The lad's teeth were chattering so loudly that it wasn't until he swallowed that Sean actually heard the awful din the seals were making. He looked up and saw seals rapidly advancing until they were only about twenty meters from the fire, with still more back down on the beach. There was a great herd of them and they were very upset indeed.
Sean picked up the mobile, hoping it would work, but found he couldn't hear himself speak much less anyone answer over the barking of the seals.
"Shut up, you lot!" he hollered aloud, but with no noticeable effect.
Those closest to the campsite moved in, flopping forward on their flippers and barking their heads off.
You, the part-time seal with two legs, make them go away! the foremost seal demanded.
Make who go away?
Them! Those black-and-white seal-eating bullies you're so friendly with. We noticed they don't eat you.
He told them they could eat us, another seal said accusingly. I heard him! He doesn't care. Fine kinsman he's turned out to be, loosing monsters on his poor little cousins just because we're full-time seals, not changeable like him.
Sean sighed and keyed the mobile off. He scanned the horizon and saw the orcas at play just offshore, sounding and blowing and generally having a good time. I can't see why you have your flippers in such a twist, he told the seals. It's not as if the orcas can come ashore.
No, and it's not as if we can catch our suppers with them out there. And there are a lot of us to feed here, in case you hadn't noticed.
Almost had us that fat little otter if that stupid lass of yours hadn't been so selfish, another seal said accusingly.
We'd have had him too if those finny fiends hadn't showed up, a third seal added.
Murel? You saw Murel and Sky? You tried to eat Sky?
He's an otter, part-time. Get over it, the first seal said. Seals eat otters. Seals try to escape orcas, except for yourself, of course, and your pesky pups, and you're all just plain peculiar.
Rude too, another seal added. No idea of fair play in your family. We guide the seal lass here, keep an eye on the underwater otter den where your laddie is, and she won't even share her so-called friend. Then here you come siccing killer whales on us. I don't know how you come to be a seal but we never had the likes of you on my side of the family.
Sean took a deep breath and reminded himself that calm and clear communication was necessary here. This herd of seals might contain or even be led by a few of the most annoying members of the species he'd encountered so far, but they were, to some extent, his people. He owed them his attention and patience as much as he did the people of Kilcoole. Especially if they knew where Murel and Ronan were.
He could scarcely blame them for being angry that he had turned to their predators for help. He supposed he had been callous about the cost to them, but he'd been angry. It wasn't good for a biologist to be so intimately involved with his subjects.
He'd lost his perspective because of his concern for his kids, but these fellows evidently had been trying to help his family, except for Sky, who was not a seal. Of course, it was perfectly true that seals often ate otters-sea otters anyway. So he cleared his mind and made his thoughts soothing and logical. Let me get this straight. You know where my son is and led my daughter to him but in exchange you wanted to eat our otter friend? Is that about right?
The seals conferred and all agreed that it was.
So where is he? Did she go after him? Sean asked.
How should we know? the first seal asked. We were too busy avoiding massive jaws to pay much attention to seals and otters who don't have to worry about killer whales.
You found the underwater city Murel mentioned, though? Sean asked in a way that showed he was impressed. And Ronan was definitely in it?
Definitely. He definitely told us to go away. Rude again.
I'm sorry about that. Pups. No manners. They've picked up some bad habits at school offplanet.
At least they didn't tell those killers to go ahead and eat us, the second seal complained. Traitor to your kind, you are, even if you are only part-time.
Sean sighed. I never told them to eat you. I told them not to eat my children or their friend.
You could have said us too. They listen to you. Don't think it escaped our notice that one of them helped you with the big two-leg pup there.
Very well, I'll tell them. Then will you take me to the place where you spoke with my son?
They agreed, or at least three of them did, so once he reassured himself that Ke-ola was warming up nicely, he went back to the ice and addressed himself to the whales.
You orcas are going to be dead bored hanging about this place, Sean told them.
Bitfin answered, no doubt feeling he and Sean had a personal connection since Sean's daughter had bit off part of his fin. Like being involuntary blood brothers by proxy? Sean wondered. He was a biologist, but he had yet to understand all of the ins and outs of marine life behavior and attitudes. But then, he could say the same of human behavior and attitudes. We'll be grand once your furry friends get hungry enough to come back in the water and feed us, Bitfin told him.
Not that likely to happen, mate, Sean replied.
And that would be why?
Because they're just hanging around here to talk to me, then they'll be heading for that saltwater lagoon fed by the hot springs. It's always open, connects by a narrow underground channel to the sea itself, and is teeming with tasty fish. There are so many that the people living hereabouts can't catch them fast enough to keep them from overcrowding the lagoon, so they'll be happy for these fellows to thin the population.
You're full of bubbles, seal-man, Bitfin told him, and turned to his pod. Any of you ever heard of a warm water lagoon with fish?
Sean shrugged and seemed to study the gray-and-white snowflake pattern knitted into the top of the mittens he now wore, along with other winter clothing, atop his dry suit. Ah, but then you're not from around these parts ordinarily, are you?
Usually swim a bit farther south, right? And both the channel and lagoon in question are far too shallow for your great selves, so why would you hear of a place that's of no use to you? Doesn't matter, does it, when you can swim wherever you want in Petaybee's great sea? I only mention it so you'll be aware that the seals-we seals-have another way out. Pity for you to waste your time here with those other pods gathering to mate. It's highly disappointed they'll have such great handsome beasts as yourselves lacking for the mating.
Mating?
Oh, aye, saw it on the copter's radar, which covers more area than my sonar or even yours. A superpod is forming up south of the volcano, about halfway between the cone and the southern landmass. Looked like twenty or thirty pods headed that way.
Now it's you thinking we've bubbles for brains, to believe that sort of tale. The senior whale had taken an interest in the conversation. Even a seal-man should know that we pods have our ways of keeping in touch. We've sweethearts in those southern pods. They'd have let us know about the party.
Yes, they would have, and I feel badly about that, which is why I'm telling you now,
Sean said. You were busy helping my folk recently, weren't you? Not exactly alert for distant signals? Not been your usual relaxed sort of lifestyle lately, has it? The pods were still at some distance from your feeding grounds too, so you mightn't have heard them anyway, but I reckon if you swim hard and fast you can meet up with the others just before the fun starts.
Black tails waggled back and forth in the air and water as the pod consulted. Sean wasn't sure if the waggling indicated indecision on their part or derision. He also had no idea what had possessed him to come up with such a load of blarney, and him usually so partial to the truth. It had just come to him all of a sudden. He stifled his amazement at his own invention lest the pod pick up on it. He whistled a bit and tried to look unconcerned as he waited.