She was right. Kirk picked out the biggest boulder he could see and
dashed for it. The leading shag was breathing on the girl's heels as he
hauled her up after him.
They were safe for a while, but it didn't do them any good. In this
world even shags would wait forever at the prospect of a square meal.
Presently they'd start climbing and when they did it was all over. Kirk
didn't even have a weapon with which to fight.
He looked down at them. Five squat thick shapes with six legs; four
powerful legs with claws and two slender ones held in against the
chest, armed with sucker discs for climbing. Five pairs of black eyes
watching, hungry and infinitely patient. Five tucked bellies burning
under pale, shaggy hair.
He was looking at death. A strange cold terror took him. He turned his
head toward the yellow girl and saw the same thing in her eyes. They
looked at each other, not moving nor breathing, thinking that they were
young and going to die.
He shivered. The girl's yellow body burned in the grey light. He moved.
He didn't know why, only that he had to. He took her in his arms and
found her lips and kissed them, roughly, with an urgent, painful
hunger. She fought him a little and then lay still against him.
One of the shags started to climb. Kirk saw it across the girl's
shoulder. He let her go and walked to the boulder's edge and waited
until the shaggy head was level with his feet. Then he crouched and
struck, in a way he had never struck before. Blood spurted across his
fist. The shag roared and fell backward clumsily, shaking its head.
Kirk stood up and sucked in his belly and yelled. He felt savage now,
but not afraid. The echoes howled eerily.
[Illustration: _Kirk stood up, yelled, as he fought._]
The shag started up again, and two more came with him.
There was something queer about the echoes. They got louder and wilder.
Men's voices, shouting. Kirk couldn't look, but he heard the yellow
girl cry:
"Piruts!"
* * * * *
He heard them coming closer, bare feet scrambling on rock. The shags
came higher. He struck down, left and right. One beast lost hold with
one sucker and fell into another, knocking it loose. They fell, clawing
each other. The third came on. Kirk hit it. It slid its head aside and
caught his wrist.
The pain blinded him. He roared and beat at it, but the grip on his
wrist pulled him to his knees and almost over the edge. The brute
started back down the boulder, taking Kirk with him.
The yellow girl slid suddenly in under Kirk and reached over and took
hold of the shag's snout and peeled it back. The beast snuffled and
squealed and chewed on Kirk's arm. The girl twisted harder. Blood
began to spill down over the shag's teeth.
It let go. Kirk began to hear slingstones whistle. The shag bellowed
and took itself back down the rock, fast. The others were scattering
away across the plain, driven by stones from expert slingers. Kirk and
the girl crouched quietly, trembling and breathing hard.