“Hunt what?”
“Animals; the Stag, Horse and other grass-eaters.”
“Um,” Wulli blinked stupidly. “But you refused to fight?”
“Yes, I refused.”
“What did your people say about that?” Hairi asked.
“They were very angry,” the Ape Boy replied. “Had not my father interfered, I would have been killed. But no longer would they permit me to live among them, so I was cast out to live alone, a renegade, enemy of men. Since I would not do just as they wished me to, they said that I was not one of them. I came here, to the only other home I had ever known; and here I have lived until you came, alone and without companions, man or beast.”
“Terrible,” Hairi sniffed, deeply touched by the last sentence of this narrative. “I nearly died of loneliness one cold season when the Tundr-folk went away and left me by myself. I have one good friend; no better can be found. Why not a second—yourself? The Mammoth, Rhinoceros and Ape Boy—we three could rule the world if we willed. Come; join us.”
“But I am a man,” replied the surprised youth. “Men would frown upon me as a beast and traitor.”
“Have they not already done so?”