“What seemed so strange about this dream?” asked Brenner.
“In the morning,” she said, “when I awakened, there were rope marks on my body.”
“Go on,” said Brenner.
“They spoke of a feast of gathering eggs,” she said.
“Reproductive cells were removed from your body,” said Brenner.
“I gather so,” she said, shuddering. “But if Pons are sterile, as I was informed, I thought in my dreams, to what purpose could be their seizure of these cells?”
“It is your understanding, is it not,” asked Brenner, “whether from a recollection from your dreams, or whatever, that this feast has been celebrated?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Go on,” said Brenner.
“I awakened one morning,” she said, “in the beast’s cage, but it was gone, and I was the beast. I thought that I had gone insane, but I gradually realized what must have occurred.”
“Did you have beast memories?” asked Brenner.
“Yes,” she said, “of fishing in fast-flowing streams, and such, but they were strangely mingled with my own.”
“What was in the cage?” asked Brenner.
“I was in the cage,” she said.
“What were you,” asked Brenner, “you, or a beast?”
“I was I,” she said, “as a beast.”
“How long were you kept in the cage?” asked Brenner.
“Three days,” she said.
“Long enough for you to understand your helplessness,” said Brenner.
“Yes,” she said.
“Continue,” said Brenner.
“Then, in the darkness, I awakened to a tiny sound. The gate to the cage was open. I fled away, into the forest. There, in a short time, apprised by, startled by, sensations quite new to me, but familiar from my memories, I discovered I was treading in lands that belonged to another. I became frightened, and apprehensive. There was another meaning, too, of course, beyond those of claimancy and territoriality, that of maleness. Something in my new body, or old memories, found this disturbing. And I, as imprisoned in the beast, was terrified. But I could not help myself. I felt strange heats coming upon me. I knew then I would seek out this beast.”
“Did you know it was I?” asked Brenner.
“No,” she said. “I assumed it was only a male beast, of the species of which I now was, to be sure, one apparently strong enough and vigorous enough, and terrible enough, to maintain a territory. You can imagine my terror, my misery. I was frightened of this thing. And yet my body, in spite of myself, would have me run panting to it. The rest you know.”
“Your feelings must have been frighteningly ambivalent,” said Brenner.
“I tried to resist, in my fear, my resentment. Even the beast in me, it seemed, tried to resist for a moment, if only to test the strength and will of the male. But that was a mistake. She was cuffed. She was twice bitten. He did permit her a moment to escape, if she wished, but she did not do so. She remained. He then, this matter clear, drove her to the cliffs, and pulled her to the platform. No longer was there escape for me. I was seized, and I became his mate.”
“You realized these things were in accord with the intentions of the Pons?”
“Yes, but I did not understand these intentions. It all seemed madness to me. Perhaps it was some mad joke of Pons, perhaps they found it amusing, to take me, to treat me as they did, to do these things to me, and then, most amusing, to give me over as a mate to a wild beast.”
“You understood very little of what was ensuing,” said Brenner.
“No,” she said. “Indeed, I thought that that was all there was to it, that, for whatever reason, I had merely been given to a beast.”
“You were,” said Brenner.
“And I bear my fate in joy,” she said.
“Would you not have preferred brief silk, and a collar, on a distant world?”
“Had I not met you,” she said. “But, you see, I love you.”
“Perhaps I might have owned you on such a world.”
“I would have striven to be a good slave to you,” she said.
“Or to any master,” he said.
“Of course,” she said.
“We have been put to the purposes of Pons,” said Brenner.
“I do not object, as long as I am with you,” she said.
“Nor do I,” said Brenner, “now that we have one another.”
“I do not understand the Pons,” she said.
“They are struggling to survive,” said Brenner. “Their males are sterile, as you have been informed. Some of their females, apparently, can conceive. They are of our species, or what it could become. We are crossfertile with them. Seed was taken from me,