ARC: Under Nameless Stars by Christian Schoon Page B

these animals? That is a fair descriptor: to share?”
    “Yes. It’s sort of like sharing,” she said. “But not thoughts, really. More like sharing what they’re sensing at the moment, but definitely more than just me being sensitive. There’s a connection happening. A real mind-to-mind connection. It doesn’t make any sense, I know.”
    “Or possibly the sense it makes is not comprehended by us at present,” the dolphin replied, with perfectly sound logic. “Are there any common features among the times you experienced these events?”
    “Common features?”
    “Such as environmental factors. The weather? The location? Your mental state? Anything to bind together the events when they occur?”
    Zenn tried to think, but her mind was too unsettled. “No, I can’t… There’s nothing that seems similar. I just get this weird sensation, like being dizzy or confused, and then I’m in touch with the animal on some different level. It’s hard to describe. And there was pain in my eye, with the whalehound, and on my face when the Skirni was in my room. Katie attacked him, and she scratched him. And I felt the pain that he felt, here.” Her hand lifted to the skin on her cheek.
    “I see. Are you in pain now?”
    “No, no, it’s nothing.”
    “But you were hurt, then, when this sharing happened?”
    “No, not me. The Skirni was in pain, and I… it was like…” The realization struck her at once. She jumped up from the chair. “That’s it…”
    “It is?”
    “Yes! They were all in pain. Or… or afraid. That’s the common element – the thing that was happening every time. That must be the trigger. Why didn’t I see it before?”
    “I am not understanding you.”
    “Each time I linked with an animal, it was in trouble,” she went on, speaking fast, wanting to get it all out, to see if the pattern held. “Katie was trapped. The hooshrike stuck in the cage bars. The whalehound’s eye.” She thought back, ticking off each event, trying to remember them all. “Gil’s sick sandhog. Zeus, Liam’s cat, when he was injured. Then the Skirni when Katie attacked it. They were all in pain or distress. That’s when the link happened. That’s when they connected with me.”
    Jules cocked his big head at her. “So, an animal’s pain creates a mental state that allows them to reach into your thoughts? Every time you encounter such a situation?”
    “No. At least, I don’t think it’s every time. It must be when I’m especially focused on them or something.”
    “But how? And why? Why would they connect up with you? Is your brain in some way special among humans?”
    “Not that I know of,” Zenn said, combing her fingers back and forth through her hair in agitation, as if that would shake loose some helpful insight. “All I know is I’ve connected with certain animals. And maybe it’s because they were stressed when it happened.” She sat down and put her head in her hands, suddenly weary. “Or maybe I am just a deranged lunatic.”
    “Possible. But unlikely, I would say. In any case, it is a mystery. Something to be turned over in the mind and considered. You will perhaps understand it at some later juncture. Or perhaps not.”
    The dolphin was quiet for a long while, watching Zenn, head tilted to one side, as if working something out in his mind. At last, his legs whirred into action and he strode over to stand before her.
    “If I may be so bold,” he said, soundly oddly formal all of the sudden. “Your story has brought me to propose a path forward. It is my conclusion the best way would be for you to reside here, in this cabin, while you search out your father. I have rooms too many for my use. We will not be overcrowded.”
    “You’d do that? Let me stay, here, with you?”
    “I would! It will be our adventure, the two of us who are seeking others.”
    A wild rush of surprise and relief flowed through Zenn, followed quickly by the image of her uncle saying on more than one occasion