per·il || \ ˈperəl \
Latin periculum ‘danger’, from base experiri ‘to try’
n. serious and immediate danger; the dangers or difficulties
that arise from a particular situation or activity
He raises his head up, smells the wind as it catches his head-fur. The wind is not the wind of his caves, it is like the wind of the out-cave, the one with soft green under his feet and the big big blue up high where he cannot touch like the big stone teeth of his caves. This big big blue - he learns it is called ‘skai’ - and soft green - ‘gras’ - is the same, but the smells are not the same. The araatnuud are not like the ones in his caves too. The araatnuud and the shuvuu the Bukh’kumun knows are small. Many are prey, but there are some that are big, and they are hunters like Bukh’kumun. He does not hunt the hunter shuvuu, they no not try to hurt him. The araatnuud and the shuvuu here, it is not the same. They do not look the same, do not smell the same, do not taste the same.
The smell on the wind is not good, a smell he does not know in his caves or in the out-cave. It is only a smell he smells in this out-cave, the smell of fear and anger and hate like the hunters who hunt him in his caves, the ones that scream loud and hurt him with metal sticks and sticks with fire. The smell raises the head-fur on his neck, makes his belly feel not good. A quiet growl in his throat, and he looks up, to where the smell of a good person is.
Zen is a no-horn, a no-horn that smells like the soft-stone that the green gras grows on and the stones of his caves. Zen has yellow head-fur, yellow like the not-gras that grows on the soft-stone, the ‘flawaa’, or like the big light in the skai that hurts when he looks at it, the ‘saan’. He does not have black scales on his body like Bukh’kumun, does not have tail like Bukh’kumun. But he is a strong hunter, very big. Zen is good to Bukh’kumun. He try to hurt Bukh’kumun before, but he learns that Bukh’kumun is not a not good hunter, Bukh’kumun is a good hunter. Now Zen teaches Bukh’kumun words, and hides him from the other no-horns. Zen says that they will also think he is a not good hunter, and will try to hurt Bukh’kumun.
“Zen. Bukh’kumun smell hel-ehn. Many hel-ehn. Close.”