Page 10 - Fables volume 3

Uk: Oh, we’ve gone over that a thousand times! Do you want to be at
the mercy of any roving band of males? And we can’t produce
daughters without producing sons.

Uma: We could kill them at birth.

Ulla: Impossible! Only new dominant males have that privilege. You
would be killed yourself if you tried it. No, we must deal with the
devils we know. We’ve put a lot of time into studying those fools,
learning their weaknesses and how to exploit them. Maybe we need
to propitiate whatever power determines the sex of our young.

Uk: I’ve tried, but I can’t make a big enough sacrifice to She Who
Must Be Obeyed without drawing attention to myself.

Usha: Enough talk! We must follow the plan developed by our
grandmothers. First, as I said, to keep his attentions from wandering
to our daughters if he shows signs of desire. Second, we must do that
by promoting attractive females with no intelligent ancestry to him
instead. And finally, we should manipulate the other males into
harassing and challenging him.

Uma: I know. If he really has any sense, he’ll leave. Let the females in
some other troop deal with him!

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