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captured ponies dipped below a drop in the terrain. The chariots had already vanished. Joash spat into his hands and bent his legs, grabbing the pole-ends. Harn was heavy, but Joash began to drag the travois.
    His hands quickly become sore, causing his grip to weaken. Dragging the heavy dog also strained his weary legs. Joash endured. Harn’s survival depended upon his reaching Zillith. After a time, he passed the tall field of stalks. A quarter mile away, hyenas trotted parallel to him. One stopped and stared. Joash ignored it. The hyena nuzzled its companions. They all stopped. Finally, they trotted his way. Joash’s stomach tightened. He had feared this. Setting down the travois, Joash slid into the nearby riverbed. In moments he stood beside Harn again, with smooth stones in his pouch. Joash began to unwind a lion-skin sling that he kept around his waist.
    He’d learned the rudiments of slinging from a Shurite slave. Herrek had captured the Shurite on a raid into Massa country, one of the most backward tribes of Shur. The Massa fought with slings, some carrying three different lengths of leather and four kinds of missiles. Joash knew about fireballs of flaming pitch and heavy lead balls that could break shields in a single blow. Joash had never practiced slinging in sight of the Elonite warriors, who would surely have mocked him for using Massa weaponry.
    Joash put a stone in the pouch, twirled the sling over his head, and released. The stone kicked up dust in front of the hyenas. The beasts stopped and growled in their weird way. Soon they trotted toward him once more.
    Back in Elon, the hyenas were smaller and more cowardly. Here, they were huge, like everything else. Joash ignored the twisting in his guts and twirled the sling as he clenched his teeth. The hyenas yipped as their trot increased into a lope.
    This time, the stone hit a hyena in the head. It sank, twitched, then stood up and wobbled away. The others peered at it. The Massa slave could have slain the hyena from this range, but Joash didn’t have the knack down yet. Still, with his increased confidence, he hit another hyena, this one in the side. The hyena screamed and took off running. The others, as they watched Joash put a fourth stone into his sling, turned and dashed away.
    Joash picked up the travois afterward and found that the scare had drained his strength. He willed himself toward the nearest thorn bushes. With each step the travois grew heavier. “The thorn bushes,” he told himself. Before he stopped he’d have to reach them.
    Joash saw a dreadful sight then. A sabertooth bounded across the dry riverbed. The massive beast was still far off. When the sabertooth climbed the bank, the tall stalks hid Joash from view. As the first beast had disappeared, another sabertooth bounded across the riverbed. It was as if they crossed one-by-one in order to decrease their chances of being seen. When a third sabertooth repeated the performance, Joash knew Giant Land was finally living up to its ominous reputation.
    Joash bent his head and dragged the travois faster. His lungs burned, and he couldn’t feel his fingers. The scrape of wood on ground sounded loud, and every time the ends clacked against a rock he winced. Finally, Joash reached the thorn bushes. He carefully pushed a sleeping Harn under the thorns. He slashed his shirt in the process and twice his arms, drawing blood. Joash sucked the blood off the thorns to keep the scent out of the air. Then he squeezed in beside Harn and lowered cut branches in front of them, barricading them in.
    Joash watched through the thorns. In time, a huge sabertooth padded past. This beast seemed even larger when viewed while lying on the ground. Shortly, a second, third, and fourth sabertooth padded past. Out of caution, Joash waited for more.
    Lying down, prone, resting at last, his eyelids became heavier and heavier. Although scared, the thorns gave him a feeling of security. As the fifth sabertooth padded