noon
Shann built a small fire and seared the firm greenish flesh . The taste was flat , lacking salt , but the food eased his emptiness . Enheartened , he started south , hoping to find water sometime during the morning . By noon he had his optimism justified with the discovery of a spring , and the wolverines had brought down a slender-legged animal whose coat was close in shade to the dusky purple of the vegetation . Smaller than a Terran deer , its head bore , not horns , but a ridge of stiffened hair rising in a point some twelve inches about the skull dome . Shann haggled off some ragged steaks while the wolverines feasted in earnest , carefully burying the head afterward . It was when Shann knelt by the spring pool to wash that he caught the clamor of the clak-claks .