Behind it, two new fins pierce the surface and, together, they slip toward Ulatka. And three more fins rise up out of the water behind the others and follow; then two more, then three more, until the inlet seems forested with the black triangles. They all move toward Ulatka. His eyes gleam with the water's blue-black shimmers.
The largest fin stops ten feet from him. The form beneath it lifts from the water, dazzling white below, overlain with black that glistens, it rears up out of the water. Its mouth opens to reveal dozens of white teeth in two rows. Its black eyes the size of cups glint down at him. Two more of the beasts rear up heads out of the Aleutian water. The rest swim around behind to encircle Ulatka, and they too lift great black-white heads from the sea and stare at him with shiny eyes.
Ulatka drops his hands, laughing, and sings out the three note call he made on his skin instrument. Instantly, the attitude of the creatures' bodies change. A keenness flexes through them. Abruptly, the first and largest of the animals issues the three-note call again.
Its jaws do not move, but the notes repeat.
Ulatka sits up atop the kayak from the cocpkit seat within it, his flat face beaming under the strong sun. He calls out again the sounds. EEEOOOEEE! From all around the phrase is taken up by the orcas. He sits and the twenty-foot long beasts lower in the water and start swimming around him in a circle, peaked and glistening black mounds circle slowly around the kayak
Ulatka takes up his instrument again, and lays it carefully across one knee so that it's directed at the water. He rubs at the skin again and shrieks as he rubs it. The two sounds merge like waves meeting. Mournful, it is like some animal cry older than animals. The creatures begin to wail with it; in response at first, then in anticipation until they make a single jagged voice.
Beneath the surface of the bay, a shoal of light flickers around the chanting. Flashing and darting, rockets of silver are mixing and winnowing. They are fish gathering. They dart and flash beneath the circling whales. Above them all a number of birds draw close: glaucous gulls and kittiwakes, guillemots and sparrows, sandpipers and a bald eagle, all spiraling above and adding their shrill cries to the to the wail.
