...And We Will Have Snow

Part 3: Bear

"Niño! Where is that boy? He was going to help with the pigs."

"Probably off exploring the islands with Ryan again."

"Here I am Aunt Cheryl. Hi Mom."

The boy who appeared was over six feet tall, and looked like he could wrestle a full grown pig into submission. "Uncle Ryan is going to take the boat and follow the sea lions up north. He wants to see how far they will go, now that breeding season is over. He wants me to go with him."

"The boat? I'm surprised you both don't want to swim all the way."

"The boat is in case we need to come back in a hurry. Don't worry, we'll get to swim with them a lot."

Dema wasn't worried. She was pleased, in spite of her sarcasm. Niño knew this, and was happy to have her implied approval of the swimming part. She understood that both he and Ryan liked nothing better than to swim with the sea lions.

Niño attributed most of his spectacular physique to the exercise he got swimming in sea lion form. He called it "cross training." Ryan of course was a selkie by nature. Niño didn't know what his nature was. Given the extreme shaman talents of both his mother and his father, no one else did either. But the island environment, and Ryan's enthusiasm, had given him an early familiarity with the shape dream, and he had taken to it with ease.

"I've never swum beyond the Salish Sea before. Uncle Ryan wants to learn as much as we can about where the Steller sea lions go, and the condition of their feeding grounds. That means exploring the waters around Haida Gwaii, and probably even up around Alaska."

Niño's eyes lit up when he mentioned Haida Gwaii, and Dema noticed. She wondered what it meant, because she knew he'd never been there. At least not physically. But she was distracted from that thought by his mention of Steller sea lions. These were the much bulkier cousins of the California sea lions that both Ryan and Niño emulated. But it was not uncommon for the two breeds to mix on the feeding grounds. There was no cause for concern.

At the mention of Steller sea lions and Alaskan fishing grounds Cheryl had perked up too. Conditions of the ocean currents there were changing, and some first-hand information would be very useful. Having access to the Q was great, of course, but it was often hard to pinpoint locations from Q data, the Q being dimensionless. So she nodded to Niño in a way that indicated that he had her blessing.

Dema looked at her boy with knowing eyes. He was growing up. At sixteen, he had already been on several expeditions to deploy Sun Domes in various parts of the world. But those were always well controlled. This could be a very different sort of adventure. She held his eyes for a long while before she gave him her own nod of love and approval.

Niño beamed.