Ruadrath Estivation

A Circus Of Hells, CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

On Talwin, Domrath hibernate whereas Ruadrath estivate on a shallow but lightless sea bed. Seasonal changes in temperature, oxygen levels, currents and mineral content rouse the Ruadrath to an animal level of consciousness while they remain lying in the ooze until moved by hunger. They have gills, hands, webbed feet and a tail and sense each other by turbulence and taste. Wirrda's cage is lit by blue aoao which lure sea-dwelling creatures into their tentacles from which Wirrda's extract whatever is undigested. "Wirrda" is not an individual. "Wirrda's" is a pack. By instinct and training, not yet knowledge, Rrinn, whose forebrain still remains mostly dormant, finds and opens a gate out of the cage.

Currents and flavor guide Wirrda's toward land and they break the surface when the sun is not too bright for eyes that need to readjust. They feast on schools of sea creatures, giving extra catch to infants, who have been born with teeth but are not yet able to hunt. Floating and looking up, Rrinn remembers words and names and where to go. When the others follow him, he remembers that he is their leader.

The Ruadrath's evolutionary ancestors, living on the continental shelf and therefore periodically contending with both floods and droughts, developed a dual breathing system and avoided the summer heat by descending into the sea where, because they remained better walkers than swimmers, they adapted to estivation. This is comparable to Poul Anderson's accounts of Starkadian, Ythrian, Diomedean and Didonian evolution and is yet another entire mental universe imagined by Anderson.