Lucks

The Day Of Their Return.

Every tineran wagon carries a caged "luck":

15 centimeters long;

quadrupedal;

hand-like forepaws;

gray fur;

skin mantle;

wedge-shaped head;

curved, pointed ears;

thin fangs;

three red eyes forming a triangle;

imported to Aeneas;

also found on other planets;

called liayalre, "Slinkers," in Planha.

 

Fraina carries Tais, the luck of Jubilee, on her shoulder when she goes for an evening walk with Ivar. When the couple retire into a grotto:

 

"The luck stayed outside, waiting." (9, p. 150)

 

Clad in its - natural - mantle, it might resemble a small intelligent being. It is indeed waiting. Telepathic and parasitical, the lucks amplify and feed on human emotions, thus explaining the "antic disposition" of the tinerans. They might also have been the cause of the downfall of the Ancients.