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08-14-2011, 10:08 PM
The Tines race used group thought to reach high intelligence; Johanna had never seen a rational pack of more than six members. The wolf nests didn't care about high intelligence. Woodcarver claimed that a nest might have thousands of members -- certainly the one they'd tripped over was huge. Such a mob couldn't be as smart as a human. In terms of raw reasoning power,mbt kisumu (http://www.happymbt.com), it probably wasn't much brighter than a single pack member. On the other hand, it could be a lot more flexible. Wolves could operate alone at great distances. When within a hundred meters of the home nest they were appendages of the "queen" members of the nest,复件 (73) air max2 (http://www.brownsnoutcider.com/##############/displayimage.php?pos=-65), and no one doubted their canniness then. Pilgrim had legends of nests with almost packish intelligence,复件 (56) air max1 (http://www.joelisi.net/##############/displayimage.php?pos=-643), of foresters who made treaties with nearby nests for protection in return for food. As long as the high-powered noises in the nest lived, the worker wolves could coordinate almost like Tine members. But kill the nest, and the creature fell apart like some cheap, star-topology network. Certainly this nest had done a number on Woodcarver's army. It had waited quietly until the troopers were within its inner loudness. Then outlying wolves had used synchronized mimicry to create sonic "ghosts", tricking the packs into turning from the nest and shooting uselessly into the trees. And when the ambush actually began, the nest had screamed concentrated confusion down on the Tines. That attack had been a far more powerful thing than the "stink noise" they'd encountered in other parts of the forest. To the Tines, the stinkers had been painfully loud and sometimes even frightening,复件 (71) air max (http://www.freeadvertisingzone.com/showthread.php?p=2579114#post2579114), but not the mind-destroying chaos of the wolf-nest attack. More than one hundred packs had been knocked out in the ambush. Some, mostly packs with pups, had huddled. Others,复件 (93) air max2 (http://alexandrasource.com/##############/displayimage.php?pos=-5046), like Scrupilo, had been "blasted apart". In the hours following the attack, many of these fragments straggled back and reassembled. The resulting Tines were shaken but unharmed. Intact troops hunted up and down the forested cliffs for injured members of their comrades. There were places along the dropoff that were more than twenty meters deep. Where their fall wasn't cushioned by tree boughs, members landed on ########## rock. Five dead ones were eventually found,复件 (71) air max2 (http://www.freeadvertisingzone.com/showthread.php?p=2579110#post2579110), and another twenty seriously injured. Two carts had fallen. They were kindling, and their kherhogs were too badly injured to survive. By great good luck, the gunshot had not started a forest fire. Three times the sun made its vast, tilted course around the sky. Woodcarver's army recovered in a camp in the depths of the valley forest, by the river. Vendacious had posted lookouts with signaling mirrors on the northern valley wall. This place was about as safe as any they could find so far north. It was certainly one of the most beautiful. It didn't have the view of the high forest, but there was the sound of the river nearby, so loud it drowned the sighing of the dry wind. The lowland trees didn't have root flowers, but they were still different from what Johanna had known. There was no underbrush, just a soft, bluish "moss" that Pilgrim claimed was actually part of the trees. It stretched like mown parkland to the edge of the river. On the last day of their rest, the Queen called a meeting of all the packs not at guard or lookout. It was the largest collection of Tines Johanna had seen in one place since her family was killed. Only these ones weren't fighting.