"It stuns my senses," he murmured. "Kac, say again this youth was spawned of a beast that walks through air."
"Truly, he was, Father," the dark-haired man said gravely. "The Beast People were besetting him and bearing him under at the time our hunting party came upon the scene. The spineless creatures fled at mere sight of our warriors, though there was a far greater number of them than our small party could boast. The beast that walked through air still rests where it fell from the sky. I fear it is dead, for no longer does it give out its breath of fire."
"Not dead, but sleeping," Gene said, wisely refraining from burdening the simple minds of these people with scientific principles. He noticed that many tribes-people were silently drifting into the cavern, curious to see this strange being who was so like themselves, yet so different.
"Now, Old One," he addressed the chief in a respectful tone, "I know so little of your world. I am as an old woman in a strange cave; lost. Tell me of the Beast People. How do they see—for they have no eyes—and how is it there is so much animosity between your races? Perhaps, if their sin is great enough, I will help you against them."
Old One frowned and thoughtfully fingered his dingy gray beard. "Nothing can be done about the Beast People. Long ago, they came from a world beyond worlds. At the coming of our ancestors, the two races took up a constant war for possession of this cave city.
"The legend is that they, too, were spawned of a great beast that walked through air. Their air-beast, just as yours, fell from the sky with a great crash. But this sky-monster slept the sleep of no awakening, and for them there was no returning.
"In truth, they have no eyes, but my father once told me of the manner in which they find their way about. When afoot, they send out squeals, imperceptible to our ears, which come back to them from the obstacles and pitfalls they would avoid and thus guide them to an open path.
"Never, since that far day in the past, have others of their kind come to plague this world. It is my belief that the Beast People's sky-monster rebelled against them and carried them far away from their goal, wherever it may have been. For that, their brothers who searched—if search they did—could not find their spoor and perforce gave them up for lost.
"There is more to their history, but it is not for your ears. Methinks, it could well be that you are one of the Beast People; for surely those of the home world have changed in the many tens of years since these few of their kind were stranded here."
Old One paused to glance quizzically at Gene. His bewrinkled old forehead drew tightly together as he studied the wiry biologist.