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her
eyes.
    The hides they wore were different, too. She didn't
think that all their clothing was made from leather, though leather was
amply represented. Magpie-like, she wanted to steal some for her own
use.
    When four of the two-legs left the camp, Blind Seer
and Elation followed to learn where they went. Firekeeper remained
behind, studying the two remaining.
    One was quite tall, the other among the smallest of
the group. Neither openly deferred to the other, so she guessed that
they were of similar rank within their pack. Wolf-like, she dismissed
the smaller one as less important and gave most of her attention to the
bigger and stronger.
    This one was the second largest of the two-legs,
smaller only than the one who towered over the rest as the Royal Wolves
did over the Cousins.
    A passing thought distracted Firekeeper. Could the
two-legs be like the forest-dwellers, each with two kinds? Could the
huge man be, in fact, the master of the rest?
    After some consideration, she dismissed the idea. The
big man had deferred quite openly to several of the others. A Royal
Wolf, even a lesser one like herself, would never do so before even the
strongest of Cousins. If the two-legs had a Royal kind, it was not
represented among those here.
    Or they all could be of the Royal kind . . .
    She shook her head as if chasing a fly from her ear.
Too much guessing. Too little that was certain. As the Ones taught the
pups when hunting, guesses were no replacement for knowledge.
    Firekeeper returned her unruly attention to the man below.
    He was tall enough to reach effortlessly into the
lower limbs of the tree from which the two-legs had hung their food. He
was strong enough to control the elk-with-long-hair, even though they
outmassed him. After a time, she sorted his attire from himself and
could better see what he looked like.
    His hair was reddish, the color of a fox's pelt or an oakleaf
in autumn. Loosed from its thong, it hung straight, going past his
shoulders by perhaps the breadth of two fingers. It was cut so neatly
that when it was tied back not a strand strayed from its bonds.
    What she could see of Fox Hair's skin seemed lighter
than her own, redder as well. His eyes were light, but not blue. At
this distance she could not tell precisely what color they were. From
the way he moved, the little extra motions he made, the fluidity of his
limbs, she guessed that he was young compared with some of the others.
    Fox Hair was injured as well, walking as if he had thorns in his feet but not the wit to pull them out.
    The smaller man was colored in shades of brown like a
rabbit or a deer. Unlike the red-haired man, he had a thin strip of
hair growing between his nose and his upper lip. It seemed to bother
him, for as he went about the camp doing incomprehensible things with
other incomprehensible things, he often pulled at it with his fingers.
    So much! And so much unknowable! Firekeeper watched,
fascination turning into frustration. In the late afternoon, the other
four two-legs returned and more than ever she was certain that the
little hawk-nosed man with black and white hair was the One among them.
    Blind Seer came and flopped beside her, his flanks heaving with laughter.
    "They went hither and yon, over hills and around
trees. I'll give it to the tawny-furred one. He knows something of the
forest, but he'd know more if he'd heed his red-and-white spotted pack
mate. She saw me time and again—when I let her! From her scent, she's
of our kind in the same way the foxes are and she had wit enough to
stay clear of me!"
    Firekeeper listened patiently to her brother's boasting. "Did they find what they seek?"
    "No, but Tawny came close. If he goes west again tomorrow, he will find it."
    "Hawk Nose is their leader," Firekeeper said. "I am certain of it now. Elation, what did he find?"
    "Less than he knew," came the screeched reply. "Time and again, he stopped to study the trunk of a tree or a stump ora pile of rocks. He had the giant collect