Alan Foster - Kingdoms of Light

"Never mind." The female extended both tiny arms upward. "Pull me through. Up and through."

Tentatively, careful not to strike the speaker, Oskar pushed his index finger down into the water. When he lifted his hand, both the male and female thweens were clinging to his finger. He positioned them over the open palm of his other hand, intending to give them a soft place to land. They did not need one.

Spreading hitherto unseen wings, both promptly took to the air, buzzing back and forth in front of the captivated dog-man like translucent dragonflies.

"How wonderful to be airborne again!" The female executed a series of aerial pirouettes as notable for their swiftness as for their grace. Descending until her perfect little webbed feet hovered just above the water, she gestured excitedly. "Help Lis out, too. And Maygyn, and Plel, and don't forget Bou, and Geil, and Evave."

With everyone pitching in, the travelers soon found themselves enveloped in a cloud of soaring, darting thweens. The amphibious little sprites filled the warm blue air with a confusion of delighted giggles and captivating cooing. They danced around Mamakitty's face and rested on Taj's ears, scaled the heights of Samm's bald pate and plumbed the folds of Cezer's pants. They were altogether charming.

And then, quite unexpectedly and without warning, they embarked on an ardent and passionate variation of their aerial ballet. In a word, they began to mate.

"Amorous little pixies, aren't they?" observed Cezer admiringly. Next to him, Mamakitty looked on with academic interest. Cats did not blush, and neither did she.

The female they had first encountered zipped over to hover in front of Oskar's face. Her gossamer skin was flushed turquoise and her jewel-like eyes bulged even more than usual. "We can only mate and reproduce when we are out of the water."

"No wonder they were so anxious to have us help them out of the sea." Taj watched while an octet of thweens swirling near him executed a Byzantine sequence of aerial acrobatics that would have struck a host of hummingbirds dumb with admiration. "This is undeniably entertaining—but it's not getting us any closer to a purpling shore."

"We are glad we could be of assistance," Mamakitty informed the female. Rather primly, Oskar thought. "But we have to move on. We have our own agenda to fulfill."

As she turned to go, the male and two companions materialized in front of her. "Oh no, don't leave! Must thee be on thy way so soon? Thy company is so very welcome to us."

"I'm sorry." Advancing, she forced them to move aside. "We have to follow the path that has been set before us. But if you enjoy our conversation so much, why not accompany us? As long as we keep making progress, we'll be happy to keep you company."

Three thweens put their heads together. When they separated, it was another male who spoke. "Some will choose to remain here, where there are known dangers and familiar food. But many will come with you. All the Bluesome is our home, and we do need to spread our seed as far and wide as we can."

"Come along then." Cocoa was pleased by the decision. Even when they weren't mating, the thweens were fun to watch. "We'll protect you from the negwen, and you can help us find food."

"Done, done—done it be!" Tiny webbed hands clapped wetly.

The thweens proved not only good company but avid guides, helping to ensure that the travelers stayed on course in their trek across the featureless, shallow sea. When not airborne, they rested on the shoulders and heads of the travelers, luxuriating in the unique opportunity to see their world without having to expend a constant flow of energy. They piped tiny curses whenever a school of negwen or other predators was spotted, and cheered as the agile, active cat-folk snatched up the hated archenemies one by one.

They restricted their own mealtimes to coincide with those of their new, much larger friends. Darting and diving beneath the water, they gathered up armfuls of food for their own consumption. Most of it was of such small size that even the sharpest-eyed of the travelers could barely descry it. The thweens assured them that it was all delicious, even if largely invisible to the naked eye. Meanwhile, drawn by the commotion and the calling of their fellows, more and more of the amphibious pixies arrived in a steady stream to join the procession—and to mate. Watching them, unable to avoid their ardent aerial couplings, Oskar found himself glancing more often in Cocoa's direction than would otherwise have been the case.

In this fashion travelers and thweens progressed eastward for several weeks, taking much mutual pleasure in each other's company. "What is this briny basin we are crossing called?" Mamakitty asked one morning.

"Thee really know not?" The thween fluttering beside her sweating face seemed genuinely startled. "Why, it be the Eye of the Beholder, of course."

"Evocative," observed Samm in his usual laconic manner.

"There is nothing else in the Kingdom of Blue? No land?" Cezer inquired curiously.

"Land?" The female thween sounded puzzled. "Why should there be land? There be only the Eye of the Beholder, blue and omnipresent."

"Something I've been wondering about." Oskar stepped over the siliceous skeleton of a long-dead vrorvel that was lying on the bottom. "What is it that you thweens do? Do you just swim around and eat and reproduce? Is that your only purpose?"

"Sounds very like the life of a certain dog I know," Cezer gibed.

Oskar made a face. "I wasn't criticizing. I'm just curious. Dogs do other things," he added, a bit defensively. "We hunt, and provide companionship, and dig things up, and bury them again. Occasionally, we sing."

"That's a matter of opinion," put in Taj, who ought to know.

"Well, not compared to your kind, of course," Oskar admitted. "But to us, it's singing."

"We do not sing," the thweens declared, "though we occasionally burble. And out of the water, we hum. It is a way of calling to one another. Mostly, we try to eat and reproduce as much as we can without disturbing the Eye."

Mamakitty frowned. "Disturbing? How can creatures as small as yourselves possibly disturb all this?" She indicated the horizonless surface through which they were traipsing.

"There can be quite a lot of us. There are now especially, thanks to thy help."

"Our help?" The conversation was leaving Oskar more confused than enlightened.

"Yes." The thween zipped over to hover before the dog-man's face. "Thee consume the negwen and others that eat the thweens. In their absence, we can propagate further. We must, however, have a care not to upset the balance, or it will disturb the Eye." Bulging orbs fell slightly. "Perhaps we have not been sufficiently forthcoming with you. We be parasites on the Eye, you see."

Mamakitty shook her head. "I'm afraid we don't understand."

Flitting up and down in front of her, the thween tried to explain. "All those delicious little bits you see us eating are important to the continued health and function of the Eye. If we eat too many, it will become irritated and not function as well. By preying upon the thweens, the negwen and vrorvels and such maintain a balance. It is not a balance that be to our liking, but there be nothing we can do about it." Tiny glistening oculi looked up at her afresh. "Unless we have the assistance of bold outsiders such as thyselves."

"Well, we're glad to help." Cezer sloshed steadily onward. "But I still don't see how you wee folk can irritate an entire sea, no matter how many of you there are. How do you upset an ocean, anyway?"

The thween was about to reply when a sudden shaking commenced underfoot. The myriad little creatures darting through the water felt it first. They began swimming faster and faster, occasionally bumping into one another or into the legs of the travelers, until the last of them had vanished off to the west. The airborne multitude immediately ceased mating and bolted in the same direction.