Zelana’s first problem with her newfound charge was finding something to feed it. She rather hoped that Dahlaine had been mistaken. If the infant could live on light alone, as Zelana herself did, feeding it would be no problem. The vein of pink quartz in the ceiling of the grotto concentrated the sunlight into a glowing pink pool, which was presently centered on the bed of moss where Zelana occasionally rested. Hopefully she laid the fur-robed bundle on that moss bed and turned the robe back to allow the sunlight to touch the child.
The infant began to fuss a bit. Maybe the little creature didn’t like the color. Zelana had discovered that a steady diet of pink light took a bit of getting used to. Pink, it appeared, was an acquired taste.
Zelana snapped her fingers, and the quartz obediently turned blue. The baby didn’t stop fussing, though, and her discontent was growing louder.
Zelana tried green, but that didn’t work either. Then she tried plain white. It was a little bland, but perhaps the baby wasn’t ready for advanced colors yet.
The sounds the infant was making grew louder and more insistent.
Zelana quickly gathered the squalling infant in her arms and hurried down to the edge of the shallow pool at the mouth of the grotto. “Meeleamee!” she called in the piping language of the dolphins, “I need your help! Right now! Please!”
Now, Meeleamee had mothered many, many young, so she had great wisdom and much experience in such matters. “Milk,” she advised.
“What is milk?” Zelana asked, “and where can I find some?”
Meeleamee explained in some detail, and for the very first time in her endless life, Zelana blushed. “What a strange sort of thing,” she said, blushing even harder. She looked down at herself. “Do you think I might be able to . . .” She left it hanging.
“Probably not,” Meeleamee replied. “There are some things involved that are just a little complicated. Can the young one swim?”
“I don’t really know,” Zelana admitted.
“Unwrap her and put her down in the shallow water here. I should be able to nurse her without too much trouble.”
It was a bit awkward at first, but they found that if Meeleamee laid on her side and Zelana held the infant, things went quite well. Zelana felt a real sense of accomplishment—which lasted for nearly four hours.
Then they had to feed the child again. It seemed that there was a great deal of inconvenience involved in caring for infants.
The seasons turned, as seasons always do, and summer drifted on into autumn, and winter followed shortly after. Zelana had never really paid much attention to the seasons. Heat or cold had little meaning for her, and she could create light whenever she grew hungry.
The female dolphins were taking turns feeding the infant, and Zelana noticed that the child seemed to be very affectionate. The dolphins were a bit startled by kisses at first, but after a while they even enjoyed being kissed by the grateful child, and sometimes there were even arguments about whose turn it was to nurse. The arguments broke off abruptly when the child sprouted teeth and began chewing on whatever was handy, though. Her diet changed at that point, and the dolphins offered her fish instead of milk. She still kissed them by way of thanks, so everything seemed all right again.
Since the child had always been fed in the shallow pool at the grotto’s mouth, she was swimming even before she began to grow teeth, but she started walking—and running—not long after her diet changed, and she was soon toddling about the grotto, squeaking dolphin words as she went. She returned to the water whenever she grew hungry, however. The dolphins were careful to keep her more or less confined to the water at the mouth of the grotto, but they took to chasing fish in from the deeper waters of Mother Sea to give the child some experience in the business of catching her own food.
When the summer of the child’s third year arrived, she ventured out of the grotto to join the younger dolphins in their forays along the coast of the Isle of Thurn. She spent her days now frolicking with the young dolphins and eating the bounty of Mother Sea.
Zelana approved of that. The child’s independence freed her mistress at last so that she could return to poetry and music.
The young dolphins called the child “Beeweeabee,” but Zelana didn’t really think that was appropriate, since it approximately translated into “Short-Fin-With-No-Tail.” Despite her habits and her companions, the little girl was still a land animal, so Zelana unleashed her poetic talents and ultimately arrived at “Eleria.” It had a nice musical sound to it, and it rhymed with several very pleasant words.
The little girl didn’t really seem to care for the name, but after a while she would answer to it when Zelana called her, so the name more or less did what it was supposed to.
The seasons continued to turn, but Zelana had long since realized that they could do that on their own, so she didn’t have to prompt them.
Then, in the autumn of Eleria’s fifth year, Dahlaine came by again. “How are things progressing with your child, dear sister?” he asked Zelana.
“It’s a bit hard to say,” Zelana replied. “I haven’t had any contact with the man-creatures for more than ten eons, and I’m sure they’ve changed in that many years. I can’t really be sure what’s normal for them at Eleria’s age. She spends most of her time in the water, though, so she doesn’t stink the way most of her kind did when I turned my back on them.”
“Where is she?” Dahlaine asked, looking around the grotto.
“Probably out playing with her friends,” Zelana said, “most likely somewhere along the coast of the Isle.”
“She has friends?” Dahlaine seemed a bit surprised. “I didn’t know there were any people here on the Isle.”
“There aren’t, and even if there were, I wouldn’t permit her to associate with them.”
“You’re going to have to get over that, sister. Eventually she will be required to have dealings with her own kind.”
“What for?”
“She’ll have to tell them what they’re supposed to do, Zelana. If her playmates aren’t people, what exactly are they?”
“Dolphins, of course. She and the young dolphins get along very well.”
“I didn’t know that dolphins can move around on dry land.”
“They can’t. Eleria swims with them.”
“Are you mad?” Dahlaine almost screamed. “She’s only five years old! You can’t just turn her loose in Mother Sea like that!”