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The extensive tunnels had kept the servants of the Vlagh out of the blazing sunlight, but that had only been the first problem they had been forced to solve As the centuries had passed, the changed clietation in that previously lush region, so there was no longer sufficient food to support a growing population

The Vlagh had continued to lay eggs, of course, but each hatch had produced fewer and fewer offspring, and the Vlagh had come face to face with the distinct possibility of the extinction of its species

When the burrowing insects had reached the ress had stopped at that point Not long after that, however, they’d discovered the caves lying beneath those one extinct lived on

I’m of two minds about caves I love h had encountered other creatures in the caves and mountains, and evidently the overmind had realized that soht prove to be very useful, and it had begun to experihly unnatural variations

I rather ruefully conceded that the experian Hook-Beak of the Land of Maag colorfully called ‘the snake-h I can’t for the life of h had produced a creature that was part bug, part reptile, and part warical ih, that had it not been for the near genius of the Shaman One-Who-Heals, the creatures of the Wasteland would probably have won the war in my sister’s Doot up froht of our cavern to the stone bench that served as his bed to ht He was nestled down under his fur robe with his eyes closed, though, so I was sure that he wasn’t having any problems Our discovery that our Dreaht alone hadanted to gamble with Then we ca Veltan’s ten eons on the face of the moon had been a clear demonstration of the fact that we didn’t really need to breathe Many of our pet people were fisherh our Dreaods, their present condition strongly suggested that they needed air to breathe and food to eat, and none of us was in thein and out, though, so I went on back to my chair I let my mind drift back to Ashad’s first few hours here in od in a state of pure panic, I think he missed his chance Panic had run rampant inat h, I remembered a peculiarity of the bears which share ive birth to their cubs during their yearly hibernation cycle, and their cubs attend to the business of nursing all on their own Then I remembered that a she-bear called Broken-Tooth customarily hibernated in a cave that was no rabbed upDreaiven birth to the cub Long-Claw, and he was contentedly nursing when I entered the cave Fortunately, I didn’t have to argue with hih to move aside just a bit, and I introduced Ashad to bear’sstopped i-Claere absolutely positive that they were brothers, and after they’d both nursed their fill of Maan to play with each other

I remained in the cave until Mama Broken-Tooth awakened She sniffed briefly at her two cubs - totally ignoring the fact that one of theently nestled the at all peculiar taking place Of course, bears don’t really see very well, so they rely instead on their sense of s around on the dirt floor of the cave, Ashad had rance about him

Ashad slept until almost noon, but my flaxen-haired little boy still seemed exhausted when he rose, pulled on his tan leather sreeted me as he sank wearily into his chair Ale bowl full of red berries he’d brought hoan to eat them one at a time His appetite didn’t see you, Ashad?’ I asked hiht, uncle,’ the boy replied, absently fondling a shiny black stone that was about twice the size of an eagle’s egg ‘It see but air, and I ay up in the sky looking down at the Domain of Vash The country down there in the South doesn’t look at all like our country up here, does it?’

There it was again Ashad obviously knew Yaltar’s true name, even as Eleria did ‘The people of the South are farrowon hunting the way our people do They had to cut down the trees to give the, so the land down there doesn’t look at all like the land up here What else happened in your dream?’

Ashad pushed his yellow hair out of his eyes ‘Well,’ he continued, ‘it see into the Dos that crawled down into Balacenia’s Doo’ The boy put the shiny black stone down on the table and ate ain It was obvious now that the Drea over the barrier I’d so carefully set up between them and their past

‘Anyway,’ Ashad continued, ‘there were outlanders there, and they were fighting the nasty things just like they did in Balacenia’s Do A whole lot of other outlanders came up across Mother Sea from the South, but it didn’t seem like they were interested in the war veryto the far all the talking earing black robes, but there were so the far them listen while the ones in black talked That went on for quite a while, and then the outlanders in the South got all excited, and they started to run north toward a great big waterfall, and the other outlanders - the ones who got there first - sort of got out of their way for while, and then when everybody got to that waterfall, it looked toto kill everybody else, and no matter howon’