Almost at time, tempter to folloempted herself.
quot;ts all I need, no more, ly, t; said Dr. Mary Malone to tried to give han she could carry.
ted and cers trees; but o ttle vine-sered farm to let her go.
quot;I must go on,quot; said Mary again, quot;t carry, o, anottle chank you...”
tly sa ters. Stagazze, sation, enouger-eaten adults and aay ed o, because so move on.
S little goats cs vine leaf, smiled and boook a last drink from t bubbled up among tly togeturned firmly a.
S. t communication ities sicles, and Lyra called Dust, er, and at truction sroyed t. Noold o go to find raordinary ot, ask o find t, meant.
So s notle track ao look for guidance.
Once stle farmstead to be sure s be disturbed, s under trees and opened ttom, y years: a commentary on tion, the I Ching.
Saken it imental: to a lot as a sc ory, s;s t?quot; and pointed to ter on t sly afterer, Lyra Dust o used those symbols.
So in packing to leave aken tle yarroalks . And noime o use them.
Sing, dividing and counting and setting aside, e, curious teenager, and forgotten o do it, but sual coming back, and a sense of t calm and concentrated attention t played sucant part in talking to the Shadows.
Eventually so t indicated t part, because tself in sucic style. She read:
turning to t
For provision of nouris
Brings goo d fortun e.
Spying about h sharp eyes
Like a tiger iable craving.
t seemed encouraging. Sary t led il so: Keeping still is tain; it is a bypat means little stones, doors, and openings.
So guess. tion of quot;openingsquot; recalled terious ered t o say t she should go upward.
Botalks a off up th.
Four er s and tired. track sered out, and s among tumbled boulders and smaller stones. to toended vineyards and abandoned o a scree of small rocks and gravel sloped up to a cliff of crumbling limestone.
earily sed on t flat stone, but before sransferred , sopped. t c tried to find it again.
quot;And t glass tention-catcions in it, just a square patc ttle stones, doors, and openings.
It because of t: probably s all.
Stle patce curiosity, because s ime to look at t one: so get a sail, touco see became invisible from ting te difference bet, and found bursting ement t suchings could be.
t, at about time of tion, oo careless to close it, but at least t a point very similar to t to a rock face. But t, not limestone but granite, and as Mary stepped to t at t of a to almost at top of a locrop overlooking a vast plain.
It o breat aste t rushing.
ide golden ligo begin of it e variety of buff-broly in a t so be laced t looked like rivers of rock gray surface.
And secondly, ands of tallest trees Mary tending a aken time out to look at t redrees, and marveled; but rees opped t least. t trunks gold-red in t.
And finally, ures, too far off to see distinctly, grazed on trangeness about t t s quite .
Sely tired, and ty and rickle of a spring, and only a minute later s: just a seepage of clear er from a mossy fissure, and a tiny stream t led aefully, and filled tles, and t about making able, for night was falling rapidly.
Propped against te some of ts chen fell deeply asleep.
Stled in tiny beads on es lapped in fres human being who had ever lived.
S up, yaretcing a couple of dried figs and taking stock of the place.
Betle rise s vie, across t immense prairie. trees lay to to tes of dust.
Loading o t stand of trees, four or five miles away.
t ercups, like cornfloints to top segment of humb,
visiting a blue flo as it backed out of tals and took to t it , for a moment later it made for most delicacy and taking flig found no nectar. It e s bronze-featoo fast for o see.
on eart she was seeing!
Sting closer to a ures s telopes, and similarly colored, but ill and rub of tion: ter, one at t, and one under tail, so t tion. Mary longed to examine a skeleton and see ructure worked.
For t, tures regarded o go closer and take time to look at t it ting , and t trees looked inviting; and ty of time, after all.
Before long sepping out of to one of tone so .
It mig black, but t retcainly easier to he grass.
Sorees. t, tounded srunks, as ed, as tall, as tall as... S even make a guess.
o t trunk, sed ons as long as and fragrant to le flock of tiny terfly oo many cra. the air was full of humming and buzzing and scraping.
Sillness, tructures, thin herself.
It aken it o ting on tos of lig vertical. Dro move under trees during ttest part of the day.
S.
Feeling too to move any farto rest bets of one of t trees, o a doze.
y minutes or so, and s quite asleep, w she ground.
t up and gats, and sa t resolved itself into a round object, about t across, rolling along to a , and falling on its side.
And tc craso ttress-like root of t trunk and roll away.
t of one of to make ake of toget hey? Seedpods?
atcured under to look at t of ts. S uprig out of t on to look at it more
closely.
It ly circular and as ter, aco tree. It it not tried made no impression at all.
fragrance t. S ter t glistening, and as souc again, s it slide easily under was exuding a kind of oil.
Mary laid t about this world had evolved.
If t, and tiple ed by quantum t off from ion rees and large creatures on.
So see ific any, no geology, no biology of any sort, s as a baby.
And to locate until s moving along one of toand of trees, and to a mile a it moving slowly, and all of a sudden s afraid.
Sed back into t roots and crammed o it, peering over ttress beside to cloud.
s first it looked like a motorcycle gang. t it . But she was.
tures, but leaner and gray-colored, trunks like eleps. tructure as t some and rear single legs, a wheel.
But in nature, ed; t; you needed an axle ely separate from tating part, it couldnt was impossible…
to a not fifty yards a settled, sion, and s loud tle coug.
tly round, immensely , t ter. tures er of t and rear legs, and used teral legs to pus t ttle anxious, for t tance selligence and curiosity in their gaze.
And they were looking for her.
One of tted taken out of trundled off to. , ed it onto an edge runk and rolled it over to his companions.
touc delicately runks, and serpreting t cs tampered was wrong.
t: I came understand it yet. Be bold. take tiative. So sood up and very self-consciously called:
quot;Over your seedpod. Im sorry. Please dont ;
Instantly trunks , glittering eyes facing for.
Sepped out of ter of ts and faced tly. S sucure migo creatures ill, it o the road.
Close up, not five steps a tention ures from the grazing animals nearby as a human was from a cow.
Mary pointed to ;Mary.quot;
t creature reacs trunk. S touc, : quot;Merry.quot;
quot; are you?quot; she said.
quot;ata; ture responded.
All s;I am a ; she said.
quot;Ayama yuman,quot; said ture, and tures laughed.
trunks ossed ts came takable sound of merriment. S : soo.
ture moved foroucs trunk. Mary offered o its soft, bristled, questing touch.
quot;A; s;youre smelling t;
quot;Seepot,quot; said ture.
quot;If you can make t be able to communicate, one day. God knoo herself again.
Notc again: quot;Mary.quot;
t creature toucs o s trunk and spoke. as it ture spoke again, and time Mary tried o make t;Mulefa,quot; sentatively.
Oted, quot;Mulefaquot; in o be teasing ture ; t were a fine joke.
quot;ell, if you can laug suppose youll eat me,quot; Mary said. And from t moment, tween nervous no more.
And tself relaxed: to do, t roaming at random. Mary sa one of ts back, and ted to it, making it secure by tying straps around it, and intricate movements of trunks. ood still, teral legs, and and back legs to steer. ts were full of grace and power.
One of to ts trunk to utter a trumpeting call. to trot toood patiently at t tures move slooucing.
t runk; and to runk delicately to Marys mouth.
At first s tation in tures eye, so she came forward again and opened her lips.
ture expressed a little of t, to cure Mary impulsively put ures , dusty runk.
Presently trumpeted softly and to leave.
S joy t t t t surprise as well.
One of tures self, kneeling douring s trunk, and ting about it: to carry o take hem.
Anotook ened it to to put of tures, or be could so?
But before s out, ture o move ahem.
—
because ;