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    _Relentlessly, a narrative as old as time drives forward to a climax
    as old as man--and points a finger as grim as Death._

[Illustration]


the BEGINNING

By HENRY HASSE

Illustrated by FINLAY


In the purely cerebral sense, there was no particular point-of-sequence
at which Gral could have been said to Know. The very causality of his
existence was a succession of brute obedience to brute awareness, for it
was only thus that one survived. There was the _danger-sense_ on
those days when the great-toothed cats roamed the valley, and the
males-who-will-bring remained huddled and sullen in the caves above the
great ledge; there was the _hunger-sense_ when provender was low, and
Gor-wah drove them out with grunts and gibes to hunt the wild-dogs and
lizards and lesser beasts; and not infrequently there was the other
sense, the _not-hunger_, when the bring had been exceptional and there
was somnolence after the gorging.

Gral could not remember when he had experienced the latter, for it was
the dictate of Gor-wah, the Old One, that who did not bring did not
eat--not until the others had gorged. Gral was small, and weakest of all
the males. Not often did he bring. _Once_ on a spurious moment he had
scaled the valley-rim, and came out upon the huge plain where it was
rumored the little three-toed horses roamed. And he had seen them, he
had seen them! He pursued, armed only with blunt shaft and a few of the
throw-stones such as Otah used; but he was less swift than the tiny
horses, and his throw-stones fell wide, and it was rumored that here
roamed the long-tusked shaggy ones that were larger than the very caves
... trembling, Gral had retraced his way, to arrive at the ledge and
meekly await Gor-wah's word that he could partake of the sinews that
night.

_... Point of sequence. Causality in action. An atom is dissected, a
belly rumbles in hunger, a star blooms into brief nova; a bird wheels in
futile escape, an ice-flow impacts, an equation is expressed in awesome
mushrooming shape. These are multitudinous, apocalyptic. They are
timeless and equal. These are things whereby suns wheel or blossom or
die, a tribe vanishes, a civilization climbs or a world decays._

Or an earlier sun, hot and soft-stroking against leaves. Or a
Pleistocene man, smallest of all the males, whose supine acceptance had
devolved into laziness....

Gral would not have called it laziness; his crude synapses could not
have contained the thought, much less given it relevance. Even later--as
Gral-the-Bringer--his only point of relevance was to the Place where the
great thing happened.

The Place was a small rocky cleft above the river, not easily
accessible.... Gral found it one day because he dearly loved to climb,
though all to be found here were the lizards, stringy and without
substance. But this day he found more. It was _warmth_, a warmth
immeasurably more satisfying than the caves-above-the-ledge. Here for
perhaps an hour the late sun stroked directly in, soft and containing,
setting the narrow walls aglow with bright-brushed patterns.

To Gral it was an hour apart. He gathered leaves and placed them here,
and here he paused in the lateness of each day though his bring was
frugal and his belly would rumble that night. But to _that_ he was
accustomed, and this was pleasurable.

       *       *       *       *       *

It was the time of the thaw. Gral huddled in his Place and welcomed the
stroking warmth. He was weary, his forage had been fruitless, his
throw-stones wasted ... would he never master them as Otah and the
others? He had confronted a wild-dog and pinned it snarling against
rock, he had employed his shaft and got it fairly into flesh, only to
have the beast slip off the smooth point and escape. Smooth points--they
were useless! Briefly, his mind groped with that but could not sustain
it.

So Gral burrowed into the leaves, his anger diminished as he watched
with drowsy delight the sun-patterns stroking. And his eyes must have
closed, half closed....

It was no snarl that brought him back--it was a tread, soft-shod and
cautious, very close. The snarl came an instant later, deep-throated
with anger and meaning.

Another had found this Place, this warmth, these leaves that were fine
for burrowing. Gral came erect and stared into the visage of Obe the
Great Bear; just six feet away he saw the great head that swayed with
deceptive gentleness, the amber eyes burning, the twinned mountainous
muscle of shoulders ... and in that quick moment Gral saw something
else. Obe stood directly astride the pointed shaft which Gral had left
too far distant.

Gral did not breathe. He did not move. Only his hand crept slowly, but
already he knew his throw-stones were gone. Once more Obe snarled, and
Gral saw those great shoulder muscles slide. His hand encountered the
wall, groped desperately; then his fingers found something--a stick, a
root, some gnarled thing that protruded....

In one rearing flow of motion, Obe launched out in a mighty reach. Gral
caught part of that sweeping blow; stunned, he managed to gain footing,
and now both his hands were on the protruding object. He wrenched and
the thing came free, seeming strange and heavy in his hands. Obe was
upon him again, the great paws ready to crush ... pure terror sent Gral
stumbling back, but it was a different instinct that brought his arms
once up and then down in a great arc....

Once only. He felt a wondrous impact that jarred him to the
shoulders--and then it was a miracle. Obe was no longer upon him. Obe
lay half sprawled, roaring with rage, and from Obe's massive head came
the crimson life-stuff!

Gral did not question. Avoiding the destructive paws, he leaped in and
away, and then in, all the while employing the thing in his hand until
Obe's life-stuff had run its course in crimson ruin.

       *       *       *

Acceptance came slowly, as Gral sagged in weariness against the wall. He
could not believe this thing! Timorously, he approached the great
carcass and prodded with his foot. Then he accepted.

Now things were happening inside him--a great turmoil, a throbbing
within his chest. Gral straightened; he brought his arms quickly up and
around, and the thing-that-slew felt wondrous in the arc. Even better
than the throw-stones! It was like--he struggled for the meaning--like
an extension of one's self! One threw the stone and yet retained it!

But alas, it was not a stone at all, Gral discovered. He placed the
gnarled thing in sunlight and crouched to survey it. This
thing-that-slew was but a length of rotting root, frozen at the end with
clay and encrusted ice. And already the ice was shattered.

The sun did the rest, as Gral watched in despair; soon there was only
soft melting mud and a gnarled stick that would never slay again.

For a long time Gral crouched there, trying to understand. Dimly he
perceived, but his mind would not reach. He scowled angrily and flung
the useless stick away. There was a thing inside him he did not like, a
strange new thing that gnawed and nagged and brought anger again.

It was anger at being robbed of a priceless thing--but the gnawing went
deeper.

Wearily, he rose. He began his trek back to the great ledge, to make
announcement that his bring this day would be Obe.

       *       *       *       *       *

Otah came, and Lak and one other, and together they brought Obe back. No
one made remark on the slaying; it was enough that Obe was here! And
when Gral came forward at the gorging to take the bringer's share, he
merely took and retired, disdaining the great show of prowess and
exaggeration which the others used to demonstrate their kill. But he saw
that Gor-wah, the Old One, was pleased. Even Otah the Thrower-of-Stones
looked at him with envy; it was not often they had Obe the Great Bear;
only twice before had it happened, and both times it was Otah who
brought.

Gral gorged voluptuously that night. This too was new to his experience,
and this he liked. But newer still was the thing he did not like, the
thing that continued to gnaw and nag and would not let him sleep.

And next morning, with the valley still gray and murky before the dawn
and damp with bitter cold, Gral was gone in advance of the others. He
clambered down to the river and there he pursued his way--far along
toward the place where it widened into shallows. No thought of bringing
today! Instead he searched. He searched the rocky shallows as the sun
came shafting, and he was still searching later as it climbed high.

He found the place at last, where the stones were plentiful and of
proper size. There he paused; the thing was still angry and prodding
within him; Gral could not have known that this "thing-that-prodded" was
not anger but a churning impatience, a burning nameless need--that he
was in very truth a prototype, the first in the realm of pure research!

But he applied it, knowing remotely what he must do. It was long; it was
irksome; he ached all through with the effort but still he persisted.
Until at last, from all the stones in the shallows, he had gathered a
dozen that pleased him.

These he seized eagerly. He spread them out; he examined; he grunted and
grimaced and paused in perplexity. It was difficult to choose when each
might do! But he chose, weighing each in his hand before discarding,
until finally _one_ remained.

He grunted his pleasure, knowing purpose now. The vines! Again he
selected carefully. _Tight_, said the thing-that-prodded, _it must be
tight or you will have only a throw-stone_.

And so began the long task of arranging stone to shaft, as he brought
the vine round and round again. It was crude; his fingers were clumsy
and unaccustomed; the vine tangled and tore, and there was no way of
fastening. But with each failure he found new ways, until at last it was
done.

It was done! A thing of extended strength and weight, at once so
wondrous that Gral could only place it before him and stare. He felt a
pulsing at his throat, his thoughts went leaping. Obe the Great Bear!
Now he could bring Obe many times! Even Otah the Thrower-of-Stones would
be in awe!

Gral lifted the thing of his creation ... and just a little way distant,
his glance caught the bole of a tree. _Now this will be Obe the Great
Bear_ ... then Gral leapt forward, arm outflung in the arc he
remembered.

Truly and without effort the weight went to the mark. It made impact
that jarred him from arm to shoulder, but this he did not mind because
his weapon's edge brought a great gaping wound to the weathered bole.

_... the first sound of isolate words across a wire. The initial shock
of mushroom-shape above an atoll. The fierce clutch of a weighted shaft
newly fashioned ... man stands always_ FOR A MOMENT _in awe of what man
has wrought._

       *       *       *

For a moment only. And so Gral stood stark in his moment of awe, truly
frightened as he visioned what such a blow might have done to Obe. But
Gral was truly man, truly prototype; for the time of one deep breath he
felt it, then awe and fright were gone as he exulted.

Once more he brought the shaft _up_ in smooth swing and _down_ in the
arc....

Alas for Gral--alas for research. Alas for all the effort and
application and the prodding-thing within. It was Gral's destiny yet to
know that a mere day's effort was only the beginning.

For his second mighty swing did not reach the bole-bark. It reached
nothing but air. He felt a sudden lightness as the stone fled from
shaft, and he was left holding a stick trailing vines at the end.

Undaunted, he tried again, and again it happened--the stone went
plummeting. A third time he tried, and a fourth. He chose the more
pliant vines and strove to make them stay, sought a new way to fasten.
The stone would not stay.

Gral mourned, and from the mourning came anger and then a bitterness
that rose to blind him. For the rest of that day he tried--he could not
have counted the times. A factor was missing--dimly he knew that. The
sun was dull red along the valley when he desisted; his hands were raw
and bleeding, and seeing that, a sound rose in his throat like grating
gravel.

Grimly, he buried his stone there beneath the bole and made his way back
to the great ledge. His share of Obe would last yet a day or two. The
thought of food was only fleeting, because the anger was still inside
him, larger now, demanding now ... that thing-that-prodded.

       *       *       *       *       *

Obe was gone at last, both Gral's share and all the rest. Three days
were gone and Gral did not try to bring again. But each day he went from
the ledge in advance of the others, he went in a hunger he did not
heed--to the place of the buried stone.

On the third day he thought that Otah followed, keeping discreetly
behind; but he could not be sure. This was not Otah's usual direction.
And later, on the far shore across the shallows he saw one of Kurho's
tribe from Far End. It was not often that Kurho's people foraged this
far, and Gral could not say how long the man must have stood there bold
and brazen. When next he looked up, the fellow was gone.

Ordinarily he would have reported this to Gor-wah, but the incident was
soon forgotten. He continued doggedly with shaft and stone. It was
something wild and febrile that drove him now, and he could not have
wondered at his own incredible quixotism--he was a million years removed
from that! But inevitably his synapses took hold, the neuronic links
grooved, and to Gral one thought emerged: _the vines would never do_.

And so he came to know where the missing factor lay. He knew it dully
and was helpless.

More than helpless, he was hungry. It came with a great gnawing need. On
the fifth day it was _Otah_ who noticed, and more out of contempt than
pity tossed him the remnants of a wild-dog he had brought: the portion
was little more than stripped bones and sinew, but Gral accepted without
question, crawled to his place on the ledge and partially assuaged his
hunger....

_The ways of discovery are most wondrous--yet who will dare to say they
take precedence over the wondrous ways of the stomach? And the ways are
ironic; is it not conceivable that the two should align in devious
fruition?_ For Gral found answer, not in his groping hands, but tangled
about his clumsy feet!

       *       *       *

The sun came high and hot. Gral emerged from his sleep-place on the
ledge, faint and hungry but knowing he must try yet again. He took a
step, his feet tangled, and growling deep he reached down and tore at a
tough twining substance.

Sinews. Sinews stripped bare by his own hunger, all that Otah and others
had tossed him these past days; they were taut and clinging now,
unresilient, like the vines of the young trees and yet strangely unlike.

_Unlike!_ Gral stared, as his throat went pulsing. He reached out and
touched; one had twined about a rock, was now so fast that his fingers
could not cause it to move. For a long time he crouched, perplexed,
growling deep as his fingers explored. He glanced up at the sun, and
then back, and with that glance two things came together with searing
shock....

For the very first time, man--a Pleistocene man--had made a clear
cerebral distinction of cause and effect.

Gral arose. There was a wild new urgency. Quickly he searched and he
found, across all the great ledge, sinews from the gorging which the sun
had not yet touched. Some among the tribe stared with immobile contempt,
thinking Gral the scavenger was yet hungry. But Gral gathered quickly,
and departed, and was soon at the far place by the great bole, where he
retrieved his stone and set feverishly to work.

Indeed it was not like the vines! It was easy now, but he was doubly
thorough; he made his fingers be strong as he followed the pattern he
knew so well. The sinews held, they held! His part done at last, he went
out from the trees and placed his shaft where the sun's hot stroke could
reach.

And this was perhaps hardest of all--the waiting. Most of that day he
crouched and waited and watched, as the sun's work was done; that great
bright orb, his ally; he had known times when it was beneficent and
times when it was cruel, but now in his need Gral's thoughts were
kindly.

Soon it became as if his own kind thoughts and the sun's hot strength
were one. The thing-that-prodded now was different, now it outpoured,
gracious to meet his need. He could not have known that this was prayer!
And so, by degree and small degree Gral saw the sinews grasp and
tighten.

       *       *       *

Not until the sun was low, at valley's Far End, did he dare reach out
and take his shaft and put it to test. But already he knew! The stone
held, and it held, and would continue to hold after many tries. He had
fashioned a thing and it was wondrous--his own sole possession--a weapon
beyond anything the valley-people had dreamed of--and it was his alone.

A stirring of vague alarm made him pause. He growled deep. The
thing-that-prodded churned in a new way, a cunning way, and once again
Gral was prototype. This thing must be kept secret! Not yet would he
share--not until he became known as Gral-the-Bringer!

_... he could not have known. Could not have known that this thing he
wrought spelled at once Beginning and End: that no such shocking
departure remains long sole-possessed, either shaft or fire or
mushroom-shape: that with each great thing of man's devising comes
question and doubt and challenge and often disaster...._

Or knowing, would not have cared.

[Illustration]

       *       *       *       *       *

So now he was known as Gral-the-Bringer! He went alone each day, taking
throw-stones which he discarded in favor of his new weapon from its
place of hiding. He brought the wild-dogs for a time, but soon he
disdained them. Three times more he brought Obe the Great Bear, but
would not demonstrate his method of kill. Sometimes he scaled the
valley-rim to the great plain, where he slew the three-toed horses whose
flesh was sweet and different.

And each time at the gorging Otah watched him--watched sometimes sullen
and brooding, sometimes with secret knowing.

And then came a day when _Otah_ brought Obe the Bear. Three times in as
many days he brought Obe, and on the third time he brought back also the
shaft-with-stone, bearing it boldly to make sure that Gral and all the
others saw.

With half snarl and half wail, Gral leaped to seize it. Otah might have
crushed him with a blow, but Otah waited, looking at him fully. Gral's
snarl died in his throat. This was not the weapon he had hidden, but
another! Otah had found and copied.

"See this!" Otah grunted. "I slew Obe with this!" And he demonstrated to
all the tribe. He was still angry, facing Gral, but he gave credit.
"_Gral_ used it first. Gral is greatest among us! But if Gral can use,
Otah can use--we will all use!"

He turned to Gor-wah the Old One, and said in the language of
monosyllable and gesture: "We must have Council!"

There was Council, and the truth was out. Gral held back nothing in his
telling. Gor-wah listened and nodded and grunted, his brow furrowed and
he growled deep in his throat.

"A weapon of great magic," Gor-wah pronounced, and he prodded with his
fingers at it, almost afraid to touch.

"Arh-h-h!" echoed the males. "A weapon of great magic!"

"Let us have many such," Otah repeated with growl and gesture. "The
tribe of Gor-wah will be greatest in all the valley!"

Again Gor-wah grunted, shook his head slowly. "The tribe of Gor-wah
seeks only food and peace. This we have. We do well without such a
weapon."

"Arh-h," echoed the males. "We do well without."

Gral felt helpless, listening. All attention was now upon Otah and the
Old One. "But we will use only for food and peace," Otah pursued
sullenly. "Such was my meaning!"

Gor-wah rose, trembling. "Meaning? I will give you meaning. Kurho's
tribe at Far End! Already they have taken the lesser tribes. Each year
they come in bold insolence, and only the river separates; in time they
mean to take the whole valley. Kurho has declared it!" He spread his
hands. "Never again will we know peace, if Kurho learns the way of such
a weapon!"

There was pause, a restless unease. And again it was Otah who growled
boldly, touching the weapon: "Such is the reason for many of these. Let
us make them, and none will dare to come!"

"None will dare!" echoed the Council. But there were both those who said
it strong, and those who said in doubt.

Now it was plain that even Gor-wah was in doubt. He was old and he had
known this time would come, the time when another took the tribe, and
that one would be Otah. But now he stood straight and made
pronouncement. "I say no! The risk is too great. You, Otah--and you,
Gral--you will destroy this weapon. It must not be used again!"

       *       *       *       *       *

Of course it was never done. Otah also knew that he must take the tribe,
and they looked to him now. Soon Lok had the weapon, then Mai-ak and
most of the others, as day by day Gral instructed them in the making.
But they used with caution! Otah reminded them always of the Old One's
words, though none of the Far End tribe had been seen near the river for
many days now.

Until Mai-ak returned from a journey, to announce he had encountered one
of Kurho's tribe. "We exchanged insults. I invited him to come close,"
Mai-ak explained with amusing gesture, "but the fellow would not. He saw
my weapon! I think he would have given all his throw-stones to possess
it!"

Otah was not pleased. He would have admonished, except that Mai-ak told
a story well; besides, Mai-ak was a great hunter.

But there came another such day, and then others. First Lok reported and
then Mai-ak again. The reports became frequent. Kurho's men were forever
near, watching in silence this new weapon in the hands of the Gor-wah
tribe across the river.

And then Mai-ak brought a message ... there had been another encounter,
no insults this time but rather a sullen understanding. Kurho was aware
of the new weapon; it made his own people uneasy and restless; such a
thing at loose in the valley could only spell threat to all peoples!
But, if it was to be, then what the tribe of Gor-wah devised Kurho's
tribe would also devise. They would devise more and better!

Otah listened, growled in anger. "Kurho says this? Kurho, who has
boasted that he will take the whole valley?" Then he paused and
considered sensibly. "Mai-ak, take answer. You will say that we go in
peace. Say that never do we intend to cross the river. And say
also"--Otah paused, groping--"say also that we shall be ready for any
who do choose to cross!"

The Old One nodded approval, but no one saw; and no one saw the dark
furrow of doubt like a shadow of doom across his face.

"Kurho speaks big," sneered a young one, new in Council. "We have heard
it before, always it is Kurho's tribe who is greatest in every deed...."
He spat in contempt.

       *       *       *

Days were gone, endless days without incident. But the reports came
in--a mere trickle at first, and then in great tide. Kurho's tribe had
indeed devised. Their weapon had been observed! Dak returned one day in
high excitement, stumbling across the ledge from a long day's journey.

"Kurho has devised better! We bring Obe the Bear, but they have now
slain the great-toothed one. I saw it, I swear! They slew him easily!"
He gasped for breath, then gained his feet and gave them eloquent
gesture of what he had seen.

There could be no doubt. Kurho now had a weapon much more facile, more
deadly.

Otah accepted grimly. Now it was he who must prove! He went to work at
once, he and Gral, devising a weapon to meet the threat--more
sharp-edged and deadly, of greater length and balance. It took days. And
days more to seek out the place of the great-toothed ones. Not one but
_three_ were slain, and it was made certain the word reached Kurho.

But now Otah knew. He knew and was helpless. A frightful thing had been
launched and there could be no turning; nothing now but the constant
fear, the trap without end, the perilous thing above all their heads ...
and the waiting.

Kurho also waited. True, one thing remained to temper the distrust:
sporadic communication had been established, a thing new and yet heavy
with pretense, which again like a serpent at its tail spelled mutual
distrust. But it was there, begrudging, and all the smaller tribes knew
of it too--those scattered ones who were little more than clans. All the
peoples of the valley watched and waited, aware of this thing between
the two great tribes of Kurho and Otah.

"It is better that we should talk, even endlessly, than to use such
weapons tribe against tribe!" Such was Otah's word to those who
grumbled and those who feared, and there was much to indicate that such
was Kurho's feeling too.

Indeed it appeared to be so! For the first time, Kurho relaxed his
borders at Far End. Occasionally the Otah tribesmen were permitted to
enter, welcomed without suspicion--a thing unprecedented! Similarly,
select members from the Kurho tribe were accepted beyond the river; they
displayed certain prowesses new to the Otah tribe, for in many ways
these were a strange and fantastic people.

It seemed to be a beginning. Word went out in secret and still other
word returned, in which Mai-ak played a great part. And so, after scores
of days it was done: there would be a time of understanding; Kurho,
himself, would cross the river to go in person among Otah's people! When
this was done, Otah would also cross the river to observe the things at
Far End!

But now growlings arose which even Otah could not contain. Kurho should
not be welcomed! Kurho must not be trusted! Was not this the man who
already had suppressed the minor tribes? Had he not flaunted his aim of
one day taking the whole valley?

Nevertheless, Kurho came. He came in all his boast and arrogance. The
time was not festive--he was made to feel that--but what Kurho felt he
did not show. Extravagant point was made that he should see all that he
wished! Across all the great series of ledges he was taken, both high
and low and length and breadth, to observe the abundance and well-being
and extent of the Otah tribe. Through all the near valley he was shown,
even to the places of great hunting, that he might see how the tribe of
Otah prospered in the Bringing.

Through it all, Kurho made a token show of interest; he twice lost his
temper in boast against boast, but he was more often a blunt enigma. He
saw much and said little. Those times when he did speak, so extravagant
were his grunt and gesture that much was lost.

When Kurho departed at last for Far End, he had implanted a feeling of
frustration and one thing more--the disturbing thought that not all of
his own boasts were idle!

       *       *       *

And now came the time for Otah to cross. It was done so quietly that not
many knew he was gone, but soon the reports came: Otah had been received
with great clamor and curiosity by the Kurho people, and accorded much
honor! Aside from that, the result was much the same, as Otah saw much
and said little and did not once lose his temper. Kurho persisted in his
boast and claim, and it was rumored that the two leaders had gone so far
as to discuss the weapons!

Rumor was true. Otah returned from Far End and immediately called
Council, even as Kurho was calling Council. Little had been gained,
little proven; the perilous thing was still there, that monstrous means
of death that might come in a moment of temper or reprisal to either
tribe. Alas, such weapons were not easily relinquished--and who would be
first?

Plainly, the way would now be slow and heavy with suspicion, but a
method to abate such a threat must soon be formulated.

On _that_ Otah and Kurho were agreed!

       *       *       *       *       *

So the two great leaders agreed, and were patient, and twice more there
were meetings. So engrossed they became and even enamored, that they
were only dimly aware--

Others in the valley, those so scattered and isolate as to be considered
only clans, had long watched and waited--and yearned. Neither the
long-shaft weapon nor the way of making were longer secret--so why
should they not also have?

Inevitably the reports trickled in. A lone clansman had been observed
near the river, employing one of the weapons crudely devised but
efficient. Some days later, one from the high-plateau was seen skulking
the valley with such a weapon. Those lone ones, who barely subsisted in
the barren places beyond river and cave, nor foraged afield--discreet
and fleeting at first but with increased daring as the days went on.

And so fixed were Otah and Kurho that such reports were tolerated. There
could be no threat here! True, the way of the making was no longer
secret. True, such clan-people had long been despised and neglected and
left to their own grubbing hunger--but was it not recognized, especially
now, that the tribes of Otah and Kurho would determine the fate of all?

_They erred--both Otah and Kurho. Neither would determine, nor would
preponderance of weapons determine. It was not yet perceived that such
clan-people were not Tribe-People, and thus could not know the meaning
of Council, nor weigh consequence, nor realize in their new-found
cleverness that a single arrogant act would trigger the first and final
avalanche...._

It came. It came on a day when a lone and hungry clansman found himself
a full day's journey beyond the river; he was not of Otah's Tribe nor
any tribe, nor did he know that the two he faced were of Kurho's Tribe.
In the dispute over the bring, so emboldened was he by his weapon
newly-fashioned that he used it quick and surely.

He did not again look at the two bodies! Taking up his bring, the lone
one departed quite leisurely, without even the good sense to flee in
horror of the consequence.

Consequence came. It came soon, before the sun was scarcely down. It
came swiftly without question or council, as word reached Far End that
two had been slain. Throughout the night it came in divergent attack, as
Kurho deployed a token force near the river and sent his real strength
high to the north, across the valley-rim and down upon Otah's people. It
was at once attack and reprisal and reason!

And for Otah it was reason! For many weeks past, in test and maneuver of
the long-shafts he had looked to the north. Now couriers brought the
alarm swiftly, and within minutes his forces were launched--fearless
ones who knew each foot of terrain by day or night. Otah led one
contingent and Mai-ak the other, strategy being to stem Kurho's strength
high upon the valley-rim, deplete the enemy and then join force to hunt
down any who sifted through.

It was good strategy, the only strategy--and for a time it went well.
Within the hour Kurho's forces were scattered, as attack and
counter-attack surged and slashed in wild eruption of the long-shafts.
Just as eruptive were the neuro-emotives, as each in his primal way must
have known that _this_ was the long awaitment, _this_ was the grim
finality in Kurho's boast and Otah's boast of weapons.

A few sifted through, but were quickly brought down as Otah's drifting
rear-guard deployed to their assignments. It became evident early that
Otah's tribe was more proficient in the long-shafts!

Alas, mere proficiency would not prevail against force of numbers. Well
within the hour Otah knew it, knew with a raging despair that time was
not with him, he had deployed too late with too little. Now he knew with
consuming clarity, that despite the lulling pretense Kurho's boasts of
strength had not been idle boasts!

This was Otah's last bitter thought, and then he was too occupied for
cerebral indulgence. For the next minutes he wielded truer than any! Men
came and fell, and others leaped and fell, skulls shattered, the
life-stuff spurting, before Otah's shaft went spinning away in shattered
ruin; he leaped to seize another, employed it in great sweeping swaths
against those who still came. Two went down, but two came to fill the
gap. In perfect unison, one parried as the other wielded truly to the
mark....

It cannot be said, with surety, that Otah in that ultimate moment felt
pain. It is fairly certain that both finitely and cosmically the initial
numbing shock did register; and it may be assumed that he jolted rather
horribly at the splintering bite of bone into brain. _But who can say he
did not reach a point-of-prescience, that his neuro-thalamics did not
leap to span the eons, and gape in horror, in that precise and endless
time just before his brains spewed in a gush of gray and gore, to
cerebrate no more?_

       *       *       *       *       *

A matter of minutes, now. Both Kurho and Mai-ak knew it. The latter had
glimpsed Otah's destruction, and with wild abandon sought to rally his
men into the area.

There was no longer an area. There was clash and groan and rush and
retreat, there was dark endless rock and a darker sky, from which the
very stars seemed to recoil in darkest wonderment at man's senseless
assault. The valley-rim yawned, and there Mai-ak made his stand and made
it well.

He was unaware that Kurho was no more--that the man of boast was at this
very moment a quivering, protoplasmic lump splattered across a dark
crevice. A random weapon in a frantic hand had proved to be no respecter
of person. Nor did it matter! Decimated as they were, enough of the
enemy got through. Once propelled in the insane purpose there could be
no stopping, as they descended upon Otah's people who huddled in the
caves....

For weeks, they had been told that when it came it would be from above,
sudden and savage without defense or recourse. Few had believed, or
bothered to plot the route to safety. Would not these issues be
resolved? Had not their caves been always safe and secure?

Now there was no time for belief or wonder. Within minutes none of
Otah's tribe were alive, neither women nor children. Gor-wah the Old One
remained, having failed in his exhortations; now he stood quite still,
erect and waiting, with arms outflung as the weapons came swarming, and
when that final blow fell the expression upon his mouth might have been
a grimace or might have been a smile....

Nor did the others escape, those at Far End who also huddled and waited
and would not believe. Their caves at the valley-floor were even less
secure. Whether it was blinding hate or the bitter dregs of expediency,
for Mai-ak and his remnants there was only one recourse now. It had been
deeply ingrained!

Grimly they pursued the way, automaton-like, unresponsive now to horror
or any emotive. And once again, within the hour the weapons fell.

It was swift and it was thorough.

Methodical. Merciless. Complete.

       *       *       *       *       *

It will not be said here when emotive-response returned. Does one return
from a horror all-encompassing, or seek to requite the unrequited? Does
one yearn for a Way that is no more when deadening shock has wiped it
out?

The season of thaw came, and again the great cold and once more the
thaw. Both Obe the Bear and the great saber-cats were at large across
the valley, and for those few who remained the bring was not easy now.
There was more dangerous prey!

Lone clansman encountered clansman across his path, and there was
furtive slinking. Each went silently alone and returned alone to his
place of hiding. Bellies growled, but none dared use his weapon except
in secret.

Perhaps a few, some isolate few remembered that time of chaos a season
ago--but it was fleeting recall at best, as somatic responses rose to
blot it out.

It was not to be forever! One thing remained, unasked and unbeknownst,
grooved with synaptic permanence in their burgeoning brains. _This was
neither beginning nor end: for though Otah's Tribe was gone, bellies
still growled. Kurho's Tribe was no more, but the weapons yet remained._

_There could be no beginning or end--for would not new things come,
means and methods and ways of devising so long as man remained? Was not
this The Way?_

Such were Mai-ak's thoughts at the time of the next thaw; when he felt
the thing-that-prodded that would not let him be, and his anger became
stubborn resolve; when day after day he bent the young saplings, and
found a way at last to fasten the sinew.

When he pulled, finally, pulled with all his strength, and with great
gloating saw his shaft go outward to a distance never yet conceived....


THE END




Transcriber's Note:

    This etext was first published in _Amazing Stories_ May 1961.
    Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
    copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and
    typographical errors have been corrected without note. The
    tribal names Lok, Lak and Dak, although possible typesetting
    errors, remain as printed.