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provided comfortable support as well as fruit.
    Hu hoisted himself into the tree. Be followed closely. They faced the woman and her daughter. The child cringed, fearing she would be killed. The woman gazed stolidly, not opposing what was to be. She was only a little smaller than Hu, because he was far from full grown for a male, and small for his age.
    Hu touched himself. “Hu,” he said. He touched Be. “Be. Kin.” There were words for individuals, and words for threats, such as hyena or lion, and words for relationships, such a friend, foe, and kin. But he wasn't sure that the people of this forest used the same words.
    The woman touched herself. “LI,” she said, naming herself. Then her daughter: Le.
    Be extended her hand to Le. The other paused, then touched it. They would be friends.
    Hu still hesitated. What did this female expect of him? He was obviously not a dominant male.
    LI glanced at the two children, who were already playing a game of finger tag, trying to see who could touch the other's forefinger. Each held her other arm at the elbow, so that it could move only from that anchor. When one tagged the other, it changed over, and the other tried to tag the one. All children played it endlessly.
    Then LI turned on the branch, bending down to grip the trunk of the tree, presenting him with her bright bare rump. She had accepted him for mating.
    Hu had not allowed himself to think this far ahead. He had smelled grown foreign females on occasion and gotten the hankering to mate with them, but they had always been protected by their dominant males. Mating was one thing; getting killed was another. Now there was no big male to prevent it. But was Hu ready?

    Then abruptly the mature female scent of her struck, him with new force, stirring his sexual response. He gripped her body from behind and his loin did what it knew to do, merging with hers. There was an explosion of joy from his groin, that spread out through his body, making it almost seem to float. He felt pleasantly dizzy, and hot, and out of breath. Never before had he felt so good, so swiftly. The few young females he had tried this with had lacked the smell and color of maturity, so that the act was more game than breeding. What a difference!
    It was over in a moment, but it had been a remarkable experience. His life had changed. Yet little else had. Be and Le still played their game of tag finger on the adjacent branch, not concerned with the process of mating.
    LI turned to face him again, gazing appraisingly at him. She had accepted him, and he had accepted her, and her child lived. So it would be. Hu realized that she had done it to protect her daughter. Had he been going to kill the child, he should have done it before mating. Now he was bound to let Le alone. Which he was glad to do. In fact, he was relieved about that as well as about the sexual matter.
    He looked across to the adjacent trees. He saw that Jo and Bl had done the same thing, the one surely guided by the other. No children had been killed. Ra had simply joined his female, being too young to really mate. The other youths had similarly abstained, but remained with their females. A curiously fragmented yet united band was emerging, with no single dominant male.
    But the grove could not sustain this number of people. They would have to find another. And of course there was no other available. In fact, some other dominant male, seeing no similarly powerful male here, was apt to come to take the females for himself. They would have to fight him, and the next, and they might not be as lucky in the fray again.
    Bl had figured this out first. He knew they had to move, and soon. He conveyed this to Jo, who did not understand the rationale but was amenable. They dropped to the ground, each youth with his new family, and followed Jo's lead to the grassy plain beyond the verge of the forest.
    And there was Bb's band, evidently following their trail. It was still larger than their own, in terms