Fire Season-eARC by David Weber, Jane Lindskold Page B

continue ripening.
    True-hands and hand-feet busy picking the cones, the three People fell into discussion. Twig Weaver offered to close himself from the discussion, but the siblings asked him to take part.
    < If you do not mind, that is, > Climbs Quickly added. < Your different experiences may give us some new wisdom. >
    Sings Truly, who as a memory singer had access to a huge volume of the shared experiences of the People, did not contradict her brother. Climbs Quickly had noticed that since she had become the clan’s senior memory singer she had been more, rather than less, likely to invite the insights of others.
    Perhaps, Climbs Quickly thought, having seen the thoughts and stored memories of so many People, memories grown faint with distance and time, she has come to value the new more, rather than less.
    That was an interesting thought, and he tucked it away for further consideration. For now, he needed to get what advice he could and then return to Death Fang’s Bane. Now, of all times, he did not wish to be away from her.
    It was very easy to explain to the others the source of his confusion. Although Climbs Quickly was becoming convinced that the two-legs were capable of communicating complicated ideas with their mouth sounds and the markings they made, still he pitied them. Mouth sounds must come in sequence. It had taken him some time to realize that the same sounds in a different order did not mean the same thing. He despaired of ever really understanding them.
    Mind-speech, however, took many forms. Although one could “talk,” framing thoughts in sequence, when an experience needed to be shared, there was no need to resort to this cumbersome form.
    Now he showed Sings Truly and Twig Weaver what he had experienced from Death Fang’s Bane that evening, presenting not only the impulses he had read from her mind-glow but the larger context of her interaction with her parents. He was even able to include his own interpretations of some of the mouth noises. These were mostly names, but he felt that even this little bit would clarify that the two-legs were intelligently communicating, not bellowing as the lake builders did when warning each other across the water.
    For all the complexity, this sharing took very little time. He felt Sings Truly and Twig Weaver considering, weighing against their own experiences—and in the case of Sings Truly, against the experiences of many others.
    Sings Truly said, < I think that because your first meeting with Death Fang’s Bane impressed you with her intelligence… >
    Twig Weaver did not so much interrupt as intersperse an image of how—despite his care—Climbs Quickly had found himself discovered by the young two-leg. Certainly, Death Fang’s Bane (although, of course, she had been given no name then) had been clever to figure out how to set a snare he could not detect although he (and others of the People) had always been able to step over and around those set by her elders…
    Sings Truly’s thoughts went on, < Because you have always thought her intelligent and resourceful, I think you often forget that she is very young. From what we can tell, she has not reached full maturity. Although her scent is close to that of an adult, there are differences. Indeed, when I look into the memories, I see that her scent now differs from her scent when you first met her. I think she is changing. >
    The thought startled Climbs Quickly. He was no memory singer, but he could summon some of his older memories. He compared them, tasted the memories that Sings Truly offered for his and Twig Weaver’s inspection. The evidence was interesting. He offered them samples of his experiences with Death Fang’s Bane over these last few days, choosing times when he had found her mind glow particularly confusing.
    Twig Weaver said, < I think what is happening is clear—although I do not fault you, since those who are closest do not always notice such things. Death Fang’s Bane is changing