Ecco listened closely from behind a floating iceberg, careful not to be caught inbetween the moving ice floes. Carefully he tuned out the breaking and creaking of the ice friction and water lapping against the far shores...and listened to the songs before him.

Songs that were stern, harsh...songs that called for what his kind called cruelty...songs that were the call of the hunt.

Ecco breathed a sigh of relief. So there were Orcas alive here after all! But if they were here, they were the dangerous kind, the Transients. The calls were coming closer and becoming scattered.

Then the irregularity came again. This wasn't song at all...it sounded more like teeth gnashing together. The familiar feeling of foreboding tingled the stars on his head. "Oh no..." he chirped quietly before turning his attention to the clear waters just ahead of him.

Materializing from the dark water shadowed with ice was a large creature, swimming with a gait that was the very definition of authority. The familiar pattern appeared, black over white, the living yin-yang.

The Orca was a female from the way her dorsal looked, and the way that she sang as well. She was an elderly one, but experienced. Very shallow scars lined her flanks and down one side of her jaw. The eye spots, normally white, instead both had black spots in their very centers, like an extra set of eyes. The real eyes were black, yet still glimmered with anticipation of the hunt.

She called in the Orca's tongue out in all directions, and recieved distant information from the members of the pod she belonged to. Good, so there are more of them... Ecco thought.

BAM!

Ecco jerked from his concentration. The iceberg that he had been hiding behind was suddenly rocked violently, as if something large had hit it.

Turning, Ecco charged out of the way of two massive pairs of charging jaws. The Orcas that had nearly torn the iceberg in two with their weights turned quickly after Ecco.

"Gnrr..." Ecco growled to himself. "Stupid! Should've been looking behind me, stupid, stupid! Now I'm going to become Orca fodder...unless..."

As the two Orcas snapped behind the dolphin, he suddenly jerked a turn straight for the female that he had seen in the clearing.

As soon as the two saw her, they immediately stopped. I knew it, she's something important...

The problem was, now he was trapped between two very hungry Orca and one large, still-powerful leader.

The two bowed to her respectfully. "Diricha-Cariu, look what we've found spying."

"Mm, dolphin..."

"I can see that," the female interrupted in a lightly rough voice. "I'll take care of the trespasser. The two of you get back with Darcteis."

Sis, Diricha, they sang in unison in the tongue of the Orca before turning fluke again, leaving Ecco staring into the void-like eyes of the female.

"A dolphin, here?" she tilted her head lightly. "No little singer ever swims this far north. All we find here are the great whales, the narwhals, and the belugas. And all three of them are nothing like you." She swam around Ecco in a small circle, observing him. "What are you doing here, and speak clearly," she ordered.

Ecco gulped. Though he could take any one Orca near equally with his powers, his instincts were still something stronger. "I've come to warn your kind. It is fortunate that I have come across you and your pod, for all of you are in danger."

The female scoffed. "We shall see about that." Suddenly, a call rang out from her, strong as that of a great whale. "Scaroth! Darcteis! Biransa! Ronon! Seidrac! Here, now!"

Ecco looked at the female quizzically as she smirked. "Those five are my most trusted warriors. I am Cariu, the matriarch of the north waters. I lead five pods that come to feed, and have done so for many years. The five coming at my call are the leaders of those pods."

As five other Orcas, three male and two female, surrounded him, their large forms nearly masked the blue of the ocean away from his eyes.

Cariu smirked. "Now, explain yourself. And if we find belief that you are lying to us, you can be sure that I can beckon much more than this simple gathering."

The dolphin looked over the Orcas that floated before him. The one called Scaroth lived up to a part of his name...two long gashes stretched from the base of his dorsal, to either side of his blowhole and ending at the tip of his snout. Ronon was only slightly smaller, with brown eyes and unusually grayish-white eye spots. Biransa and Seidrac were the two females, the first one larger with the eyespots covering her eyes halfway, the other smaller with black spots that mottled her chin like freckles do human faces. Darcteis was the last male, smaller than the others, but with eyes of light violet instead of brown or black.

Ecco bowed his head to the matriarch. "I understand, I'll be brief...I've come looking for a pod of Orcas that still live here, for I've recieved grave news of a powerful creature not of Earth's seas. The creature thirsts for Orca blood, you must heed me and leave this place."

The five leaders snickered, but were silenced by a look from Cariu. "Indeed. And who are you to tell us this?"

Ecco smiled and moved his head so the sunlight would catch the glare of his star pattern. "I'm Ecco, savior of Earth."

Only one Orca leader gasped lightly. The others stared at the dolphin. "Can we eat him now?" Darcteis asked. Cariu smirked again.

"Oh no..." Ecco chirped.