Time Slave Read online

  Tree, carrying a spear, his ax at his side, led the column. The spear was mighty, and its head, of chipped stone, was more than a foot in length, lashed to the shaft by cords of leather. He lifted his head, surveying the greenery, the white trunked trees, with his eyes, and with his ears, and taking, too, the scent of the new world. He did not look back to the shelters. He was first in the column. He did not look back, either, at the women and the children. They would follow. He did not look back, even, at the woman Turtle, or Ava, who carried, rolled, furs and skins behind him. She would follow.

  Tree strode forth into the new country, not looking back. He was pleased.

  They followed him.

  Tree was first among the men. The word for this in the language of the Men was 'Adam.'

  In the moonlight, on a flat rock, whitish in the light, Hyena bent to the seeds of the apple. He shook them and muttered, and cast them again and again on the flat rock. Then he looked at them and, with a piece of flint, drew fines connecting the points constituted by the seemingly randomly scattered seeds of the apple. The design was unmistakable, and was a common symbolic representation, to the Men, to the Bear People, to the Horse People. The lines formed, unmistakably, on that flatish, whitish rock in the moonlight, as had those of Herjellsen in the cave, a representation of a star. Hyena rose to his feet and looked at the representation. Then, slowly, alone, unnoticed by anyone, for the men had gone, his head down, his body turning, shaking the yellow-tufted stick, he danced beneath the stars.

  All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 1975 by John Norman

  Cover design by Open Road Integrated Media

  ISBN 978-1-4976-1081-1

  This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

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