Shame of Man

Shame of Man by Piers Anthony Page B

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Authors: Piers Anthony
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unable to explain the distinction between fear and conscience. He did not want to harm the apes because he was not afraid of them; they were harmless, and too much like man himself.
    Sis approached him. She remained interested, despite his bad status. That stirred his emotions further. He didn't like her, yet he found her sexually appealing. He was tempted to copulate with her and then never see her again. But instead he turned his back on her.
    The others set about the hunt. Soon they were gone, pursuing the moving apes. The remainder of the band did not follow; they would only get in the way.
    Hue walked away from the group. He did not know where he was going, but he had to go. Somewhere else.
    Fae watched him, but did not move. She knew how he had disgraced himself, and she did not want to be a part of it. Sis watched him, and almost seemed to start after him, but then must have remembered her brother on the hunt, and stayed put. Hue knew that no one would come with him, because no one felt as he did. To them, he had done a crazy thing.
    Then there was a cry. “Hue!”
    It was Lee, his little sister's friend. She had wanted his favor, and now thought she had found a way to achieve it.
    He paused, letting her catch up. She was still too young to mate with, unless the need were great, but he appreciated her support. Should he reject her? But she would be tainted, now, because she had openly followed him; if she returned to the band, others would hold that against her. The damage had already been done.
    So he resumed walking, taking no overt notice of her. That meant she could follow if she chose, but had no promise of reward. Perhaps she would give it up.
    But she did not. She stayed with him, silently. Finally, far from the camp, he turned to her. “Lee hunt ape no?” He was asking her how she felt aboutthe issue that had separated him from the band. Of course as a female she would not actually hunt anything, for that was man's prerogative.
    “Hue hunt ape no, Lee hunt ape no,” she replied.
    So it wasn't that she had sympathy for the apes, but that she was ready to accept Hue's limits as her own. That would do.
    They were entering the territory of a mountain. Hue knew that a hostile band governed the river region at the base, all the way up to the high pass to the region beyond, so unless he wanted to try to join that band, he would have to try to go another way. That would mean a difficult climb, and a problem foraging. But it had to be. Because the first thing the hostile band would do was to take Lee and make her the mate of one of their males. She would have no choice, unless Hue fought for her and won, and then he would have to mate with her himself. Since he wanted neither to mate with her nor to see her mated involuntarily to another, he had to avoid that band. She was his sister's friend, and needed to be protected.
    The climb was arduous. They got beyond the bamboo trees, where the cold rocky face of the mountain ascended toward the sky. Hue looked at that, and considered the lateness of the day, and elected to spend the night in the forest. So they foraged, finding good bamboo sprouts and a number of fat bugs to eat. Then they made a shelter of bamboo sticks, for it was not good to sleep exposed. Hue made it so that a line of sharp sticks pointed outward, making it difficult for any large creature to attack. Then the two of them crawled inside, and he pulled the door into place, completing their protection.
    As he lay down, tired, Lee snuggled close to him. She wanted to mate, as usual. He ignored her and went to sleep.
    In the morning they resumed their climb. But the mountain fought them. There seemed to be only one place to crest it, and the route to that was so steep that they had to flatten out and crawl on their furry bellies. Lee, lighter, was better able to do it, so she led the way. She had always liked climbing, he remembered, and was good at it.
    But then at a particularly steep place a rock

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