We wish not to be alone in the universe, Dorthy, and this drives people to invent things that are not really there. - Paul J. McAuley

They're following one bunch of herders. Marta has this idea that she can work out their social behavior.
"And do they have any?" Dorthy asked.
"Fucking mostly," Andrew said evenly. The boss female controls the group by choosing which males fuck her, and the males fuck each other, too, to establish their dominance. Rather like the Navy."

Stay the same and after a while you come to think that nothing will ever change.

Zithsa hunter claim they sometimes see man-shaped creatures in the lowlands. Mist demons, the hunters call them, and say that they are the ghosts of the fabled lost race. I say they are half vodka, half imagination.