"Methinks the time has come for us to make a choice, Cunora. Which shall
it be: live as we have been living for the past four days, with the
certainty of being caught in time or--face the unknown perils on the
edge of the world?"
Cunora dropped the piece of stone she had been inspecting and shivered
with fear. "A dreadful choice ye offer, Rolla! Think of the horrible
beasts we must encounter!"
"Ye mean," corrected the philosophical one--"ye mean, the beasts which
men SAY they have seen. Tell me; hast ever seen such thyself? Many times
hast thou been near the edge, I know."
The girl shook her head. "Nay; not I. Yet these beasts must be, Rolla;
else why should all men tell of them?"
"I note," remarked Rolla thoughtfully, "that each man tells of seeing a
different sort of beast. Perchance they were all but lies."
However, it was Cunora's fear of capture, rather than her faith in
Rolla's reasoning, which drove the girl to the north. For to the north
they traveled, a matter of some two weeks; and not once did they dare
relax their vigilance. Wherever they went, there was vegetation of some
sort, and wherever there was vegetation bees were likely to be found. By
the time the two weeks were over, the women were in a state of near-
hysteria, from the nervous strain of it all.
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