o what the Telling has to say about the way the weather is at the moment, and if there s a problem, or if I m not to change it for some other reason, Those Who Are send me word. But beyond that, I ve been working with the weather here for long enough now that They seem to trust me with it. The Telling, Nita said. That s your version of the wizard s manual, isn t it I think so, Quelt said. Did I understand that correctly You get the Telling as a physical thing Sure, Nita said. Here, take a look. Nita pulled her manual out of her backpack and handed it to Quelt. Quelt turned it over curiously in her hands as they climbed. It s so compact, Quelt said. Isn t it a problem for you, though Don t you leave it places and then realize you ve left it behind There are ways around that, Kit said. If we don t feel like physically carrying the manuals, we can always pull the fabric of space apart a little bit and stuff the manual into the pocket. That could be a little tricky, Quelt said thoughtfully. It can be, Nita said, but if you She was interrupted by a sudden flurry of crazy barking from Ponch as he came to the top of the rise, saw something that excited him, and dived down over the far side. Oh no, Kit said, what s he seen now The barking continued, and Kit ran up to the top of the rise. Nita and Quelt went after him. As Nita made the top of the rise herself, she looked down and saw Quelt s house. Wow, she said. It was not just one building but an assortment of low, wide buildings clustered together, built in a soft-peach-colored material almost exactly the shade of the pink-and-peach-striped beach that stretched away for miles and miles on either side until it faded from view in the haze before the horizon. The buildings were topped off with conical, pointed roofs made of bunches of the silvery reeds that grew on the seaward side of the rise, as it sloped down toward the beach. Through these long, tall reeds, Ponch was plunging though he himself was invisible at the moment, the reed-leaves were thrashing with his passage and heading at top speed for a big pen made of more of the silver reeds interwoven with lengths of darker, silver gray wood, built off to one side of the largest building. Milling around in the pen were a number of creatures that Nita at first had a great deal of trouble making any sense of. They looked like golden or cream-colored pom-poms, and as Ponch and his barking got closer, the activity in the pen got more frenzied. Ponch! Kit yelled. But it was too late. Ponch came rocketing out of the reeds at the bottom of the rise and shot straight toward the pen. He was within only a few feet of the silvery, wooden fence when there was a sudden chorus of sharp, odd honking noises…and all of the pom-poms leaped into the air… …and kept on going, as every one of them suddenly sprouted wide, golden or cream white wings, two pairs each, and flew off down the beach in a noisy, honking flock. Ponch danced around on his hind legs, barking at the creatures, and then took off down the beach after them. Oh no, I m so sorry, Kit said, and started running after Ponch. Quelt started laughing. No, it s all right, she said. But this is why I was late! I was helping my tapi get the shesh off them. It doesn t matter now. We were finished … But she kept on laughing. Nita shook her head. I m sorry, too, she said. He really loves to chase things so much. He created a whole universe full of nothing but squirrels once, so he could spend all his time chasing them. He created a universe Ponch is unusual, Nita said. It s a long story. Quelt nodded a few times, a gesture that Nita was coming to read as the equivalent of an Earth human shaking his head. I get that sense, she said. Well, he won t have to create universes to have things to chase here. The ceiff are here three times a day, every day they come back to be groomed and tended and once we ve got the shesh off them, Ponsh can chase them as often as he likes. Quelt and Nita ambled down through the reeds toward the houses. They re kind of like sheep, Nita said. And shesh is it the furry stuff they re covered with Or is it something to do with food It s a food precursor, Quelt said. The ceiff make a secretion that we process. It s kind of complicated, but it tastes really good when you re done with it. We trade it to other people all over the islands hereabouts: It s very much in demand. She started to laugh again. And I should warn you, my topi is really passionate about it. Don t get him started you ll be hearing about shesh all night. It said in the orientation pack that your topi had elected to do manual labor permanently Nita said. It sounded like most people don t here. What, work Quelt said. She and Nita paused by the pen, looking down the beach to where Kit was still chasing after Ponch, and Ponch was still chasing after the flying sheep. No, Quelt said, no one has to do it all the time. Nonetheless, some people like to, like my topi. Otherwise, our people usually seem to have enough of everything to go around food and things to make clothes and houses. Anything that s unusually hard for people to get, like metal either they process it on a small scale, in local groups, and everybody takes a turn doing the work, or else I get it for them. It s one of the main things I use my wizardry for. She looked at Nita, a little surprised. Why Do people on your world have to work Most people, Nita said. In fact, pretty much everybody. Quelt shook her head in wonder. You ve got to tell me all about your world, she said, as Kit trotted back toward them, holding Ponch by the collar. Everything! But we ll have lots of time to talk about it. At dinner, and for days after. In the meantime, we d better get inside! Pabi and Tapi have made great masses of food for you; they re terrified you ll be hungry after the trip. At that, Kit looked slightly embarrassed and Nita burst out laughing. I think parents all must go to the same school, she said. Though how they get there and back without us knowing is something we ll never understand. Ponch, Nita said, what were you doing, you bad boy Ponch shook himself all over, spraying Nita and Quelt and Kit with seawater he had managed to get in and out of the surf several times while chasing the flying sheep. If they didn t want to be chased, he said, they shouldn t have flown away. Well, Quelt and her dad spent most of the afternoon getting those things together into that pen, Nita said, and now look! They re all over the place. Don t chase them anymore! You understand Ponch sat down, looked up at Quelt with big, woebegone eyes, hung his head, and offered her a paw. Sorry, he said. It s all right, Quelt said. Don t go all chopfallen on me. Let s go in; they re waiting for us. They went down to the house. There on the broad front steps, under the silver thatch of the eaves, they met Quelt s parents, who were dressed like their daughter, in long, loose, pale casual clothing, in two or three layers of cream or gold or beige a long tunic or a short one with a long, sleeveless overvest flung on top, soft sandals, and, in Quelt s father s case, a soft scarf wrapped around the neck. Nita was astounded to find them even taller and more beautiful than Quelt. Kuwilin Peliaen, Quelt s tapi, and Demair Peliaen, Quelt s pabi, each towered at least two feet above their daughter. Come in, come in, Demair said, laughing like her daughter, easily, and looking at Kit and Nita as if they were neighbors, not people she d never seen before. Demair had Quelt s hair, perhaps even a fairer version, though hers was shorter, worn in a soft fluffy cap around her head. Kuwilin, on the other hand, was completely bald, and this suited him extremely well his longer, narrower features gave him an impressive and austere look, but that never lasted long when he started laughing. In fact, all of them laughed at least once every few minutes, at least as far as Nita could tell. And there was nothing artificial about it, nothing nervous. She felt entirely welcomed entirely at home. You were a long time coming! Kuwilin said. I thought maybe we wouldn t see you until tomorrow. Worldgates, Demair said. It s the old story: Hurry up and run in all directions, then sit and wait forever. No matter! You re here now. Come in out of the wind and be welcome with us. Come see the house! With Quelt and her parents, Nita and Kit walked around the house, looking at everything. Nita was astounded at how technologically advanced this place was, despite its rural look. She immediately recognized a computer and data-retrieval system, disguised as a whole stuccoed wall. There were various appliances for housekeeping and entertainment; at first, Nita couldn t understand how they were powered, but after a few words exchanged in the Speech with Quelt, she understood that these ran on fuel cells of an unusually advanced sort, operating off hydrogen cracked out of seawater. Yet the whole look of the house was very simple and spare appliances and storage were mostly hidden away against the walls, or in them, by woven screens or cupboard doors. There was a great deal of artwork, paintings and sculpture done by both of Quelt s parents. Her father s art looked more like what Nita thought of as modern or abstract art: splashes of bright color against the pale, plain stuccoed walls. Quelt s mother s art was mostly portraiture, pictures of her husband and daughter, and very beautiful landscapes all of these featuring the sea or the hill behind the house. There were also some still-life studies of flowers in the dining room, the work of someone who had sat in front of one of the blue jijis flowers up on the hill for a very long time, studying every petal of it, every hair. Young cousins, Quelt s mother said when they d seen everything, what about latemeal Did you eat anything on the journey Uh Kit said. Everything, Nita said. But we re ready for more. And so is Ponch. Huh, Ponch Ponch looked at Quelt s mother and wagged his tail. Food is always nice, he said. Quelt s mother smiled. The perfect houseguest, she said. Things will be ready in a few moments…Do you change clothes for latemeal Is it required Nita said. She knew places where it was. Quelt s mother tilted her head sideways. The careful guest, she said, perhaps wants to show the other diners honor. Nita and Kit looked at each other. Change for dinner, they said in unison. They unlimbered their pup tents, slipped into them, and changed into clean things. Nita, feeling the heat, got into one of her beach wraps and put a light jacket over it, then went out to see about dinner. Everybody sat down in the great room, on cushions around the long, low table, which groaned with the feast Quelt had threatened. Nita began to understand, with some amusement, that Quelt s mother and father were as much in love with food and its treatment as her own mom had been. It was strange for her, too, to look down the table at the vast array of bowls and plates and platters, rilled with dishes hot or cold that sported unfamiliar shapes and colors, greens and blues very much in evidence. She laughed to herself as she saw Kit go straight for the blue foods, so that Quelt s mother laughed and passed him more of them. For her own part, Nita sat there dealing with her first really leisurely contact with alien foods smells and textures that she d never encountered before, but that were nonetheless instantly appetizing. We re lucky this way, Quelt said, passing Nita a bowl of some bright orange sauce to dribble over a plateful of something that smelled most deliciously of fried chicken but tasted like sweet-and-sour pork. Our body chemistries are a lot alike; we re both using iron as the heart of the molecule that carries oxygen around in our blood. So that means there ll be certain similarities in And then Quelt stopped and laughed. Nita looked up at her with her mouth full, chewing. Quelt said, As if it matters! Do you want to know what these things are, or would you prefer just to point, and I ll pass them to you Pointing ll do fine for the moment, Nita said, and she pointed and had many things passed to her. She was grateful that table manners on Alaalu, or at least this part of it, were very similar to those on Earth, right down to the short but elegant grace said before the meaclass="underline" Here we are, said Kuwilin, and here s all this fine food. May it do us good, so we can thank the Powers for it! When they were halfway through the meal, the sun was easing down toward the water outside the dining room window not a window as such, but just an opening with windbreak shutters folded back out of the way of the view. Quelt s mother stretched. This is a good time to take a rest from the food, she said, and it won t run away…or not far. There was some laughter at that, since everyone was feeling a little overstretched: Dinner had featured at least six different kinds of shesh. Nita had started out thinking of this as a sort of alien cheese, but then she realized that such an appraisal fell very far short of the mark. There were too many ways to treat the shesh, as she found when she made the mistake of getting Kuwilin talking about it. Demair rolled her eyes and started talking to Kit about what life on Earth was like, while Kuwilin held forth on shesh the storage, processing, pressing, coloring, and texturization of the foodstuff; the handling of its seasonal variations; and its preparation for dining, using at least a hundred technical terms that Nita hadn t realized even occurred in the Speech. Hearing them now, she found herself wondering whether there were some wizards who practiced their art exclusively in the culinary mode, forsaking all other usages. Or more likely, she thought, it s true what we ve always read in the manual.. that wizardry is only another kind of science just one with its roots sunk deeper into the universe than most. For the moment, it didn t matter. After a while, they all got up and left the table, went outside, and strolled down the beach, watching the sun go down in a great blaze of fire peach and orange and gold against that sky, which, despite a touch of green, or perhaps because of it, seemed more intensely blue than any Nita had ever seen on Earth. That color ran chills down Nita s neck, once or twice, when she looked up at it. What is it she wondered. What is it about this place that reminds me of something else Whatever else it reminds me of, it s good… Ponch gamboled up and down in the water, running at the slight waves, biting them, chasing them out to sea again. Nita, walking with the others, gazed up and down those miles and miles of empty beach, and was astounded. Can anyone live in a place like this she said. Quelt s mother looked at her in some surprise. Anyone who likes, she said. It s a little isolated here, but some of us like that. People in other islands, maybe they don t but then they have hundreds and thousands of stad to sail before they see another human face. This is the biggest island, so we have the Cities here. She shook her head. I ve lived in the Cities they re nice if you want to see a thousand faces that you don t know every day, and maybe there s a kind of freedom in that. But for my part, perhaps I m too much of a homebody. Maybe I prefer seeing just two other faces that I know, most days, and hearing the same three flocks of flying sheep come in every day and go again…the water coming up and down, and nothing else. She smiled, a long, lazy, untroubled look. For the rest, Kuwilin said, this is no crowded world. Granted, there s much more sea than land. The sea is openhanded with us, and gives us more than enough food for everyone. People who have more than they need give to those who have less, if they need it, or if they ask for it. Why How is it in your world Nita started to answer, then stopped herself. She was disinclined to break the perfect spell of quiet that was coming down over her so quickly in this place. She glanced at Kit, who was walking on the far side of Kuwilin, but he was looking out to sea, not paying attention. It s different, she said. It s very different. People don t give that readily in my world. But what s the matter with them Quelt s mother said. Don t they have enough Of many things, Nita said, maybe not. There are so many of us. And while there s a lot more land on my planet than there is on Alaalu, our world is much smaller. She pulled out her manual. See, she said, paging to the map of Alaalu, which showed Earth beside it for comparison s sake. But it s such a little planet, Demair said, looking over Kuwilin s shoulder at the manual. And small planets like that are usually rich in metal. Metal makes technology so easy: You must all be wealthy. How can you not have enough of ev