Changelings
- Автор: Маккефри Энн, Скарборо Элизабет
- Серия: The Twins of Petaybee #1
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Changelings». Краткое содержание книги:
CHANGELINGS
They are Ronan Born for Water Shongili and Murel Monster Slayer Shongili. Twin brother and sister. Children of Yana and Sean. Children of Petaybee. As such, theirs is a destiny deeply intertwined with the sentient planet that is their home. For Ronan and Murel are more than human. Like their father, each can transform into a seal and converse telepathically with the planet’s creatures–such as the friendly otter whose life they save one day from a pack of ravenous wolves.
But the twins’ bravery has unforeseen results when a visiting scientist witnesses their startling metamorphosis and becomes obsessed with their capture. To protect their children, Sean and Yana send them to stay with a powerful family friend on an orbiting space station. But no one realizes that Ronan and Murel hunger to discover the origins of their shape-shifting talent–and that their search for knowledge will place them squarely in the path of peril.
Meanwhile, Petaybee is changing–and much faster than an ordinary planet’s natural evolution. It appears that portions of the sea are heating up and a landmass is suddenly rising from the depths. To investigate the startling occurrence, Sean heads out to the open water in his seal form. But the newly unstable region holds untold mysteries–and the potential for disaster.
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.
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.