[Kodai]

"Um, wellss, Iss dun really knowss what other thingss you knowss, so Iss dunnoss what else to askss you about," Kami laughed. "And Iss doesn't really use herbss or that sortss of thingss, although if you knowss about that, Iss would stillss be willingss to learnss. But thankiess for teachingss me about this abilitiess! It shouldss be very usefulss in the futuress." He smiled broadly at Hina, truly grateful for the lesson she had given him, and stood up in order to stretch out. Sitting for that long on the hard branches of the nest had certainly been uncomfortable for his legs.

Kaamil got up as well, the hours having been particularly strenuous for him as he had done his best to keep still in the hopes that that would help Kami's training progress smoothly. "...Some additional fruit would be nice..." he admitted softly, having enjoyed Ailys's gift earlier. "...And I can do the fishing for tonight, as Kami procured last night's meat for us..." Knowing how much his brother disliked killing innocent wildlife, even for such a necessity as food, Kaamil figured it would be a good idea if they alternated nights. Kami wasn't paying much attention to this talk, however.

"Eee! Paragonss! Yus yuss, Iss wantss to see themss for suress! Oh, so excitingss~ Come onss, Kaamil!" He was out of the nest and on the ground scarcely before his brother had time to blink. Smiling gently at Kami's enthusiasm, Kaamil climbed out of the nest as well.

"...Just try not to bother them, Kami...I'm sure many of them are trying to have their own supper right now..."

Odd, though, that it seemed they were planning on leaving both of their packs behind. Just what did they plan on going fishing with?

[Shieba]

"I sadly don't know much about herbs", Hina had to admit. "That's stuff for the real healers to know. I was just taught the basics of healing magic. As the niece of the chief, I have to take a lot of lessons about leading a tribe and these things, so I never had much time for healer's studies." She looked at Ailys. "Do you know anything about herbs? You worked for a mainland-healer, after all."

"I have the basic knowledge", Ailys agreed, "but I'm afraid it's hard to teach that here. The islands lack the herbs that grow on the mainland and without showing at least pictures of the different kinds, it's pretty impossible to teach effectively."

"We could talk to the healer of the tribe, though..." Hina looked at Kami. "If anyone can teach you more, it's her. Though it will probably take a lot of time - feeling inside of bodies is the first, easy lesson I got taught. Since you came here for your own kinds of training, I doubt you'd be able to do both."

"Well, let's get some food for now, then. There is a nice fishing spot I can take you to after we got the fruits. After all, fishing takes time and there is no reason you shouldn't eat a few fruits first to stop the worst hunger." Since Paragons fished without fishing equipment, neither Hina nor Ailys seemed to deem it strange that the boys seemed to want to leave their backpacks behind. "Hina, I'll bring the usual for you, right?"

"That would be nice." Hina nodded. "Have fun watching the Paragons, you two. Just don't expect them to come up and talk to you."

Ailys started to lead the two boys through the main area of the island again. A few nests were still deserted, but most inhabitants had returned by now. Kaamil was right and most were eating their own meals right now, though a few of them were also sitting together and talking. Quite a few regarded the humans with curious looks, but the sight didn't seem all that unusual and since the boys were with Ailys, no one said anything.

Ailys smiled. "Look there, you two." She pointed towards an area devoid of nests. Three females watched over a small hoard of hatchlings playing and enjoying the evening sun. "This is where our hatchlings mostly play. These over there are already a bit older - you can slowly tell what kinds of Paragon they will grow up into." Most of the hatchlings would probably already reach the knees of the boys. "The ones of Hina and me will be much smaller, since they will be newborns and also because we're Placids and much smaller to begin with. I doubt the mothers would appreciate it if you two went up there and just played with them, though. They don't know you after all. Watching is surely okay, though." She waited to see if the two wanted to look at the hatchlings some more - who surely had to be much more interesting in their games of chasing each other around and playing with sticks, sand and stones than watching adult Paragons eat - or if they wanted to continue on already.

[Kodai]

Ailys had a good point about not being able to teach very well without either images or the actual herbs, and learning about any local herbs probably wouldn't be very useful once they returned to the mainland. Hina was also correct in that the two had come for their own training, and leaving Kaamil alone in order to further his own healing abilities wouldn't be beneficial. Besides, Kami really did need the combat training... Maybe it would be possible to spend at least one more day for healing training, though. They still had five more days left on these islands, after all.

"Iss okiess, we'll work somethingss out," Kami smiled at Hina. "See youss in a bitss!" He trotted happily after Ailys, his brother simply giving a nod to the egg-sitting mother-to-be before following the other two. Predictably, as they walked, they whispered to each other about all the various Paragons they saw, pointing out individuals and discussing their species. Mostly it was Kaamil that recognized the breeds and markings exactly, conferring his knowledge to Kami, but the other boy did manage to identify a few on his own.

And then they reached the hatchling's playing area. Kami's eyes grew wide, and if faces could actually glow when they were said to light up, his would have been comparable to a miniature sun. "Kaaaaaaaaaaamil," he breathed, tugging on his brother's arm. "Lookeet lookeet! So cuuuuuuuuuutess!" It was lucky that Kaamil had wrapped his arm around Kami's or else the boy definitely would have tried to join in with the hatchlings by now.

"…Yes Kami, I see them…" Kaamil replied, though he too was smiling. It seemed that even he wasn't immune to the charm of the baby dragons, though he was naturally much better at controlling his emotions. They were all so cute, so innocent… Well, maybe not when they tried to bite each other, but even then, they didn't really mean to hurt one another.

The pair could probably have spent hours standing there, watching the hatchlings (though the females looking after them would likely have spoken up if they had remained there for that long), but after several minutes Kaamil recalled that they had originally set out to collect some food for dinner. Kami remembered soon after, though it was his stomach and not his mind that told him. "Ah, yuss, we shouldss get goingss," he said just as Kaamil was about to say the same. "So where isss the fruitss kept? Isss there a nestss or somethingss just to keepss them inss?"

[Shieba]

Ailys watched silently how the two boys enjoyed seeing the hatchlings. She liked to play with them herself and had often watched over them in the past to give the mothers a bit of free time since she could handle quite a few of them thanks to her demon-strength, even when they climbed all over her. The sight made her wonder if she would be able to do these things with her own family soon. With the hatching so near, it was hard for her to control her hopes and fears which were all clashing in her at this time.

Because of that, she was happy when her guests decided to move on and she could focus on something else but the children for a minute. "Yes, let's move on. Hina is surely hungry as well." She led the boys on and smiled at Kami. "You're right there. We use old nests to store the fruits. When Paragons find a mate and build nests together, they don't need the smaller nests anymore, after all. Mainly, we use old nests of couples, though, since they are bigger. Few nests are sturdy enough to survive the raising of a few hatchlings without sustaining enough damange to warrant building a new one, but most of them are still good enough for storage purposes. Though some fruits, which remain fresher when not exposed to the sun, are kept in holes in the ground, too. We use large palm tree leaves to cover the holes and keep the fruits cool. We're almost there!"

She led the boys to an area which was protected by a few larger trees. Two Paragon stood guard. "The fruits are free for everyone, but some of the more daring hatchlings and a few nasty sea birds like to try their luck alike, so we always have guards", Ailys explained. "Stay back for a second." She walked up to the guards and exchanged a few words with them before beckoning to the boys to come over. "It's alright now. Come, choose your fruits." She pointed towards the maybe fifteen nests. Most times, two or three nests were filled with the same kind of fruit. Ailys also uncovered a few of the holes she had told the boys about. "I brought each kind of fruit to you this morning, so you know how they all taste. Just pick what you want the most. Since the nights are cool, there's no problem to take even some of the more sun-sensitive fruits and keep them until breakfast. That saves a trip in the morning, so pick for two meals - but if you keep your fruits in your backpack and those in the shade, they probably would last even over the day. If you can't carry everything, I'll help you." She left the boys to choose their meal and started gathering fruits for Hina and herself - and also picked some of the fruits with juice hatchlings enjoyed, just in case.

[Kodai]

Kami glanced over at Ailys for a moment, sensing her conflicting emotions, but those quickly faded as they all decided to move along and the boy was put at ease in turn. Both of them listened as the Paragon explained how they used their old nests to store fruit and how some were kept underground to ensure they stayed fresh. Eventually the group reached the storage area and, after Ailys had spoken to the guards (which the twins regarded with a sort of quiet awe), they stepped forward in order to choose what fruits they'd like. They chose an equal amount of each type, though they weren't able to carry nearly as much as Ailys could. And they still had yet to go fishing…

"…Ailys…Should we return to your nest so that we may leave the fruit there and so have the capacity to carry whatever fish we may catch…?" Kaamil asked, wondering if the half-demon Paragon would be able to carry fish in addition to the fruit she had chosen for herself and Hina. She may have had her great strength, but she was still smaller than the average dragon and could only hold so much in her arms at once. If they managed to catch just one large fish, however, perhaps she would be willing to hold it in her jaws?

"Hmm… Iss could just not carryss any fruitss, and then Iss could carryss what we catchss?" Kami suggested, looking over what they were all holding. "Or Iss could takess the fruitss, and you couldss take the fishss, Kaamil. Either wayss is finess. In factss…" He looked a bit thoughtful. "You'ss the one going fishingss, rightss? So you probablyss shouldn't carryss anything anywayss. You'd have to putss it all downss and then try to pickss it all upss again after you havess the fish."

Kaamil had to admit that Kami had a valid point, but he still looked to Ailys for her opinion.

[Shieba]

"Ah, you want to go fishing right away?" Ailys was a bit confused on how the boys wanted to do that without equipment. She had never paid much attention to how humans fished before, but didn't it take a rod and a bait? Weird. Then again, Kami and Kaamil weren't completely human, so maybe they had some magic way to get the fish. She was quite interested now. "I have no idea how you two want to fish without any equipment, but do you think it will take long? I can't possibly leave Hina without food for an hour without getting her to worry now. And she can't leave the eggs to search for us."

Ailys looked around to find a solution to the fruit-problem. "About the fruits, that's easy to solve." She walked over to where the tribe kept extra palm tree leaves for the holes in the ground. Picking two really large ones, she used her feet a bit awkwardly to put them two on top of each other in a 90°-angle before putting her fruits into the middle. "Come, we can make a makeshift bag out of this. These leaves are really flexible, they won't break and I can bring them back here tomorrow." She motioned for the boys to put their fruits there as well so that she could pick up all the four ends of the leaves, creating the bag. "I can carry this no problem."

[Kodai]

"Well, we needss to go fishingss beforess the sun setss completelyss, or we won'tss be able to seess," Kami pointed out, "but ifss we can get backss to the nest and thenss to the fishing place beforess that happenss, we could drop offss the fruitss there." As to how they were going to fish without any visible equipment... The answer to that would have to wait once they were ready to go fishing. Hopefully it was a secluded spot. "Um, wellss, how long it takess depends on the fishss, really," Kami smiled, rubbing the back of his head again. "If they don't show upss, then it'll takess a whiless... Same thing if Kaamil missess a lotss." He gave his brother a teasing glance, to which the boy simply responded with a shake of his head.

Ailys's solution to the fruit-carrying problem was simply brilliant. Placing the fruit they had chosen on the leaves she had spread out, the two boys looked over at the guard Paragon and then back to Ailys. "Okiess, so what shouldss we do nowss? We dunno how far awayss the fishing spot isss, so you'll havess to makess the decision, Miss Ailys."

[Shieba]

"Oh yes, of course." Ailys grimaced. "Sorry. I sometimes forget myself that others can't see in the dark as well as I do. And the fishing spot is not far from the nest. I suggest I take you there, you can start to fish and I will drop off the food in the meantime. It shouldn't take me longer than ten minutes from the fishing spot to the nest and back. We are rather close to the beach, after all, and I can fly pretty fast. We were rather slow this day when you were carried since we didn't want you guys to fall off."

She tied the leaves together after all the fruits had been placed there and picked up the bundle. "Now come with me, you two." She gave another wave to the guards and then led the two boys away from the fruits and quickly the nests, too, even though they went back into the direction they had come from. Ailys was directing them to the beach, though. There was a medium-sized cove where the water was still rather deep, but the entrance was rather tight. "Fish often get stuck in here. There's almost always quite a few of them there. This is not like fishing in a river, like you might be used to from the mainland since the fish are usually in the deeper sea, so this spot is pretty much the only thing I can offer you. We Paragon normally fish during flight, over the open sea. This is where our older hatchlings train, since we won't let them fly over the open sea yet."

[Kodai]

"Ah, wellss, we canss see in the darkss better than most other peopless, but isss still probablyss not as goodss as you," Kami explained as he and his brother followed after Ailys. Giving a concerned sort of look to Kaamil, he added, "And... Kaamil's said he can'tss see in the darkss as well as mess, even, soss..."

"...It's more a problem of having no sense of depth perception in the dark..." Kaamil clarified. "...My right eye can see exceptionally well in low-light conditions, while my left is no better than a normal human's..."

"...So isss basically like beingss half-blindss," mumbled Kami, obviously not pleased with the thought.

There wasn't much Kaamil could do other than sigh and try to ignore Kami's emotions. That was a lot easier said than done, but luckily for Kaamil, his brother quickly let go of the subject. It wasn't as if he could do anything about it, after all… He had healed that eye once before, so if its current state was the best he had been able to do, there was no way he could restore its vision. At least, he didn't think he could…

Once they reached the cove, Kami remained by Ailys as Kaamil removed his shoes and socks in preparation for fishing. "Isss okiess," Kami tried to assure the dragon. "Isss kind of youss to showss us this beachss and letss us fish heress in the first placess. Reallyss… Thankss for everythingss you've doness for us." He smiled warmly at Ailys and then turned to see how Kaamil was doing. "You almost readyss?"

Kaamil was just finishing rolling up his pants legs (although he was sure it wouldn't be of much help in the long run) at that point. Looking over at the other two, he gave a nod and waded out into the water. As he did so, Kaamil held out his arms before him as if he was holding some sort of spear. Quite suddenly, a spear did materialize in his hands – or rather, a decoratively-shaped scythe that had a tip similar to a spear's. So was that how he was planning to get the fish…?

[Shieba]

"I see..." Ailys didn't really know what else she could say when the boys talked about Kaamil's eye. She could sense Kami's emotions and understood that he was so bothered because he had not managed to help more, but there was obviously nothing he could do and Ailys really doubted that Hina could, either. She was quite glad when the topic was dropped.

Interested, she watched how Kaamil prepared for fishing when she had shown them the fishing spot. She smiled at Kami when he talked to her. "You are very welcome. The Paragon living in tribes here don't have the same understanding of 'owning' like people on the mainland do, though. Everyone would have shown you the beach, for it doesn't really belong to anyone, not even to the tribe, though this is our island. I am very glad I could be of help to you, though."

Seeing Kaamil obviously using some kind of magic to create a weapon, Ailys decided to stay a bit longer to watch. It was good that it was getting dark, which meant no one else would likely come here. The Paragon didn't like weapons - weapons were for killing and war, things that belonged to the mainland and had no place here. Ailys would have preferred to see Kaamil with a fishing rod, but well, if this was how the boy fished, she had to accept this. She only had to make sure no one saw that; even Hina would be upset by that sight. Ailys herself didn't feel all that comfortable; she had had enough bad memories of weapons being used to hunt her and had been quite glad to live far away from them now. But it was stupid to get squeamish now, so she remained silently next to Kami, watching whatever Kaamil would do now.

[Kodai]

"Wellss, we'ss still strangerss to your tribess and the islandss in generalss, so it'ss best to get permissionss, Iss thinkss," Kami replied with a smile, taking a seat in the still-warm sand. "We wouldn't wantss to intrudess."

Even though the encroaching night meant that finding his prey would be more difficult, Kaamil was just as glad as Ailys for the darkness. He was certain that the Paragon tribe would not appreciate having a human weapon on their shores (although calling it a 'human' weapon was hardly accurate) and would prefer that the secret of its existence remained with Ailys. Continuing to slowly move further out into the cove, the boy kept his sight on the faint flash of scales underwater, trying to determine the proper time to strike. The spear-tip of his scythe was already held partially through the water's surface in preparation…

It didn't take long for Kami to pick up on Ailys's discomfort, and he quickly guessed that Kaamil's scythe was the cause. Shifting a little, he wondered what (if anything) he should say about it. "Don't… Don't worryss about itss," he began at last, although still a bit hesitant over his words. "Kaamil wouldn'tss fight anyoness here unless they attackedss him first, and I don't thinkss that will happenss. Isss so peacefulss here…" He trailed off, going into his own thoughts. From what he'd seen of the tribe's life so far, Kami guessed that the biggest problems the Paragon had were the occasional storm and making sure that everyone was well-fed and healthy. War wasn't something they had here, that was certain. How niced it'd be, if everyone could live without war… He was jerked out of his musings by the sound of falling water and looked up to see that Kaamil had finally managed to catch something, a decent-sized fish impaled at the spear end of his scythe. "Ah, you gotss one!" he called, his joy at his brother's success slightly dampened by the sight of the limp form of the lifeless creature. Vaguely he wondered if he'd ever get over such things; the death of the fish was necessary if he wished to eat it, after all, and he couldn't subsist on plants alone.

Wading a little closer to shore, Kaamil paused for a moment and drew the fish in closer so that he could wrap an arm about it. As soon as he did so, he released his other hand from the scythe. It vanished instantly, and he carried the fish in both arms back to where Kami and Ailys were waiting. "…This should be sufficient…" he remarked simply. "…Let's return…"

[Shieba]

Ailys nodded at Kami. "That's true, though. But since you were brought here by the chief himself, you're basically free to look around. The tribes here don't know the concept of mistrust, really." She smiled a bit wryly. "I'm still not sure if I find that absolutely amazing or rather naive instead. But yes, as long as you don't climb in nests from Paragon you don't know or things like that, you should be fine."

She smiled when Kami tried to calm her down. "I know that, really. It's just that the sight of weapons brings back rather unpleasant memories to me. And I assure you that no one would attack you out of the blue here. Kaamil - and you, if you have a weapon like that, too - should just not summon this in front of other Paragon. A few don't even know what a weapon is, but that causes those who do to be really upset since things like that are not welcome here. Please keep them away even from Hina."

She was glad when Kaamil succeeded and that with a catch that made it unnecessary to catch a second fish so that he sent his weapon away. "That's a good catch, congratulations." Ailys nodded. "Yes, let's return. I must ask you to eat a bit away from Hina's and my nest, though, since you obviously need to start a fire to cook the fish and nests are made out of wood, after all." She started to lead them back towards the nests. "Do you have things with you to start a fire? Otherwise, we'll go and collect some twigs for you, too."

[Kodai]

"Iss thinkss isss a good thingss," Kami smiled when Ailys mentioned how the tribes didn't really have a sense of mistrust. "That meanss that everyoness isss so comfortabless with everyone elsess that they don't feelss the needss to mistrust themss. And you dun needss to worry about thatss," he added, regarding her comment of climbing into other Paragons' nests. "We wouldn't do thatss -- without askingss, anywayss." Not that they'd really have a reason for going around and entering the nests of Paragon they didn't know, but of course it'd be impolite to do so without having been invited. He grew a bit more somber as Ailys spoke of weapons, but her words weren't unexpected. "We won'tss use themss in frontss of the otherss," he promised, "unless we really havess to, and Iss dun thinkss we'll havess to, so dun worryss."

Kaamil only caught the last bit of what Kami said as he carried the fish over, but he did nod in agreement. "…I will only use the scythe when necessary…" he said, adding his words to Kami's own. He smiled faintly at Ailys's congratulations and then gave a slight start as the Paragon mentioned something that he'd surprisingly overlooked. Not that he'd been planning on making a fire too closely to the nest, but he actually hadn't given it that much thought. "…Ah, yes, of course…but we've left the flint at your nest…and we will need some twigs for tinder, as well…" Adjusting the fish's weight a little, Kaamil turned to his brother and asked, "…Would you mind gathering those, after Ailys has shown us where we might build the fire…?"

"Oh, yus!" Kami agreed, trailing along between his brother and the Paragon. Kaamil had gone and caught their meal for tonight, so it was only fair that he would fetch the materials to cook it. "It shouldn'tss take too longss, right, Miss Ailys?"

[Shieba]

Ailys had to hide a smile, reading into Kami's comment that the boy would, in the end, like to enter more Paragon nests. She understood, though - especially the bigger Paragon had impressive nests that surely had to be fascinating for humans. The small nest of Hina and her surely couldn't compare. She nodded at him and Kaamil as the other boy returned to them with his catch. "I don't think there will be any reason why you should need weapons. I live here since quite some time now and there never has been an instance where I needed to defend myself - and given the fact that there are quite a few kinds of Paragon who can sense my aura, that says something. Even if someone turns out to be able to pick up that your auras are unusual as well, they will be only wary and not outright hostile and all it will need is me or someone else explaning that you are guests and that the chief knows about you. No one will even demand further explanations."

"We can get twigs on our way back, that will save Kami another trip." Ailys led the two boys towards an area between a few palm trees, not far away from the way they had started to take. "See that there? We keep twigs and branches there that get knocked down by storms or that hatchlings collect - collecting twigs is one of the first things they learn to do, as they can't fly to get fruits from the trees yet, but don't want to feel left out when their parents are getting things for the tribe, so we let them collect a bit of wood. While Paragon find their own wood when they build nests, this is some kind of emergency stash for when storms damage nests. As we have nests of so many sizes, you should be able to find branches and twigs in whatever size you need, too." With Kaamil carrying the fish and Ailys the fruits, she couldn't offer any more help to Kami in carrying the twigs. "We'll just find you two a spot a few meters away from the nest then where you can make a small fire. There's no real area for that because those Paragon who eat meat just eat it raw."

[Kodai]

Although they hadn't particularly thought that they would need to pull their weapons against any of the Paragon of the tribe, it was nevertheless comforting to hear Ailys's words. The pair began to relax, and were delighted further when Ailys mentioned that there was a place to gather kindling along the way back to the nests. "Okiess!" Kami exclaimed after their guide had finished explaining the reason behind the collection of twigs and branches before them. "Iss shouldn'tss be longss!" With that, he went off to rummage through the assortment of wood pieces, trying to gather a good variety for the fire.

"…That's a nice idea, to let the hatchlings participate in helping the tribe…" Kaamil remarked as he watched his brother wander through the piles. He wasn't entirely sure if a hatchling would be able to carry back anything large enough to be used in nest repair, but it was the thought that counted. Besides, perhaps even the smallest twigs could be used for the most minor of repairs. "…I suppose…" But he let the idea trail off suddenly, uncertain if he should raise Ailys's concerns about her own hatchlings again. Still, she was excited over them… Perhaps it wouldn't hurt, after all. "…I suppose you'll be watching your own children doing so, soon enough…"

"Got itss!" Kami called, returning to the pair with a large bundle of various lengths of sticks in his arms. Shifting the twigs a little, he smiled and said, "Let'ss get to the campfire spotss now, and thenss we can all eatss." Surely everyone was hungry by now!