The Dolphins of Pern by Anne McCaffrey Page B

melodic bugle seemed to work just as well Gadareth got brave enough, too, to settle on the water, wings spread wide to aid flotation. This provided the dolphins with yet another entertainment—leaping across the wings or coming up between Gadareth’s forelegs. The dolphins also enjoyed tickling the bronze dragon by caressing their bodies on his ticklish underside, a “game” that caused T’lion to be submerged on several occasions until he learned to unfasten his riding straps before the dolphins could “attack” Gadareth.
    It was Menolly’s custom to send her gold fire-lizard, Beauty, or one of the bronzes, Rocky, Diver, or Poll, to summon him back to Cove Hold. The fire-lizards were fascinated by the dolphins, perching on one of Gadareth’s outstretched wings and learning just where dolphins like to be scratched with the excellent talons that were fire-lizard equipment.
    Gadareth would know the gist of what the fire-lizards wished to express, and he’d tell his rider, who then informed the dolphins. It was a three-cornered conversation, but T’lion thought it helped develop more usable words and terms. Sometimes, teaching dolphins proper pronunciations, he felt like a harper. They were using words more properly now: like “we” instead of “oo-we” and “report” instead of “reporit” and “bell” instead of “bellill.”
    Sometimes he’d come away from these sessions feeling bigger than T’gellan!
    What with all these flights and despite being in and out of Paradise River often, it was nearly six seven-days before T’lion saw Master Alemi again.
    “T’lion, Gadareth, how are you?” Master Alemi said, arriving with a creel of fresh fish for Menolly.
    “I’m fine, Master Alemi. How are your dolphins?”
    Surprised, Alemi grinned at the boy’s proper pronunciation; he was still having trouble getting others to say the word properly.
    “You remembered?”
    “Yes, Master, I’m not likely to forget a day like that. And …” Then T’lion hesitated.
    Alemi took him by the shoulder and looked down at him kindly. “And you’ve been talking to dolphins since, have you, lad?” He looked up then at Gadareth, who turned calmly spinning eyes on the fishman. “And Gadareth? What does he think of them?”
    “He likes them, Master Alemi, he really does. You know the cove west of Cove Hold? Well, the water’s really deep there and the dolphins love it, too, and we’ve sort of had a chance to get to know some of them.”
    “Good!” Alemi was delighted. “Which ones? I’m trying to make a list of dolphin names. They’re rather proud of them, you know.”
    T’lion grinned mischievously. “Don’t they just get stroppy when you miscall them! Well, the ones I’ve met are Rom, Alta—she’s pod leader—and Fessi, Gar, Tom, Dik, and Boojie, that’s Alta’s latest calf. And—”
    “Steady on, lad,” Alemi said, laughing at the torrent of names he had unleashed as he fumbled in his belt pouch for pencil and pad. “Give me that list more slowly, will you?”
    T’lion complied. “Have you met any of them, Master?”
    “No, but I’
ve
met Dar and Alta from Monaco, Kib, Afo, Mel, Jim, Mul, and Temp. You ask yours if they know mine and I’ll do the same. We can compare notes later, shall we? I see you now and again, flying in, to collect Menolly, but it’s usually when I’m making out to sea and can’t turn back. How do you call them? D’you use a bell?”
    “Gadareth bugles and they come. They like him!”
    “I’d be surprised if they didn’t.”
    “Well, we’re sort of on the opposite side from the dolphins, though, aren’t we?” T’lion remarked, looking up at the tall fishman. “They eat what we char.”
    “Point. Dolphins and dragons are both intelligent creatures. I’d say they’d respect each other’s ways.”
    “Yes, yes, they do,” T’lion said excitedly.
    “What do you talk about? Does Gadareth understand them, too?”
    “That’s what I wanted to ask you,”