Like but unlike the prehistoric mammals she had
dreaded, inexplicably mixed from the family of continents, they were, in
a word, overpowering.
She had not been so frightened by the large herd animals---these gave an
air of self-satisfied indifference---as she had been by the fierce
predators that hunted, literally, right alongside them. Kalus had said
not to worry, that there was an unspoken understanding when on common
ground and in times of abundance (he had stretched the truth). But it
was hard to remain calm while looking up sandstone hills at mountain
cats seven feet long, with dark traces of mane draggled across
impossibly muscular shoulders. She thought of the subtly changed
hyenas, probably the most unnerving of all, that had swelled like a
tooth-edged tide of hatred to the very limits of their borders, snarling
and threatening. And Kalus, shaking his spear in answer, and crying out
like an animal himself.
And finally the kill, after so many hours. . .she tried to block it from
her mind. But she could not. There it was right in front of her: Kalus
driving the spear deep into the antelope's shoulder as it ran past,
the sudden look of terror in its eyes as it fell. Then the way he had
ripped the knife from her hand and slashed its throat without
hesitation.
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