The Fellowship of the Talisman by Clifford D. Simak Page B

you?”
    â€œBecause we hate the Harriers more than we hate you,” said Snoopy. “While you may think so, in your human folly, the Harriers are not our people. We and they stand very much apart. There are several reasons for this. They are pure evil and we are not. They live for evil alone and we do not. But since you humans lump us in with them, through the centuries they have given us a bad name. Much that they do is blamed on us. There are certain areas in which we might have arrived at an accommodation with humans, but the Harriers have foreclosed these avenues to us because their actions and your fuddle-headedness has made us seem as bad as they. When you condemn them, you condemn us equally with them. There are some more intelligent and compassionate humans who, having taken the trouble to know us better, do not join in this condemnation but, sadly, the most of you do, and the voices of the few compassionates are lost in the flurry of hatred that is directed against us. In this invasion of the Harriers, we have suffered with the humans, perhaps not as much as you humans, for we have our small magics that have been some protection for us, magics that you humans could have shared with us had you been willing to accept us. So, in balance, we hate the Harriers more than we do the humans, and that is why we are willing to help you.”
    â€œGiven such an attitude,” Andrew said to Duncan, “you would be insane to trust him completely. He might lead you straight into an ambush. I take no great stock in his professed hatred of the Harriers, even though he warned me once against them. I tell you, there is no assurance of truth in his kind.”
    Duncan disregarded Andrew. He said to Snoopy, “You say the Harriers are not your people, that you are in no way related to them. Where, then, did they come from? What is their origin?”
    â€œThey first appeared,” said Snoopy, “some twenty thousand years ago, perhaps longer ago than that. Our legends say this and our people take great care that the legends should run true, unchanged, from generation to generation. At first there were only a few of them, but as the centuries went on, their numbers increased. During that time when there were only a few of them, we had the opportunity to learn what kind of folk they were. Once we learned in all truth the evil that was in them, we were able, in a measure, to protect ourselves. I suppose the same thing happened to the primitive humans who existed in those early days, but the humans, without magic, could do little to protect themselves. Sadly, only a few of those humans, perhaps because they were so primitive, could learn to accept us. Many made no distinction between us and these others whom you now call the Harriers, but who have been known by many other names throughout the ages.”
    â€œThey first appeared, you tell me, two hundred centuries ago. How did they appear?”
    â€œThey just were here, was all.”
    â€œBut where did they come from?”
    â€œThere are those who say they came from the sky. There are others who say they came from deep underground, where they had been penned, but that they either broke loose or overcame the force that penned them there, or, perhaps, that their penance extended over only a certain period of time and that the time-term had expired.”
    â€œBut they can’t be of any one race. I am told they come in all shapes and sizes.”
    â€œThat is true,” said Snoopy. “They are not a race. They are a swarm.”
    â€œI don’t understand.”
    â€œA swarm,” Snoopy said impatiently. “A swarm. Don’t you know a swarm?”
    â€œHe’s talking in a lingo of his own,” said Andrew. “He has many such words and concepts that cannot be understood by humans.”
    â€œWell, we’ll let it go at that,” said Duncan. “What is important now is what he has to tell us.”
    â€œYou