Read Online Changelings by Anne McCaffrey - Free Book Online

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 play?
    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