<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><DIV>Urthers,</DIV>
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<DIV>Concerning "Tracking Song" could it be probable that the woman Cim Glowing is a platypus-human</DIV>
<DIV>analog? (it is the conceit of this short story that all the "humans" that Cutthroat meets are animal-human</DIV>
<DIV>analogs) Consider the following:</DIV>
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<DIV>When Cutthroat meets her Wolfe describes her as having "short hair" and "eyes" with a face that is</DIV>
<DIV>"not expressive." If the animal-human analogs show psychology and "habits" of their former animal</DIV>
<DIV>ancestors, a platypus/human analog would hardly be considered as having any facial expressiveness</DIV>
<DIV>as platypuses have beaks (not faces as such.) Another clue is the endieva wand. It is clearly poisonous</DIV>
<DIV>(not electrical) and whatever creature or plant the platypus/human analogs derived it from it functions the</DIV>
<DIV>same way the hindspur of the platypus does - as a mammalian defense poison. From Wolfe's description,</DIV>
<DIV>it also looks a lot like a stylized platypus hind flipper. Yet another clue is the time when Cutthroat sees her</DIV>
<DIV>in the dwarf Mantru's throneroom. She is sans tunic (ie; naked?) and he can see she is NO human woman.</DIV>
<DIV>Why is this? If she was platypus/human analog she might not have breasts (platypuses have milkline - grooves on the abdomen that exude milk) perhaps this is the reason for Cutthroat's assertion that she is</DIV>
<DIV>no human.</DIV>
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<DIV>Sean Ako</DIV>
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