ifferent, I'm sensitive--

Ekstrohm was riding for a fall.

The traction-scooter was going up a slope that had been eroded concave.
It was at the very top of the half-moon angle, upside down, standing
Ekstrohm on his head. Since he was not strapped into his seat, he fell.

As he fell he thought ruefully that he had contrived to have an accident
in the only way possible with a traction-scooter.

Ekstrohm's cranium collided with the ground, and he stopped thinking....

* * * * *

Ekstrohm blinked open his eyes, wondering. He saw light, then sky, then
pigs.

Live pigs.

But--the pigs shouldn't be alive. When he was this close they should be
dead.

Only they weren't.

Why ... why ...

He moved slightly and the nearest pig fell dead. The others went on with
their business, roaming the plain. Ekstrohm expected the dropping of the
pig to stampede the rest into dropping dead, but they didn't seem to
pay any attention to their fallen member.

I've been lying here for hours, he realized. I didn't move in on them.
The pigs moved in on me while I was lying still. If I keep still I can
get a close look at them in action.

So far, even with video, it had been difficult to get much of an idea of
the way these creatures lived--when they weren't dead.

Observe, observe, he told himself.

There might be some relationship between the flying whale and the pigs.

Could it be the whales were intelligent alien masters of these herds of
pigs?

Ekstrohm lay still and observed.

Item: the pigs ate the soft, mosslike grass.

Item: the pigs eliminated almost constantly.

Item: the pigs fought regularly.

Fought?

_Fought?_

Here was something, Ekstrohm realized.

Why did animals fight?

Rationalizations of nature-lovers aside, some fought because they had
plain mean nasty dispositions--like some people. That didn't fit the
pigs. They were indolent grazers. They hadn't the energy left over for
sheer-cussedness. There had to be a definite goal to their battles.

It wasn't food. That was abundant. The grassy veldt reached to all
horizons.

Sex. They had to be fighting for mates!

He became so excited he twitched a foot slightly. Two more pigs dropped
dead, but the others paid no heed.

He watched the lazily milling herd intently, at the same time keeping an
eye out for the flying whales. Back on Earth porpoises had been taught
to herd schools of fish and of whales. It was not impo