alarms quiet. All systems alert: blue light."
Glawen went on to complete the checkout, to Chilke's satisfaction.
' Flights of inspection across the Conservancy, to monitor the movement of animal herds; to search for evidence of plague or blight; to take note of natural cataclysms such as floods, fires, storms and volcanic eruptions, and, most urgently, to discover and check any Yip encroachment into the mainland. Qualified cadets were therefore not discouraged from flying short patrols.
"Two things to remember," said Chilke.
"At Maroli Meadow, make! sure to land on the pad. If you break open a hummock you'll have bugs everywhere, and curse the day you were born. Second: donS stray off into the forest; tangle-tops have been sighted in the neighbor-3 hood. So keep your eyes open, and stay close to the flyer." 3 "Very well, sir. We'll take care." | Glawen and Sessily stowed their gear, climbed into the flyer, waved| to Chilke, then, to Glawen's touch, were taken aloft. With the autopilot! engaged, they flew south at a conservative altitude of a thousand feet.j The Mitrix drifted at no great speed over plantations and vineyards! across the River Wan and the Big Lagoon, then away from the enclave^ and out over the wilderness: here a placid savanna of low hills grownl over with a carpet of low blue-gray plants and pale green bushes;| marked by dark green dendrons, alone or in copses, and occasionalJ smoke trees, holding puffs of fragile blue foliage three hundred fee(| into the air. To the west the hills rolled higher, one rank behind| another, and at last swelled enormously to become the Muldoon| Mountains, with plain-to-be-seen Flutterby Pass: that notch through the mountains which funneled the migrating butterflies down Marol Valley to their rendezvous with the sea.
Ten miles, twenty miles, thirty miles: below was Maroli Meadow a garish sight splotched with a hundred colors. The flyer settled slowl;
through a myriad butterflies. Glawen sighted through the optic finder fixed the pale green disk on a pad of concrete established for th convenience of tourists in omnibus flyers. Glawen pushed the landinj toggle, and the Mitrix lowered itself to the pad.
For a minute the two sat quietly, looking around the meadow.
The:
were alone. Except for the butterflies, nothing moved. A hundred yard to the right rose a rim of forest, ominously dense and dark, with simila forest to the left, even closer.
Ahead, at a somewhat greater distance, th meadow opened upon the ocean beach, with blue ocean beyond.
The two opened the door and stepped down to the pad. The sk:
flickered with the wings of a million butterflies arriving from all part of Deucas. The throb of their wings created a low near-inaudible hum the air reeked with a rich sweet stench. In shoals and schools each o distinctive color:
scarlet and blue; lambent green; lemon yellow am black;
purple, lavender, white and blue; purple and red, they slant en down into the meadow, to swirl and circle, often flying through i swarm of a different sort, producing what seemed previously unknowl colors of amazing pointillist brilliance. | The swarms, after milling and wheeling, at last settled into that trc dedicated to their own sort.
At once they nipped off their wings, fi create a rain of colored snow under the tree, and give the meadow a curiously garish aspect.
The butterflies, now two-inch grubs, identically pale gray, with six strong legs and horny mandibles, ran down the tree trunk to the ground, and scurried at full speed toward the ocean."
Glawen and Sessily took long-handled nets and trays from the flyer and Glawen, mindful ofChilke's remarks, thrust the pistol into his belt.
Sessily asked quizzically: "Why the gun? There are plenty of loose wings; you needn't shoot the butterflies."
Glawen said: "It's one of the first things my father taught me: never go even three feet into the wilderness without a gun."
"The principal danger around here is stepping into something wet and sticky," said Sessily.
"Come; let's get our wings and leave; I can barely breathe because of the fearful chi fe
"Do you know what colors you want?"
"Let's get some blues and greens from that tree yonder, and some reds and yellows, from over there, a few blacks and purples and that should do nicely."
' The life cycle of the butterfly is of considerable interest. After abandoning its wings, it makes for the sea, but not without adventure along the way. First die grubs must pass hummocks of cemented soil four feet high from which issue parties of warrior insects, who seek to capture or kill the grubs and carry them back into the hummocks. The grubs are neither helpless nor overmatched; with jets of ink they first blind their adversaries, then nip off their heads, and proceed. Across Alaroli Meadow ferocious battles rage, while the ex-butterfly hordes march past unheeding.
Arriving upon the beach the grubs, having toiled so far, and now but ten yards from their goal, find a new hazard:
darting, swooping birds. The survivors of this depredation face one last danger: the yoot, a bulky animal, hybrid of mandoril and rat (mandoril hybrids are widespread across all ofCadwal), lethargic of habit, wandering die beach, sucking up grubs through a long proboscis. A repellent creature, semi aquatic with hide mottled pink and black, the yoot exudes a noxious odor, as do many other creatures ofCadwal.
The grubs which have escaped warrior insects, birds and animals still number in the millions. These plunge into the surf, to begin a new phase in their remarkable life cycles.
Among the rocks and reefs close to shore the ex-butterflies consume plankton, lose their legs, form a flexible carapace, a fishhke tail, and, indeed, presently become fish six inches long. Reacting to some mysterious signal, they swim to the east and away from Deucas, to begin a migration which will take them hallway around the world. Finally they arrive at a place south of Hcce, where an enormous bank of seaweed is trapped in a curl of the ocean current. Here the ex-butterflies, now foot-long fish, breed and lay eggs in the seaweed. With their destiny fulfilled, they die and float to the surface. The eggs hatch into kril, feed on the carcasses of their parents. Growing and undergoing ten molts to the condition of nymphs, the creatures crawl out on the seaweed and dry their wings. In due course they flutter into the air, and without ceremony depart for the west coast of Deucas.
They picked their way carefully across the meadow to the specified trees. With the net Glawen caught the wings as they drifted down from above and turned them over into the baskets: first, emerald green and blue, then pomegranate red and rich yellow, and finally purple, black and white.
Sessily stood, hesitant. Glawen asked: "Is this enough?"
"I'm sure it is," said Sessily.
"I'd like some of those yellow-reds and greens, but it's too far to walk, and this smell is making me sick."
"I see another reason," said Glawen in a suddenly flat voice.
"Let's get back to the flyer, and fast."
Following his gaze, Sessily saw across the meadow a long massive beast, black except for its white oddly human face.
It trotted on six taloned legs and clasped a pair of hooked pincers to its chest in the attitude of prayer. This was the semi-intelligent Muldoon tangle-top, so named for the squirming black tendrils at the top of its head.
Glawen and Sessily started back toward the flyer, as inconspicuously as possible, but the tangle-top instantly noted the movement. It turned and trotted forward, denying them the refuge of the flyer.
The creature halted a hundred feet away to appraise the situation, then uttered a querulous whine, a rumbling rasping groan, and with dire deliberation began to stalk them. , Glawen said between clenched teeth: "My father was right, as' always." He pulled the heavy pistol from his belt and aimed it toward' the tangle-top, which stopped short; from somewhere it had learned that men pointing weapons were even more dangerous than itself. It;
gave another querulous whine, then turned and ran on long loping lunges to the beach, where it pounced on one of the yoots. A horrids squealing protest became a mournful sobbing sound, then silence.
