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gazed at the animal. She was blind, but her extrasensory ability made her seem to see through her burning, sightless eyes.
    Leaders took turns at the pool while smooth-keeps held their feet. When the Dusters had drunk their fill, the Sivs waded in. Half running, they glided out on the water and drank in great gulps. Duster’s Siv dived under, instinctively using his legs in the water. Surfacing, he moaned with pleasure. He sang, “O Duster, be under and over and all be around, clean. Wet! Try it, O Leader!”
    “Never be me,” Duster sang back.
    Glass ground her heel in the dust. “Hahn!” she toned in a five-scale of anger. “Leader, make Siv be out of my way,” she told Duster.
    “Be waiting your turn,” Duster toned, “waiting with other smooths.”
    “Am waiting my turn,” she responded. “Siv be floating in water. Who want to be drinking his dust!”
    “Be still!” Duster modulated in his command mode.
    Glass was at full attention, still and silent, gazing before her. It was then she saw Miacis on the other side of the pool blinking regally and flicking her outrageous golden tail at them.
    Glass commenced trembling and could not stop. At that distance, the beast blended well with the murk of dust. To warn Duster of the animal, Glass would have to break his command. And she could neither act or react.
    “What be with you, O Smooth?” Duster toned, following her locked gaze. He saw the she-animal where a second ago he had seen nothing.
    Duster’s expression did not change. He gave commands. “Be ready!” His tone was firm, serene.
    At once his packen grouped into trips.
    “Drink,” he toned, gesturing to the smooth-keeps while keeping his gaze on Miacis.
    The smooths drank quickly but as much as they wanted. Then they again took their places.
    Duster had vague thoughts. Seeing the Miacis creature, he knew he had seen her before. He knew she must be the Miacis one the Justice from far had spoken of. He had not remembered Miacis until he saw her.
    Miacis stretched languorously. She yawned lazily. Her sweeping tail of a moment ago lay flat on the ground, straight and stiff as a board. She had extended poisonous dewclaws and concealed them in the dust. Obviously she sensed impending danger.
    “Ginen,” Duster toned softly to Glass.
    “Ha-hahn!” Glass responded quietly yet urgently to the smooth-keeps. They formed a line beside her to her right.
    .Glass pulled a weapon from her pack. In an unbroken motion she cast a shot the size of a marble at Miacis’ left eye. Swiftly, one after another, the smooths cast their shots, all the size of the first. Hurled with such smoothness, they were one blurred image streaming over the pool with a thin whining.
    Miacis’ tail moved. It sprang forward in front of her face, knocking down every shot.
    “Ho! Mmmm!” murmured Miacis. She laughed an exact copy of Justice’s laugh.
    Miacis had learned to talk by copying Justice. Justice felt like a proud parent every time Miacis came up with a new trick.
    The smooth-keeps waited, but Duster gave no further command. The she-animal made no move to flee, so Duster’s leggens kept his position.
    Miacis stretched out, eyeing Duster and the packen. “A-hem,” she said. “You leggy-guys wanta run a race? Sivs?” Her sweet voice carried over the water, trembled in half-tones of honeyed, hard-sounding chords. “Come on, fellas, see which one can catch up to me. Nobody want to play? Oh, well, Hell. You lose, babies. Alas, not a damned thing to do!”
    Miacis had gathered a whole cache of curse words, mainly from Thomas’ mind, and she loved using them.
    Duster thought of connections—the coming of the dream, the appearance of the water pool. He had been in contact with the Miacis creature near this water. In the dream the she-animal had been hidden from his view, a golden streak at the edges of it.
    He gave a hand-signal command and sauntered off in his serene walk of authority that separated him from all others of his