Changelings

CHAPTER 6

A SECRET? Otters love secrets! Hey, everybody, I'll be right back. My new friends the seals I was telling you about want to tell me a secret! Maybe they know a secret place where the fish are especially nice.

They had to wait a long time because he had already taken his first slide and had to climb back up the hill again. When he finally reached them, he dove into the hole they had made.

What is it? What's the secret?

First we want to tell you why you should know about this, Murel said.

Our parents want us to have a friend to swim with, Ronan continued. Someone who knows the waters and won't get lost and could go for help if something went wrong.

I can do that. Nobody knows the water like an otter. Your parents don't eat otters either, do they?

No. In fact, our mother isn't like us at all. Our father is like us, but you'd only know it if you saw him in the water. See, Otter, it's kind of hard to explain but our mother is human and our father is, like us, a seal only when he's in the water. On the land he's a human and, uh, so are we.

"Hah!" the otter said. That's interesting. Show me.

You won't be scared? Murel asked. We don't want to scare you. We really want to be your friends.

Otters don't scare that easy, he said, chittering a bit nervously. Some of my coastal cousins can turn into people too if they want to. They can even get human beings who aren't like them to turn into otters if they want. Oh, I shouldn't have told you about that. It's a secret too. No, not a secret. It was a lie. I was lying so you wouldn't think otters don't know about turning into humans and-

It's okay, Murel said. Just so you're not scared. Come on, Ronan.

They both jumped out of the water, slid to the bank, and shook themselves off.

"Hah!" the otter said and "Hah!" again. He pushed himself out of the water and slid over to inspect them and said "Hah!" several more times as he circled their legs, which were getting goose bumps. I don't know why you want to be human. You are all pale and too thin to be warm. You should jump back in and be seals again before you freeze. Being seals isn't as good as being otters, but it's much more practical on the river than being human.

Good idea, Ronan said, running for the water hole.

Murel turned to show the otter the pack with her shiny suit in it. If we were going to stay human, we'd put on these suits that are stored on our backs but we-

"Hah! Hah!" other otters called loudly from down toward the waterfall slide.

"Hah!" their new friend answered. Wolves! he told the children. Wolves have come. Otter-eating wolves. And our den is up here, uphill from where my family is.

But your family has their big sharp teeth, right? Ronan asked.

Not as big and sharp as wolves', he said, chittering, chirping, and growling aloud in answer to the distress calls from below. The wolves will eat them all!

Is there a hole in the ice near the falls? Ronan asked as he teetered on the edge of the ice hole.

Yes, near our slide.

Let's go then! he said, diving in. Murel followed him, and the otter right after her.

Wolves probably eat seals too.

Yes, but we can scare them away when we turn into people, Murel said. But she didn't think that through. She just knew that wolves never bothered her father or her aunt Sinead while they were in the woods. Most sled dogs were part wolf anyway, and she wasn't afraid of them.

It didn't occur to her that nothing had threatened Ronan and her because since they were babies they had been escorted everywhere by a snow leopard and a very large track cat.

A long long dive into the ice cave running beneath the otter tunnels and then, at last, open water. First Ronan surfaced, then the otter, then Murel.

There. There's the slide. Right there. Slide down. Be quick.

Below, the wolves were howling while the otters chittered, chirruped, and hahed as they tried to scramble away. Then one screamed.

Without shaking himself dry, Ronan slid down the long frozen cataract in seal form, Murel and the otter close behind him.

At the bottom he saw a wolf with an otter in its mouth. The little beast was still alive and snapping its teeth for all it was worth.

The wolves lined the riverbank and blocked the ice downstream. The cataract prevented the otters from climbing back up.

Before she shook herself off, Murel dug a hole in the ice with her claws and told the otter, Get the others into the water, quickly.

But that's my mother!

We'll try to save her.

Ronan shook himself dry and instantly was a naked boy. No time to put on the silver suit. Get your teeth out of that otter right this minute, he snapped at the wolf, trying to look as menacing as he could, which wasn't very.

Mine, the wolf snarled back.

Look at that, he's already defurred! another pack member, this one about a year-old pup, said.

Can I have him, sire? Can I?

I don't know, son, the alpha male growled uncertainly. There's something fishy about those two big ones. They were seals just a minute ago. Now they look like men. Men have firesticks, and besides, you never know what they've been into. They might be bad for you.

Just let the otter go and be on your way and nobody gets hurt, Ronan told the wolves.

Besides, wolves don't normally eat otters. And we have it on good authority that these ones are poisonous.

She doesn't smell poisonous, the wolf holding the otter argued, slitting her eyes suspiciously.

Neither does he, the young wolf said, slinking closer to Ronan with hindquarters tensed to spring. He smells delicious.

By then the last of the otters had popped into Murel's hole and she had changed. While the wolves circled, she put on her silver suit and looked around for a weapon. Ronan's skin was covered with goose bumps. With her entire body protected by the suit, she was better able to defend herself than he.

The female wolf shook the furious snapping otter mother trying to break her neck. Without thinking, Murel took a long slide forward, bowling into the wolf, and smacked her hard on the muzzle with the side of her mitten, making her drop the otter.

Run! she told the smaller creature, but there was no need. The otter hit the water before Murel had formed the thought.

Now there was a new problem. A circle of hungry wolves tightened around Murel and Ronan, so close the twins could smell their breath, which was doggy and rotten at the same time. The wolf who'd had the otter leapt to her feet and with both front feet stiff brought them down sharply in front of Murel, snarling, Thief!

Ronan had used the distraction to seal himself into his own silver suit.

Now what is he, sire? The yearling who'd asked permission to hunt Ronan sounded bewildered. A fish? These creatures can't make up their minds what they are. But they still smell like prey to me.

And so they are, son, and so they are. Those flimsy shiny hides won't protect them if we all jump them at once. Ready… The female wolf waggled her hindquarters, poised to spring.

Murel lost her nerve and backed into her twin, who hugged her, and they clung together.

Set… the wolf's mate said.

Murel squeezed her eyes tight and hoped she wouldn't be more than one bite to them so it wouldn't hurt so much. There were no weapons. No fire.

Ronan buried his face in her shoulder, and she did likewise with her twin.

Attack! This order was followed by yipping, snarling, snapping, and growling, but no biting.

The twins were braced, ready to be knocked down by the wolves, but nothing touched them.

Instead, they heard familiar voices using feline profanity never before uttered in their presence.

Murel opened one eye in time to see Coaxtl pounce on yet another wolf and ride it like a horse while Nanook sat on her hindquarters, swatting wolf bodies right and left.

The wolves were already on the run when the first shot rang out.

"Go on, you mangy critters, get outta here! Those kids are too fraggin' spoiled rotten for you to eat anyway." Their aunt Sinead's voice sounded so good to them, she might have been promising presents instead of punishment by the time she braked her sled and ran past her spitting track cats to scoop up the children.

She bundled them into the sled and told them, as if talking to one of her team, "Stay."

They tried to tell her about the otters, but she didn't pay any attention to them. Her mouth was compressed in a thin line. The only sounds for several hours were the shushing of the runners and the patter of paws against the snow, the occasional dog stopping to relieve itself, and Aunt Sinead's barked commands. Not even Nanook or Coaxtl spoke. Ronan and Murel were too miserable to communicate with each other. After what seemed like a week but must have been sometime during the night, though it was hard to tell in the winter, the lead dog stopped in front of their house. Sinead stamped on the brake to set it, and ripped off her mittens to release the bindings holding the twins on the sled and under the furs. Her hands were shaking, which was funny since next to their mother, Aunt Sinead was the bravest lady they knew.

Silently, she pointed to the door.

When they left the sled, Coaxtl and Nanook stalked them all the way there.