"And if I graduate, father?"
"Then you can go on into the priesthood—with my blessing."
Kiv had little doubt about his ability to enter the School. Physically and mentally, he was in excellent condition. He was confident that there would be no problems keeping him from the School.
The Earthmen agreed with him. He travelled up from Thyvash to Holy Gelusar and submitted himself to the entrance requirements; he was duly enrolled. Within the first year of his studies, he had met and proposed to one of the most beautiful—to his mind—of the girl students. She was Narla geFulda Sesom.
At the end of the first year, he took her home with him to Kandor to meet his parents. But he was impatient to return to the School. They cut short their vacation and set out once again for Gelusar, and the Bel-rogas School.
KIV
I
The hard, savage mandibles of the hugl slashed at Kiv peGanz Brajjyd and missed. Kiv jerked his hand out of the beast's way just in time. Again the hugl lashed out—and this time, the animal connected. The powerful jaws came together; Kiv's blood spurted down over the creature's head.
"Damn," he snapped, irritated.
The animal's little teeth had taken a nasty bite out of the ball of his thumb. Before the hugl could snap again, Kiv dropped it into the little wooden box he usually carried with him for just this purpose, and clicked the lid shut.
"Bite you?" his wife Narla asked.
"Yes. Nasty little beast," Kiv said without rancor. ''I should have learned how to handle them by now. If they're all as hungry as this one, I can see why they're having so much trouble with them on the northern farms."
He turned the box over. The bottom, which was made of glass, permitted him to see the hugl. Clashing its jaws, the inch-long creature scrambled madly around the inside of the hard, plastic-impregnated box.
Narla iKiv geFulda Sesom, who had only recently been privileged to add the "iKiv" that denoted marriage to her name, looked with interest at the little box in her husband's hand.
"What's so different about it, Kiv?"
"The armor," he told her. "It's black. I've never seen a black one before. All the specimens I have in my lab at the School are brown." He wrapped his pocket kerchief around the nipped thumb and tied it. "Take this thing, will you?"
He handed the box up to her, and she stared at it curiously. Kiv dug his high-heeled riding boot into the stirrup and pulled himself up to the saddle. "Jones will be interested in that specimen,'' he said, as they guided their deests out of the roadside thicket where they had paused for midmeal. "Put it in the saddlebag. And be sure to remind me to show it to Jones, as soon as we're back at the School."
She nodded and reached back obediently to stow the box in the leather pouch. Kiv felt a glow of pleasure as he watched the smooth play of her muscles under the fine golden down that covered her skin.
Since she was clad, as he was, in the traditional Nidorian dress—sleeveless vest and thigh-length shorts—he had no thought about the beauty of her clothing; it was her own beauty he saw. She might not be the most beautiful girl on Nidor, but she approached Kiv's personal ideal well enough to satisfy him.
He tipped his head back and squinted at title eternally clouded sky. The Great Light was almost at His brightest, spreading His effulgence magnificently over the green countryside. It was a little after midday.
The Earthman, Jones, said that the Great Light was a "blue-white star." Just what a star was, Kiv didn't know. They were supposed to be above the cloud layer. Some of the things Jones said didn't make much sense, Kiv thought. But it was better than two cycles since they had arrived on Nidor and made themselves known to Grandfather Kinis peCharnok Yorgen, and the Earthmen had said many strange things in that time.
"We've got about an hour's ride ahead of us," Kiv remarked. "If we make good time, that is. I can't wait to see the School again, Narla. This vacation seemed to last forever."
"You've been terribly anxious to get back to work, haven't you? I felt it all the time you were home. You seemed so anxious to leave that I almost felt like apologizing to your parents. But—"
"The School is very important to me, Narla. I don't have to tell you that.'' It was a great honor to be chosen to study at the Earthmen's School, and Kiv was conscious of that.
"Of course, silly. I know," Narla said.
Kiv snapped the reins, and his deest broke into a smooth trot, its long legs pistoning up and down. Narla's mount kept pace easily.
"How long will it be before you write your book?" she asked. "I mean, do you think you'll manage to get the rest of the data you need this term? Seems to me you've covered the hugl about as thoroughly as the little creatures deserve to be covered."
Kiv nodded. "I think I'm nearly done. It's going to be a rather scholarly thing, I'm afraid; no one is very interested in the life cycle of the hugl. Otherwise some-one at the School would have thought of the project long before I did."
"I know. But your work is still good training for you, even if it's not terribly important,'' Narla said. "As the Scripture says, 'The observation of life permits one to attain an inner peace.' "
Kiv frowned.' T'm not sure the Scripture means that. I don't think they were talking about lower forms of life."
"Of course they were! It says 'life,' doesn't it? And if a hugl isn't alive, I don't know what it is."
Kiv grinned and rode on silently for a while, resting lightly in the saddle while his deest carried him at a swift pace over the matted turf of the road.
Finally he said, "It may be so. Certainly Jones was all in favor of my studying the hugl as my big project. And I don't think Jones would permit anything that violated the Word of the Scriptures. Hoy! What's that?"
Narla, startled by his sudden change of tone, glanced quickly at him. Kiv was pointing down the road with one golden arm outstretched.
Someone stood in the middle of the readjust where it forked. As they drew nearer, they saw it was a man, in the familiar blue tunic of a priest, who held up his hand as Kiv and his wife approached. The two riders pulled their animals to a halt and bowed their heads reverently.
"The peace of your Ancestors be with you always,'' said the priest ritually.
"And may the Great Light illumine your mind as He does the world, Grandfather," Kiv and Narla chanted together.
"How may we serve you, Grandfather?'' asked Kiv.
"By carrying a message. Did you intend to cross the Bridge of Klid?"
Kiv nodded. He took careful notice of the other man. The priest was not too much older than Kiv himself, and was evidently a recent graduate of one of the priestly Schools—perhaps even Bel-rogas. His bearing had all the dignity that was proper to his office.
"Yes, we were going to use the bridge," Kiv said.
The Grandfather shook his head. "I'm afraid you'll have to use the Bridge of Gon and go through the city, my son. The Bridge of Klid is being repaired."
Kiv barely managed to conceal a frown. Another delay! And, of course, the proper thing for him to do would be to offer his services in the repair work. He began to think he would never get back to the School.
''If you would do so," the priest went on, ''it would be appreciated if you could go to the nearest communicator and tell the City Fathers that we need more men to help repair the bridge. Give them my name: Dom peBril Sesom."
"I'll be glad to. What happened, Grandfather?"
"A section of the roadbed near the center has collapsed. We want to get the job done before the evening traffic begins."