In the Green Star's Glow

Now ants have multiple limbs, and these limbs terminate in mandibular extremities. However cunningly nature has devised these mandibles, they simply are not of the same construction as human hands. The kraan, therefore, are unable to manipulate objects with the degree of manual dexterity of which human beings are capable. Our hands, with their swivel-socket wrists and opposing thumbs, are uniquely designed for the use of tools. The mandibles of the kraan are not.

But the kraan were of sufficient intelligence to be tool-making and tool-using creatures. Their coldly logical minds were aware of the advantages afforded to those races which are equipped by nature to employ the use of tools and weapons. Lacking the ability to use instruments more sophisticated than mere sticks or poles limited the skills of the kraan and put them at a disadvantage compared to their principal enemies and rivals for dominance—which is to say, the race of men.

By themselves, the kraan were unable to control their environment. But through the use of human captives, whose skills were at the service of their insect masters, the kraan were as dangerous to the men of the treetop cities as they were to each other.

It had become the custom of the ant-army to take as many human captives as possible, and these slaves were employed in a variety of skilled crafts. They kept records and made mathematical computations for their insect masters; they devised tools and weapons adapted, wherever possible, to the structure of the kraan mandibles. They scraped the hides and intestines of beasts for the manufacture of bowstrings and catapult cables, manufactured a variety of sword-blades, spearpoints, knives and daggers; and in all ways served the kraan in those areas of endeavor for which nature had inadequately suited the limbs of the warrior ants.

Zorak was new to the treetop world, for his native city, Tharkoon, was built upon a spur of land which jutted out into the blue waters of the Komarian Sea. His race was a nation of landsmen who tilled the soil and fished the seas. The unique perils and protections afforded to those of the Laonese who dwelt a mile or more aloft on the branches of the arboreal giants were matters upon which the bowman had never before found reason to ponder. But even he, as inexperienced in this setting as he was, could realize the enormous menace the kraan represented to the tree kingdoms.

On their own, the giant insects were fearsome and dreaded opponents. Armored entirely in tough, horny chitin, they were shielded from the bows and spears of human armies. With a logical, unemotional intelligence comparable to that of the human brain, they were as cunning and skillful tacticians as were their human foes. Armed with sharp clawlike extremities, bristling with powerful many-jointed limbs, each ant warrior, could hold at bay three or even four human soldiers.

But when, to these inherent advantages, was added a full use of the crafts and skills possible to their human slaves, the scarlet horde became a double threat to the survival of the kingdoms of men.

It was not a pleasant thought to think upon, and the sleep of Zorak that first night was troubled by dark and ominous dreams.

During the next day the brave bowman struck up a friendship with one of the smiths, a burly-chested fellow who called himself Xargo of Kamadhong. The smith told Zorak that he had been captured by the horde about a year ago, as nearly as he could measure the passage of time, which was without any particular accuracy, as I have elsewhere explained.

Xargo had been employed all this while, he told Zorak, in the manufacture of sword-blades and spear-tips, and in the making of arrowheads. Quite a considerable number of the other slaves of the kraan were employed in similar warlike manufacture, very many of which captives Xargo himself had taught the art of smithery. He began to instruct Zorak in the requisite skills, for it was the goal of the leader of the horde that every kraan in the giant army should be fully equipped for war.

The Laonese manufacture metals, but do not mine for ore. The only exception to this practice may be the Komarian isles and seacoast cities, but I cannot say for certain. At any rate, in lieu of bronze, copper, iron, or steel—all of which metals can only be obtained by surface or subsurface mining—the Laonese employ a peculiar transparent metal like glass hardened to the toughness, the resilience, and the sharpness of steel.

In the treetop cities, these metals are derived from the sap of the giant trees by a method of chemical distilling for which I can find in the English language no precise equivalent. Metals are held in suspension within the sap of the forest giants, and are “grown” in molds like some manner of organic crystals. I have never actually seen this done, due to the brevity of my stay in any of the Laonese cities I have yet visited, and therefore cannot describe with more precision just how it is accomplished. But, however the thing is done, Xargo soon began teaching the skills to Zorak, on instruction of the insect-creatures.