 How old is the Sand God, mentally?
The sand-thing was powerful, lonely and strange. He touched the pencil-line scar behind his ear where the cylinder was buried, marveling at the power stored there, power to fling him from earth to this fourth planet of the Centaurian system in an instant. It had happened so fast that he could almost feel the warm, humid Missouri air, though he was light years from Missouri. A gray, funnel-shaped cloud of dust stood off to his left. Weather control made cyclones and other climatic phenomena on earth practically non-existent. The cloud did not move, though, except to spin on its axis rapidly, emitting a high-pitched, scarcely audible whine, like a high speed motor. He stood on a wide valley floor between two mountain ranges. Dark clouds capped one peak of the mountains on his left. He was here and Earth was somewhere up there. The sun burned fiercely, although he would have said it was about four o'clock in the afternoon, if this had been Earth. The sun shone obliquely, throwing Stinson's shadow upon the sand. He was here to investigate, to determine if this planet was capable of supporting life. He examined the wind devil as closely as he dared, but it was composed only of grains of sand. There was no core, no central place you could point to and say, here is the brain, or the nervous system. But then, how could a group of loosely spaced grains of sand possibly have a nervous system? When it changed to a cube he drew a square, a circle for a sphere, and so on. He became so absorbed in doing this that he failed to notice how the wind devil drew closer and closer, but when he inhaled the first grains of sand, the realization of what was happening dawned with a flash of fear. As he stood beside a small creek, a chill wind blew from the northwest. From one angle they were animals, from another birds, from a third they were vaguely humanoid creatures, glowering at him with primitive ferocity. These creatures were not only humanoid, but definitely human, although more slight of build than earth people. All were dressed from the waist down only, in a shimmering skirt that sparkled as they moved. The men were dark-skinned, the women somewhat lighter, with long flowing hair, wide lips and a beauty that was utterly sensual. He pointed upward, described a large circle, then another smaller, and showed how Earth revolved around the sun.
 Nine years
 Six years  Fifteen years  Twelve years  Nine years