On Talwin, the Domrath hibernate.
"Even undisturbed, they were not few who would never wake again." (p. 311)
I would welcome that experience: to go to sleep, not knowing whether I was to wake.
The weak warmth of early spring rouses the pregnant females who venture out into storms and floods to eat without competition from other Domrath. Higher temperatures revive the rest while plant growth explodes. After eating till they are fleshed out, several tribes gather together for Fastbreaking Festival, a big breakfast and religious ceremony followed by dispersal to customary dwelling places.
Rising seas and melting ice generate "...teeming marshes..." (ibid.) on the coasts while jungles grow almost visibly inland and Domrath infants are born. In full summer, the tribes gather for autumn when, in the hibernation dens, they rest, make merry, feast till they are globular and breed. All winter, they hibernate.
Obviously, Flandry wonders whether they can break out of this cycle and go offplanet.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
But it would be terrible for members of the Domrath race were forced to spend as much as two thirds of every Talwinian year hibernating! Think of the waste of time, potential, lives such a cruel necessity forced on the Domrath. They were compelled to linger in their Stone Age far longer than humans and other races unburdened by the need to hibernate.
It's not really much consolation that in Talwin's fall, before going to the hibernation dens, the Domrath feast, make merry, put on life saving fat, and reproduce. How might it be possible for them to break out of this iron cage?
Ad astra! Sean
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