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Golden Dream
A Fuzzy Odyssey
Fuzzy 03
(1982)*
Ardath Mayhar
Contents
Personae
Book I The Valley of the Gashta
Book II The Dry Times Come
Book III The Hagga
Book IV Toshki-Hagga
Book V Gashta and Hagga Make Talk
Book VI Hoksu-Washa
Afterthought
Appendix I Notes Upon thr Chronicling of the Gashta
Supplementary Notes
Appendix II Some Observations on Gashta Names
Appendix III Glossary of Terms
Personae
THE GASHTA
Book I
i., ii.
Breaks-Twigs, Teacher
Sun-Blossom, his daughter
Speaks-Well, his permanent mate
Stargazer (formerly Root-Digger), his brother
Fire-Bringer, a young hunter
iii.
Fears-Nothing, former leader
Fast-Foot, his mate
Big-Voice, present leader
Many-Winters, Teacher of this village
Cricket-Catcher, who spoke in the Circle
iv.
Sun-Blossom, as an adult, now Teacher in the Valley
Stargazer, son of Root-Digger, now Haigun
v., vi., vii.
Bad-Thing-Killer, great hunter
Sharp-Teeth, his mate
Axe-Maker, his brother
Snail-Catcher, Axe-Maker's mate
Nut and Shell, Bat-Thing-Killer's sons
Fruit, daughter of Snail-Catcher
viii.
Zatku-Cracker, who learned that he must go home
Fruit-Finder, his mate
Seed, their son
Spear-Maker, Fruit-Finder's brother
ix.
Teacher, daughter of Sun-Blossom
Book II
i.
Stargazer, descendant of the earlier Stargazers
Cord-Maker, young Stargazer-in-training
ii., iii.
Remembers-Things, patriarch of his family
Climbs-Rocks, who has traveled in the south
Runs-Fast, his mate
Sees-Far and Pulls-Weeds, son-in-law and daughter
Petal, child of Climbs-Rocks and Runs-Fast
iv.
Root-Grower, discontented gardener
Leaf, her daughter
Swift-Stone-Thrower, her mother, now dead
Climbs-Swiftly (who was later called Silver-Fur)
v.
Stands-Fast, leader of his family
Golden-Eyes, his mate, Net Weaver, his second mate
Knows-Much, his grandmother
Hunts-Zeeto, his brother
Weaves-Cord-Together, his grandfather
Sprout, his son
Plum, his daughter
Book III
i., ii., iii.
Leaf, now an adult
Whistle, her baby son
iv.
Dark-Fur, who later became Little Fuzzy
Mama-Fuzzy, his mate (Gashta name "Tells-Things")
ix
Mike, Mitzi, KoKo, the other members of Dark-Fur's family
xii.
Golden-Fur (later Goldilocks)
Soft-Voice, her sister (later Cinderella)
Book IV
iii.
Silver-Fur, Root-Grower long-ago mate, father to Leaf, now patriarch of a family
Bud, the only female in the group
Ku and Ik, the other two males in the family
one black and white kitten, who became Bud's very own
Book IV
iv.
a family whose names are not mentioned at their own request
THE HAGGA
Book III
ii.-ix.
August and Lemuel Mirabeau, family of Leaf, squatters on Beta Continent
Jack Holloway (Pappy Jack), prospector, champion of Gashta, and later
Commissioner of Native Affairs
x., xi.
Bennett Rainsford, naturalist, later Governor of Zarathrusta
Two policemen
xii, xiii.
Ruth Ortheris, Lt., j.g., Navy, on secret duty, working for the Zarathrusta Company
under Ernst Mallin
Gerd Van Riebeek, Company scientist, later married to Ruth
Leonard Kellogg, who killed Goldilocks
Kurt Borch, gunman killed by Jack Holloway
Juan Jimenez, Company employee and scientist
xiv.
Augustus Brannhard (Unca Gus), lawyer and friend to Jack Holloway and
preserver of Baby from the sack
Book IV
Ernst Mallin, charged with proving the Gashta non-sapient
Victor Grego, President of the Chartered Zarathrusta Company
Leslie Coombes, Company attorney
Book V
i.
Pancho Ybarra, Navy psychologist who worked with Gashta on Xerxes
Alex Napier, Navy Commander on Xerxes
iii.
Luis J. Camber, Chief Petty Officer, T.F.N., hearing-aid expert
GOLDEN DREAM: A FUZZY ODYSSEY
BOOK I.
The Valley
of the Gashta
Ja'aki-fessi--I was hungry
T'ho! T'ho!--Yes! Yes!
Zatku bizzo keef-i--A land prawn came quietly
T'ho! T'ho!--Yes! Yes!
Hoksu zatku-fusso!--Wonderful zatku-food!
Prologue
i.
Breaks-Twigs (Etza-T'ra in his own Gashta tongue) climbed into the feathertree, found a comfortable spot, and settled himself to his task of watching the young ones. He was grunting with effort, and his old heart was patting in his chest as he looked downward, through the concentric layers of plumed branches that rayed, spoke-like, from the treetrunk. His daughter sat directly below him.
Sun-Blossom was making a beautiful thing. Though all the Gashta spent some of the precious time at such things, she seemed most preoccupied with the activity. The sun touched her golden fur, her bare pink years, and her tiny hands as they moved surely to place bright pebbles, green and gold leaves, and bits of moss and twig in the pattern that she was forming.
Breaks-Twigs could see, even from so far above, that her version of the Spiral was more accurate than most. It was strange, he knew, how the shape of the Home System remained in the minds of its children, even on this distant, alien world. Even stranger, it continued to persist, even after memories of the ship and its equipment became dim among the elders and entirely lost among the children.
He looked away from his child, out into the glades of the forest. Only here in the valley could the young be allowed to roam at will, and even then one adult must watch over them. The gotza were sharp-eyed, even from the high places where they flew, and could swoop, unseen, to grab an unsuspecting Gashta who wandered into a clearing. And the toshki-washa prowled even here, though hunters kept their numbers down as best they could. So he counted his charges and reminded himself that he must give a lesson, when all paused in their mushroom-eating and insect catching. They were forgetting how to count, among many other things that were slipping away from his kind.
Breaks-Twigs mused, as his eyes pierced shadows and studied motions. So many things were going, since the earthquake had covered over the cave and the ship. But it was so very hard to live here, with only bare hands and natural things and what could be managed between the two. Even their language … the piercing voices from the wood irritated his sensitive ears … was going. The necessity for raising the pitch to levels that the predators couldn't hear had made a change in the tongue itself.
He stilled, his head cocking, his eyes focusing upon a movement in the brush off to his left. Forgetting his age and the awkwardness at hunting that had given him his name, he slipped own the tree silently, retrieved his wooden zatku-hodda from the low branch where he had left it, and dropped beside Sun-Blossom.
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