Changelings

CHAPTER 5

WHEN Johnny had gone, the twins headed directly to the river. It connected the former Space Base with the village. In the winter, its frozen surface served as a road where people drove dogs and snocles back and forth from their ice fishing holes or to go after water.

Ronan compressed his suit again and returned it to packet form, then began removing his snowsuit.

"You're not supposed to take off your clothes where there are people around, or change either!" his sister chided him.

"Well, we have to test them."

"We can go to the spring. And besides, we need to find 'Nook and Co' first anyway."

"No we don't. With these suits, we don't have to worry about getting caught without our clothes anywhere, and that's all the cats really do. Otherwise they just hang around the water hole. I want to test these, Murel. Let's go somewhere fun. Maybe we can find a new chaperone."

"Da said-"

"Didn't you see that load of offworlders? Da will be busy processing and orienting them for days and days. If we can find someone Mum and he like to swim with us, we can go everywhere. We won't have to hang around boring old Kilcoole with our skins itching for wet while Mum and Da entertain strangers.", Murel was not above temptation. She wanted to see what was beyond Kilcoole and the familiar waters too. And she knew what Ronan said was true. It seemed like with their parents, what everybody else wanted always came before what they wanted-or even needed.

It was very unfair. If they could be a little more independent, or at least not have to wait on their folks or those land-bound cats, maybe they could even help with the work Mum and Da did for Petaybee. After all, they were eight now. That was pretty old.

"Okay," she said. "But not here. That place where they put in the fish wheel in the summer.

Nobody is there now and we can strip off and plunge in without getting caught."

They raced through town without drawing much attention since everyone was busy meeting and greeting the new people. Even though a lot of Petaybeans didn't want the offworlders there, Clodagh and the other leaders reminded folk that they had all been from elsewhere originally and these people, like themselves, were just looking for a home to settle down in.

Petaybee would either accept or reject them before long. No need meanwhile for Petaybeans to be inhospitable.

But the twins had had entirely too much of that. While they were in town making nice with the refugees, they weren't swimming and playing and teasing their feline nannies.

The stretch of river on the other side of town had another big advantage besides being less public. The hot springs fed into it, so areas of water stayed open year round, and much of the water that did freeze had a far thinner crust than that between the old Space Base and Kilcoole.

The twins found a good, big open place to enter the water, but first took off their clothes and carefully concealed them under some brush on the bank. Then, having located the little straps to their tiny packs, they fixed them over their shoulders so the packs were in the middle of their backs. Then each took a running jump into the water. It was icy at the top but much warmer underneath, and felt warmer still as their transformation took place. By the time they were completely submerged, they were no longer lanky pale children but shorter, fatter, furrier gray seals.

They played hide-and-seek with each other in the patchy ice, then dove deep, as the hot spring's current was diluted by colder streams. They swam for the joy of it, loving the feeling of being in a cave made of river ice, with the bumpy riverbed below and the bumpy ice sheets above. This time of the year there was little sun, but their eyes were excellent in the dark and underwater. They raced each other downstream, stopping once in a while to claw open a breathing hole in the ice with the talons at the ends of their flippers. When they grew hungry, they snacked on fish. They caught the smaller ones just by opening their mouths. The larger ones they had to take to the surface to eat.

When they had swum farther than they'd ever gone before, another hot spring entered the river, making a large area where they could surface and slide up onto the ice and over to the bank. The wind had come up, and it was pretty cold business getting themselves into their new suits. Had they not been native Petaybeans with the special adaptations to supercold temperatures the planet had engendered in its inhabitants, they would have frozen to death long before they got their suits on. However, since they were native Petaybeans, they put on their suits very very quickly. Once the shiny thin fabric covered their bodies, including their hands, feet, heads, and all of their faces but their eyes, they found they were quite toasty.

This stuff is amazing! Ronan thought-spoke to his sister, both because that was how they usually communicated with each other and because the fabric covering their mouths made it difficult to speak or to hear someone else speaking through it. I bet it's what they make ship suits out of Yeah, Murel said, twirling a little in hers, which was fun because the boots were as slippery as her flippers on the ice. And we could go skating even in human form while we're wearing these.

Ronan yawned. What I'd rather do is take a nap. I'm pretty sleepy.

Me too. Then we probably ought to start back before 'Nook and Co' start stalking us.

So they found a sheltered place among the spindly trees that grew along the bank and lay down beside them. The snow felt soft through their suits, and not the least bit cold. They had barely closed their eyes when Murel sat up. Did you hear that?

What?

That chirpy noise. It isn't a bird. I know it's not a bird.

"Hah!" something said, very close to them.

It's coming from the river, Murel said.

"Hah!" it said again, followed by more of the nervous-sounding chirping, like a mother bird missing her chicks.

Almost sounds like a dog driver coming up the trail, Ronan said.

Only not quite. It's coming from under the water.

Yeah?

Listen!

You're right, it is.

They fumbled removing their suits. Ronan left his on the bank and started to slide into the water but Murel stopped him. No! Strap it on. It's shiny. A bird might take it. Besides, that's what we wanted them for.

He grumbled but struggled into it while she, with her pack already strapped over her shoulders, slid into the water and transformed. She dove under the ice before her brother hit the water.

It occurred to her to wonder why they heard the sound as a voice if it was underwater. It was a distinct sound that she'd heard, not a thought.

Swimming deeper under, she saw something struggling in the ice. From time to time it made the noises they had heard, but she felt it tiring and sensed it was frightened.

What's wrong? she asked, approaching to see a body with a short thick tail and four furry paws, the back two webbed, struggling in the water. The body ended at the ice.

Caught. Crack opened up and dumped me in then ice trapped my head. Caught. "Hah!"

I see. And your paws are all too far below the ice to be able to help you. We'll see what we can do.

Ronan joined her, and the two of them used their clawed flippers and noses to push the ice away from the other creature.

A chunk broke off in Ronan's claws, and abruptly the little animal dropped down into the water with a flourish of bubbles that, when they reached the surface, contained the word

"Hah!"

But what the creature was thinking was, Seals? River seals? I never heard of river seals before. Did you free me so you could eat me?

Of course not, Murel answered.

Why? Ronan asked. Are you scrumptious?

No, no, no, the creature answered, its little brain whirling with ideas and images. Actually, my kind are poisonous to seals. That's why I asked, you see. You two seem like very good sorts for seals and I wouldn't want to make you sick if you tried to eat me, or even kill you.

What kind are your kind? Murel asked. Other than poisonous to seals, that is?

The otter kind, the creature answered, swimming away from them a certain distance. It wanted to escape but its curiosity kept it paddling in the water just under what looked like another hole in the ice. What kind of seals are you to swim in rivers? You're just pups, I can see that. Did you get lost from your mother?

How do you know we're seals if you live in the river and seals never swim here? Murel asked.

Otters get around, the little fellow said. He had a round head with a short black nose and very little neck. His eyes were large and shiny, and his mouth curved up into what looked like a smile regardless of what he seemed to be feeling or thinking. I've been to the coast to visit my cousins. Well, once. But they told me about seals and how they eat- well, I saw some at a distance. But they all lived on the beach or the little islands right around. None have ever come into the river before.

We are called Petaybean shepherd seals or selkies, Murel told him, remembering their father's earlier teachings. We eat fish when we're in the water, but no other creatures.

Shepherd seals protect other creatures and help maintain the harmony of the water life on our world.

Thank you very much, I'm sure, the otter replied. I'm feeling extremely harmonious, now that I think of it, and very glad not to have my head stuck in the ice anymore. So if you're sure you will not try to eat me- and make your good selves very ill if not dead, of course- I'll just be on my way now.

The little creature was afraid of them, they could see that, but he was also uncontrollably inquisitive. Unless, of course, you'd like to flay?

We should be getting back to our vil- to our mother, Murel said.

But we could play for a little while, I guess, Ronan answered, and in an aside to his twin said, It's only polite not to just run away. Besides, he looks like the sort of chap who could get himself right back into trouble if we don't keep an eye on him.

You should know all about that, Murel said, as if she were the oldest and didn't get into plenty of trouble herself.

All right then, the otter said. Hide-and-seek? You two be it and I'll go hide.

Wait a minute, Murel said before he darted off. There's only one it. You and I can go hide and Ronan can be it.

Why don't I go hide with the otter and you be it? Ronan argued.

Don't be such a baby, she told him. It's just till you find one of us. Then we'll switch. Now close your eyes and count to ten.

The otter had been about to zip away again, but now, once more, curiosity held him. What's count? he wanted to know.

It's how to measure things, she told him. Like how many of them there are.

Oh, like how many otters there are in my den? There are many, you know. What count is many?

I don't know. Ten? Forty-seven? A hundred?

What's the most many? A hundred?

That's it then, that's how many otters are here, all with big sharp teeth to defend themselves against the bad otter-eating seals. A hundred otters in my family.

That's a very large family, Murel told him. Caribou have families that large, but I didn't know otters did.

My parents were very much in love, he told her. Besides, we need large families with very big sharp teeth to fend off the bad otter-eating seals.

I thought you lived in this river and we were the only seals you'd ever seen in a river? she asked.

He swam a couple of strokes and pulled himself up through a hole in the ice, onto more ice.

Look, she said. We really really don't eat otters, even if they weren't poisonous and if there weren't a hundred with big sharp teeth. If we're going to play together, that makes us friends.

Friends don't eat friends.

Ninety-nine, a hundred! Ready or not, here I come! Ronan called.

"Hah!" the otter said from somewhere she couldn't see. The other seal knows how many are in my family. He said it.

No, that's just part of how we play the game. The hole in the ice wasn't quite large enough for a full-grown seal but Murel could just pull herself up through it with only a tiny clawed modification around the edges. She found herself in a low tunnel-good height for an otter and not bad for a seal if she slid on her stomach and just used her flippers to propel her slide forward.

The otter slipped and slid ahead of her, weaving in and out of tunnels as she followed behind.

He didn't seem to be hiding exactly, though, so she did. One of the otter's tunnels led to a den dug deep into the thick river ice lining the bank. None of the hundred otters with the big sharp teeth seemed to be using the den, so she hid there waiting for Ronan.

If he found the otter first and the otter got to be it and came looking for them, maybe it would set the little guy's mind at ease about their intentions.

Instead, Ronan came sliding right up to her. "You're it!" he cried aloud.

How?

"Read your mind, silly. Didn't see our friend anywhere."

Otter otter in free! The otter's sending was from way up the river.

You have kind of an unfair advantage in this game, Murel said. You know where you are and we don't.

Okay. Let's go sliding then. I've gathered my family. They have agreed not to use their big sharp teeth on you unless you try something funny.

Are you sure? Murel asked, joking. We know you now, but are your relatives maybe those seal-eating otters?

Of course not. Come on! It'll be fun! We can play over the waterfall!

Sounds kinda dangerous.

Not now. It's a seasonal game.

It took Murel and Ronan a long time to find their way back out of the maze of otter tunnels to the hole under the ice.

Then they had to swim back upstream to where the ice was thinner and open another hole so they could surface again without tearing up the otter's home.

They popped their heads out of the water. As long as the rest of their bodies stayed submerged and their heads were wet, they could stay seals.

If we get out now to go play with the otters, we won't be seals anymore, Ronan said.

Oh, bother. Then he'll think we're otter-eating people and we'll have to go all through it again or else those hundred relatives he's trying to scare us with will sink their big sharp teeth into us.

Yeah. As if. But I really want to play with them and I don't want to scare them.

I think we ought to go home now anyway. Let's just send a good-bye to our little buddy and say we were called away by our own family.

Yeah, but, Murel, we needed a swimming buddy and he could be it. If he went swimming with us, we could go all the time maybe.

True. I guess if he agreed to do that he'd find out about us being people part of the time anyway. Let's see what he says. Oh, Otter!

Come, Murel! Come slide with us. You can slide waaaaay down! It's long and steep but when you get to the bottom you just keep going and going until you slide halfway out to the coast where my cousins live.

We want to come and play, Otter, but we need to talk to you by yourself first. Please. It's a secret.