Ythrians fly and can hunt live prey. Ramnuans glide and hunt live prey. Tigeries, as we learn in this novel, can stalk:
flat on the ground;
rippling like a cloud shadow;
using cover and tricks to remain unseen;
senses, including tendrils, alert to every clue;
freezing for minutes to evade close passersby;
able to kill guard dogs (fortunately none on Zacaharia);
taking more than an hour to reach a nearby target;
feeling a shudder in the ground;
deducing a tunnel from the spaceport to the "Defense" compound;
slithering, then standing in shadow.
Human beings can be trained for covert activity but Tigeries are physically adapted for it.
5 comments:
I saw a housecat stalking a deer like the one in the picture once. The deer was weirded out -- it was acting like a predator, but it was so small...
Incidentally, that's exactly the way a human does the equivalent. Snipers often take hours or days to cover a few hundred yards to get into position, ditto people doing "sentry removal".
We've been stalking and killing each other for a -very long- time. In primitive cultures, hunting and war use most of the same equipment and techniques.
Recently, I saw a cat (apparently) stalking a pheasant in a field. The pheasant seemed unconcerned. The cat got very close, then sidled away. Were there two processes going on in the cat's brain? "This is the sort of thing that I should stalk" versus "I can't be bothered."
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Paul!
Mr. Stirling: Well, cats ARE predators, even if too small to be a serious danger to deer. And since deer are timid animals, I can see why it was weirded out by the cat!
And it took the rise of social organizations larger than the family or clan, the state, to enable most people, most of the time, not to have to live in fear of being stalked and killed.
Paul: Or maybe the cat was simply stalking the pheasant for fun and practice!
Ad astra! Sean
Cats do enjoy the whole process -- kitten-play is mostly practicing either hunting, or fighting other cats.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
That was basically what I had in mind! Svartalf, Virginia Mauchek's familiar in Anderson's OPERATION books, enjoyed brawling with other cats and dogs.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment