Moon Mirror by Andre Norton Page A

on the leaf, scraping its front legs together and looking as if it wanted a bite of someone. At that moment, I feltTeddi leave, which made me happier, as I didn't have Joboy's confidence in Teddi's ability to defend himself against the Littles.
    That was the beginning. Whenever we went near the woods, sooner or later Teddi would turn up in hiding. I seldom saw any part of him, but I always felt him come and go. Joboy seemed to be able to think with him and exchange information—until the day Teddi was caught.
    The creature had always been so cautious that I had begun to believe that the Littles would never know about him. But suddenly he walked, on his hind legs, right into the open. Raul yelled and pointed, and the Little on guard used his stunner. Teddi dropped. At least, he hadn't been blasted, not that that would necessarily save him.
    I expected Joboy to go wild, but he didn't. He went over with the rest of us to see Teddi, lying limp and yellow on mashed, sticky leaves where we had been taking off tree limbs. Joboy acted as if he didn't know a thing about him. That I could not understand.
    Teddi was a little taller than Joboy. His round, furry head would just top my shoulder, and his body was plump and fur-covered all over. He had large, round ears, set near the top of his head, a muzzle that came to a point, and a dark brown button of a nose. Yes, he looked like an animal, but I was sure he was something far different.
    Now he was just a stunned prisoner, and the Littles made us carry him over to the machine. Then they took us all back to camp. They dumped us in the lockup and took Teddi intoanother hut. I know what Littles do to animals. They might— I only hoped Joboy couldn't imagine what the Littles might do to Teddi. I still didn't understand why he wasn't upset.
    But when we were shut in, he took my hand. “Tam?"
    I thought I knew what he was going to ask—that I help Teddi—and there was nothing I could do.
    ’Tam, listen—Teddi, he wanted to be caught. He did! He has a plan for us. It will work only if he gets real close to the Littles, so he had to be caught.”
    "What does he mean?” El-Su demanded.
    "The kid's mind-broke!” Raul burst out. “They knocked over some kind of an animal out there and—"
    "Shut up!” I snapped at Raul. I had to know what Joboy meant, because it was plain that he believed what he was saying, and he knew far more about Teddi than I did.
    "Teddi can do things with his head.” Joboy paid no attention to either El-Su or Raul, looking straight at me as if he must make me believe what he was saying.
    Remembering for myself, I could agree in part. “I know—"
    "He can make them—the Littles—feel bad inside. But we have to help.”
    "How? We can't get out of here—"
    "Not yet,” Joboy agreed. “But we have to help Teddi think—"
    "Mind-broke!” Raul exploded and slouched away. But El-Su and the other two girls squatted down to listen.
    "How do we help think?” She asked the question already on my tongue.

    “You feel afraid. Remember all the bad things you are afraid of. And we hold hands in a circle to remember them—like bad dreams.” Joboy was plainly struggling to find words to make us understand.
    “That's easy enough—to remember bad things,” El-Su agreed. “All right, we think. Come on, girls.” She took Amay's hand and Mara's. I took Mara's other hand, and Joboy took Amay's, so we were linked in a circle.
    “Now"—Joboy spoke as sharply as any Little setting us to work—"think!”
    We had plenty of bad things to remember: cold, hunger, fear. Once you started thinking and remembering, it all heaped up into a big black pile of bad things. I thought about every one of them—how Mom died, how Da was lost, and how—and how—and how....
    I got so I didn't even see where we were or whose hands I held. I forgot all about the present; I just sat and remembered and remembered. It came true again in my mind, as if it were happening all over again, until I