Free Silent Songs by A. C. Crispin, Kathleen O'Malley

and with their high metabolism, they'd soon be unable to fend for themselves.
    It had taken a week to arrive at this short, broad southern peninsula Bruce insisted on calling "Florida." His meteor had splashed into the nearby sea, close to the mouth of this wide river. As Taller had predicted, they were far enough from any Gray Wind people that nullifiers could be left handily slung around necks, rather than worn. The immature calls of the cohort, according to Bruce, were irritating, but not dangerous. He was enjoying the novelty of being able to hear on Trinity.
    Once they'd set up camp, Jib and Bruce had taken the Demoiselle, their small multi-use vehicle, and gone underwater exploring. Following the deep channels and crevasses the river's odd tides had carved would eventually lead them to the sea. She expected them back around dusk and by then they'd be starving.
    A flash of goose bumps ran up Tesa's spine, but she repressed the urge to check behind her. The edgy cohort wasn't her only problem. From the shore, a pair of shocking purple eyes bore into her. K'heera had developed a "look"
    of her own.
    Suddenly there was a flash of silver as the fish darted forward, grabbing a feather. Tesa drove the leister down, but her preoccupation made her strike late and the shiny tail sailed through the prongs. She thrust the weapon again, but the fish was gone, swimming away, trophy feather dangling from his mouth.
    A shadow of massive wings passed by as Thunder swooped
    45
    low over the turquoise water. Her spread feet slapped the surface, snatching the escaping piscine. Huge wings struggled for lift as the heavy, thrashing burden twisted in her deadly talons.
    Tesa splashed her way onto the beach, the cohort jogging behind, just as Thunder circled the camp and released her prey. He landed flopping on the bright white sand, and Tesa dispatched him promptly with her stone knife, as she offered a prayer of gratitude to his people for his sacrifice. The cohort, as if one organism, lowered their heads to examine the dying fish.
    "There's plenty to eat in the water," Tesa reassured them. "The fingerlings nearly plucked my shirt bare, and there are big, fat river worms on the bottom. I saw a soft-shelled side-walker that was three times the size of the ones back home!" That made every crown in the crowd blush and spread.
    When Thunder landed and folded her wings, the others stared admiringly at her. "I flew the whole width of that river," she signed haughtily, "and all I saw was/oorf!"
    The Grus glanced at one another, but finally Lightning raised his head. "I'm hungry!" he announced, appearing as unconcerned as Thunder. Regally, he entered the water until it was up to his thighs. Within seconds, his head dived under the waves and he came up with a fish so large he could barely swallow it. FliesTooFast was soon beside him, with the others close behind.
    Tesa smiled and went back to cleaning the fish. Thunder leaned over the corpse, peering at the creature hungrily. "You caught him," Tesa signed. "Do you want him?"
    "We both caught him," Thunder retorted. "Your attack slowed him down. I would like the head, please . . . and ... the liver?"
    "Fine," Tesa assured her, removing the head deftly and eviscerating the fish.
    "If you don't want these entrails .. ."
    "Oh, I'll eat those," Thunder assured her, "and the fins!"
    Methodically, Tesa scaled the body. As she carried it back to the surf to wash it, she finally spotted K'heera in a tall patch of dune grass. The Simiu's violet eyes were politely cast aside, yet Tesa knew she'd been glaring in stern disapproval. That's the way it had been ever since their first meal together.
    "Animal protein?" K'heera had signed, shocked when the cohort had offered bivalves to the humans. "It is fine for the White Wind people to eat their traditional foods," she'd lectured the humans, "but you are only visitors here.
    You have written, Honored Interrelator, that many of Trinity's beings communicate. How can