The Frightened Planet

Against the blackness of the early morning sky the huge ball traced an arc of flame. Had Karn been watching the sky he would have seen the ball slow in its descent and then come to a landing some distance ahead of him. But he was too busy for that.
On the back of his neck the short hairs told him that pursuit was still
close behind. He put on a fresh burst of speed, his bare feet making no sound on the trail he followed. Soon the early breeze would shift and they would lose his scent.
Until then he was in danger from the males of Tur’s tribe. Tur the coward, Karn thought. Tur the bully. Tur the leader of the tribe. Tur had never liked Karn. He had liked him even less as he grew into magnificent Cro-Magnon manhood. Karn represented the challenge that must come to every leader sooner or later.
Then the wind shifted and Karn slowed. They’d give him up now. He was certain of that. But what to do next? He was all alone, an outcast from his tribe. For a full-grown man to find another tribe was impossible.
Still, he wasn’t sorry about the fight. It had been a good one. Tur was still in his prime. He’d used his teeth and his feet and every trick he knew. He wasn’t quite as strong as Karn, nor as fast, but he’d had the advantage of experience.
Only one thing Tur lacked, in common with the other members of the tribe, and it was that which had lost him the fight. He had almost no inventiveness. For Karn’s questing mind Tur hated him. He could not understand a man who found interest in new situations. And what Tur could not understand he hated.
So they had fought. For a while Tur held the upper hand. He had met every rush of Karn’s and repulsed it. But Karn had noticed that every attack from Tur’s left was met by a singular twist of the chief’s body.
Once Tur twisted. Twice; a third time; and a fourth time he swung around. The fifth time Karn was not there. He’d stopped himself in mid-stride, reversed himself and caught Tur off balance. Then steel fingers had fastened on Tur’s throat in unshakable tenacity.