their heads. And there was where Joe Sikes sent ariver of fire flowing down, finally killing the grendels, savingevery human life-'Pause. The wind had picked up. When it lulled thereremained no sound save the rushing waters.'That was all a long, long time ago. But sometimes on anight like tonight, if you press your ear to the ground, youcan still hear the screams of the dying, as teeth tear theirflesh open and devour their vitals. And you can thank thespirits of the dead that there is no longer anything to fear.'No more monsters, no more grendels . . .' Justinpaused for effect. 'But if there are spirits of men, who cansay that there are not spirits of monsters as well?'His audience's young eyes were wide, and still. Theirchests hardly moved as they struggled to keep control.The dogs were tethered well away from the campsite, andnow, sensing the children's fear, they began to growl andstrain at their leashes.'Some say that the spirits of the dead war nightly, uphere on Mucking Great Mountain. Our dead parents andgrandparents pit rifle and spear and knife against fangand claw and speed, night after bloody night. They don'twant to - but they must. Because if they lose, just once ...just once .. .'He narrowed his eyes fiercely. 'The grendels will clawthrough the portal which separates life from death, andreturn to ravage Avalon again. And not just Avalon.They'll go across the stars as we crossed between stars,back to Earth . . .'A light dew of sweat dampened his forehead. His voicedropped to a hoarse whisper. 'What was that? Was that ascream? It sounded almost like a scream, a human scream.The scream of a soul already dead, but dying yet again. Asoul now cast into some deeper, more terrible pit. And isthat another? And another-?'The boys and girls strove to still their breathing andquiet their heartbeats, attempting to capture every word.'But if the ghosts of the humans are dying once againthen-'There was a terrible shriek, and from beyond the ringof firelight lurched a woman soaked in blood. She stag-gered, one hand held piteously to her cheek. One eye wasclotted with gore and the other was insanely wide, as ifwitness to all the terrors of hell.After her, in a blur, came something inhuman.Ten feet of hissing reptile bounded into the firelight;splay-clawed, barb-tailed, eyes dead to gentleness or love,merciless as glass.It smashed her to the ground, perched atop her andhowled-!The children scrambled in all directions, screaming,crying-Then silence, save for the crackle of the fire. Thegirl's bloody body lay still upon the ground, grendelperched above, triumphant-And then she sat up, sputtering with mirth. 'JustinFaulkner, you are an utter bastard!''It's the company I keep, Jessie.' He grinned like ashark. 'All right, round 'em up!'The 'grendel' sat up and a stocky, muscular Japaneseboy of about seventeen Earth years climbed out of its hol-low belly. His face was darkened with charcoal and hewas laughing so hard he could barely breathe. Jessicaslapped him on the back. 'You should make some littletiny buildings and some miniature artillery and do a giantmonster movie, Toshiro.''Godzilla versus a hundred-metre grendel?' Heshrugged out of the grendel skin. 'You know, if we hadn'thad to rebuild Tokyo every six months, Japan would haveruled all of Earth.'From all around them, just beyond the reach of thefirelight, larger human figures returned, shepherdingtheir younger siblings back to the firelight.'Come on back!' they roared. 'Sissies!'Shy, embarrassed, the stragglers returned in ones andtwos. They protested loudly but hid grins behind smallhands, and wrung crocodile tears from laughing eyes.Tentatively, then with growing enthusiasm they exam-ined the hollow grendel carcase, its thick forelegs andwide jaws, its stubby spiked tail. They ran their small fin-gers along its scales, each imagining that it was his father,her grandmother, who slew the dragon.Justin took his place at the centre by the fire, and thistime spoke in a normal voice. 'All right, it was a joke. Not apointless one. We want you scared. Grendels are dan-gerous. The Earth Born killed all the grendels here on thisisland. As children you've been safe here all your lives.Now it's time to learn about your world, all of it, not justthis island. We are the Star Born. This world is ours.'You've seen a dead grendel. Now you're growing up,and pretty soon you'll go to the mainland and see livegrendels. And more. It's time to learn what happened tothose two hundred, Earth's best and brightest, each ofthose Earth Born chosen from among more people thanthere are stars in our skies.'Up to now you've lived by Earth Born rules. Now it'stime for you to learn why they make rules, and why welive by them.'Time to g...
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