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not at all been expecting to see him, for we had left him two mountains away, near the ill-fated Shappa Pass.
    The hart trotted up to me, great antlers riding on its stately head, very beautiful, dark brown eyes gazing into mine and glowing with joy. I reached out a hand in greeting, touched it on the neck, and there stood Birc in his human form, brown hair unruly on his forehead as of old. His shy smile broadened almost into a grin when I threw my arms around him and gave him the embrace of a comrade.
    â€œBirc, well met!”
    His face flushed with pleasure, and in his excitement he made little bleating, troating noises, such as the deer speak among themselves. Though he had been one of Kor’s people of the Seal Kindred, and they were not a hairy folk, I saw that his naked body was covered with a fine, reddish fur.
    â€œYou cannot speak?”
    He shook his head. Small spike antlers jutted from his forehead just at the browline, revealed by the stirring of his hair.
    â€œNo matter,” I said. “Come see Kor. He will shout for joy.”
    The white hind stood by Birc’s side, she, the most lovely of hinds, her fearless eyes of a purplish herb green and very human in her dainty head. Her I would not touch. I was afraid of her, for I knew what had happened to Birc through embracing her.
    She walked with us back to camp. Kor sat working bow and bore to make a fire. The sticks clattered down forgotten when he saw my companion.
    â€œBirc!” I was right—it was a shout. In two strides Kor had reached him, embracing him with the hard clasp of a king. Birc gave a soft, bleating cry of happiness.
    â€œBy our ancestor Sedna, but I am glad to see you well! Sit down, eat with us—oh, blast it to Mahela. Dan, I suppose there is not anything to eat.”
    I shook my head. It seemed out of the question now to shoot a deer. But Birc reached over with casual ease and touched the white hind along her level back. For a moment my vision seemed to blur, and then she stood there also in her human form, a maiden with those eerie green eyes, a glorious mane of russet hair and white skin covered with pale fawn-colored fur. My breath tightened at the sight of her, she was so beautiful and so strange. Still standing with his hand on her back, Birc spoke softly into her ear, as deer speak, nuzzling her with his lips. Then she turned and went away upslope, and Birc sat down by our fire-yet-to-be.
    Kor went back to his plying of bow and bore. “I suppose I ought to set some snares,” I said without much fervor. Snares took time. A day might go by before a pika or a whistling marmot chose to hang itself in one, and not much more than a mouthful when one did. Meanwhile we were miserable with hunger.
    Birc spread his palms at me in a gesture as if to say, Do not worry.
    â€œJust think,” I told him with mock annoyance, “we could be butchering your haunches right now.” I went to my pack to get the lengths of rawhide I needed—
    Without the sound of a single footfall the white hind came back to our campsite, she in her womanly form, and with her came a retinue that made me drop snares and forget hunger: half a twelve of other deer women, their beauty such that I stared. They were of a richer fawn brown than she, their manes of glossy hair as red as a red deer’s flanks in springtime, their eyes brown or green or yellow-brown, like resin, all depth and glow. And of course they were naked, their breasts brown-tipped, full but not overfull, as dainty as their delicate way of stepping. And the soft swelling beneath their merkins—ai, but I lusted. Their strangeness, the fine fur that covered them, no longer served to put me off. I felt hot and watery with longing.
    â€œKor,” I said hoarsely, clenching my fists, “do not touch them unless you wish to grow antlers.”
    â€œSpeak for yourself, Dan,” he replied with some amusement in his voice. “I feel no desire to