Stallan pulled at the covering and Hastila’s corpse rolled out onto the damp earth.

At the sight of it Vaintè spoke wordlessly of horror and amazement. Controlling her feeling of revulsion she stepped forward slowly, then prodded it with her foot.

“There were four of the creatures,” Stallan said. “All smaller than this one. I found them and I followed them. They did not walk on the shore but were in the ocean. Nor did they have a boat. Instead they sat on a tree in the water and pushed it forward with bits of wood. I watched them kill other fur animals, just as they must have killed the males and their guards on the beach. They do not use teeth or claws or horns because they are hornless as you can see, while their teeth and claws are small and weak. Instead they do their killing with a thing like a sharp tooth fixed to a length of wood.”

“They do many tricks, these fur animals. They have brains.”

“All creatures have brains, even a primitive hèsotsan like this,” Stallan tapped the weapon hanging from her shoulder. “But this hèsotsan is not dangerous by itself if handled correctly. These things are. Now, if you would, look closely at the beast. They have much fur here, as you can see, on the top of their bodies about the head. But this other fur, lower down, does not belong to the creature but is bound about it. It bears a pouch, and in the pouch I found this. What appears to be a shaped piece of stone with a sharp edge. See, this bound-about skin comes away and the creature has its own fur beneath.”

“It is a male!” Vaintè shouted. “A male fur-creature with a dim and bestial brain that now is bold enough to threaten us, the Yilanè. Is that what you are trying to tell me? That these ugly beasts are a danger to us?”

“I believe so, Vaintè. But you are Eistaa and you are the one who decides what thing is what thing. I have merely told you what I have seen, shown you what I have found.”

Vaintè held the hard sharpness of the stone between her thumbs, stared down at the corpse for a long time before she spoke again.