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leafleather canopy and the chanting humans beneath. “I study Man,” he murmured. “Go to sleep, cubling.”
    Muf considered, then crept up close to the massive adult and likewise stared down toward the fire. After a pause, he looked up questioningly. “What are they doing?”
    “I am not certain,” Ruumahum replied. “I believe in some ways they are trying to become like the brethren … like us.”
    “Us? Us?” Muf coughed comically in the rain and sat back on his several haunches. “But I thought we strive to become like the persons?”
    “So it is believed. Now, go to sleep, shoot!”
    “Please, old one, I am confused. If Man is trying to become like us and we are trying to become like Man—then who is right?”
    “You ask many questions, cub, you do not fully understand. How can you expect to understand the answer? The answer is … That-Which-Is-Sought, a meeting, a conjoinment, a concatenation, an interwoven web.”
    “I see,” whispered Muf, not seeing at all. “What will happen when that is achieved?”
    “I do not know,” Ruumahum replied, looking back to the fire. “None of the brethren know, but we seek it anyway. Besides, Man finds us interesting and useful and believes himself master. The brethren find Man useful and interesting and care not about mastering. Man thinks he understands this relationship. We know we do not. For this contented ignorance we envy him.” He nodded in the direction of the assembled persons below. “We may never understand it. Revelation is never promised, only hoped for.”
    “I understand,” murmured the cub, not understanding at all. He struggled awkwardly to his feet and turned to go, then paused to look back. “Old one, one more question.”
    “What is it?” Ruumahum grumbled, not turning his gaze from the prayer gathering.
    “It is rumored among the cubs that we neither spoke nor thought till the persons came.”
    “That is no rumor, budding, that is truth. Instead, we slept.” He yawned and showed razorlike teeth and tusks. “But so did Man. We wake together, it is thought.”
    “I know,” Muf admitted, not knowing at all. He turned and rambled off to find a sleeping place for the night.
    Ruumahum turned his attention to the persons once more, considered how fortunate he was to have a person as interesting and unpredictable as Born. Now there was this new thing they would go out to find tomorrow. Well, if the world was to change tomorrow, he thought as he yawned, it was better to face change having had a good night’s sleep. He rolled over on his side, tucked his head between fore- and midpaws, and went instantly and peacefully to that country.
    Born was all for starting before the morning mist had lifted, but Reader and the others would not hear of it. Losting viewed the originator of such a preposterous, dangerous idea with pity. Anyone who would even consider moving about the world in mist, when a man could not see what might be stalking him from behind or above until it was right on top of him, had to be more than a little crazy.
    There were twelve in the party—six men and six furcots. The men traveled in single file through the treeways, while the furcots spread out above, below, and on both sides, forming a protective cordon around the persons. Born and Reader shared the lead, while Losting, by choice, guarded the rear. The big man had mixed feelings about this expedition and was striving to stay as far away from its originator—Born—as possible. Besides, as much as he disliked Born for the other’s interest in Brightly Go, Losting was not so stupid that he failed to recognize Born’s skills. As such, Born belonged in the lead. But then, Losting told himself comfortingly, the mad are always clever.
    Their progress through the sunny Third Level branchings was rapid and uninterrupted. Only once did distant warning growls, from the left of their course and below, cause the party to pause and set snufflers. Taandason, who had made the