“All right, Dessie. The dragon is dead. Can you get the sea baby to come out now-or shall I come to help you?”
She smeared her hand across her wet face. “I can do it, Dard. It’s so frightened and it might be more afraid of somebody as big as you.”
She squatted down before a small opening between two rocks and made soft coaxing sounds. At last she turned her head.
“It’s coming out. But you must stay away-please—”
Dard nodded. Dessie held out her hand to the hollow between the rocks. He was sure he saw something hesitatingly touch that small palm. Then she wriggled back, still coaxing.
What followed her brought a gasp from Dard, even inured as he now was to the surprises this world had to offer. Some twenty slender inches tall, it walked upright, the four tiny digits of one hand confidently hooked about Dessie’s fingers. In color the creature was a soft silvery gray, but when a shaft of sunlight touched the fluff of thick fur which completely covered it, rainbow lights twinkled from each hair tip.
Its head was round, with no vestige of ears, the eyes very large, turning from Dessie to the two men. When it caught sight of them it stopped short and, with a gesture which won Dard completely, put the other band to its wide, fanged mouth, chewing on its finger tips shyly. The small feet were webbed and sealed with rainbow tints, as were the hands. He continued to examine it, puzzled. It was akin to the night-howling monkeys, but it was much smaller and plainly amphibian. And it appeared to be able to see perfectly well in the daylight.
“Where did it come from, Dessie?” he asked quietly, trying hard not to alarm the engaging little thing.
“Out of the sea,” she waved her flee hand at the waves.
“I was hunting shells and I found a pretty one. When I went down to wash the sand off it there he was, coming out of the water to watch me. He was sleeked down with the wet then-he’s a lot prettier now—” She broke off and stopped to address her companion with a series of chirrups such as Dard had heard her use with the wild things of lost Terra.