Alexander Kazantsev - The Destruction of Faena

One blow by the fragile Faetess was enough for the enormous beast to crash backwards to the ground. Her paws quivered convulsively and her eyes rolled upwards.

Mada snatched up the child without noticing that he too had curled up and gone silent. She ran off, but her way was barred by two more female Faetoids who had accompanied Dzin on her raid.

Mada rushed fearlessly forward, hugging the inert little body to her breast.

Both Faetoids were struck by accurate blows in quick succession. They collapsed. Their paws curled up and their muzzles froze in a grimace.

Without pausing for breath, Mada ran back the way she had come. The spray from the stream helped to bring her to her senses. She looked at Avik for the first time and screamed.

Someone touched her shoulder. Mada looked round to find Ave bending over her. He had heard her cry in the forest and had rushed to her assistance. Gor Terr was standing close by, ready to beat off any attack.

Ave understood everything without having to be told.

“How did this happen?” he asked in a strangled voice.

Mada told him through her tears about the raid by the Faetoids.

She walked beside Ave, pressing the stiff little Avik to her breast. They did not say another word until they were home.

“Isn’t there any antidote at all?” cried Mada, wringing her hands after she had laid the infant on its tiny bed.

Ave stood at the shelf, counting up the rounds of ammunition. Then he turned to Mada.

“Let Mada warm her son. Fortunately, what’s missing here is a stun bullet, not a poisoned one. Warmth will bring Avik round.”

Gor Terr was carefully refixing the stakes in the window.

Avik’s first cry as he came round was no less of a joy to Mada than his very first wail, heard in the house not so long ago.

“This means the Faetoids will recover too,” observed Mada.

“That’s bad,” responded Gor Terr. “They’ve found the way here!”

Gor Terr proved right. The Faetoids had become completely fearless and began to fight a real war with the newcomers.

Several times, the beasts openly attacked the hunters, who only beat off the animals by using firearms. Their reserves of ammunition were limited. They would hardly last out for more than a few local cycles.

Gor Terr had the idea of fixing a bullet to the end of a spear so as to strike the beasts without losing the bullet. The inspiration for this had been Mada’s desperate behaviour in the battle with Dzin.

Ave insisted that stun bullets should be used, not the poisoned ones. He did not want to exterminate the Faetoids, who were Terr’s indigenous population.

Gor Terr grumbled about this, but finally agreed.

However, this softness on the part of the Faetians led to even more ferocity and determination from the Faetoids. The realisation that, if they had a brush with the newcomers, they would wake up alive after only a brief sleep, led to the beasts imagining that they could always get away with it.

It came to the point at which the herd laid systematic siege to the house. The men could not go out hunting and each time they were forced to disperse the frenzied Faetoids waiting for them outside the door.

Gor Terr began determinedly insisting that the enemy should be wiped out.

“Ave’s right,” objected Mada. “Can we really bring the ill-fated Faena’s terrible principles to Terr? The Faetoids didn’t come to us, we came to them uninvited. Perhaps we could find a common language with them.”

“R-really?” said Gor Terr, astonished, and he became thoughtful.

The situation deteriorated. The Faetoids were no longer the stupid beasts who had originally seized the newcomers in the forest so as to eat them alive. They now seemed guided by will and thought inspired by someone more rational. They were fighting to exterminate the Faetians or drive them away. Mada could not go outside alone for water or golden apples any more. Shaggy bodies could always drop on her from a tree to strangle her or tear her to pieces. Hit by the stun weapon, they recovered consciousness to attack again on the next day. Their brazen determination was impressive and, perhaps, had indeed been born of a feeling of immunity to punishment. The beasts could evidently understand only crude force and deadly danger.

“They’ll all have to be killed off,” decided Gor Terr.

But Mada and Ave didn’t agree.

“It would be better if we went away from here,” suggested Mada. “This is their place. They have the right to drive uninvited guests away.”

“Will you ever get away from them?” asked Gor Terr, gloomily doubtful.

“D’you remember the snowy mountains we saw through the upper porthole on Quest? We’ll go where it’s too cold for the Faetoids. They won’t come after us.”

“You have no r-right to risk the child’s life,” boomed Gor Terr. “But you’re right about one thing. Someone’s got to leave here. Either the Faetians or the Faetoids.”

From that time on, Gor Terr began disappearing frequently from the house and returning without the usual hunting trophies.

Ave and Mada didn’t ask him where he was going, believing that it was up to him to tell them.

He was, in fact, secretly making his way to the gully with the caves. He had selected a reliable shelter and spent a long time observing how the Faetoids lived.

He had marked out an enormous shaggy Faetoid who was evidently the leader of the tribe. Wasn’t it he who was conducting the war on the newcomers?

Exceptionally burly and fierce, he dealt ruthlessly with anyone who displeased him. He once gave Dzin a terrible beating: Gor Terr spotted her unerringly among the other beasts. However, it was not just strength that made him superior to the rest of the Faetoids. His brain must have been more developed than that of any other individual.

The Faetoids had not yet developed as far as rational speech, but they nevertheless communicated amongst themselves with monosyllables that differed mainly in cadence. After being beaten, Dzin fled the cave and came upon Gor Terr hiding in a thicket.

She took fright at first, then squatted in silence not far from him, clutching her heels with her forepaws, and began making soft, piteous sounds. When he realised that she was not going to make a noise at the sight of him, Gor Terr didn’t strike her with his stun-spear. He was conceiving a plan of insane daring, and Dzin could be useful to him.

Every day after that, when Gor Terr went to the hiding-place that he had picked between two close-growing tree-trunks, he would find Dzin waiting for him.

She became a kind of ally to him. Gor Terr could not explain anything to her. But she behaved exactly as he wanted. With her animal instinct, she was able to guess his intentions. Several times, when one of the Faetoids drew near to Gor Terr’s hiding-place, Dzin jumped up, screamed threateningly and gesticulated to drive the uninvited beast away.

Gor Terr’s dangerous plan was soon ripe for action. He decided to disclose it to the others.

When she heard him, Mada decided that he was having another crazy spell and offered to shock him out of it with an injection.

But Gor Terr was adamant.

“One thing’s certain,” he affirmed. “The herd’s got to be driven out of here; it must be led away. They’ll take me for one of themselves. I look sufficiently like them and I know their habits. I’ll deal quickly enough with the disobedient ones. I’ll become their tyrant, their r-ruler, their dictator. And to their own advantage. I’ll teach them sense and r-reason.”

It proved impossible to dissuade Gor Terr. He regarded his scheme as the duty of a friend.

“We certainly won’t win a war with them,” he said. “I’ll lead them off into the mountains. When they’re settled there, I’ll come back to you. You’ll already have had lots of children. I’ll turn your little ones into r-real Faetians.”