Though the wounded graz bull still held the heights
against its fellows, there were others breaking from the jungle on the
lower level, wandering back and forth to paw the earth, rip up soil with
their tusks, and otherwise threaten anyone who would try to return to
the strip they patrolled.
"They will not," Asaki answered bleakly. "Arouse a graz and it will
trail you for days; kill any of the herd and you have little hope of
escaping them on foot."
It would seem now that the swamp was a deterrent to pursuit. The two
beasts that had fallen in the mire moaned in a pitiful rising note. They
had ceased to struggle and several of their kind clustered on the shore
near them, calling entreatingly. Asaki took careful aim with the needler
and put one animal after another out of its misery. But the flash of
those shots angered those on shore to a higher pitch of rage.
"No going back," he said. "At least not for several days."
Tau slapped a black, four-winged insect which had settled on his arm,
its jaws wide open for a sampling bite. "We can't very well perch here
until they forget all about us," he pointed out.
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