Chagrin, a pure black wolf, raced down a snow covered slope, the white
powder flying in broad plumes behind him.  Arron, his mate, shouldered him,
matching his speed and power.  Together they sped after an old doe they had flushed
from her den.  The cold of winter and the fatigue of age had stiffened her
joints to wood.  Chagrin and Arron chased her past darkened pine trees and
over frozen streams.  As the tiring deer faltered, the snarling predators fell
upon her, slashing and biting.  Chagrin locked his jaws over the doe's neck. 
She thrashed and wheezed, her eyes glazing over.
 At their kill, the couple let loose a duet of howls in tribute to Lupus the
Starbeast, the watcher and protector of all canids.  As they feasted upon
their prey, they also gave thanks to the spirit of the old doe, who died so
they could live.  Arron looked at her lover and packmate with her icy blue eyes.
 They met Chagrin's golden yellow eyes, love and compassion emanating from
them.  The couple was out under the stars, separate and alone from the pack. 
Chagrin smiled.
 Soon there would be cubs to care for.
 They left the carcass and began to run.  They ran under the broad night
sky, the icy stars sewn into its deep black velvet.  A trio of moons in their
half-phase lit the snowy land a brilliant white.  Phantom pines arose from the
blanketing snow like great pillars supporting the dome of sky.  Grand
celestial bodies held baubles of stars wreathed in mist.  Chagrin and Arron ran for
the sheer ecstasy of it, their paws plowing through the snow, warm breath
fogging the crisp winter night, red tongues lolling in their mouths.  They had
no goals, only to feel alive-to feel free.   
 Soon the foothills of the Cat's Cry Mountains came into sight.  They
stopped at a small opening beneath a pile of boulders.  Inside was a temporary den
for the couple.  Once they were inside, they sat down next to each other, the
sound of their breathing gasping in exertion.
 "How soon will they arrive?" said Chagrin.
 "Not until the end of spring at least.  They are late in coming," Arron
replied.
 "The pack will be pleased to know that there will be young ones to nurture
this year.  After last year."
   "Yes.  According to the news on the wind, the birthrate is down
everywhere," she replied, remembering the last year's miserable failure of the former
alpha pair.  Soon after their outing, they had disappeared without a trace. 
At first the pack took no notice, believing they had just taken off for
another brief time to be alone.  But after a few days, they still had not
returned.  By then, the trail had gone cold and was lost in the vast wilderness of
the forest.
 But Arron could not dwell upon the tragedies of the past.  They had too
much to be concerned about in the present and the future survival of the pack
was the key motivator.
 However, Chagrin was still disconcerted about the events of previous year. 
The disappearance of the couple had caused the pack to be temporarily
without leadership.  After a brief period of mourning, he and two other of the
large males had squared off, fighting for the right to be alpha.  The two losers
were chased off, forbidden to ever show face in Chagrin's territory for as
long as he lived.  Unfortunately, the loss of four wolves had severely impaired
the pack, both in strength and morally.  The pain had only lessened once
Chagrin had chosen Arron as his mate.
 Arron closed her eyes to sleep, and leaned against Chagrin for warmth and
security.  Chagrin licked his companion's muzzle gently.  Raising his head, he
gazed out the mouth of their little den.  The stars were so beautiful
tonight.  In fact, the whole sky seemed to be dusted with mounds, clumps, and
clusters of the bright pinpoints of light.   
I've never seen so many, he thought.  With his eyes he could see deep into
the fabric of time that was space.  Faint nebulas and galaxies thrummed with
an intense energy.
Chagrin felt strange.  An intense anticipation filled him, startling him. 
Never before could he see those celestial bodies.they were too far away, too
faint.  But now.the stars seemed to take on three-dimensional forms, like
clouds composed of nothing but cosmic dust.  The night sky had volume.  Chagrin
growled softly to himself, annoyed at the feelings he was experiencing. 
Something was not right.  
Whining, Chagrin tried to ignore these feelings and laid his head onto his
forelegs to sleep.  But he could not take his eyes off the sky.  Gradually,
sleep began to take hold and his vision blurred slightly.  The black wolf
yawned, languidly curling his tongue out of his lower jaw.  He needed to go to
sleep.  Screw the damn stars.  It's just the sky.  He glanced once more out the
cave.
Chagrin's golden eye's widened and reflected the phenomenon as it happened. 
The stars were changing from their usual ice blue to a golden-yellow.  The
change radiated from the left of the cave.  The wave of color continued past
Chagrin's limited field of view, blocked by the mouth of their den.  He backed
his ears flush to his skull and leapt to his feet, whining and growling
intermittently.  His commotion woke Arron.  
"What's wrong?" she asked, yawning and blinking with confusion.  When she
noticed the other wolf's raised hackles and stiff-legged stance, she too got up
and followed his wide-eyed stare.  She gasped at the sight of the plethora
of fiery stars.  "By Lupus and all the Starbeasts!" she exclaimed, "What has
happened?"
Chagrin swallowed nervously.  When Arron mentioned the Starbeasts, he looked
for their familiar patterns in the sky, but with all the other stars he
could not pick out their forms.  He shook his head, dumbfounded and afraid.  
Arron took a few tentative steps towards the mouth of the cave.  "No!" her
mate said.
"Don't be ridiculous, Chagrin," she retorted.
"You don't know what's out there.a fire perhaps.it's not safe."
She shook her head.  "It's no fire, and you know it.  Besides, I have to
know what has happened.  Something doesn't feel right.  There is something out
there but."she trailed off, not knowing what else to say.
Although he did no want to, Chagrin had to agree.  The unnatural sense of
anticipation was gone, but it was replaced with his own very real and natural
anxiety.  Something was out there, and they had to know.  
Together, they made their way to the opening of the den.  They immediately
noticed strong shadows, shadows too sharp and clear for dim light of a half
moon. Only the bright light of the midday sun could cast these kind of shadows.
 The wolves looked at each other, but said nothing.  
As they finally stepped out of the cave, their eyes were dazzled by the
snow's reflection of a bright, yellow light.  
"Chagrin, look at the sky!" Arron shuddered, her voice rough and cracked. 
Chagrin's throat seemed to close on him.
Low to west was a huge star, so big that its spines of gold light stabbed
below the horizon and high into the air.  Its halos echoed in a disk larger
than the moon.   Its glow bathed the night and had caused the stars to change
their hue.  
"Wh.what is it?" breathed Arron, stepping closer to her mate.  He shook his
head, speechless.
"Nova," said a deep voice to the side of them.  The wolves turned to see a
small fox, dark muzzle grizzled with age, standing by some scrub, staring in
fascination at the swollen star.
"What?" growled Chagrin.  Had the situation not been so strange, the two
wolves would have killed the fox on sight.  As predators, they had to cut down
on competition as much as possible.  But at the moment, the interloper was
spared.
The fox shook his head, still gaping at star.  "Some star done gone
nova.been blown up."
While Arron only stared at the old fox, Chagrin thought over what he had
said.  Of course. some distant star had exploded in an intense display of light
some million years ago, and the light was just now reaching them.  He almost
laughed.  
"Oh.well.  Ha, I should've known." But his laughter was forced, and it
showed.
His mate was slowly shaking her head.  "No, that's not it.there's something
wrong with it.  Can't you feel it?  There's more coming."  
Chagrin felt it too, though he had tried to ignore it.  There was something
ominous about that dying star.  He also couldn't ignore the fact that the sky
was so filled with stars and new celestial bodies.
"What do you think, fox?" he said gruffly.
The old canid shrugged ruefully.  "My brush if I know.  By Vulpecula an'
Lupus almighty, look what it's doin' now!"  His hackles stood straight up and
his tail bristled.
The three canines watched as the golden glow slowly intensified and then
faded.  But even as the regular blueness of the night returned, the star still
burned brighter than any other star except the sun itself.  A blue and red
gaseous cloud began circle around it, slowly mingling to a deep violet, bright
against the blackness of the night. 
Arron shook herself.  Those strange feelings she had been experiencing since
Chagrin had awakened her were intensifying a thousandfold.  The ridge of
hair that stood up along her mate's spine made it obvious that he, too, was
feeling disconcerted.   She couldn't shake the feeling that something very bad,
something full of okulahari, was going to happen, something she would not be
able to escape.  No one would be safe from it.  She swallowed.  Instincts of
motherhood had already begun to course through her veins. She already felt
strong protective instincts over her unborn brood of pups.  But this ghostly
star in its last death throws threatened her pups, as well as the rest of her
pack and all that they knew, even though it was separated from Etain by
billions of years.  Something about the fact that the explosion happened so long ago
was synonymous with her premonitions of doom.  
She looked at her partner sharply, noting how pensively he was staring at
the Nova, almost hypnotically.  "Chagrin," she barked, "Chagrin, we have to
find the others.  We have to regroup and do this together.  Perhaps Layla or
Vocif know what is happening.  Chagrin!"
He looked at her through dazed eyes, lips slack, as if he were caught in a
trance.  Arron nipped his eartip.
The black wolf flinched, then shook himself all over.  He took a deep breath
and glanced warily at the star before saying,  "Yeah, we gotta.get the pack
together."  He looked her square in the eyes.  "Call them."
The small ruddy fox slunk off as the couple tipped their muzzles to the wind
and cried mournfully into the star fields, calling their friends and family
together in minor key concerto.  The fox swiveled his ears back at them,
listening to the howls as he picked his way through the snowy forest floor. 
Suddenly he faltered and fell.  His deep umber eyes glazed over momentarily while
his old spirit left his body.  Then the body blinked once or twice, clearing
the film and revealing bright emerald eyes that flashed luminously in the
gray winter scenery.  The fox got up slowly, sporting a new coat red as fresh
blood, thick and luxurious.  His lower legs, ears, and face mask were now a
deep satiny black.
Vulpecula smiled a white toothy grin and jauntily turned to follow the
sounds of the wolves echoing across the cold valley.           

* * * * * * * * * * * * 

Chap II
 
A light breeze stirred the hot, dusty air of the savanna.  Locusts rasped
their song of summer, the dry sound making it seem hotter.  Dry yellow grass
rustled together as flies whined around the dead antelope.  Vultures squabbled
over the scarce remains.
Nearby, the hooded amber eyes of a leopard watched.  It was her kill they
were fighting over.  She had not been able to get anything but the taste of its
blood before a large pack of hyenas had chased her away.  She uttered a
silent growl, stretching her powerful jaws.  She was extremely pissed.  She'd
spent half her morning stalking that stupid creature, along as much of her
energy.  Those hyenas, those damn hyenas. 
The leopard got up and whirled around in the tall grass, eyes blazing. 
After a moments thought, she loped around the grass toward the vultures.
Caunt croaked at Farth, hunching his shoulders and raising his wings in
aggression.  Farth was trying to steal a scrap of flesh from him.  Caunt slit his
beak open and hissed.  The larger vulture suddenly shied away from him,
squawking in alarm.  Satisfied and feeling rather pleased with himself, Caunt
returned to his feasting.
Farth scrambled away from Caunt in fear.  He saw the large leopard charging
them.  He saw it pounce upon Caunt, snapping his back.  He saw the large
fangs flash in the hot sun before they sank deep in to the other vulture's
slender neck.
The leopard looked up from her feathery mess, some of her anger and
frustration dripping away with sour blood.  She sat up, panting, and watched the rest
of the long-necked flock as they flew away.  She knew it was a pointless
waste of her energy and rather infantile, butt it released much of her anxiety.
Sighing, she left the mass of feathers for someone else to take care of. 
She took up an easy stride and loped across the dry savanna.  In the distance,
a mixed herd of zebra and elephants grazed under the shade of several
umbrella trees.  They paid only minor attention to her.
The spotted cat made her way to the local watering hole.  The murky
green-blue water lapped at the muddy bank.  She gazed at the sun's almost blinding
reflection.  It was alone in the sky.  No clouds shaded the barren upper
atmosphere.
She looked in at her reflection.  I wish that there were clouds, she
thought.  Huge thunderheads ripe with rain.  All she wanted was for the rainy season
to return.  It had eluded the parched savanna for too long-longer than the
leopard could recall.  She stared at her image.  She could still hear her
mother softly purring her name one day during the last hard dry season, when one
of her siblings had died, she and the other just barely escaping.  It was the
last day that she ever saw her mother.  
"Fera, I won't always be here for you," she had said suddenly while lying
together under the shade of thorn scrub.  Fera remembered how sad she had
sounded.
"Sure you will.  What could ever take you away from me?" she had asked, her
voice confident with naivete.  
Her mother had sighed and said no more, merely licking Fera's forehead.  The
next morning, when Fera and her brother had awaken, their mother was no
where to be found.  They had called and called until they were too weak to utter
another sound.  They did not speak to each other about it, then they finally
stopped talking to one another altogether.  After a few days, Fera left her
brother as he slept, hunger and a new instinct forcing her to move on.
A deep grunt from a surfacing hippopotamus brought Fera back to the present.
 That was almost two years ago.  Now was what mattered.  Her broad face
wavered in the ripples of the lake.  Golden eyes, a tawny coat patterned with
small spots that gradually grew into large rosettes as they crawled down her
body, long white whiskers and a broad, round muzzle tipped with a pink nose. 
She stared at her face quizzically for another moment before taking a long
drink, her tongue lapping the cool water and soothing her dry throat.
Everything was so dry.  The sun beat down hard on her back as she moved away
from the lake, the horizon shimmering in thick waves in the distance.  It
made her nauseous to look at it.
Her favorite tree, an ancient balboa tree, was an island of shade in the
dusty yellow sea of dried grass.  She panted slightly to relieve herself of heat
and raised her eyes to the gnarled branches above.  With a small growl she
hauled her lithe body up the smooth trunk, her powerful shoulder muscles
rippling and strong claws gripping the bark.  She made herself comfortable in the
crotch of the tree, limbs dangling like a dog's tongue.  With her tail
twitching back and forth, Fera gave a contented sigh and rested her head on her
paw.  She watched small dust devils dance far off in the distance, twirling on
the same thermals as the circling vultures above.  Such a ballet was lulling,
and combined with the coolness of the shade from the branches, it made Fera
feel drowsy.  Soon her eyelids became too heavy to keep open, and she drifted
off to sleep.
Her dream started with a hazy cloud set deep in a field of darkness.  As it
continued, the darkness bloomed with millions of stars that glimmered like a
bejeweled cloak of velvet.  The pale mist began to glow a pinkish hue.  Fera
chose to move toward the cloud.  She could feel a great sense of freedom, of
light.  But just as she reached the edge of the mist, a great explosion of
light blinded her and knocked her back into the darkness.
After the flash had died down and she could see again, Fera found herself
lying on the ground, which was bathed in the ruddy glow of a humid sunset.  She
sat up and looked at her surroundings.  A herd of elephants hopped one by
one over a large trench in the earth.  Several springbok perched on their
backs, bleating placidly.  Overhead, a large waterfall cascaded from the sky.
Fera saw nothing wrong with her dream images, no matter how strange.  She
was, however, curious about that trench.  She went over to investigate. 
Several more animals were also going toward it and then stepping across.  But as
she got closer, she could tell that it was much wider than it looked in the
distance.  The elephants were leaping athwart, the lions flying, the antelopes
sprouting wings and soaring.  
The leopard paused a moment before looking over the ledge.  What lay beyond
that jagged edge of dirt and rock?  For a moment, the fear of the unknown
held her back.
But it was only for a moment.  Scoffing at herself, Fera wrinkled her muzzle
and snapped her jaws, rasping softly deep in her throat.  She thrust her
head over the edge to peer at what lay down below.  A hot blast of fetid burnt
air hit her face and choked her.  She backed away, gagging at its acrid
stench, the stench of rot and blood and charred flesh.  It left a stinging in her
sinuses that made her eyes water.  She rubbed her paws over her face and
growled softly.  She would have to jump this?  No way.  She turned her back,
flicking her tail at the chasm in contempt while staring at the plethora of fauna
leaping so easily over that impossibility.  Fera pondered at the absurdity of
the situation as she stepped onto a thick black thorn.
The thorn sliced into the soft tissue of her pad, splintering into a
thousand red-hot needles of pain.  The leopard yowled in agony and shook her paw to
dislodge the thorn, but it held fast.  Gritting her teeth, Fera flipped her
paw up to look at it.  Blood flowed black against the darkness of her pad and
dripped red into the dusty earth.  The thorn itself had torn straight through
the flesh and poked out the other side, flashing wickedly.  She took the
base between her teeth and tugged gently.  The pain made her gasp and tears
welled up in her eyes.  But the thorn held its place.  Fera swathed it with her
rough tongue, crying with pain and frustration.  She had effectively crippled
herself.  
The leopard glanced around her, noticing with surprise the coiling sea of
thorny briars, black and vile.  They stretched from horizon to horizon, dimly
lit by the dusty red sunset.  Fera growled in fear, painfully limping closer
to the ledge.  She could feel a ridge of hair standing up on the back of her
neck.  There was something sinister in the air, a sound like a dirge that rose
and fell as the wind of a gale.  Fera wildly paced the sharp edge of the
carapace, lashing her tail and grimacing in pain, fear, and anger.  The cracked,
dry earth began to bleed under the sharp cuts of the thorns.  Alarmed, Fera
felt a wave of pain shoot through her foreleg so severe she staggered and
spots flashed in her vision.  She could barely see the blood begin to gush from
her wounded paw.  Through the roaring in her ears she could hear terrible
screams and that wailing dirge.
Gritting her teeth, Fera forced herself upright, ignoring the pain as she
refused to pass out.  Just a thorn, its just a tiny thorn.  An inner voice
snorted mirthlessly at the thought "tiny".  She gazed toward the void, backing
her ears to shut out the terrible noises that were steadily growing closer. 
What she saw.her heart skipped a beat, and dread coiled inside her belly.  
All animals that had been leaping over the chasm were now aflame, charring
to odious black masses.  However, their shrieking, writhing bodies still flew
through the air to land on the other side, forming a great bonfire that lit
the darkening sky opposite the sunset.  Strange winged beasts ascended,
swarming the fire like insects. 
Fera could smell the stink of burning flesh, crinkling her nostrils on
response.  Her thoughts raced in her mind.  No way out.trapped.fire or fall.thorns
and noises.the tawny leopard turned from the carnage in revulsion.  True,
she was a predator who often exploited death to keep herself alive, to survive,
but this.this was different.  It was evil and full okulahari-- the badness,
the wrong.  
Shuddering to herself Fera again looked at the twisted mass of briars and
bloodied earth.  The humid sky thrummed with that eerie wail that set her hair
on end.  Her mouth was dry and she panted in the heat, not knowing what to
do.  Those noises...they were filling her mind.  Fera shook her head.
Suddenly a shimmer of movement caught her eyes.  She could see a large dark
shape plowing through the briars straight towards her.  Squinting to make out
what it was, Fera began to catch a scent that began to overpower the stench
of the burning bodies across the chasm.  She gagged, the smell overwhelming
her sensitive nostrils.  Something about that smell made her hair stand on
end.  
As her eyes focused on the movement in the distance, she began to make out
the details of a creature that was said to exist only in myths of death.  Fera
shook her head in disbelief, the terror she had felt before intensifying a
thousandfold.  The metallic taste of fear filled her mouth and she couldn't
think anything but thought of escape.
The eyes filled her vision, burning into her mind.  They were white, with
tiny black pupils glaring in the centers.  They were locked onto her,
portraying no emotions.  Its long, gaping snout had a bulbous end filled with long
sharp teeth that shone a bloody red in the swollen light of the sun.  The tongue
flickered at her, lithe and black.  Its hideous scaly head was perched upon
a powerful S-shaped neck that tapered into the stocky body covered in sparse,
rust-brown hair.  It was fully twice her size and was charging toward her
with murderous intent.
Awas.  Awas, Awas, Awas.  It was here, in front of her.  The half-reptile,
half-mammal demon from hell was coming to get her, like in all the stories she
had head when she was just a cub.  Only he wasn't real!  He wasn't supposed
to exist!  Yet there it was, its all too real muscles rippling beneath the
scaly hide and the all too real stark, dead-white eyes balefully glaring at
her.  It smirked at her, and changed its pace.  Instead, it moved with the slow,
languid stalk that Fera knew too well-the confident movements of a predator
who knew it had its prey.  It flicked its claws at her contemptuously. 
Somehow, through the red and black haze of fear in her mind, a cool wisp of
green crept in.  Fera shook her head, realizing that doing nothing would get
her just that.  She growled, then rasped a roar at Awas.  She knew what it
wanted.  She would sit there, stupefied, until it pounced upon her and rendered
her to a bloody pulp, then put her back together as a servant of the
okulahari.  
The thought pissed her off.  If it thought she was going to become a
white-eyed freak like it was, then it was dead wrong.  The fog of fear was dispelled
from her mind.  In its place was the green calm.  She met its gaze and
coolly regarded it.  What happens, happens, she thought.
The demon Awas seemed nonplussed at Fera's bravado.  In fact, it even made
it laugh.  The laugh was hollow and painful to hear.  But Fera's resolve
didn't lesson.  Even when the thorn suddenly grew in size and skewered her chest,
even when the demon clutched her within its claws and locked its teeth into
her neck, even while its hind claws proceeded to rip out her intestines, even
as her body screamed under the torture, her mind remained under control; the
mind-numbing fear never returned.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Chap III
Sunrays filtered through the shifting waters above the small dolphin pod. 
Moontide, Starfin, Ecco, Delpha, Astrist, Shraak, Nebula, Fils, Wanderer, and
Coral all leaped and flashed in the bright sun.  Moontide was their beloved
Navigator, not a permanent leader, but a he was trusted with the most
important job of leading his pod to new waters.  Their sleek bodies knifed through
the water, sending drops glittering into the air and leaving sea-foam on the
surface.  The sad cries of offshore gulls drifted on the wind like the lost
notes of a dirge.  The bright blue dome of sky was laced with high clouds and
fringed by a distant storm heading in the opposite direction as the dolphins. 
The pod was headed to Lunar Bay, far to the north of these warm waters.  The
dolphins sang to each other, as well as using faint psychic connections, for
communication.  They sang to the sea and with the tides, using the preset
rhythm that had been set by the moons to weave their own melody unique to their
group.  Below the surface the shallows of aquamarine coral reef environment
gave way to the rich blue of deeper waters, where ocean drifters made their
way about in tiny niches and daily cycles.  A tiny baby sea turtle tucked its
minute flippers and floated like a piece of debris as the rowdy pod flashed
by.  Once they had passed it resumed its course.  The pod raced among a
stingless school of pulsating jellyfish with rainbow iridescence dancing over their
delicate tissue, refracting and shattering light into shards of psychedelic
colors.  Coral gently twirled one of the jellyfish closer to the surface,
watching with fascination the myriad of bright patterns form in the bright sun. 
The other dolphins soon joined her game, herding the school closer to the
spears of sunlight cascading from above.  Their sonar harmlessly pierced the
bodies of the jellies, disrupting the light waves and creating a kaleidoscope of
life.
Fils laughed and soared below the waves in an aqua-display of somersaults
and corkscrews.  As with the jelly game, the others soon joined in, taking his
lead.  Soon they were swimming in complex formations, twisting and looping
themselves around each other, but never actually touching.  They continued
their journey to Lunar Bay still following their elaborate impromptu patterns.  
Coral was new to this pod.  She was the youngest and this was her first
journey to Lunar Bay.  She left her home pod some weeks ago, striking out on her
own as many dolphins do.  However, after only a few days of solitary life,
Coral yearned for the presence of her own kind.  She met with Moontide's pod
first and decided to give it a try.  So far she had really enjoyed herself,
especially in the company of Shraak.  He was a year older than she was, and the
very thought of him made her heart race.  She wanted to get closer to him,
and felt pangs of jealousy breach her heart when she saw him with any of the
other females.  She knew that her feelings were odd.dolphin kind enjoyed being
with many partners, constantly switching them and permanent coupling where
almost unheard of.  
Still.the way his sleek body coursed through the water, the power of his
songs and the sensuous touch of his thoughts.she couldn't release her mind from
the thoughts nor could she stop the pangs of jealousy from entering her
heart.  
She confided her feelings to Ecco, an older dolphin with a mysterious past
and cryptic personality.  He was the strongest of the group and would have
been Navigator except that he didn't want the job.  Instead he served as
Moontide's right fin.  His psychic sensors were finely tuned and he could sense
Coral's consternation.  He asked her one day what was bothering her.  Surprised,
Coral told him how she felt, and asked him what she should do.  However,
instead of giving her an answer, he replied "love is like water.it has many forms
and changes only when conditions are right."  Having said that, Ecco nuzzled
her and swam off.  
At the thought of his puzzling words, Coral flipped high into the air, using
the exhilarating feeling of flying to clear her mind and muffle her mental
state so that others could not hear.  She longed for the skill of mental
walls.  But such barriers were only self-discovered lessons, impossible to teach. 

I wish I really could fly, she thought.  Like all aquatic creatures, Coral
was a master of three-dimensional space.  She pitied poor land creatures that
were limited to two-dimensions, with severely restricted movements along the
y-axis.  But she herself had limits-only so long as the pressure wasn't so
great, only if the water didn't end at land, could she go there.  Then there
was the surface of the water.  When it came to that, she was as limited in her
movement on the y as land animals.  
But a bird a bird could travel the length of the globe and not be stopped. 
They could skirt the clouds, the waves, and the tops of trees.  
Coral leapt out of the water again, striving to break the barrier of gravity
that always pulled her down again.  Her hyper sensitive ears picked up the
low frequency rumblings of thunder from the far distant storm behind them. 
She loved to swim through storms.  

The waves jostled each other to incredible heights which could be used to
jump ever higher, for if timed just right, by the time you started to fall back
down, the crest of the wave had rolled out from beneath you and you would
fall into the deep trough 30 to 40 feet below.
But they weren't going to the storm.  Coral sighed, a fizzle of bubbles
escaping her blowhole.  They were going to some Lunar Bay place.  Stupid
Moontide.why can't we go to the storm for a while? she grumped.  I wanna.no.  She
shook her head.  She had to show that she was an adult.  She had to display her
maturity in both thought and action.  She was no longer a calf to be cajoled
and pampered. Instantly her babyish complaints vanished.  What was this Lunar
Bay anyway?  She decided to find out.
Nebula was swimming close to her.  "Hey Nebula," she said.
"Yeah?" she replied.
"What's at Lunar Bay?  What's it like?"
Nebula sent a mental shrug.  "I dunno.  I've never been there.  No one save
Moony and Ecco."
Coral whistled.  "Eh?  So why are we going.don't they even tell you?"
"Nah.we just trust in Moony that there's a good reason.  If not, heh, at
least we have some fun getting there.  Right?"  She nudged the younger dolphin.
"Sure.yeah.  Some fun," Coral replied, but her curiosity was unsatisfied. 
Trust the navigator, she thought.  Moontide is a great leader.  I should trust
him.  
But would it hurt to ask?
Coral swam up, under, and around Fils, Wanderer, and Starfin to reach
Moontide's position near the front.
"Hey Coral," He greeted her with a smile.          
"Hello, sir."
Moontide narrowed an eye at her.  "Now I've told you before to drop the
'sir' bit."
"Oh yeah.sorry."  Coral had come from a pod who's Navigator was always
addressed with "sir".  The habit was hard to break.
"Ah, forget it.  So what can I do for you?"
"I was wondering about this Lunar Bay place we're going to.  What's it all
about?  Nebula says that only you and Ecco have been there before and to my
understanding you two didn't meet up until after you'd met several others
already her.  So how could only you and Ecco have gone and not the others?"
Moontide's jaw dropped into a toothy grin.  "Coral, I'm as obligated to stay
in this pod as much as you are.  I may leave whenever I wish and come back
whenever I wish.  I am a free fish.  Ecco may do the same.  Any of us can
leave when we want to.  You know that."
Coral felt a blush crawl up her lower jaw.  That was true and it was
ridiculous for her to imply that he had been sneaking around like it was his
obligation to let everyone know about every move he made.  
"I, uh, yeah.I just thought." she stammered.
He ran his flukes against hers.  "Don't fret.  It's all right.  We're
dolphins here, not sharks.  Besides, you're right about being curious about Lunar
Bay.  I'll tell you some about it, but the rest will have to be a surprise."
He winked at her,  "Trust me, you'll like it there.  It's like no place on
Etain.  The water is cold, almost like liquid ice.  The moons hang bloated low
in the sky wreathed in mist.  The surface rock is barren, devoid of flora or
fauna.  Below the surface swim strange sea worms, translucent and huge, twice
as big as we are.  Then there are the jelly combs.  Woo, they are the oddest
creatures to ever drift in the sea.  They are clear, totally transparent, and
are kinda like jellyfish but are of all shapes and sizes.  They are also as
beautiful as they are strange.  Their bodies flicker and flash with an
amazing dance of rainbow bioluminescence.  Then there are these deep underwater
caves.but, that you will discover for yourself."
With a parting thought, he swam ahead of her, leaving her to mull it over. 
"Wha.?  Hey!  So why are we going?"
He laughed.  "Later!"
Exasperated, Coral dropped back to the tail of the pod with Nebula and
Astrist.  They sensed her mood and swam around her, dragging their flippers and
dorsal fins along her body.
"Moony can be a pain in the ass sometimes, eh, Coral?" said Astrist,
chuckling quietly.
Coral glanced at him, startled.  "What did you say?"
Both the adults laughed.  "Oh, little one," said Nebula, "you come from a
very stiff pod.  Learn to relax and have fun.  Be casual.  Moony knows he's a
pain, that's what makes him a good navigator."
"How?  That doesn't make sense."
"Sure it does.  It makes perfect sense.  He withholds info to keep us
interested.  He would never keep anything important from us.  What was your home
pod like anyway?"
"It was a lot different from this one. Our two male Navigators were very
strict and discipline was high on their list.  All the adults bore rake marks
were they had been punished by the teeth of one of the Navis."
"And dolphins stay with them?" asked Astrist in disbelief.
"Well, yeah.  Maybe I'm making them look bad-"
"Maybe!" he remarked.
" -but they kept order to a very large pod."
"How large?"
"Over two-hundred when I left."
"Two hundred!"  The adults looked at each other incredulously.  Astrist
snorted through his blowhole.  "That's a ridiculous size for a pod.  Scare all
the fish away.attract sharks and orcas.way too much noise what with the
splashing and sonar and singing.  I like small pods like this."
Nebula nodded.  "I've been part of many different pods, but none as large as
that."
Coral sent a mental shrug and swam off.  Her sonar was picking up shallows
in the distance.  She was hungry, and shallow waters could mean sandfish.  She
signaled her podmates, many who had the same thought-food!
"Delpha," clicked Moontide, "survey the waters ahead."
The darkly marked female indicated nodded her head.  She was a prowess
hunter and was often sent ahead as a scout to either round up intended prey or
quietly probe the waters for potential prey so as not to scare it off.  
She swam swiftly and stealthily to the distant shallows.  The others would
wait behind, playing and socializing in the meantime.  As she ascended the
depths and swam up the continental slope, the pale sand became dotted with
clumps of sea grass.  Sea urchins and starfish played a sluggish game of cat and
mouse, a dance of death that was  agonizingly slow.  Small crabs skittered
rapidly among dancers, disappearing under the sand as the dolphin passed.  She
paid them no heed.  Gradually the sandy bottom became littered with colorful
clumps of coral.  Brightly colored fish with extravagant markings darted to
and fro among the low structures.  Beyond the small reef the coral gave way to
a flawless plain of white sand, striated with low ripples and dunes.  The
water was clear and sunlight played over the slightly shifting sand.  Prime
hunting grounds.  Using her weakest frequency, Delpha sent a wide pulse of sonar,
evaluating the water and sand.  The image sent back was ghostly, filled with
pale clouds of sand, dense formations of rock, wispy plants and seaweed, and
ah, translucent skeletons of undulating fish flitting above the sands.  Her
sonar could pierce their bodies and see inside, telling her immediately what
kind of fish they were and how healthy.  Sandfish and very healthy!
Smiling to herself, she turned around and quietly returned to her pod.  When
she reappeared, they looked at her expectantly. 
"Let's go," she stated simply.
The others grinned.  "All right!" exclaimed Moontide.  "You heard her. 
Let's go!"  All ten dolphins sped to the site, keeping below the waves except to
breathe.  They had to catch the fish unawares so they would only have a
chance to hide beneath the sand and not escape to more open water.  By the time
they got there, the sun had begun its descent towards the horizon, slanting its
rays slightly in the water and changing the wavelength to pale lavender
instead of blue.  The fish were diurnal so they had to hurry.  Upon reaching the
hunting grounds they split up and circled the area, blocking off any escape
routes.  Sandfish were unlikely to do anything but hide, but the pod was not
taking any chances.  
Communication was constant.  Together, they signaled each other for the
perfect time.now.
All ten dolphins blasted the area with sharp songs and sonar.  The terrified
fish immediately dove into the sand, burying themselves up to a foot deep.
"Spread out folks, its up to you," said Moontide, already cruising along the
floor with his nose down.
Fils and Shraak paired off and angled away from the others.  For a while
they said nothing, intent on grabbing a meal.  They slowly moved along, hovering
with their beaks almost touching the sand.  Constant clicks of their
echolocation bounced information from the depths of the sandy bottom.  Clam, clam,
worm, clam, aha! thought Fils.  Clam.  Shraak gave him a strange look. 
Suddenly he stopped.  The x-ray of a fish had caught his attention.  He used his
most powerful blasts of sonar to pinpoint the exact location of the fish while
he dug into the sand, scooping and raking with his hard beak.  The panicked
fish tried to dig deeper but it was quickly stunned with a disrupting burst of
sonar from Shraak.  His conical teeth grabbed the fish and he swallowed it
with relish.  He moved on, leaving a bowl shaped depression a foot deep and a
pale cloud of sand.
"Seems to be a lot of work just for one small fish, hm Shraak?" asked Fils
with a raised eye ridge.
Shraak rolled his eyes.  "Oh shut up.you know how addicting these things
are.  You are the worst out of all of us anyway.  Last time you wouldn't leave
until your stomach was so bloated you could hardly float, much less swim."
The other male chuckled, still focused on the sand below him.  "Well, I
never said it wasn't worth it." Just then he too stopped and proceeded to dig for
a minute until he had snagged his prize.  "Mmmm, so sweet.  Almost better
than crab."
For the next few hours the pod drifted in the shallows, completely engrossed
with grazing among the rippled dunes.  The sun kissed the horizon, setting
the surface of the water ablaze with fiery red.  Clouds of crimson, fuchsia,
and sooty black streaked the sky.  Stars opened their sleepy eyes to greet the
oncoming darkness.  The moons glowed with their pale wane light,
extinguishing the intense fire of the sunset.
    When they were all satiated the dolphins made their way back to open
ocean to continue their journey to Lunar Bay.