“Oh, God, Lyra, I’m sorry,” Jerith said. “Let me....” He reached out to help.

I ducked back from his outstretched hand. “Is this some gag?” I asked. “Like a squirting flower? Get me all gooey?” I gave my nose another rub.

“No, I just wasn’t thinking,” Jerith said. “I’m sorry. It’s, uhh... I wanted to show you the Silk because it’s my big discovery.”

“Oh, yes?” I’d got most of the gunk off my face, but now my hands were sticky. I looked around for some Silkless terrain where I could wipe them off.

“Yes, the Silk,” Jerith said. “My theory is it’s a biological weapon. From the war.”

I looked at my hands, covered with powder. Very quickly, I wiped them on my dungarees.

“You don’t have to worry,” Jerith went on hurriedly. “It’s harmless to humans. The best labs on New Earth have checked it out. Biological weapons are usually species-specific, especially in a war like this, between different alien races. This dust probably shriveled one side but left the other side untouched.” He poked another strand, <SPLINK> “It’s funny when you think about it. This is probably lethal to some mysterious aliens, but to us little old humans...” He poked again, <SPLINK>

It didn’t seem so funny to me, and I didn’t like biological weapons going off in my face even if I was the wrong species; but Jerith looked so forlorn there, going <SPLINK>, <SPLINK>, <SPLINK> with his big discovery, that I didn’t have the heart to stay mad at him. He smiled at me, I grudgingly smiled back, and in a few moments, we were both <SPLINK>ing away. You could get different pitches depending how hard you struck each thread, and I started trying to <SPLINK> out “Betray Me Not,” the song we’d recorded that afternoon. Jerith was using both hands to <SPLINK> out a background rhythm and we were having a great time until a Caprochian parrot climbed out of Jerith’s pants pocket.