Vincenza Riley stood frowning as the last of the kitchen gear was unpacked. Her two oldest

girls, Soledad, and May-ling began opening the crates and setting the pots, pans and utensils out on the table to be shelved away as they fininshed each crate.



May-ling glance at her mother, caught her sister's eye and raised her eyebrows. Their mother was in one of her pensive states, not always an easy thing to read.



Vincenza has stood and listened to her mother and youngest daughter at the camp council in embarrassment, and disbelief about the approaching snows. It was only late summer, the season was still warm, the fishing was going to be good, the crops were mostly picked and dried, but they still had two more turns of the moon before they had to go south.



Most of the camp council felt the same, except for the Truth Sayer. He agreed with
Grandmother, and Rosemma. But the decision was postponed due to more time and thought
and discussion that it would take to find a unified view on what some of the camp families viewed as crazy.



Two mornings later there was a light snow outside their yurts, and that was all it took.
The horses were harnessed, dwellings were broken down, dog teams were packed, babies
tucked in and off they went. Fishing along the way to the Sacred Mountain village.



They were staying with Grandmothers father. Vincenza's grandfather, old Jack Chang.

The seemingly crazy old man, magician extrodinaire. He stood on the porch to his cabin, , white haired, leaning on a cane, smiling as big as the sun. He loved his family and had missed all of them when they went off on their various journeys.



So all around his cabin the yurts went up. Indana's clan, Vincenza's clan, great-grand children, dogs, horses, cooking gear outside, furniture inside, cooking stoves inside, clothes, dishes, bedding, everything they possessed and took with them when they went and then came back.



The Sacred Mountain Village was a spot with what seemed like and infinite source of very good water, and almost as infinite source of what Vincenza's husband William Riley considered
crazy people.



William had come from the desert area to the East, his clan was a stolid bunch, and he had been raised in a very no nonsense manner to discount anything other than what his own eyes
told him. And he tended not be really work to hard to see anything other than that.



As a result, his wife always seemd to the be mediator between William and her mother and sister in matters of magick, and the esoteric. He dissaproved heartily.



So it was a relief for Vincenza to not have any children who showed the slightest tendency to hear the whales or do any kind of magical act not requiring them to hide it on their person or pull it out of a hat. That he would put up with.



Until Rosemma. That first night she and her grandmother came back was the worst she had in a long while. William was almost purple, he was so angry.



"Magnolia, I won't hear anymore from you, this is the height of insanity! How can you stand there and tell me that we must ask for camp council, this is a busy time, people are out
working to store up foodstocks, this is the most frivolous thing you have ever brought down
on our heads!" And on and on.



Vincenza remembered watching her mothers face the whole time, stern and unmoving.

Her mother was made of stone. She had raised her daughters alone, after their father had gone off one day and never come back. She never cried in front of her girls, she just went on, did every thing herself, kept her feelings to herself. The only time she ever smiled was with her grandchildren. She wasn't too fond of William, but tolerated him, as he did her.

Now Magnolia Chang sat near her father on his porch. Their relationship was seemingly a quiet almost without conversation, but then again, Vincenza knew they often spoke the mind voice to one another, and only when other full time residents of the village were not in range.

And she was quite correct. Jack reached over and tapped his daughter on the shoulder, then tapped his head.

She made a face, but nodded.

"Maggie, so now you have your budding whalesinger , what are in your plans?"

She sighed."Father, this was so out of the blue, and as I told you before, I have never had this happen, no one has, I also spoke to the singers I could reach and they are floored by the way it happened too. All that distance they came to her, and in a dream like that. But her information was correct." "Tell me, what do you think, I do not know exactly how and what to think, not one
other whalesinger had contact and they did Rose at so far a distance, and not the usual way, hearing the song first then mindspeaking them. I am a little undone, and just need to unwind here a few days, Father, before I tackle the whole thing again."

"I do think though Maggie, it is important the first thing you do is to contact all your brethren and consult amongst yourselves. I am feeling that the Nommos have more to say on the subject of this early snow. Obviously they have seen the impacts in the far North seas, and if they sought and found Rosie, she is very strong in her gift. "

"And"...at this he threw up his hand to quiet her"they are very concerned at what they have seen, and they will find her again. Even this far inland, and you should prepare her and be with her when they do!"

A foggy kind of music

Grandmother hugged her covers to her and shivered.

It was already three days over with, and still no sign of the Nommos. She let out a sigh, and
felt the cold damp deep in her bones. After a while with the dogs on either side of her, she drifted off to sleep.

She was rocking, up and down, side to side. She looked out and was on a raft on the ocean.
It was still foggy, but she sat up and then knew she was in a dream, but knowing didn't seem to get her to wake up. She looked off to one side and there, red hair blowing in the wind was Rosemma. She was sitting upright, knees hugged to her chest. And beyond her, just an arms length off the raft was a Nommos. A large grey one, one eye staring at Rose as she stared back.

Grandmother woke with a start. The dogs were snoring, deep in their dog dreams, Rosemma was lying silent and still, her breath soft and deep.

Her heart pounding, Grandmother lay back and calmed herself. She listened for the Nommos. Not a sign or a answer back to her as she sent out to them, singing her high
sweet call for a few minutes.

She was sad, and fell back down. They would have to leave tomorrow, they would only
run out of food if they stayed, and everyone back at their camp would be worried, come looking, make a fuss. She hated a fuss made over her.

Finally she drifted off, and morning was not promising. The fog was so thick, she could barely see the dogs as they went out for their morning relief. Rosemma was still sound asleep, and Grandmother couldn't see waking her yet. Maybe the sun would burn off the fog. Otherwise it would be a tough start, trying to find her trail back. But she would look for her signs she had left, and since she had walked this way so many times in her life, they would get back, slowly but sure.

Rosemma suddenly sat up and yawned with a smile. "Grandmother, I had the most wonderful dream. We were out on the waves and I saw one of them!"

" Who did you see?" Grandmother had this strange clutch at her heart, feeling almost as if she dare not breath too deep.

"I saw the whales, the Nommos, Grandmother" They came close to the raft, and we stared at each other."

"Did they make any kind of picture thought in your mind, did you know what they said, could you hear them?" Grandmother talked so fast, she was shocked at herself.

"No, but they liked me, and they are very far off, but they liked me, they came close to me, I saw the one smiling."

"Smiling, they don't smile, they can't smile!" "Child, it was just a dream, I can't ever remember them coming to anyone in a dream to look at them, not like that."

"They are too far away, Grandmother, I saw the rest of them where the snow is, they are coming, but it is coming too."

What is, Rose, what is coming too?"

" The snow is coming, they are swimming fast, they are ahead of it just barely, they don't have time for much singing, but they let me know there is a lot of snow coming."

Grandmother felt herself shiver all the way to her insides. What if the child was seeing the Nommos in her dreams. It won't be the first time, but the only time she had heard of it, was from fully adept whalesingers who were in communication with the Nommos on the shore by day, and dreamed of them by night. Not some untried child, who hadn't even really heard them, and from such a long distance. The all year snow was far to the north, way too far away.

She couldn't wait if that was the case, and bit her lip while thinking about her next move. If Rose was right, then they needed to get home and have council with the heads of
the clan and camp groups.

"Rosemma, pack up your things, I'm going to fix a little breakfast, we are going
back to camp. Tie a rope on that knotheaded pup of yours too. Don't want him wandering off
I won't look for him if he does."