She had not
been idiotic, or raving mad; she had just escaped from a reality that
she could no longer bear.
Varnis, lost in her dream-world, and Dorita, hard-faced and haggard,
were the only ones left, beside Kalvar Dard, of the original eight. But
the band had grown, meanwhile, to more than fifteen. In the rear, in
Seldar Glav's old place, the son of Kalvar Dard and Analea walked. Like
his father, he wore a pistol, for which he had six rounds, and a dagger,
and in his hand he carried a stone-headed killing-maul with a three-foot
handle which he had made for himself. The woman who walked beside him
and carried his spears was the daughter of Glav and Olva; in a net-bag
on her back she carried their infant child. The first Tareeshan born of
Tareeshan parents; Kalvar Dard often looked at his little grandchild
during nights in camp and days on the trail, seeing, in that tiny
fur-swaddled morsel of humanity, the meaning and purpose of all that he
did. Of the older girls, one or two were already pregnant, now; this
tiny threatened beachhead of humanity was expanding, gaining strength.
Long after man had died out on Doorsha and the dying planet itself had
become an arid waste, the progeny of this little band would continue to
grow and to dominate the younger planet, nearer the sun.
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