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. Their slopes were strewn with boulders.
Jagged shards jutted like teeth from the pitted flows of
settling topsoil scoured from ravaged ranges above.
On one such slope a searching falcon circled near the
surface, drawn by scurrying rodents among the stones. The
bird spiraled downward, gliding just above the stones, then
beat its wings and darted away when something moved in a
place where nothing should be.
The falcon beat away, and behind it a grotesque, recum
bent figure stirred. Half buried in silt, it had seemed only a
fragment of thrown rock - until it moved. It stirred, shifted
a portion of itself upward, and drying mud sloughed away
to reveal a large, rounded head surmounting great, knotted
shoulders. It raised its head and opened puzzled eyes,
peered this way and that for a moment, then pushed its
huge torso upward on massive arms, and the rest of it
became visible. Legs the size of tree trunks bent and
flexed, and the creature paused on hands and knees to look
around again, then shifted to a sitting position.
Big, calloused hands went to its head, and it closed its
eyes in momentary pain. A growl like distant thunder
escaped it. Its grimace revealed teeth like yellow chisels, in
a mouth that was wide and cruel.
The jolt of pain passed, and the creature sighed,
opening its eyes again. Something had happened.
Something inconceivable that seemed at the edge of
memory but was just beyond recall. In a muttering voice as
deep as gravel in a well, it faltered with words
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