FSE

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Second last story! Thanks everyone who's been reading.

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Jarzyl shrugged out of her flight harness, and she folded in the various pouches and straps so that she could place her harness in a wide but flat wicker basket. The rest of her adventurous attire came off as well--the wooden sandals and the magnetic collar went in the basket too, while her helmet and neck guard were returned to the park ranger who was waiting nearby, overseeing the equipment in this dressing room.

One of the school teachers was also here, and she nodded to Jarzyl, as well as the other three fledglings who were all removing their equipment to be temporarily stored here in the dressing room. "I hope you all had a good hike?"

"Yep! It was great!" Jarzyl chirped.

"Did you manage to find any needlemir crystals?" asked the park ranger.

Eager to show off her (and Atlas's) success, Jarzyl removed her flight harness's back pouch and opened it up to show of the large crystal contained within. The school teacher nodded approvingly, though not with much emotion. "Well done! Good job on that."

In comparison, the park ranger actually seemed properly impressed. "Wow. That's a big one. You take care of it now!"

Jarzyl grinned and her neck frill perked up, but then a second thought occurred to her. "Is it... Are we... damaging the natural park by removing crystals? If I take this crystal, will Mizalin-on-Sky have one less floating boulder in the future?"

The park ranger made a vague, indifferent gesture with her paw. "The amount of needlemir buried in the ground here is... far, far in excess of what you could even possibly hope to pick up. Think about it this way--that's a big crystal you managed to find, but it's technically still small compared to proper artificially grown crystals which power airships or the city, or even compared to the huge deposits that keep the mountains floating. Don't worry about it. If somehow everyone together managed to take a mountain's worth of needlemir, that would be enough to make another flying city, and obviously there's only the one City of Wings."

"Hmm, ok that makes sense," Jarzyl said. Carefully she arranged her crumpled up flight harness and put it into the basket, before sliding the basket into a designated slot in the wall. The back pouch with the crystal in it was too large to fit into the slot on top of her harness, so Jarzyl had to remove the basket and squeeze her pouch into the slot first, before sliding in the basket after it, leaving the basket protruding slightly from the shelf. The storage room here had dozens and dozens of shelved slots in the wall, filled with these baskets that were to hold equipment while their owners went for a bath in the hot springs.

"Do enjoy yourselves at the hot springs!" said the park ranger.

"We will," Caden said.

The park ranger took back their helmets and neck guards since they were done hiking about the floating mountain, and instead they were issued with white bath towels and a small square of soap wrapped in paper. Jarzyl threw her tower over her back like a cape, with the soap square balanced right in the small of her back.

The four fledglings then headed over to the hot springs, but first they had to pass through a section of the visitor centre which was a large indoor public shower. The room was large and rectangular in shape, with sunlight shining in through various raised windows and skylights, and at regular intervals across the walls there were pipes mounted with shower heads. While the outer rim of the room had shower sprays, the centre had a series of wooden benches and hanger hooks for their towels.

"I still don't understand the point of showering before we go to the hot springs," Jarzyl said.

"It's so that you're clean and you don't get the hot springs dirtied up," Caden replied. Guiding Glecion, she went over to the benches and the two of them put down their towels and started using the shower.

Jarzyl went to put down her towel as well, but she continued to frown confusedly at the shower heads. "I still don't understand. Isn't the point of the hot springs to get you clean, so why shower first?"

Caden was helping to rub soap suds onto Glecion's back and upper wing surfaces, but she answered Jarzyl's question anyway. "The point of the hot springs is not to get you clean. The point is to be a relaxing, calming, spa experience. The mineral-rich water is healthy for your scales. Think of it sort of like swimming, except you can just float around, and also instead of a huge ocean it's just a series of small bubbling hot spring pools. So you have to be clean first so you don't dirty the spring water." With Glecion fully soaped up, she swapped roles with Caden and started to rub soap onto her back, running her paws over her scales.

Jarzyl sniffed. "Still seems redundant," she muttered, glancing to Atlas.

"I never did enjoy swimming, or any other aquatic activities," Atlas admitted. "Showering makes sense, though. And you do need to get clean after all that hiking, and that... mess with the boulder." He put his towel down and then trotted towards one of the showers.

Jarzyl sighed, and then she tossed down her towel on the bench and went to the shower to soap herself clean.

---

Glecion let out a long, contented sigh. "Huuuuh. This is most pleasant..."

Caden hummed affirmative. "Mmhhh. Yes. The water is so warm and relaxing..."

The four fledglings were now outside the visitor centre, having walked the short distance over to where a series of cratered pools had formed in the rocky mountainside. The pools came in various sizes ranging from small to large, and each pool's water was a different shade of colour across every hue in the rainbow--the needlemir that inundated the water at different concentrations made the colours vary, and at various spots in each hot spring there were bubbling, turbulent area where fresh hot water rose out from the depths of the floating mountain to fill up these various pools. Dozens of other dragons were lounging in the various hot springs, including most of the other fledglings from the field trip and even many of their teachers, alongside other tourists and visitors to the nature park.

Jarzyl had insisted that they go to the largest hot spring of them all, because right in the middle of that large mineral-enriched pool of water there was a small geyser that dramatically sprayed up water every minute or so, like a natural fountain. Instead of merely just bubbling up from below, here the water spurted upwards with enough force to shoot up into the air.

Glecion and Caden were now lounging in the side of the hot spring, resting their heads on the rock surface beside the spring while their bodies were immersed in the water. Although the most dramatic part of this hot spring was the geyser that sprayed water up right in the middle of the spring, there were also cracks in the rocky bottom through which warm water was slowly bubbling up, and the two fledglings had been enjoying the feel of water gently washing against their scales.

In comparison, Jarzyl had been splashing and paddling about the hot spring with her wings, and now she swam back over towards the side where her other friends were. "I tried to swim into that geyser in the middle."

"What? Why?" Caden asked.

"Did you scald yourself?" Glecion asked at the same time.

Between these questions, Jarzyl choose to answer the second one first. "I'm fine. Why would I have scalded myself?"

Glecion shrugged her shoulders. "Aren't geysers supposed to be boiling hot water that's half steam?"

"No, it wasn't hot. The geyser water wasn't much warmer than the rest of this hot spring, which is honestly more like a comfortably warm spring than a hot spring," Jarzyl replied. "I think the geyser squirts water out not because it's hot and turning to steam, but because of all the pent-up energy and magic and needlemir and stuff. Everything about Mizalin-on-Sky is like that. Anyway, were you guys watching me?"

"I wasn't looking, and obviously neither was Glecion," Caden replied.

Glecion nodded her head agreeably. "Yup, this is true. I was not looking at you, and in fact have never ever looked at anything."

"But why? Why'd you go to the geyser?" Caden continued.

Jarzyl turned around and watched as the geyser in the middle of this hot spring went off once again, sending a spray of water several body-lengths upwards. The water was stained in colour from saturated needlemir, and as the spray collapsed back down it broke up into a glittering shower of colourful droplets that fell at different rates as the needlemir in the water partially resisted the tug of gravity. "I was hoping that the geyser would squirt me all the way up into the air and send me flying, but it barely even pushed me upwards at all. The water isn't really being squirted with that much force. It's just the needlemir which makes it float higher before falling down. Lame."

Glecion giggled. "Hehehe..."

Caden laughed, but she also shook her head. "Heh. You really have to go looking for excitement in everything you do, don't you?"

"Of course I do," Jarzyl proudly replied. "Hmm. I wonder if I drank a whole bunch of this water, would that levitating gravity-resisting effect apply to me and make me fly? Or if I ate some of these crystals?"

Caden looked thoroughly amused. "Don't drink the water and definitely don't eat the crystals. You're a dragon--if you want to fly, you can always just flap your wings." She closed her eyes and went back to enjoy the hot spring water with Glecion.

"Whatever." Jarzyl turned to Atlas, who was still sitting by the side, outside the water. "You coming in or what?"

Atlas made a hesitant sound, and he shook his head. "Meehhhh... I'm very much not a fan of... of swimming." Unlike the three female fledglings, he hadn't yet gone into the hot spring and was in fact still wrapped up in the white bath towel from the shower room, sitting on the rocks at the side of the hot springs.

"It's fine! The water's shallow." Jarzyl stood up, and her four legs could easily touch the bottom of the hot spring. It was actually a challenge even to get herself fully immersed in the shallow water here, because dragons had lightweight hollow bones and so their bodies tended to float higher in the water. Sealed, flexible, rectangular cloth bags filled with sand were placed by the side of the hot springs--Glecion and Caden each had a sandbag around their shoulders and back, weighing them down to keep their bodies immersed in the water.

Jarzyl glanced back to Atlas, and she beckoned for her friend. "Seriously, you can't drown. I'd save you first--you know that I would. Now get your tail in here."

Atlas shifted his weight between his three paws, looking uneasy. "It's just... I don't... like swimming."

Caden blinked her eyes open, and she lazily stared at Atlas. "Why not? I've heard you say that before, but why? Is it some nocturnal dragon thing, because I heard that your scales take longer to dry compared to us diurnal dragons?"

Glecion spoke up. "It is true that night dragon scales take longer to dry than day dragon scales. It's true. I can vouch for that."

"That's because of the scale surface structure at the microscopic level. Nocturnal dragons fly quieter, but at the cost of scales having increased water retention," Atlas muttered.

"But what does that matter?" Jarzyl asked. "Glecion's a nocturnal dragon too and she's happy to take a soak." Glancing around, Jarzyl could see plenty of both nocturnal and diurnal dragons in the various hot spring pools, including many other fledglings here for the field trip. As was the case for the drakken population at large, roughly one in five dragons was a nocturnal. "I don't see any other nocturnal dragons being so hesitant. There has to be a reason why you don't like swimming."

"I just... don't like swimming," Atlas insisted.

Jarzyl narrowed her eyes. "You're hiding something. I can hear it in your voice when you're hiding something and being mysterious."

"Is he?" Caden asked. "How can you even tell? Atlas always seems mysterious to me."

"No, no. I know Atlas and I can tell when he's being extra mysterious instead of normal mysterious. Don't be so shy!" Jarzyl squinted suspiciously at her friend, and her neck frill perked up. "What's the real reason why you don't like swimming? It can't be that you're bad at it. You don't need to be good at swimming here; you just need to sit in the water, or so Caden insists. Come into the water! Or at least properly explain why you don't want to."

Whereas Jarzyl, Caden, and Glecion had left all their apparel back in the dressing room (with even Glecion removing her blindfold and leaving her milky black, starry eyes uncovered), Atlas still had his dark goggles. He'd raised his goggles to his forehead when he'd been taking a shower, and now although this rocky part of the mountainside was outdoors, the sky was becoming cloudy and overcast enough that he didn't need to keep his goggles on to protect his eyes from the sun. That allowed Jarzyl to stare pointedly at Atlas, and she could see him staring back awkwardly with his mysterious silent gaze, looking back at her with those wide, dark eyes.

"Does it really matter?" Atlas replied. "There's just... it's a personal thing. I don't like swimming."

Jarzyl's neck frill drooped flat, and she made an annoyed grunt. "Gah. See! He's being extra mysterious!" Whatever the reason for his reluctance, Atlas clearly needed some encouragement to get into the water with them, and she was happy to provide that encouragement. "Fine. If you're really going to make me do it, I will absolutely do it." Leaning back on her hindlegs, she kicked herself out of the water with a splash and lunged towards Atlas.

Atlas reacted quickly and leapt to his feet, but this just played right into Jarzyl's plan. Instead of directly tackling her friend, Jarzyl dove right underneath him perpendicularly, going between his hindlegs and foreleg, and then she stood up to lift her friend. Atlas ended up resting sideways across her shoulders, and his added weight didn't impede Jarzyl's excited scamper as she carried her friend over to the hot spring. "You wouldn't!" Atlas objected.

"I will! I'm going to do it! Caden said that hot springs are relaxing, so prepare to be relaxed!" Jarzyl declared, standing right beside the hot spring. She teetered slightly from the weight of her friend on her back, before managing to recover. Atlas didn't struggle, which all but proved Jarzyl's suspicion that he wasn't truly opposed to taking a dip in the hot spring and just needed some friendly encouragement to overcome his awkward hesitation. "There's no way I'm letting you skip this part of the field trip and sit there all lonely by yourself. You're going into the water!"

Caden had been whispering into Glecion's ear, presumably giving a verbal explanation of what Glecion couldn't see. Both fledglings appeared very amused, but Caden shook her head. "Jarz... I'm not sure tossing Atlas into the hot spring is going to be very relaxing for him..."

Jarzyl made a dismissive sound. "Pffft. He'll be fine. I'm totally going to throw him in. This is a great idea, Caden, and I don't know why you're being hesitant too. Glecion! It's up to you to break the tie! Decide for us--is Atlas going in or not?"

"Don't I get a vote?" Atlas asked, from his position being carried atop Jarzyl's shoulders and wings.

"No you don't get a vote. You've got a conflict of interest in this matter," Jarzyl told him.

Glecion let out an amused huff. "Hoh. So, Atlas, I think you deserve the same choice as before. Either you have a good reason why you don't like swimming or soaking in the hot spring, and you should explain it to us, or you have to come in and Jarzyl will toss you in. I think these are fair options."

Atlas glanced across his friends. His gaze lingered the longest on the fledgling who was carrying him, before he sighed. With a flick of his wings, he cast off the towel that had been covering his back and sides, dropping it onto the smooth rocky slate ground. With a second motion he slipped off his dark goggles and put them atop the towel. "I do have a reason... but it's not really a good reason. Just do what you must."

"You heard him." Glecion used a paw to gently splash the surface of the water. "Jarzyl, toss him in!"

"In we go! Rah!" Jarzyl made an excited sound that was roar-like, although not quite loud enough to be a roar. Needing no further prompting, she leapt as far as she could towards the middle of the hot spring, with Atlas still on her back. Both young fledglings splashed into the water and made a small wave that washed over Glecion and Caden, making those two squeal.

Atlas kicked his way back to the surface. He vigorously shook his head from side to side, and he blinked his eyes to clear the water from them. "Ok. I'm in the hot spring too. Are you happy now?"

"Yes, yes I am," Jarzyl decided. "Now you need to be relaxed." Grabbing Atlas' tail in her mouth, she paddled her way closer to Glecion and Caden, tugging her friend along in reverse.

"I'm not sure if _I'm_the one who needs to be relaxed," Atlas muttered, but he didn't resist.

At the side of the hot spring, Jarzyl let Atlas go and he turned around so they were all facing the same direction, heads pointing out of the pool. "Caden, where did you get those things which weigh you down in the water?" Jarzyl asked.

On both Caden and Glecion's back, they each had a cloth sand bag which added the necessary mass to counter natural buoyancy, keeping them fully immersed in the water. It was a simply result of dragons being lightweight enough to fly--without those weights, Jarzyl and Atlas both floated higher in the water, only partially immersed.

Caden glanced around. "Uh, the sand bags? They were just lying around by the side of the hot spring for anyone to use. There are some more over by the other hot springs if you want to go grab them."

"No need," Jarzyl impatiently decided. Instead she flapped her wings and pulled herself onto Atlas' back, so she was lying on top of him and pushing him down into the water. The hot spring here was shallow enough that even with him pressed flat against the smooth bottom of the hot spring with body fully immersed, his head was still easily above the surface and he could rest it against the rocky ledge that ran around the hot spring.

Caden leaned closer to Glecion and murmured something, again presumably just explaining to the blind fledgling what Jarzyl was doing. "Jarzyl's just squishing Atlas. I guess that works too. Back to relaxing," Caden said, and then she closed her eyes and went back to lounging.

"This is actually surprisingly comfortable," Atlas admitted.

Jarzyl hugged her friend against herself, and she rested her head besides his. "Mmh." She wasn't properly in the water herself, but it was close enough. Besides, what really relaxed her wasn't some water that happened to be bubbly or mineral rich--it was the presence of close, trustworthy friends which soothed her mood and comforted her mind. Atlas' scales felt smooth and warm and reassuringly comfortable against hers.

"Are you really just going to keep lying on top of me?" Atlas asked. "We could just go grab some sand bags from the other hot springs."

"Or I could just keep lying on top of you," Jarzyl muttered.

"Hm." Atlas didn't object further. As with before, if he had truly objected or struggled then Jarzyl would have relented, but instead she felt Atlas shift beneath her, getting his limbs into a more comfortable position.

Things all went still and quiet for a long while, with only the faint bubbling of the hot spring and the occasional whoosh of the wind to disturb the silence, along with the _pssssh_sound of the geyser shooting off every few minutes.

Jarzyl felt like she was drifting. She wasn't out of energy entirely, but it had been a strenuous hike up the mountain and then with all that excitement from the floating boulder. She could have kept splashing and swimming around the hot spring, but now she was just so comfortable snuggled up and lying on top of Atlas. Eventually she let her guard down enough for a faint, quiet, satisfied rumbling sound to find its way out of her throat with every exhale. "Rrrrrr..."

"Are you purring?" Atlas murmured.

Jarzyl immediately stopped, then decided she didn't care and started again. "No--ehh? Mrrrr..."

A gentle, quiet peace filled the air, and as much as she enjoyed activity and excitement, Jarzyl did had to admit that she was feeling deeply relaxed and calmed by the simple satisfaction of just lazing about here in this unique place. Steam rose from various places across the rocky hot springs, slowly climbing higher up until it disappeared or merged into the puffy white clouds which continued to roll across Mizalin-on-Sky.

Now that she had removed the magnetic collar, Jarzyl could feel her internal compass tremble and occasionally deviate from true magnetic north as it was disrupted by the tangled magnetic fields of the floating mountains. She wouldn't have wanted to fly or walk long distances with one of her senses of direction perturbed, but while remaining perfectly still it just made her want to close her eyes and _listen_to that changing directional sense that spoke of the shifting movements of this floating mountain and the other mountains near it.

Blinking her eyes back open, Jarzyl surveyed the surroundings. This single hot spring was large enough that there were about a dozen other dragons in it with them, but they were spread out across the perimeter and there was no one else close nearby. Glecion and Caden were resting their heads on the rocky ledge, but they were still speaking quietly to each other, continuing their chat--Jarzyl wasn't close enough to hear their words, but she felt no need to join in their conversation.

Jarzyl glanced at the dark-scaled, three-legged fledgling she was lying on. Atlas hadn't closed his eyes, so he noticed her gaze and glanced back at her, and the two of them just stared and said nothing for a while. Eventually Atlas said, in a soft voice that was audible onto to her, "So do you want to know the real reason why I don't like swimming?"

Jarzyl's neck frill perked up, and some of her sleepy laziness was instantly replaced by burning curiosity. "Yes. Yes, do explain that, please."

"Disliking swimming is a preference I've had since I was a young, young little hatchling." Atlas was quiet for a long while more, until Jarzyl started to wonder if he had changed his mind about telling her, before finally he started to speak again. "And it's because I used to have this impression about my life history. I used to think that the reason I was a clanless stray was because... uh... I was a... hm."

Much as she tried to remain cool and collected, Jarzyl was rapt with attention. She'd always been deeply curious about her friend's background, just as much as he seemed reluctant to share it. "Yes?"

"You'll keep a secret, right?" Atlas glanced towards Caden and Glecion, but they were just far away enough that a quiet voice wouldn't reach them. "Just you and me. Don't share it with anyone else."

Jarzyl eagerly nodded. "You trust me."

"Alright," Atlas said. "So you obviously know that I'm clanless, living in a shelter with other clanless strays. But as for why I'm clanless? Well I used to have this impression that my parents were aquatic dragons from the outer colonies. You know of aquatic dragons, right? They live in rivers, lakes, or the ocean, in their own communities that are near water or even in it. And I used to think that was where I came from."

"Your parents were aquatics? But you don't look very aquatic. I thought aquatic dragons usually had long neck frills or webbed paws or fluked tails," Jarzyl asked.

"It's a continuum. Unlike with being a nocturnal or diurnal dragon where you are either one or the other, aquatic dragon traits can be... obvious or not so obvious. There are a few other young aquatic dragons in the sheltered home--some of them look very different, some less so, but other than appearance they're completely the same as any regular city dragon. Some trim their scales so well that you wouldn't even know they were aquatics, whereas others take pride in looking and being special. But they are just dragons all the same." Atlas shrugged. "Anyway I've always wondered who my parents were and why I was clanless, and I... I vaguely remember one of the caretakers at the sheltered home having mentioned something about aquatic dragons to me when I was really, really young. I don't know how true it is because he won't confirm it to me now, and I can't find anything in the archive records, but still it was something I used to believe."

Jarzyl stayed quiet, letting her friend speak.

"I read up on it from encyclopaedias and other books. In the Outer Colonies, there are a few aquatic dragon communities that are completely underwater, where you need to have water magic to be able to breathe underwater just to visit, let alone live there. And so they have old traditions and rituals--they eat fish and kelp, swim all day, splash about, whatever--but one such tradition is that right after their eggs finish incubating and are hatched on land, they use their water magic to pull up a ball of water and completely submerge newly hatched young dragons."

Jarzyl used a paw and scooped up water, but it flowed between her digits and she ended up holding nothing--a dragon with water affinity could control water with their magic, but she was a mere fledgling who still had no idea of what her magical affinity would end up being. "They use their water magic to surround a new hatchling... as a bathing ritual?"

"Nothing as simple as that. They complete submerge the hatchling from head to tail."

"Why?" Jarzyl prompted.

"It's to test whether a hatchling has water affinity. What magical affinity a dragon has is semi-random, but it depends heavily on your parents' affinities--so aquatic dragons almost always have water magic, but not always, and they want to test for that. Normally you can't use your magical affinity until you're almost an adult drakken, but water magic has this exception where, if forced, even a hatchling will be able to breathe underwater if drowning, without waiting to develop magic normally. So either the hatchling has water affinity and they take them to live in their underwater community, or they... don't," Atlas explained.

Jarzyl stared at her friend with wide eyes. "They drown hatchlings?" she asked quietly, but her voice squeaked.

Atlas chuckled. "Well they don't die, if that's what you're asking. They have healers (who are also aquatic dragons, for that matter) who make sure that the rejected hatchlings are alright. Instead they're just sent off to communities that aren't underwater--either another one of the Outer Colonies or the City of Wings--to live normal lives elsewhere, just under a different, new clan."

Jarzyl connected the dots. "So that was why you don't like swimming? Because you thought you were an aquatic dragon who failed that ritual drowning by actually drowning, meaning that you don't have water magic affinity?"

"Yeah. From young I had this... this faint, faint memory in the back of my head that might just have been a dream, but I remember choking and drowning and... and it might have been something I imagined or a half-forgotten fever dream. I can hardly remember anything from when I was so young, but I just... wondered. If the sea didn't want me, then I didn't want it. So I wanted nothing to do with swimming or the ocean, and that just became a habit."

"Is that why you always opted out from those physical education classes where we went to the swimming pools?" Jarzyl asked, remembering something from their schooling a few years ago.

Atlas grinned. "Yes, yes that is exactly why. I asked Drak Sen to be excused, and she let me skip those classes because she was used to letting me sit out classes." Atlas gestured towards his left shoulder, where he was missing an entire forelimb. "I've always had a good excuse to skip physical education."

One of Jarzyl's paws was resting on Atlas's other shoulder, the other around his side, and now she clutched him tighter against herself as if scared he would leave. "Wow. So that's your story? That's why you're clanless? You're an abandoned aquatic?"

Atlas shook his head. "No. Now that we're older I think it was just the silly dreams of a young hatchling. The real aquatic dragons in the clanless shelter get visits every few months from members of their former clan, who make sure they are doing alright and give them help with finding a new permanent clan. They ignore me. Also, I now think the reason I'm clanless is obvious." Again Atlas gestured towards his missing forelimb. "There are many clans that would readily reject a hatchling that had a hatch defect. No one wants a cripple."

Still lying on top of Atlas, Jarzyl hugged him tighter. "I want a cripple. You're my friend. Mine."

Atlas laughed softly. "Thanks, but the benefits of friendship are not quite the same as being in a clan, as I'm sure Caden would be happy to grumble to you about. Clans are how society works."

Jarzyl let out a long sigh, and she slumped against her friend, resting her head against his neck. "I wish I could help you. Could... I help you? There has to be something I can do to help you. I'm from Mintaka and that has to count for something. I could ask my parents, or my grandparents about it..."

Atlas shook his head. "Don't even bother. I've read up on your clan's recruitment process, as I've done with so many different clans, and your clan specifically will not accept most hatchlings or fledglings, only dragons who have developed their magical affinity."

Despite having spent her entire life being in Mintaka clan, Jarzyl had no idea about the specific bureaucratic processes and requirements regarding joining her clan. "Oh."

"That's just how it is. Most clans want that information before they decide on extending membership, because what magical affinity you end you having will skew you towards certain vocations and roles. A clan that owns a lot of forges would want lots of firebreathers, for example, whereas a clan like Dirak that runs major mining operations uses rockshifters," Atlas said. "Anyway, I've made it through life this far. I will survive, so don't worry about me."

"Ok." Jarzyl slumped down against her friend's back and let out a relaxed sigh again. "Huuuh. You're right--you'll survive. Things will get better and one day you'll have a clan. Maybe you'll join my clan, or some other one, but I'm sure you'll figure it out in the end. And we'll be friends still."

Atlas nodded. "Yes," he agreed. "You ever think about what sort of magic you'll get?" he asked after a while more.

"I think about it all the time," Jarzyl replied. "I've always wanted firebreathing... It's just so flashy and dramatic. Phwoar! And you cook food too, exactly how you want it--flame affinity would be so useful. Healing would be nice too--my mother does so much good work helping people with her healing affinity. Ah, but displacing is definitely my top pick. I would love to be able to teleport around all the time. It was save me so much trouble walking. But really, I think every affinity is useful in its own way."

Atlas sighed softly. "I agree. If only there was some way to know what affinity you were going to end up getting when you grew up. That would settle the uncertainty."

Jarzyl's neck frill perked up as she thought of something. "Wait, you said that... that if it turns out you're actually going to end up with water affinity, then your magic will develop early if you're drowning? So that would be a way to test--"

Atlas cut her off. "Don't even think about it."

Jarzyl was thinking about it. "No? What if I asked you to... hold my head under the water for a minute, just to help me check if I had water affinity?"

"Nope. Of all the possible bad ideas you've had over the years, that would be the worst," Atlas assured her. "It only works if you actually drown, and it's not worth it to gamble with your life like that. And even if somehow it did turn out you had water affinity, there would be no point. You wouldn't be able to control water until you grew up anyway, just maybe you could breathe underwater."

Jarzyl's neck frill drooped back to normal as she considered this. "I guess there isn't much point. And I don't want to get water affinity anyway, so it wouldn't be useful to find that out."

"Please don't drown yourself. I'd miss you," Atlas said, with a faint grin across his snout.

"I'd miss you too if I died," Jarzyl agreed happily. And then their conversation lapsed back into a calm, comfortable silence, lounging together in the hot spring, watching the clouds roll by the floating mountains.

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To be concluded...

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