"Small-bite _is_ learning! No harm to wait--We'll find out quickly--Let's...." The tape ended; the voices faded; the colors went blank. In whatever jumbled-up form she'd been getting the impressions at that point--Telzey couldn't have begun to describe it--the whole thing suddenly stopped. * * * * * She found herself sitting in the grass, shaky, scared, eyes open. Tick-Tock stood beside the terrace, looking at her. An air of hazy unreality still hung about the garden. She might have flipped! She didn't think so; but it certainly seemed possible! Otherwise ... Telzey made an attempt to sort over what had happened. Something _had_ been in the garden! Something had been inside her mind. Something that was at home on Jontarou. There'd been a feeling of perhaps fifty or sixty of these ... well, beings. Alarming beings! Reckless, wild, hard ... and that red-eyed nightmare! Telzey shuddered. They'd contacted Tick-Tock first, during the night. TT understood them better than she could. Why? Telzey found no immediate answer. Then Tick-Tock had tricked her into letting her mind be invaded by these beings. There must have been a very definite reason for that. She looked over at Tick-Tock. TT looked back. Nothing stirred in Telzey's thoughts. Between _them_ there was still no direct communication. Then how had the beings been able to get through to her? Telzey wrinkled her nose. Assuming this was real, it seemed clear that the game of symbols she'd made up between herself and TT had provided the opening. Her whole experience just now had been in the form of symbols, translating whatever occurred into something she could consciously grasp. "Kitten-talk" was how the beings referred to the use of symbols; they seemed contemptuous of it. Never mind, Telzey told herself; they'd agreed she was learning. The air over the grass appeared to flicker. Again she had the impression of reading words off a quickly moving, not quite visible tape. "You're being taught and you're learning," was what she seemed to read. "The question was whether you were capable of partial understanding as your friend insisted. Since you were, everything else that can be done will be accomplished very quickly." A pause, then with a touch of approval, "You're a well-formed mind, small-bite! Odd and with incomprehensibilities, but well-formed--" One of the beings, and a fairly friendly one--at least not unfriendly. Telzey framed a tentative mental question. "Who are you?" "You'll know very soon." The flickering ended; she realized she and the question had been dismissed for the moment. She looked over at Tick-Tock again. "Can't _you_ talk to me now, TT?" she asked silently. A feeling of hesitation. "Kitten-talk!" was the impression that formed itself with difficulty then. It was awkward, searching; but it came unquestionably from TT. "Still learning too, Telzey!" TT seemed half anxious, half angry. "We--"