Vision in Silver

For now, he and Meg were going to have the adventure of seeing a new place and having a new experience. Together. He wasn't human. Would never be human. And Meg didn't expect him to be. But feeling her hand in his, Simon thought maybe he could learn to be human enough.

Why couldn’t they just give the human female a bag of money and then pee on the building so that everyone would know it was theirs?

He had a feeling this was one of those times when a male should express positive enthusiasm regardless of what he really thought—especially when he didn’t really know what was going on.

This is Ruthie Stuart, Officer Kowalski’s mate. She will show your pups around the Market Square,” Simon said. Sarah giggled. Robert said, “We’re not pups; we’re kids.” Simon looked at Robert and Sarah, then at Ruthie. Kids. He’d heard Merri Lee say something about when she was a kid. But the word didn’t apply to her now because she was an adult, so it had never occurred to him that, maybe, humans had a little shifter ability that they outgrew as they matured. When she had said kid, maybe she had meant kid? He eyed Robert and Sarah with more interest. “Little humans can shift into young goats?

He wondered if there was a way human males said they were sorry about something without saying they were sorry. Because he wasn’t sorry about being angry.

He gave the side of her head a quick lick before she squealed and ducked away from him. Tasted like Meg. Felt like puppy fuzz. Too bad he couldn’t hold her down and give her a proper grooming like he used to do with Sam.

Dear Jean, I have seen a deer. I have petted a pony. I helped plant a garden. I have smelled earth and felt it in my hands. You watched the sun rise. These things are worth the struggle to live outside.

Today the man looked a bit . . . chewed. No, humans wouldn’t say “chewed.” Frazzled. Was that the human equivalent?

But naked wasn’t something done around human pups—although he wanted to ask the men why naked from the waist up was all right for them but females remained covered. That didn’t seem fair. Shifting

Why couldn’t they just give the human female a bag of money and then pee on the building so that everyone would know it was theirs? This

Why did humans give their offspring fake versions of predators that would happily eat those offspring? Those

Kowalski shrugged. “She’s my mate. I can live with it if it makes her happy.” Simon looked at the bulging carry sacks Kowalski had in each hand. “Couldn’t you just give her the best parts of a bunny?” “Doesn’t

If you believe some of the old stories, earth natives have been around in one form or another since the beginning of the world. They were the top predators then and they’re the top predators now because they change as the world changes, absorbing qualities from new species of predators without losing the essence of what they are.

Do you know what happened to the dinosaurs? The Others is what happened to the dinosaurs. A joke Captain Burke had told him his first day on the job in Lakeside. Except it wasn’t a joke. Burke had known that, at least to some degree. And now so did he.

He waited until they were driving to work before he mentioned the morning field trip. “Why do a field trip?” Meg asked. “Because someone untied its shoes?” Meg frowned. “That makes no sense.” “It makes as much sense as most human jokes.” “That’s true.” Simon

Earth natives didn’t absorb everything from the forms they had chosen over the long years the sun had risen and set over Namid. They were first and always terra indigene. But they learned from the predators they became, and certain traits were passed down to the young of each form. Yes,

There is sickness here,” Henry said. “The bodywalker must tend to Boo Bear.” The

Sometimes I think her chest is made of ice, and she has to stay emotionally cold to hide the smell of a roting heart.

Simon didn’t want to poke his nose into a “girl thing.” Potentially dangerous territory, that.

Ruthie will help you write it.” There. Problem solved. Ruthie was a teacher. She wrote sentences all the time. “Have