“When we leave the safety of our home to gather trico,” Lyric said, “we travel in groups. Sometimes that isn’t enough, though, and the avrils still attack.”
“What exactly are avrils?” Anakin asked.
“They’re enormous birds of prey with vibrant blue beaks and talons. Their bodies are about two meters long and covered with thick black feathers. When an avril’s wings are spread, the span can measure up to eight meters. They feed on raiths, giant black rodents with thick, hairless, green tails; reels, deadly snakes that kill their prey by squeezing the breath out of their bodies; and the purella, a bristle-haired red spider that traps its prey in a thick black web and slowly feeds on it. But their favorite food, by far, is young Melodies. That’s why we travel in groups, so that they’re less likely to attack. And so that if we come across any of the other predators on our planet, we can fight them together.”
Lyric was silent for a moment. She began to recall a memory she visited only in nightmares.
“Several years ago, I was gathering trico when we heard the shriek of an attacking avril,” Lyric said softly. “There were five of us, and we began to throw the rocks we carry for defense. I can remember the bird’s smell, even now. It was sour and dank, and the black feathers that covered its body furrowed as it attacked. We ran out of rocks before the creature tired. And moments later I felt sharp talons wrap around my body and I was airborne. There was nothing the other Melodies could do but fill their sacks with trico and return to the mountains without me. They were certain that I was dead and would soon be devoured by the avril.”
“Your friends just let the avril fly away with you?” Tahiri said in shock.
“Yes,” Lyric replied, her eyes wide with remembered terror. “There was nothing they could do.”
“They didn’t abandon me,” Lyric hastened to say as she saw the identical looks of horror on the faces of her new friends. “One of the reasons the elders allowed me to come to the Jedi academy is because the children of my people do not know how to defend themselves well from predators, and the adults cannot leave the water to help us survive. It was the elders’ hope that I might learn to use the Force to help my people,” Lyric explained. “But I am getting ahead of my story. The avril who attacked my group and snatched me took me to her nest, a shallow hole in the mountains, high above my own home. I heard her young squawking for food as I was dropped before their unseeing newborn eyes in a nest of twigs and trico. As I lay on my back, I saw the same type of symbols as Anakin drew. I did not have long to wonder how or when the carvings had been made. But I could tell they were created from the hand of an intelligent being.
“The avril towered above me; I could see its black tongue lashing back and forth as it prepared to devour me, later to regurgitate me in the way these birds feed their young. I don’t know why I did it, but I began to squawk back at the creature. I tried to make my voice sound like the very same cries as the young that surrounded me. The avril began to hop madly. I could sense its confusion. Then, in a whirl of feathers, it flew off. I can only assume that I copied the cries of the creature’s young so well that it thought I was one of them and went off to find more food. I scrambled down the rocky mountain, desperate to find my way back home. Several hours later, battered but alive, I entered the portal to my city.”
Lyric paused and looked at Anakin and Tahiri.
“I wish I could tell you more about the symbols I saw, because it is obviously terribly important to both of you,” she said sadly. “But all I can tell you is that they are much like the ones Anakin drew. That is all I know.”
“Are there others on your moon who might know?” Anakin asked.
“Perhaps the old ones,” Lyric replied. “But they no longer surface, so I have never spoken to them.” Anakin and Tahiri both frowned. They desperately needed to figure out what the symbols carved above the palace meant if they had any hope of solving the riddle of the golden globe.
“Why do the elder Melodies live in water?” Tahiri asked.
“After the changing, our bodies can no longer survive outside the water. We develop gills and breathe by extracting oxygen from water. In addition, we can no longer walk on land because our legs fuse into a large webbed tail,” Lyric said. “Most of the elders can surface for varying amounts of time, which they do to see their young and give us guidance. However, the very old cannot surface at all.”
“Let me get this straight,” Tahiri gasped. “You’re telling us that you’re going to turn into a fish?”