A man waits for me in the light of the mountaintop.
No, not a man. Antlers rise from his head. A tail, like a lion's tail, sweeps the ground behind him. He stands on hooves and his legs are as shaggy as the legs of the bison. His hands are tipped with claws like the claws of a cat.
He stares at me and I recognise the look in his eyes. He was the spirit in the young buck. He was the leader of the wolf pack. He was the snake and the mammoth. When he looks at me, my chant dies in my throat. My hands stop tapping on the drum.
Suddenly, I do not feel the strength I once felt, only the ancient terror . . .
Pat Murphy (1955 - )
Patrice Ann Murphy was born in Washington in 1955, and is an award-winning American science writer and author of science fiction and fantasy novels. Her second novel, The Falling Woman (1986), won the Nebula Award, and she also won a Nebula Award in the same year for her novelette, 'Rachel in Love.' Her short story collection, Points of Departure (1990) won the Philip K. Dick Award, and her 1990 novella, 'Bones', won the World Fantasy Award in 1991. She lives in San Francisco.