[Birdland]

It took up to an hour for Birdie to make it to the river in insect form, but once she entered the water and changed to dolphin shape, it took less than half that time to reach the sea.

She swam blindly, not caring where she was going or how far from the filthy, doomed caverns she could get. She just swam, hoping that the motions of the waves and her own body would return some feeling to her heart and mind. It wasn’t working though. She still remained numb.

She hadn’t called for Levanto, certainly hadn’t sought him out, but suddenly he was there, swimming beside her and keeping pace effortlessly. Insanely, the only question Bird had about this was how had he always managed to tell her from every other dolphin in the sea? Could he tell one dolphin “real” dolphin from another as well?

“Birdie, stop.” he said, but she just kept flying, swooping over mountains, chasms, broad meadows of coral and sea fan, all dappled by a moon that was never full down here, but broken and scattered.

“Aewdor!” he shouted, swimming in front of the skinchanger. She finally stopped and strangely, morphed into the form of a woman, treading water and struggling to keep her head above the waves. Levanto reached out and held her at the shoulders to keep her afloat.

“I won’t go back there. I won’t.” Bird’s teeth started to chatter from the cold water, and she tried to push the Mer-Man away.

“You have to, Birdie. You can’t just leave. Not now. What is wrong with you? Are you going to just leave behind everyone there? Swim off and just turn your back? What is wrong with you?” he repeated.

She laughed, but it came out oddly, choked through her chattering teeth. Levanto flinched at the sound of it. “I already turned my back. Again and again. I did nothing.” Bird choked again and her whole body began to shake, but it was not from the cold. “She died, Levanto. I knew her name, and she died, and I didn’t do anything. I knew all their names, and I didn’t do anything!“ She was racked with sobbing by now, and if Levanto had not been there to hold her up, she would have curled up and sank. “I didn’t do anything, and I knew!”

Levanto wrapped his arms around her, wishing that there was some bit of land, or a boat, anything to take Birdie out of the sea. She was not even trying to support herself. He floated on the surface, laying back and pillowing her head on his shoulder.

“I know. But it’s only one more day. You have to be there. Then you can stop it. The Halflings need you.”

“Why did they let it happen, Levanto? Day after day, they just walked away with the guards and let it happen to them. And I let it happen, too.” Then Birdie said something in a low voice, and Levanto felt a chill that didn’t come from the water. “My own people would not have done so.” said Birdie. “My own people knew what to do when no hope is left. They would not have left it to others to do it for them.”

“No, Bird!“ He sat up and shook her roughly. “That is not the way. The Halfling were promised hope, and they believed, and waited. For sixty years they waited, and they were right to. And you’re a part of that hope. When your own hope is gone, you may do what you like, but you will not turn your back on the Halflings now! Not now!“ Bird stared with wide, frozen eyes at the furious Mer-Man.

“I‘m sorry that you had to watch those people die, knowing and not being able to do anything to help them, but their deaths will mean nothing if you don’t go back and finish this. Perhaps they died, but their people will live on, and they know that that is the only thing that is important. I can only hope that your own people realized the same.”

Bird was still silent, and in silence she changed back to her dolphin form and turned back towards the cursed island of Numenor. And in silence Levanto turned and followed her.

Halfway back Bird said to the Mer-Man, without looking at him, “Levanto, how did you know?”

“Know what?”

“You know. About saying my name in Elvish.”

Levanto sighed “I didn’t. I suppose it was but a lucky guess.”

They swam on. Then Levanto said “Of course, I will mention it to no one.“