****
"So now you want to remain here and try again to talk with turtles?" Mary asked, as the four token white-people sat around their table for lunch, which consisted of some sort of tasty combination of squash, corn, and beans. The Three Sisters, these vegetables were called.
"Certainly," Ed replied. "But this time I'm going to get coaching help from the Tribe. The situation here is apparently becoming so desperate that they are willing to cut some corners with regard to traditional telepath training."
"Really!" Doc responded. "Where the heck did you go this morning and who did you talk to?"
Ed told them about Talking Owl, Stone-Skin Ice Giants, the owls, and his agreement to stay.
Jack was elated. "I can hardly believe it! After all my years of research on myths I have finally hit the jackpot! Talking Owl is the apprentice of Turtle Man , and she came right out and openly confirmed all of my suspicions! The Stone-Coats are real, and if we play our cards right we'll get scientific proof of that! It will be the greatest discovery since the pyramids!"
"She only confirmed that the Tribe believes in their myths," said Ed. "That doesn't make the myths true."
"However, myths generally reflect some sort of truth," said Doc. "I'm a man of science and have serious doubts myself about actual Stone-Coats. The science seems impossible. There are seeds and other simple living things that can survive long periods of dormancy but nothing large and complex could survive for thousands of years. The notion of giants sleeping inside stone for millennia is totally absurd. You apparently still doubt the existence of Stone-Coats yourself, and yet you agreed to stay on the Reservation to look for them, Ed. Why?"
"I bet that this Mohawk maiden you met in the forest is very attractive," said Mary. "Am I right?"
"What's that got to do with anything?" Ed protested.
"I happen to know that you're a sucker for good looking chicks with trained owls," she said.
"Me too," admitted Jack. "I'm glad that you're staying, but Mary has a point. Could these owls have been trained to merely act as if they were speaking with her? Doc and I have seen a lot of animals on the Reservation being very chummy with their Mohawk friends, but that doesn't make them telepathic. I've found that when dealing with alleged phenomena of this sort, ninety-nine percent of it is parlor tricks. And having a beautiful woman as the assistant to a flim-flam magician is the most common trick of all."
"She taught me a few owl words that I can telepathically use myself," Ed said. "That's what convinced me. They don't respond as well to me, of course, since they don't really know me yet, but a few of them do respond. One of them even followed me home. I asked her to wait outside while I ate lunch. Want to meet her?"
"If she doesn't mind," said Mary.
His three companions watched as Ed stood up next to the table and held out his right arm. They gasped when a huge owl flew through the open door at the far end of the longhouse and seconds later landed gently on Ed's right wrist. The several Tribal children tending the fires hardly paid any attention to the spectacle at all, as if this sort of thing happened every day.
"She's hungry and disappointed that we have nothing to feed her but vegetables," Ed informed his companions. "At least that's what I think she said." The owl squawked and flew back outside in order to hunt for acceptable food.
"Aren't owls nocturnal?" Mary asked.
"Not totally," said Doc. "Many also hunt during the day. I've never had a great horned owl follow me home or land on my arm, however."
"I don't suppose that your owl friend knows where to find turtles?" asked Jack.
"No, but Talking Owl explained to me where to look."
"Where?" Mary asked.
Ed tapped his forehead with his index finger. "In my thoughts and dreams. We don't have to physically find any turtles; their thoughts are all around us, along with the thoughts of everything else nearby. Since my escapade a year ago with Jerry and his jants I have always experienced a sort of background noise in my head, similar to a great crowd of people talking all at once. Talking Owl says that I need to learn how to break up the noise I sense into the thoughts of individuals, including the thoughts of individual turtles."
"And eventually the thoughts of Stone-Coat Ice Giants," added Doc.
"If I have the chops for it," said Ed. "Talking Owl and Mouse will coach me."
"Swell," said Mary.
****