Cyprus waited. Then she said, “There’s a connection that you seem to have missed. Shall I point it out to you?”

“No, give me another chance,” Seven said. “I don’t need any more demerits, not even one.” He reviewed the entire scene, including the thoughts he’d received telepathically from Proteus. Then he blushed. “Of course, the farm! Proteus wants to set up a farm on Earth. It’s just possible that he had a dream last night about a farm or a picture of one—”

“Exactly,” Cyprus said.

“Well, Proteus has had that idea for some time,” Seven said. “But if he did participate in Josef’s dream, he’d use it in his own way, of course. You know, in a way he acts older than Lydia. He broods so.”

Cyprus smiled. “Do you know why?”

“No.”

“I’m sure you’ll discover the reason for yourself. It’s not up to me to tell you. But now suppose we look in on your Ma-ah.”

Oversoul Seven was delighted to change the subject….

35,000 B.C.

The wolf cubs sped across the cliffs in the moonlight. Ma-ah crouched in the shadows, waiting. She was hungry, but then she usually was, her belly pushed in almost to her backbone. She ran across the cliffs when the wolf cubs vanished, and scurried to the clearing where they’d been forced to leave the kill they’d found. She’d frightened the cubs off by throwing rocks. Rampa came over from the other side of the cliff. He’d used bow and arrows. The two of them found little: only a dead hare. But they ate it at once, ravenously.

The hides they wore protected them somewhat against the wind and they crouched, unspeaking, while the ice cracked along the cliffs almost in sequence, and the air rushed in and out of the rock crevices.

Cyprus said to Oversoul Seven: “I didn’t know you were that adventurous.”

Oversoul Seven shrugged with just a hint of smugness. Then he said: “Proteus should experience this, if he wants to know what the real Earth is like. He’d probably plead for some artificial pretty rain that stops on time.”

Cyprus smiled but said nothing.

Ma-ah and Rampa finished eating. They ran down into a nearby cave, pulling in out of the cold; satisfied. The damp smell of the hides rose to their nostrils. Their bellies felt warm from the food. A sense of peace descended upon them. They fell asleep. Their satisfaction was transmitted to Cyprus and Seven, who also felt the cold wind that rushed past the cave entrance.

“I could make the wind die down just a bit, couldn’t I?” Seven asked.

Cyprus nodded.

“Oh! oh!” Seven said. The change in the wind had alerted Ma-ah even in her sleep. In a moment her spirit body came out of the cave. She saw them.

“Oh, it’s you, old man,” she said.