Shepherd by Piers Anthony Read Free Book Online Page B

his broad feet found better purchase than the sheep's thin hooves. He could cross, but not the sheep. The gap would have to be filled in.
    “I'll need to find some rocks,” he said. “Small enough to move, large enough to be useful.
    Serpent disappeared. Did she understand? The animals were coordinating beautifully, but he wasn't sure they were actually any smarter than their kinds normally were. Intelligence beyond a certain level was no asset to an animal, so was not selected for. But telepathy—that might be useful here, and would account for a lot. He kept forgetting it, and kept being reminded.
    Something was bothering Shep. He paused to focus, and got it: the liquid surface of the swamp was rising. Slowly, but before long it would make the muck too deep for the sheep to traverse. The predators might be waiting for that. So the sheep were right: time was of the essence. Maybe it was a tidal flat, but how long would it be before the level sank again?
    Python reappeared and hissed. Shep waded that way. Sure enough, there was a fair sized rock there. He got his arms around it, heaved, and got it up enough to carry, buoyed by the muck. He slogged back and dropped it into the gap in the path.
    Python appeared in another place. Shep went there and found the next rock. He carried it back. The work continued, until he had a crude stone ramp across the gap. Would this suffice?
    Evidently so. The sheep walked on across it, their sure hooves finding the purchase they needed. They were crossing in time.
    Shep saw a stirring in the muck to the side. He could guess what that was: a predator, disappointed that the sheep weren't caught in an untenable situation. Another half hour might have made the difference.
    They made their way across the swamp without further event. The sheep immediately grazed on the nearby grass, no longer constrained by timing. Python and Vulture relaxed.
    Shep emerged, thoroughly soaked in mud. “Give me your clothes,” Elen said.
    He stripped and let her have them. Nakedness hardly mattered any more. She took them to a clear patch of water and rinsed them out. Then she came back for Shep and led him to the same place so she could rinse him off. A day or two before, this would have been extremely awkward; now it was routine. She was more than familiar with his body, though technically they were not lovers. “You did well,” she said.
    “The lout could have done it better.”
    “But the sheep chose you.”
    “So far I haven't done anything that the lout couldn't have handled.”
    “Two things,” she said. “There must be something you can do that the lout could not do, and the sheep know it. And I would not have worked with the lout. They surely knew that.”
    “Why not? You seem to know how to handle men.”
    “The romance and marriage bit. He's no prospect. You are.”
    “I will return to Earth within six months!”
    “Yes.”
    “So I am no prospect either, am I?”
    “Only if you want to be.”
    “What am I missing here?”
    She smiled. “It will come to you in due course.”
    “Dialogues with you can be as intriguing and frustrating as your holddown technique.”
    Elen laughed. “Thank you, Shep.”
    “That wasn't exactly a compliment.”
    “It will do.”
    He gave it up, as he usually did. Shep dressed in his alternate clothing and spread the wet clothing out across his knapsack as well as was feasible so it could dry as he walked.
    Soon they came to another challenge: a crack in the ground leading down to more flowing lava. It was slightly too wide for them to hurdle, but seemed too long to go around. “We'll need a bridge,” Shep said.
    “There used to be one,” Elen said. “I did not know it had been lost. A storm must have taken it out. I would have taken another route.”
    “There are other routes?”
    “Many. But each has its hazards.”
    “Let me see what I can do.” Shep scouted around and found a fair number of fallen branches. There were also many long vines