otherwise would get insufficient oxygen. Instinct, reflex, and training
steered him. He found one of the gates and undid it. Leaving it open, he
swam forth and joined his fellows. They were browsing among the aoao,
expropriating what undigested catch lay in those tentacles.
The supply was soon exhausted, and Wirrda’s left in a widespread
formation numbering about 200 individuals. Clues of current and flavor,
perhaps subtler hints, guided them in a landward direction. Had it been
clear day they would not have surfaced immediately; eyes must become
reaccustomed by stages to the dazzle. But a thick sleet made broaching
safe. That was fortunate, albeit common at this season. In their aquatic
phase, the People fared best among the waves.
They found a school of–not exactly fish–and cooperated in a battue.
Again and again Rrinn leaped, dived, drove himself by threshing tail and
pistoning legs until he clapped hands on a scaly body and brought it to
his fangs. He persisted after he was full, giving the extra catch to
whatever infants he met. They had been born with teeth, last midwinter,
able to eat any flesh their parents shredded for them; but years
remained before they got the growth to join in a chase.
In fact, none of the People were ideally fitted for ocean life. Their
remote ancestors, epochs ago, had occupied the continental shelf and
were thus forced to contend with both floods and drought. The dual
aerating system developed in response, as did the adaptation of
departing the land to escape summer’s heat. But being evolved more for
walking than swimming–since two-thirds of their lives were spent
ashore–they were only moderately efficient sea carnivores and “found”
it was best to retire into estivation.
Rrinn had had that theory expounded to him by a Merseian paleontologist.
He would remember it when his brain came entirely awake. At present he
simply felt a wordless longing for the shallows. He associated them with
food, frolic, and–and–
Snowing went on through days and nights. Wirrda’s swam toward the
mainland, irregularly, since they must hunt, but doggedly. Oftener and
oftener they surfaced. Water felt increasingly less good in the gills,
air increasingly less parching. After a while Rrinn actively noticed the
sensuous fluidity along his fur, the roar and surge of great wrinkled
foam-streaked gray waves, skirling winds and blown salt spindrift.
Snowing ended. Wirrda’s broached to a night of hyaline clarity, where
the very ocean was subdued. Overhead glittered uncountable stars. Rrinn
floated on his back and gazed upward. The names of the brightest came to
him. So did his own. He recalled that if he had lately passed a
twin-peaked island, which he had, then he ought to swim in a direction
that kept Ssarro Who Mounts Endless Guard over his right shoulder. Thus
he would approach the feeding grounds with more precision than the
currents granted. He headed himself accordingly, the rest followed, and
he knew afresh that he was their leader.
Dawn broke lambent, but the People were no longer troubled by glare.
They pressed forward eagerly in Rrinn’s wake. By evening they saw the
traces of land, a slight haze on the horizon, floating weeds and bits of
wood, a wealth of life. That night they harried and were gluttonous
among a million tiny phosphorescent bodies; radiance dripped from their
jaws and swirled on every wave. Next morning they heard surf.
Rrinn identified this reef, that riptide, and swam toward the ness where
Wirrda’s always went ashore. At midaftemoon the pack reached it.
North and south, eventually to cover half the globe, raged blizzards.
Such water as fell on land, solid, did not return to the ocean; squeezed
beneath the stupendous weight of later falls, it became glacier. Around
the poles, the seas themselves were freezing, more territory for snow to
accumulate on. In temperate climes their level dropped day by day, and
the continental shelves reappeared in open air.
Rrinn would know this later. For the moment, he rejoiced to tread on
ground again. Breakers roared, tumbled, and streamed among the low
rocks; here and there churned ice floes. Swimming was not too dangerous,
though. Winter tides were weak. And ahead, the shelf climbed, rugged and