Last night. The water as she washed her face and hands had a softness to it she had not previously noticed. When she shrugged into her coverall its texture was oddly.

Steeled herself and barked - in her best stop-a-mob-in-full-cry voice - a single word. "ENOUGH!" Instantly the fighters froze. Savil strode out into the deluge her dignity somewhat diminished when her feet squelched instead of coming down. diflucan A kind of fuzzy burr. Yet when I separated them from the sand and stones with a stick I discovered them to be extremely hard. Even pounding with a stone did not crush them or even mar their velvety-seeming surface. I did not believe them seeds or vegetable refuse and my interest in them grew until I had about a dozen laid in a row in the sun being cautious at first not to touch them with my fingers. Nature provides some nasty traps on many planets. They had no beauty and I did not think any value. But the contrast between their suggestion of softness to the eye and their real hardness of surface was odd enough to make me gather up three for future examination. There ! are gems which must be "peeled " worked down in layers from their unattractive outer coatings or shells. One of little worth may so be turned into something of value. And I had some vague ideas that perhaps these might hide a surprise under that fuzzy surface though I had neither the tools nor the skill needed for such a task. As I knotted my choice into a square of seal-foam Valcyr came walking with that particular sure-footed daintiness of her species along the bank of the small runlet. She progressed with nose to earth almost as might a hound on a warm trail and she was manifestly sniffing something which absorbed her attention. Then she reached my line of rejected ovoids and nosed each avidly. To my limited human nostrils they had no scent but it was plain they did for the cat. Squatting down she began to lick the largest having sniffed them all. Fearing for her I tried to knock it out of reach but a lightning swift slash from unsheathed claws ears flattened to skull ! and a low growl warned me off. Sucking my bloodied fingers I withdrew. It was plain that Valcyr guarded what she considered a treasure of price and was not minded to have any interference. Once I had withdrawn she went back to her licking. Now and again she picked it up in her mouth to retreat a little way before she squatted down to return to her tongue-rasping exploration of the find. "Any luck?" Ostrend's young assistant threw a long shadow past me as he came up. "What are these? Have you seen them before?" I pointed to the fuzzy stones scattered about by Valcyr as she had made her examination and choice. Chiswit sat on his heels to study them. "Never saw them before. In fact"-he looked up. dr6drt534884dkdfkgjgeel5j5j