title: Zafira and the Birds
author: Eugenie Makrogiannis
description: ABOUT THE AUTHOR Eugenie Makrogiannis grew up in San Diego, California. She studied journalism and art history, but now teaches English as a foreign language on Lake Como, in Italy. "Zafira and the Birds" is her first novel, but she hopes Zafira will have many more dream adventures in the future.
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  # Herds by Stephen Goldin
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## PROLOG
  
  
  The planet Zarti was peaceful at one time. The most advanced race
  
  
  was a species of gentle, long-necked herbivores who had no greater
  
  
  ambitions than full bellies. These Zarticku banded together in herds
  
  
  for protection from predators and eventually devised simple methods of
  
  
  communication to exchange basic ideas among themselves.
  
  
  Without warning, the Offasü came. This space-faring race arrived _en
  
  
  masse_ at Zarti, hundreds of millions of them—conceivably the
  
  
  entire Offasü population—in ships that were each several miles in
  
  
  diameter. They swarmed down like locusts upon this idyllic planet and
  
  
  irrevocably changed the course of life there.
  
  
  First they formed zoos, gathering up specimens of each major species
  
  
  of animal they could find. These specimens were tested, probed and
  
  
  prodded in every conce