The mount of the Wagon Peoples, unknown in the
northern hemisphere of Gor, is the terrifying but beautiful
kaiila.
Nomads
Description of the kaiila
Silken
Graceful
Long-necked
Smooth gaited
The mount of the Wagon Peoples, unknown in the
northern hemisphere of Gor, is the terrifying but beautiful
kaiila. It is a silken, carnivorous, lofty creature, graceful,
long-necked, smooth-gaited.
Nomads
Two large eyes, one on each side of head
Eyes have three lids - third is transparent
The head of the kaiila bears two large eyes, one on each
side, but these eyes are triply lidded, probably an adaptation
to the environment which occasionally is wracked by severe
storms of wind and dust; the adaptation, actually a transparent third lid,
permits the animal to move as it wishes under
conditions that force other prairie animals to back into the
wind or, like the sleen, to burrow into the ground. The kaiila
is most dangerous under such conditions, and, as if it knew
this, often uses such times for its hunt.
Nomads
Long, triangular tongue
Four rows of fangs I could see the long, triangular tongue in the animal's head, behind
the four rows of fangs.
Nomads
Tawny brown or sable black
The kaiila of these men were as tawny as the brown grass
of the prairie, save for that of the man who faced me, whose
mount was a silken, sable black, as black as the lacquer of
the shield.
Nomads
Long ears
Their long ears were laid back against the fierce, silken heads.
Nomads
Paws
There was the sudden thud of a kaiila's paws on the grass
between the wagons and a wild snorting squeal.
Nomads
...with claws that emerge
At the last instant, the lances of four riders but a hand's
breadth from my body, the enraged, thundering kaiila, hissing
and squealing, at a touch of the control straps, arrested their
fierce charge, stopping themselves, tearing into the deep turf
with suddenly emergent claws.
Nomads
20 to 22 hands at shoulders (6 feet 8 inches to 7 feet 4 inches at the shoulders!)
A kaiila, which normally
stands about twenty to twenty-two hands at the shoulder, can
over as much as six hundred pasangs in a single day's
riding.
Nomads
Stirrups of saddle are about 5 feet off the ground
Now I could see down the wide, grassy lane, loping
towards us, two kaiila and riders. A lance was fastened
between them, fixed to the stirrups of their saddles. The lance
cleared the ground, given the height of the kaiila, by about
five feet. Between the two animate, stumbling desperately, her
throat bound by leather thongs to the lance behind her neck,
ran a girl, her wrists tied behind her back.
Nomads
Characteristics of kaiila
Viviparous (bears live young, not eggs)
Young do not suckle milk, are born vicious and immediately hunt
Hunts and eats living things - verr, game, slaves, prisoners, unsuspecting free ~s~
The mount of the Wagon Peoples, unknown in the
northern hemisphere of Gor, is the terrifying but beautiful
kaiila. It is a silken, carnivorous, lofty creature, graceful,
long-necked, smooth-gaited. It is viviparous and undoubtedly
mammalian, though there is no suckling of the young. The
young are born vicious and by instinct, as soon as they can
struggle to their feet, they hunt. It is an instinct of the
mother, sensing the birth, to deliver the young animal in the
vicinity of game. I supposed, with the domesticated kaiila, a
bound verr or a prisoner might be cast to the newborn
animal. The kaiila, once it eats its fill, does not touch food
for several days.
Nomads
Extremely agile - outmaneuvers the high tharlarion
Requires less food than a tarn
Can cover 600 pasangs in a day
The kaiila is extremely agile, and can easily outmaneuver
the slower, more ponderous high tharlarion. It requires less
food, of course, than the tarn. A kaiila, which normally
stands about twenty to twenty-two hands at the shoulder, can
over as much as six hundred pasangs in a single day's
riding.
Nomads
Moves with great speed
I turned and was not surprised to see the fourth rider,
motionless on his animal, already in position. The kaiila
moves with great rapidity.
Nomads
Kaiila is most dangerous in storms of wind and dust (it can see when other animals
can't)
Often hunts during these times
The head of the kaiila bears two large eyes, one on each
side, but these eyes are triply lidded, probably an adaptation
to the environment which occasionally is wracked by severe
storms of wind and dust; the adaptation, actually a transpar-
ent third lid, permits the animal to move as it wishes under
conditions that force other prairie animals to back into the
wind or, like the sleen, to burrow into the ground. The kaiila
is most dangerous under such conditions, and, as if it knew
this, often uses such times for its hunt.
Nomads
Kaiila in motion
Rearing on hind legs
Snarling
The third rider placed himself, reining in suddenly, pulling
the mount to its hind legs, and it reared snarling against the
bit, and then stood still, its neck straining toward me.
Nomads
Ready for attack, kaiila tense like larls
Flanks quivering
Large eyes intent on the prey
I saw the kaiila tense, almost like larls, their flanks
quivering, their large eyes intent upon me. I saw one of the
long, triangular tongues dart out and back.
Nomads
Bounding forward
Squealing with rage
As suddenly as he had finished, as soon as the men had
named themselves, as if a signal had been given, the four
kaiila bounded forward, squealing with rage, each rider bent
low on his mount, lance gripped in his right hand, straining to
be the first to reach me.
Nomads
Squealing, snorting
Can trample with clawed paws
I might have thrown myself to the
ground as the larl hunters from Ar, once their weapon is
cast, covering myself with the shield; but then I would have
been beneath the clawed paws of four squealing, snorting
kaiila, while the riders jabbed at me with lances, off my feet,
helpless.
Nomads
Enraged, thundering, hissing and squealing
Fierce charge
At the last instant, the lances of four riders but a hand's
breadth from my body, the enraged, thundering kaiila, hissing
and squealing, at a touch of the control straps, arrested their
fierce charge,...
Nomads
Trained for war & the hunt
Notched ear designates kaiila trained for war & hunt
"The ear of his kaiila is notched," I said to Grunt. "Is that an eccentric
mutilation or is it deliberate, perhaps meaningful?"
"It is meaningful," said Grunt. "It marks the kaiila as a prize
animal, one especially trained for the hunt and war."
Savages
Kaiila is trained to fight
The charge of the Tuchuk, in spite of its rapidity and
momentum, carried him no more than four paces beyond
me. It seemed scarcely had he passed than the kaiila had
wheeled and charged again, this time given free rein, that it
might tear at me with its fangs.
I thrust with the spear, trying to force back the snapping
jaws of the screaming animal. The kaiila struck, and then
withdrew, and then struck again. All the time the Tuchuk
thrust at me with his lance. Four times the point struck me
drawing blood, but he did not have the weight of the leaping
animal behind his thrust; he thrust at arm's length, the point
scarcely reaching me. Then the animal seized my shield in its
teeth and reared lifting it and myself, by the shield straps,
from the ground. I fell from some dozen feet to the grass
and saw the animal snarling and biting on the shield, then it
shook it and hurled it far and away behind it.
Nomads
Trained to avoid the spear
Kaiila must be proficient before being allowed to breed
Those not proficient are killed by spear
I readied the spear for its cast.
Warily now the animal began to circle, in an almost
human fashion, watching the spear. It shifted delicately,
feinting, and then withdrawing, trying to draw the cast.
I was later to learn that kaiila are trained to avoid the
thrown spear. It is a training which begins with blunt staves
and progresses through headed weapons. Until the kaiila is
suitably proficient in this art it is not allowed to breed. Those
who cannot learn it die under the spear. Yet, at a close
range, I had no doubt that I could slay the beast. As swift as
may be the kaiila I had no doubt that I was swifter. Gorean
warriors hunt men and larls with this weapon. But I did not
wish to slay the animal, nor its rider.
Nomads
Riding a kaiila
High light saddles, saddle blankets, quirts, reins, bells
Rein is single rein, tied through a hole drilled in the kaiila's right nostril
Rein is drawn under jaw to the left
To go left, the rein is drawn to the left
To go right, reins is pulled to right over kaiilas neck - applying pressure against left cheek
To stop, the rein is drawn back
To start or hasten, the flanks are kicked or the quirt is used
Then I passed a shop where the high, light kaiila saddles were being made.
One could also buy there, saddle blankets, quirts, bells and kaiila reins. The
kaiila rein is a single rein, very light, plaited of various leathers. There
are often ten to a dozen strips of tanned, dyed leather in a single rein. Each
individual strip, interestingly, given the strength of the rein, is little
thicker than a stout thread. The strips are cut with knives, and it requires
great skill to cut them. The rein, carefully plaited, is tied through a hole
drilled in the right nostril of the kaiila. It passes under the animal's jaw
to the left. When one wishes to guide the animal to the left one draws the
rein left; when one wishes to guide it right one pulls right, drawing the
rein over the animal's neck, with pressure against the left cheek. To stop
the animal one draws back. To start or hasten the animal, one kicks it in
the flanks, or uses the long kaiila quirt.
Tribesmen
Riding kaiila is natural to Wagon Men, taught to ride before they can
walk
At the last instant, the lances of four riders but a hand's
breadth from my body, the enraged, thundering kaiila, hissing
and squealing, at a touch of the control straps, arrested their
fierce charge, stopping themselves, tearing into the deep turf
with suddenly emergent claws. Not a rider was thrown or
seemed for an instant off balance. The children of the Wagon
Peoples are taught the saddle of the kaiila before they can
walk.
Nomads
Certain Wagon Women ride kaiila, though likely not many - one is seen and
it astonishes Tarl
There was the sudden thud of a kaiila's paws on the grass
between the wagons and a wild snorting squeal.
I jumped back avoiding the paws of the enraged, rearing
animal.
"Stand aside, you fool!" cried a girl's voice, and to my
astonishment, astride the saddle of the monster I espied a
girl, young, astonishingly beautiful, vital, angry, pulling at the
control straps of the animal.
She was not as the other women of the Wagon Peoples I
had seen, the dour, thin women with braided hair, bending
over the cooking pots.
She wore a brief leather skirt, slit on the right side to allow
her the saddle of the kaiila; her leather blouse was sleeveless;
attached to her shoulders was a crimson cape; and her wild
black hair was bound back by a band of scarlet cloth. Like
the other women of the Wagons she wore no veil and, like
them, fixed in her nose was the tiny, fine ring that proclaimed
her people.
Her skin was a light brown and her eyes a charged, spark-
ling black.
Nomads
Much like southern kaiila - lofty, silken, long-necked, smooth-gaited
Also has transparent third lid useful in sandstorms
Also stands 20 - 22 hands at the shoulder
Also is swift, has great stamina and can range 600 pasangs in a day
In sand dunes, 50 pasangs is considered good.
Like the Southern Kaiila, is high-strung and vicious-tempered
Sand kaiila almost always tawny colored though rare black coats exist
Differences
Sand kaiila suckle their young
Sand kaiila are omnivorous
Cannot go several days without eating (as can the southern kaiila)
The sand kaiila, or desert kaiila, is a kaiila, and handles similarly, but
it is not identically the same animal which is indigenous, domestic and wild,
in the middle latitudes of Gor's southern hemisphere; that animal, used as a
mount by the Wagon Peoples, is not found in the northern hemisphere of Gor;
there is obviously a phylogenetic affinity between the two varieties, or
species; I conjecture, though I do not know, that the sand kaiila is a
desert-adapted mutation of the subequatorial stock; both animals are lofty,
proud, silken creatures, long-necked and smooth-gaited; both are triply
lidded, the third lid being a transparent membrane, of great utility in the
blasts of the dry storms of the southern plains or the Tahari; both creatures
are comparable in size, ranging from some twenty to twenty-two hands at the
shoulder; both are swift; both have incredible stamina; under ideal
conditions both can range six hundred pasangs in a day; in the dune
country, of course, in the heavy, sliding sands, a march of fifty pasangs is
considered good; both, too, I might mention, are high-strung, vicious-tempered
animals; in pelt the southern kaiila ranges from a rich gold to black; the
sand kaiila, on the other hand, are almost all tawny, though I have seen black
sand kaiila; differences, some of them striking and important, however, exist
between the animals; most notably, perhaps, the sand kaiila suckles its young;
the southern kaiila are viviparous, but the young, within hours after birth,
hunt, by instinct; the mother delivers the young in the vicinity of game;
whereas there is game in the Tahari, birds, small mammals, an occasional
sand sleen, and some species of tabuk, it is rare; the suckling of the young
in the sand kaiila is a valuable trait in the survival of the animal;
kaiila milk, which is used, like verr milk, by the peoples of the Tahari, is
reddish, and has a strong, salty taste; it contains much ferrous sulphate; a
similar difference between the two animals, or two sorts of kaiila, is that
the sand kaiila is omnivorous, whereas the southern kaiila is strictly
carnivorous; both have storage tissues; if necessary, both can go several
days without water; the southern kaiila also, however, has a storage stomach,
and can go several days without meat; the sand kaiila, unfortunately, must
feed more frequently: some of the pack animals in a caravan are used in
carrying fodder; whatever is needed, and is not available enroute, must be
carried; sometimes, with a mounted herdsman, caravan kaiila are released to
hunt tabuk; a more trivial difference between the sand kaiila and the
southern kaiila is that the paws of the sand kaiila are much broader,
the digits even webbed with leathery fibers, and heavily padded, than those
of its southern counterpart.
Tribesmen
Pack (Caravan) kaiila
Strong kaiila can carry 640 pounds, properly distributed
Normal loads are 400 pounds
The red salt of Kasra, so called from its port of embarcation, was famed
on Gor. It was brought from secret pits and mines, actually, deep in the
interior, bound in heavy cylinders on the backs of pack kaiila. Each cylinder,
roped to others, weighed in the neighborhood of ten stone, or some forty
pounds, a Gorean "Weight." A strong kaiila could carry sixteen such cylinders,
but the normal load was ten. Even numbers are carried, of course, that the
load is balanced. A poorly loaded kaiila can carry far less weight than one
on whom the burden is intelligently distributed.
Tribesmen
The kaiila in caravans are belled
The caravan kaiila, incidentally, both those which are pack animals and
those used as mounts for guards and warriors, are muchly belled. This helps
to keep the animals together, makes it easier to move in darkness, and in a
country where, often, one cannot see more than a hundred yards to the next
dune or plateau, is an important factor in survival. If it were not for the
caravan bells, the slow moving, otherwise generally silent caravans might,
unknowingly, pass within yards of men in desperate need of succor. The kaiila
of raiders, incidentally, are never belled.
Tribesmen
Importantly, there are also surfaces of various textures, a deep-piled rug,
satins, silks, coarsely woven kaiila-hair cloths, brocades, rep-cloth, a
tiled corner, a sleen pelt, cloths woven of strung beads, cloaks of leather,
mats of reeds, etc.
Tribesmen
Kaiila and verr are found at the oases, but not in great numbers. The herds
of these animals are found in the desert. They are kept by nomads, who move
them from one area of verr grass to another or from one water hole to another,
as the holes, for the season, go dry. Smaller water sources are used in the
spring, for these are the first to go dry, larger ones later in the year. No
grass grows about these water holes because many animals are brought to them
and graze it to the earth. They are usually muddy ponds, with some stunted
trees about, centered in the midst of an extensive radius of grassless,
cracked, dry earth. Meat, hides, and animal-hair cloth are furnished to
the oases by the nomads. In turn, from the oases the nomads receive, most
importantly, Sa-Tarna grain and the Bazi tea. They receive, as well, of
course, other trade goods. Sa-Tarna is the main staple of the nomads. They,
in spite of raising herds, eat very little meat. The animals are too precious
for their trade value, and their hair and milk, to be often slaughtered for
food.
Tribesmen
The war kaiila, rearing on its hind legs, its claws, however, sheathed,
lunged at the other animal, its clawed back feet thrusting with an explosion
of sand away from the ground; the long neck darted forward, the long, graceful
head, its fanged jaws bound shut with leather, struck at the man astride the
other beast. He thrust the jaws away with the buckler, and, rearing in the
stirrups of his high saddle, slashed at me with the leather-sheathed, curved
blade. I turned the stroke with my own sheathed blade, it, too, in the light
, ornamented exercise sheath.
The kaiila, both of them, with the swiftness, the agility of cats, spun,
half crouching, squealing in frustration, and again lunged toward one another.
With the light rein I pulled my kaiila to the left as we passed, and the man,
trying to reach me, was, startled, off balance. With a backward sweeping cut
the sheathed blade struck him, as he hung from his saddle, on the back of the
neck.
He swept past me and spun his kaiila, then jerked it up short, back
on its haunches in the sand.
Tribesmen
The kurdah
The girl, startled, cried out. She sat within, her knees to the left, her
ankles together, her weight partly on her hands, to the right, on the small,
silk-covered cushion of the frame. It was semicircular and about a yard in
width at its widest point. The superstructure of the frame rose about four
feet above the frame at its highest point, inclosing, as in an open-fronted,
flat-bottomed, half globe, its occupant. This frame, however, was covered
completely with layers of white rep cloth, to reflect the sun, with the
exception of the front, which was closed with a center-opening curtain,
also of white rep-sloth. The wood of the frame is tem-wood. It is light.
It is carried by a pack kaiila, strapped to the beast, and steadied on both
sides by braces against the pack blankets. This frame is called, in Gorean,
the kurdah. It is used to transport women, either slave or free, in the
Tahari. The girl was not chained within the kurdah. There is no need for it.
The desert serves as cage.
Tribesmen
The sand kaiila, or desert kaiila, is a kaiila, and handles similarly, but
it is not identically the same animal which is indigenous, domestic and wild,
in the middle latitudes of Gor's southern hemisphere; that animal, used as a
mount by the Wagon Peoples, is not found in the northern hemisphere of Gor;
there is obviously a phylogenetic affinity between the two varieties, or
species; I conjecture, though I do not know, that the sand kaiila is a
desert-adapted mutation of the subequatorial stock; both animals are lofty,
proud, silken creatures, long-necked and smooth-gaited; both are triply
lidded, the third lid being a transparent membrane, of great utility in the
blasts of the dry storms of the southern plains or the Tahari; both creatures
are comparable in size, ranging from some twenty to twenty-two hands at the
shoulder; both are swift; both have incredible stamina; under ideal
conditions both can range six hundred pasangs in a day; in the dune
country, of course, in the heavy, sliding sands, a march of fifty pasangs is
considered good; both, too, I might mention, are high-strung, vicious-tempered
animals; in pelt the southern kaiila ranges from a rich gold to black; the
sand kaiila, on the other hand, are almost all tawny, though I have seen black
sand kaiila; differences, some of them striking and important, however, exist
between the animals; most notably, perhaps, the sand kaiila suckles its young;
the southern kaiila are viviparous, but the young, within hours after birth,
hunt, by instinct; the mother delivers the young in the vicinity of game;
whereas there is game in the Tahari, birds, small mammals, an occasional
sand sleen, and some species of tabuk, it is rare; the suckling of the young
in the sand kaiila is a valuable trait in the survival of the animal;
kaiila milk, which is used, like verr milk, by the peoples of the Tahari, is
reddish, and has a strong, salty taste; it contains much ferrous sulphate; a
similar difference between the two animals, or two sorts of kaiila, is that
the sand kaiila is omnivorous, whereas the southern kaiila is strictly
carnivorous; both have storage tissues; if necessary, both can go several
days without water; the southern kaiila also, however, has a storage stomach,
and can go several days without meat; the sand kaiila, unfortunately, must
feed more frequently: some of the pack animals in a caravan are used in
carrying fodder; whatever is needed, and is not available enroute, must be
carried; sometimes, with a mounted herdsman, caravan kaiila are released to
hunt tabuk; a more trivial difference between the sand kaiila and the
southern kaiila is that the paws of the sand kaiila are much broader,
the digits even webbed with leathery fibers, and heavily padded, than those
of its southern counterpart.
Tribesmen
Kaiila hair cloth
I saw the end of the caravan, more than a pasang away. It wound, slowly,
gracefully, through the hills. At its very end came a man on a single kaiila.
From time to time, he dismounted, gathering shed kaiila hair and thrusting it
in bags at his saddle. The kaiila, unlike the verr and hurt, is never sheared.
When it sheds its hair, however, the hair may be gathered, and, depending on
the hair, various cloths can be made from it. There is a soft, fine hair, the
most prized, which grows on the belly of the animal; there is an undercoating
of hair, soft but coarser, which is used for most cloth; and there are the
long, outer hairs. These, though still soft and pliant, are, comparatively,
the most coarse. The hairs of this coat are used primarily for rope and tent
cloth.
Tribesmen
It was in the late afternoon. We would stop in an Ahn or two for camp.
Fires would be lit. The kaiila would be put in circles, ten animals to the
circle, and fodder, by kaiila boys, would be thrown into the center of the
circle.
The tents would be pitched. The opening of the Tahari tent usually faces
the east, that the morning sun may warm it. Gor, like the Earth, rotates to
the east. The nights require, often, a heavy djellaba or an extra blanket.
Many nomads build a small kaiila-dung fire in the tent, to smolder during the
night, to warm their feet. I needed not do this, of course, for at my feet
slept the former Miss Priscilla Blake-Allen, the girl, Alyena.
At night the kaiila are hobbled. The slave girls, too, are hobbled. With the
kaiila a simple figure-eight twist of kaiila hair rope, above the spreading
paws, below the knees, is sufficient
Tribesmen
Kaiila are not permitted at Klima, even to the guards. Supplies are
brought in, and salt carried away, by caravan, on which the pits must depend.
Other than the well at Klima, there is no other water within a thousand
pasangs. The desert is the wall at Klima. The locations of the pits, such as
those at Klima, are little known, and, to protect the resource, are kept
secret by mine agents and merchants. Women are not permitted at Klima, lest
men kill one another for them.
Tribesmen
I nodded. I decided it would be best to search for a merchant who was on
the fair's staff, or find one of their booths or praetor stations, where such
information might be found.
I stepped again to one side. Down the corridor between tents, now those of the
carvers of semiprecious stones, came four men, in the swirling garb of the
Tahari. They were veiled. The first led a stately sand kaiila on which a
closed, fringed, silken kurdah was mounted. Their hands were at their scimitar
hilts. I did not know if the kurdah contained a free woman of high state or
perhaps a prized female slave, naked and bejeweled, to be exhibited in a
secret tent and privately sold.
Beasts
I watched the robes of free women, passing in the street, the wagons,
the now increasing throngs, the palanquins of rich men, some with lovely,
briefly tunicked slaves chained behind them, attached to the palanquins, an
affectation of display.
My mistress was long in the shop. I assumed I would have many packages to
bear.
I then saw a kaiila pass. It was lofty, stately, fanged and silken. I had
heard of such beasts, but this was the first one I had seen. It was yellow,
with flowing hair. Its rider was mounted in a high, purple saddle, with
knives in saddle sheaths. He bore a long, willowy black lance. A net of
linked chain, unhooked; dangled beside his helmet. His eyes bore the
epicanthic fold. He was, I gathered, of one of the Wagon Peoples, most
likely the Tuchuks. His face, colorfully scarred, was marked in the rude
heraldry of those distant, savage riders.
Fighting Slave (In Ar)
The Red Savages, as they are commonly called on Gor, are racially and
culturally distinct from the Red Hunters of the north. They tend to be a more
slender, longer-limbed people; their daughters menstruate earlier; and their
babies are not born with a blue spot at the base of the spine, as in the case
with most of the red hunters. Their culture tends to be nomadic, and is
based on the herbivorous, lofty kaiila, substantially the same animal as is
found in the Tahari, save for the wider footpads of the Tahari beast, suitable
for negotiating deep sand, and the lumbering, gregarious, short-tempered,
trident-homed kailiauk. To be sure, some tribes do not have the kaiila, never
having mastered it, and certain tribes have mastered the tarn, which tribes
are the most dangerous of all.
Savages
Still the man pressed on, knowing the direction of the kailiauk and
following the natural geodesics of the land, such as might be followed by a
slow-moving beast, pawing under the snow for roots or grass. He did not fear
to lose the trail. Because of his dream he was undaunted. On snowshoes, of
course, he could move faster through drifted snow than the kailiauk. Indeed,
over long distances, in such snow, he could match the speed of the wading
kaiila. Too, as you know, the kailiauk seldom moves at night."
Savages
The kailiauk in question, incidentally, is the kailiauk of the Barrens.
It is a gigantic, dangerous beast, often standing from twenty to twenty- five
hands at the shoulder and weighing as much as four thousand pounds. It is
almost never hunted on foot except in deep snow, in which it is almost
helpless. From kaiilaback, riding beside the stampeded animal, however,
the skilled hunter can kill one with a- single arrow. He rides close to the
animal, not a yard from its side, just outside the hooking range of the
trident, to supplement the striking power of his small bow. At this range
the arrow can sink in to the feathers. Ideally it strikes into the intestinal
cavity behind the last rib, producing large-scale internal hemorrhaging he
closely behind the left shoulder blade, thence piercing the eight-valved
heart.
Savages
In moments a troop of soldiers, lancers and crossbowmen, mounted on
kaiila, reined up about us. They wore the colors of Thentis. They were
covered with dust. Their uniforms were black with sweat and dirt. The
flanks of their prancing kaiila were lathered with foam. They snorted and,
throwing back their heads, sucked air into their lungs. Their third lids,
the transparent storm membranes, were drawn, giving their wild, round eyes a
yellowish cast.
"Dust Legs," said the officer with the men. "The road is closed.
Whither are you bound?"
"Fort Haskins," said, the young man.
Savages
Kaiila on Gor
