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I just nodded silently.
“Let me show you how to add a passcode. That way if someone somehow steals your phone, they can’t unlock it.” Riddick walked me through the steps and it took me a minute to figure out a four-digit passcode that wasn’tone, two, three, four, while also being one I would remember.
By the time I figured out the passcode and had it set, we arrived at the farm. Climbing out, my mouth dropped open. There were pens with animals ranging from ponies, horses, and donkeys, to cattle, pigs, and sheep.
Winnie was in a pen with some ponies and a miniature donkey. Natalia sat on the fence to her pen, chittering and cawing at her. Winnie’s little tail wagged back and forth as she snorted and nodded, listening to Natalia.
“Wait, can you two understand each other?” I asked as I walked up.
“Ember!”Winnie shouted mentally and spun in two circles while snorting in excitement.“I didn’t believe Natalia when she said you were coming.”
Squatting down, I reached through the fence to pet her. “Have you always been able to talk to each other?” I asked Natalia.
She bobbed her head.“After talking to you first.”
“Wait …” I took a slow breath, trying to slow my rapid heart. “What do you mean?”
“Ember?” Caleb asked and squatted down beside me, setting a hand on my back. “What’s wrong? Why are you scared?”
I held up my finger because Winnie was shouting as she told me about all the things she’d done since coming here.
Natalia waited for Winnie to finish before she hopped and turned on the fencepost to face me. “I saw Winnie before you did. We couldn’t hear each other then. Then, you spoke to her, and I could speak to her, too.”
How was that possible? What did that mean? Did that mean every animal I had spoken to could speak to other people as well or other animals I had spoken to previously? Was there a negative aspect to that? Was I increasing their knowledge and intellect? I’d thought Winnie and Natalia were smarter than average, but was I the cause?
“What’s wrong, Ember?” Dan asked in a soothing voice.
I looked up at him and said, “I … I think I changed their minds, somehow.”
He and Caleb exchanged a look before Dan asked, “Explain it to us, please.”
“Natalia just told me that she couldn’t communicate with Winnie, but as soon as I spoke to Winnie, then Natalia and she could talk to each other.”
“The raven and pig can talk to each other?” Dan asked.
I nodded.
“What about the other creatures you’ve spoken to?” Riddick asked behind me.
“Natalia can talk to all the creatures Ember can talk to,”she said proudly.“It’s why none bother the house, not even stinky Bruno.”
Ice on a stair … what had I done?
“Even the bears,” I whispered. “Natalia said that’s why there were never animals attacking the house.” I’d thought it was because of the shifters’ smells that they stayed away. I didn’t realize they were more knowledgeable than that.
“What if … what if I made them all smarter? Bears, pumas, wolves, deer, I’ve spoken to dozens over the past decade.”
“Deep breath,” Caleb ordered me, sliding the hand on my back up and down in a soothing manner.
A deep, stuttering breath was managed, but it didn’t ease the worry I felt.
“Why worried?”Natalia asked.
“There could be ramifications for what I’ve done,” I told her. “What if I made the others smarter and they cause trouble?”
She cawed in laughter.“No trouble. Just safer.”
Safer?
