In a flash, he was moving for it.

The beast's muscles quivered as he neared, and Kyle suddenly wondered how good their sense of hearing might be. But he had already crossed the point of no return.

Judging the distance with a quick glance, the animal's huge shoulders as his target, Kyle took two stepsand jumped.

He landed squarely on the rough hide. The Rathar's low growl rattled Kyle's stomach with its loudness.

The head slowly rose right before his eyes. With surprising dexterity, the beast twisted its head completely backwards on its neck. Kyle was now staring straight into a milk-white mouth br.i.m.m.i.n.g with rows of teeth. But it was the two large extended fangs pointed directly at him that made his heart skip a beat.

Gripping the beast with his legs, Kyle raised both his arms, one above the snout and one below. Beneath him, he felt the Rathar lift its body off the ground. Balancing himself, Kyle again judged the gaping target before him and with a flash, his hands slapped against the upper and lower part of the snout, pinning the mouth closed.

He had to work fast as he felt the huge muscles tensing under him, readying the tail to strike. Kyle's right hand slid over the snout. Placing his thumb inside one of its nostrils, he held the lower jaw with his fingers.

Under this lone grasp, the head jerked violently as the beast tried to free itself.

Kyle felt his grip loosen as his heart raced. He struggled to keep a firm grasp, but he knew time was running out. The beast went suddenly still and Kyle knew the tail was ready to strike.

As he fought to hold the mouth closed with his precarious grasp, Kyle twisted his body, just as the body below him lurched like a locomotive that had come alive at full steam.

There was a rushing of air that swept his face as the tail almost nailed him. Kyle's eyes went wide as he watched the blur of motion as it stopped. Suddenly Kyle felt doubt in his heart, he couldn't believe something so thick would break in his hand that easily. It was so big.

Kyle grabbed the rubbery appendage even as it began its backward motion to begin a second strike.

Grunting with exertion, he twisted with all his might against the rough, scaly skin of the huge tail in his hand.

The hollowpop was music to his ears.

In his left hand he now held a foot-long section of quivering Rathar tail.

It was time to leave.

But Kyle's dismount was almost his downfall.

As his body slid off, he released the suddenly frozen head. But his foot slipped in the wet mud as he stepped and Kyle was face down with a heavy grunt right beside the beast.

Even as he rose, he felt the huge body next to him begin to come to life. Scrambling, he slipped and fell again. He was getting nowhere fast.

He felt his foot pressing against the beast's rippling side. Kyle pushed against it with a mighty effort-pushing himself away from the now struggling creature.

Stumbling his way to a half stooping position, he realized the air was full of mud being slung from the Rathar as it, too, struggled to gain a foothold in the slimy mud. Kyle ran for all he was worth as his feet finally found solid ground.

The sound of pursuit immediately behind him spurred his efforts and sent his adrenaline into overdrive.

Fortunately, as Rok had previously explained, after about ten feet, the sounds of hot pursuit grew faint as the great beast quickly tired. In another minute, Kyle was lying on the ground gasping for breath as the intent Kraaqi warriors looked on.

He lifted his head to see Rok smiling down at him.

Raising himself up, Kyle held the still twitching tail up for all to see. Laughing softly, he turned to Jaric.

Jaric took a deep breath, nodding appreciation at Kyle's trophy. With sudden realization that he was next, he shook his head. "I don't know, Big K. I'm not too sure about this one."

But Kyle used their old childhood challenge. A challenge he knew Jaric could not refuse.

"It's time... to redline. Or you're gonna get left behind."

Jaric's expression changed almost immediately. His brown eyes narrowed, his face grew hard. "Okay, then. Stand back and watch how this thing is really done."

Jaric took his own course and found himself squatting behind a small clump of bushes farther up from the boulder from where the first two hunters had gone. As all watched, Jaric studied the beasts before him with intense concentration. Seconds pa.s.sed as he gauged each slumbering Rathar and its relative position to the others. He remembered Kyle's mistake and focused his attention on the areas around the three animals he had narrowed his choices to. One of them alone rested on solid ground.

He pointed at the Rathar for all to see-one of equal size to Kyle's.

He slowed his rapid breathing as he pictured his every move in his mind's eye. He went over it quickly and thoroughly, clenching his hands and arms with each move. With silent conviction, he nodded to himself.

In a flash of movement, he was off.

With cat-like swiftness he was on the beast's back, but almost too fast. He almost fell over the other side except for a quick, scrambling recovery. But Jaric had slid forward and found that his chest rested against the top of the rock hard head of the Rathar just as it began to move. Jaric reached over and pushed the gaping mouth closed with his hands, and then he quickly wriggled himself off of the neck and back on the shoulders. The immense body under him tensed.

The huge head strained against his one-handed grip. But Jaric held as he prepared himself for the strike.

Seconds later, Jaric had the tail in his grasp, snapped it off neatly and jumped nimbly off. Unlike Kyle, Jaric landed squarely and sprinted back to the others without the beast ever giving chase. He smiled widely as he trotted up.

"And no laundry bill," Jaric laughed at Kyle.

Kyle bowed to Jaric laughing, acknowledging he had been bettered-this time. All eyes now turned to Becky.

"Well," she said, looking at the lake beyond. "Anything you two bozo-boys can do, I can do. And better."

"Becky..." Jaric began, as he held his hand out to stop her.

"No, let her be," Kyle said.

Rok nodded agreement with Kyle as he watched her lithe form step away.

Becky eyed the remaining beasts before her. She was mildly surprised at how quickly the unnipped Rathars settled down again, once each of the nipped Rathars had disappeared with silent disgrace into the deep water. But there they were, already almost as peaceful as when they had first arrived.

She guessed that since there were no actual fatalities, really just their tails and pride hurt, that any natural alarms faded away with the quick return of their semi-comatose state.

Or else they were as stupid as Jaric had guessed.

Becky had reached the boulder Rok and Kyle had used, and she now looked around until she had spotted two Rathar off to themselves. One was large, over ten feet. The other was smaller, probably an adolescent and only slightly larger than herself.

She bit her lip, unsure on which one to try for, when the decision was made for her.

The larger Rathar raised its head, eyes wide open. First it stared in one direction, then it turned to the other, with a sudden decisiveness it moved away and silently slid into the lake, disappearing in a rippling of water.

Becky eyed the smaller beast.

With two quick steps she leaped, and judged correctly. As she wrapped her legs around the smaller Rathar's midriff, she felt it rise almost immediately. She waited for the head to twist for her, so she could slam her two hands across its mouth just as she had watched the others do.

But it never happened.

In a flash, the Rathar was racing headlong at a terrific gallop straight towards the lake, its six legs a blur a motion.

Clamping her legs together to keep from falling, she grabbed the neck with her right hand and waited for the tail to snap.

Again, it didn't happen as planned. The tail did not strike.

She felt herself falling off even as she tried to lay her body flat against the rough, b.u.mping hide below her. Becky grabbed desperately for something, anything, to hold onto to, but each time the beast's jerking movements shook her grip loose. Somehow, she just managed to stay on as her body was slammed time and again against the rock-hard hide as the beast raced in a blind panic. The speeding Rathar turned sharply, almost throwing her off, as it barely missed running straight into its larger cousin.

But just as she pushed herself back up on the racing beast, her heart sunk with dread as she saw the waters of the lake approaching at a breakneck speed.

Water splashed all around before Becky released her grip, feeling the body of the Rather sliding away out from under her. As the tail brushed under her hand, she gripped it with both hands while she choked back the water that was shooting into her mouth and nose. She twisted and felt it pop in two.

Her head dipped below the water a moment, as she came up sputtering and coughing she looked around. She struggled to stand but her feet kept slipping in the soft mud until she fell back into the water.

With a sickening rush of emotion, she realized she was in four feet of water-in a Rathar infested lake..

Behind her, she heard the air fill with a mult.i.tude of roars as the other Rathar's awoke with alarm. There were other sounds that mingled with their fierce roars, but she couldn't quite make them out above the din.

As she splashed and tried to get her feet on firm ground so she could get out, she suddenly realized that several large heads had popped to the surface nearby.

Becky realized with a sickening dread that the hunter had now become the hunted. It wasn't a good feeling.

She opted against trying to stand and instead kicked and stroked with her arms, turning herself back for the sh.o.r.e. It seemed so close.

Above the sh.o.r.eline, she saw the Kraaqi warriors runningen ma.s.se towards her waving their blasters in the air. A second later the water all around her was alive with movement as the water exploded in a dozen places. She felt the unseen bodies arrowing towards her just under the surface as several waves surged toward her.

Certain death was only moments away.

The air sizzled with a dozen blaster bolts as the water exploded in every direction-the bolts zipped into the water and found their marks. She suddenly realized that there were more Rathars in the lake than she had imagined as their injured bodies twisted and rolled in pain all around her-now breaking the surface.

Something heavy moved against her right leg and she kicked violently at it as she screamed for the first time.

The water erupted a third time as the remaining Rathars on the beach plunged into the lake before the shouts of the on-rushing Kraaqi, pa.s.sing so close she could see the whites of the eyes of the closest ones.

Again she choked on the water that filled her nostrils and mouth. Gasping for breath, Becky finally felt solid ground under her feet. She tried to stand, but her legs seemed to be made out of rubber.

Seconds later, she felt hands pull her up out of the water and then drag her onto sh.o.r.e where everything seemed to go hazy.

The Kraaqi rolled her over and watched impa.s.sively as she seemed to cough up half the lake for several minutes. Finally, Becky found she could breath once again. She looked up into the faces that surrounded her and smiled. Slowly, she pushed herself into a sitting position and then held the section of the tail up that she had nipped off.

The warriors began shouting and roaring with laughter.

Rok pushed his way next to her with Jaric and Kyle close behind. Jaric and Kyle's faces turned from concern to obvious relief as they saw her holding aloft her trophy.

Rok nodded at Becky as he laughed. "You are very brave. Kraaqi do not normally hunt the young Rathar, they are too unpredictable."

Becky felt like punching him as she rolled her eyes in utter disbelief. In the next moment, she was laughing along with the rest as relief spilled over her.

"Now you tell me." She blurted between laughs.

The Kraaqi leader laughed even louder. "Rok begin to like wo-man race a lot," he said pointing to Jaric and Kyle, too.

"Man. We're men." Kyle repeated. He pointed at Becky. "She's a wo-man," he enunciated with slow, deliberate syllables. "We are all hu-mans."

Rok laughed louder. "Too many mans."

With a sweep of his arms, he urged two Kraaqi to lift Becky to her feet. Soon they were all back at the camp and the roaring fires. Rok sent the remaining Kraaqi back to the other side of the lake to finish their hunt. Rok then instructed the three humans to get into clean, dry clothes and to begin cooking their meals.

The final part of the ceremony would commence when the others returned with their own Rathar tails.

Before the lone, orange sun had set behind the line of hills on the horizon, the entire Band had returned and were soon cooking their meat over the roaring fires scattered around the camp. Rok surveyed the laughing Kraaqi with a steady eye, chewing his Rathar tail appreciatively. He held his steaming hunk of meat toward the three humans.

"Rathar tail. You like?"

Jaric pulled his meat from the flames and eyed the blackened steak warily.

Kyle brought his own out of the flames, sniffed at it, and then took a huge bite. He grunted with satisfaction as he chewed, nodding at the Kraaqi leader.

Jaric looked Kyle with a questioning look.

"Tastes like chicken," Kyle grinned.

Jaric nodded and took a bite. "Yeah, not bad," he mumbled.

Rok smiled as he placed his meat on the ground and stood. He put his hands upon his hips as he looked slowly around once more at all the warriors happily eating and conversing with one another around the campfires. He raised his head back and shouted-loud and long the warrior's cry filled the air, effectively silencing all their conversations at once.

All eyes fixed on him.

"Life... is for living!" Rok shouted with arms spread wide.

Cheers and war whoops answered him from all the Kraaqi Band.

More than once the wordYes! andLife! was shouted from warriors sitting around the roaring campfires.

A few jumped to their feet and began dancing around in small circles with the dancing light and shadows reflecting against their bodies.

"Yeah, I can relate," Jaric whispered to Kyle.

Rok stepped beside the three humans and looked down upon them. "Tell us your words now. Words of wisdom, from hoo-man."

The three looked at each other, hoping the other would volunteer. Finally, Becky stood decisively.

She looked deep into Rok's brown eyes, and then she looked around at the rest of the Band.

"Life... is the greatest adventure!"

Jaric and Kyle shouted their own war whoops in agreement.