“When my times comes I would rather it be against the prowlers. They fight hard and kill quick and then they’re through with you. They don’t tear you up after you’re dead and slobber and gloat over the pieces, the way the unicorns do.”

The springs came a little earlier each year, the falls a little later, and the observations showed the suns progressing steadily northward. But the winters, though shorter, were seemingly as cold as ever. The long summers reached such a degree of heat on the ninth year that Lake knew they could endure no more than two or three years more of the increasing heat.

Then, in the summer of the tenth year, the tilting of Ragnarok⁠—the apparent northward progress of the suns⁠—stopped. They were in the middle of what Craig had called Big Summer and they could endure it⁠—just barely. They would not have to leave the caves.

The suns started their drift southward. The observations were continued and carefully recorded. Big Fall was coming and behind it would be Big Winter.