Changelings

"Real heavy. Not a blizzard, but so it stacks up. And wind. Let's have some wind so we can have drifts."

"What velocity?"

"Doesn't have to be a gale to blow snow," he said, and scooped a spoonful of cereal from his bowl.

"I wish we could put some river ice on the waterway," Murel said.

"Yeah, but it's heated all the time. We could make a rink on one of the flitter pads, though.

You can adjust ground temperature by pressing Control GT."

"Cool."

"Yeah, it will be. We won't even need skates. We can just skate in our shoes. We'll have to shovel the snow first."

"Good. I want to."

That was all they had time to do before school, but by the time the flitter picked them up, the sky was white with snow and the flakes fell like broken crystals. You could tell they weren't real flakes, though. They were all the same.

Their class with Professor Mabo was in a lab that had been set up near the school complex for her use. It was small but there were tables with stools and a desk, besides all of the standard lab equipment for biology, chemistry, and general science courses.

Professor Mabo looked up from the desk. She was wearing a lab coat over her silver ship suit.

Her teeth flashed pleasantly as she greeted the students, and her large silver hoop earrings matched the ship suit.

Three boxes sat in front of her, two of them open and full of shiny objects, one closed.

"As you come in, please select an item from each box. Box A contains scalpels. The blades are attached but sheathed. Please do not cut yourself, as taking time to clean up your blood will deprive the other students of lab time and possibly contaminate your specimens. Box B contains hemostats. Box C contains your specimens. You may use the synskin gloves beside the box to extract your specimen and conduct your dissection. You will work in pairs, one specimen to each pair of students."

Ronan, Rory, and Murel were the first students to enter, and each of them did as directed.

Then Ronan lifted the cover from the large specimen box and his eyes widened.

"Nothing to be afraid of, boy. They're quite dead. They won't bite," the professor said.

Dead frogs, Ronan told his sister. She wants us to cut up dead frogs.

Murel came to his side and peered into the box. "Professor, how did the frogs die?" she asked.

"Of old age," the teacher snapped. "While waiting for squeamish students to do as they're told."

"Oh, sorry, I just wondered," Murel said. "It's just that on Petaybee, animals come to specific places when they're sick or old so that they can be killed kindly and their bodies used for food or clothing or whatever the hunter needs."

Rory flinched, and Murel realized he was waiting for his grandmother's wrath to come down on his friends the way it usually did on him. *

The professor's face contorted for a moment, as if she were about to turn into something else, but the contortions ended in a wise smile. "Fascinating, my dear. Thank you for that enlightening explanation. In fact, it ties in nicely with our lesson today. How indeed did these frogs die? How would we learn that sort of thing? By examining their remains. That is how, and that is what we will be doing today. So, as I said, each of you take your instruments and your frogs and find a place at the table so we may begin."

Murel and Ronan chose spots adjacent to each other, but once everyone had a place, Professor Mabo said, "Murel, please trade places with Chesney. Neither she nor Ke-ola obtained a frog, and both you and Ronan have one."

Murel nodded and did as she was told.

She just wants to split us up, Ronan said. We could have always given Chesney and Ke-ola one of our frogs.

Of course, the professor had no way of knowing that the two of them could communicate telepathically. Nobody knew that except maybe Marmie, and if she knew, it was only from observation. They had learned early on that their private line into each other's minds was a bigger advantage when nobody around them realized they had it.

Who was she trying to kid? Ronan asked about halfway through the session. This frog was perfectly healthy until someone killed it.

She probably didn't think we'd know how to tell, Murel said. She thought we were just squeamish. She doesn't know about us helping Da do this kind of thing in the lab.

Professor Mabo had been circling the classroom and stopped to stand behind Ronan. "Very good work, Ronan. Very precise. I believe your technique is almost as good as mine."

Ronan ducked his head, as if he were bashful. She has no idea what Auntie Sinead would have said if we'd spoilt the meat or hide on one of her kill after she showed us how to clean and skin it, he told Murel.

No, or how Clodagh has always taught us that we're supposed to use every possible piece of the animal as wisely as possible out of respect for the gift of its body for our benefit.