“Makes sense. What’s the third kind of hunt, Lelas?”As if I couldn’t guess.“It’s better to prepare for the worst and then be surprised if it’s something better than we expected.”
Uncharacteristically, Lelas took a deep breath, then exhaled before answering.“It is a hunt for sport. For pride. For honor.”She looked down, her fingertips skimming over the surface, disrupting the ripples of the currents.“I hate them. Many of us do. They are archaic and brutal. Pointless, really. Remnants of our past that hold us back and tie us to an unenlightened time in our history.”
Silence fell between us for a time, and the heaviness of her words attempted to pull me under the surface.
“I assume this will involve hunting some big, fierce animal, huh? Like a sea monster or something?”
A pathetic laugh broke the stillness of the night. It was a moment before I realized it had come from her mouth instead of her mind. She looked as surprised as I was but didn’t acknowledge it as her mind touched mine.“Nothing as dramatic as a monster, but fierce, yes.”
“Let me guess. A shark?”
“Yes, always a shark. Sometimes many sharks. They often take other fish with them to stir the sharks up into a frenzy before initiating the hunt.”
Unbidden, I thought of Sonia. How she would react to hearing of such a notion. I’d never felt an ounce of her irrational fear of sharks, but I had a feeling I was soon going to have a whole new respect for her endless warnings every time I went into the ocean.“Just wonderful.”
“We used to hunt the more aggressive members of the whale families many hundreds of years ago, but we no longer do.”
That didn’t seem like much of a relief to me. I’d heard killer whales could do some damage when they wanted to. Every once in a while, you’d hear about a SeaWorld trainer killed by one of their charges. Still, the thought of going up against a killer whale sounded preferable to facing off with a shark any day of the week. I’d swum with sharks many times in my life, but we’d both stuck to the ideals of “you leave me alone, I leave you alone.” Intentionally stirring up a group of crazed sharks sounded like suicide. As much as I was fine with testing my immortality theory, this wasn’t on the top of my list of ways to try.
“Why do you think Syleen wants me to go along? To kill me off?”
“Goodness no. She would no sooner cause your death than she would a dolphin or seal!”
Even if I believed that, the thought didn’t offer much comfort.
“I’m sure it is to help you become a more solid member of the tribe.”
Yeah, right.“Is it a rite of passage or something? Does everyone have to do it when they reach a certain age?”
“No, it is always optional. It is not something I will take part in. As I said, there are many of us who are trying to convince the others that these hunts are not only pointless but actually a detriment to our society.”
“So they’re a choice, unless you’re me, huh?”
She looked ashamed, and I felt a quiver of guilt. It wasn’t her fault Syleen was sending me on a hunt.“Again, I was not informed for certain which manner of hunt you are attending. It may be one of the others.”
I could tell by her tone, she didn’t believe that any more than I did.
“When do you think they decided that? How did they talk about the hunt while everyone ate without you hearing which kind they meant? For that matter, how did they talk about it without me hearing? I was right there.”
“What do you mean? Why would you hear what they chose to discuss what they did not want you to be aware of it at the present time?”
“Are you saying they can speak in front of me without me hearing?”
Her bottom lip jutted out and her brow furrowed.“I suppose it makes sense that this is something you were not aware of. I knew you have not the skill of direction, but assumed it was only due to your brief years.”
“Direction? What does that mean? Just back up a bit. I’m playing catch up at this being a different species thing, okay?”
She studied my face, then considered the stars for a moment before returning to me, as if trying to decide how to begin.“You are aware of the communication and how it reaches into the thoughts of others?”
“Well, yeah. We’re doing it now.”I gave a shrug and reminded myself to not get impatient.“I don’t understand how we do it, but yeah. It took me a while to learn to talk with Therin. I could hear him almost instantly, but I wasn’t able to say anything back for a while. I still can’t quite figure out how it happens. In fact, if I focus on it too much, I can’t do it at all.”
“That makes sense. You’re like a child in that manner. Maybe you have to go through the stages as if you were a young growing throughout the years. Just as young have to speak in words, then phrases, then sentences. This ability is the same. It simply happens as you grow. You’ll probably go through them quicker than an actual young mer would, I imagine.”
I didn’t really appreciate the comparison to a child, but she was right. Ever since meeting Therin, I’d felt like a child. There was so little that I really was able to do, and even less that I understood.“So apparently, from what you’re saying, there’s more to this communicating thing than the back-and-forth like what we’re doing right now.”
“Yes, although it is not a more difficult process. It is just part of the natural progression.”
“So explain it to me. How were they able to talk about the hunt right in front of me and I didn’t hear anything?”
