ORIGIN

"You need another name, then, for it to be the middle one." Lei said conversationally, but not in the pedantic and fussy way some children might, but more in the cheerfully-speculative sort of way, like it held all sorts of fun potentials. "We could collect names. That would be fun!" In which case, she'd be Lei dragon-whale-head-surfer, which didn't quite roll of the tongue. She hummed, speculatively, and cast a semi-nervous glance at the water.

The water DID make her nervous-- she liked it, she was attracted by it, she experienced a draw to it every time she was near it, but that didn't mean this new way of experiencing it was met with perfect calmness. She'd never been past the edges of the shallows before-- the shore edge, too. "You can't even see the bottom!" she said, hunkering down on her safe dragon-whale-hybrid-friend island and very carefully remembering not to reflexively hold on with her claws. That would be painful, and she didn't want to hurt Iris, who was being so nice enough to bring her out there. This reaction was somewhat at odds with the fact that she kept leaning forward slightly, curious despite herself, fascinated by all the different shapes in the water. "And I can see fishes, I think!" Mostly they were shadows, but they were moving shadows, and what else would move here? They were lit by the strange light of Origin cave, the not-quite-alpenglow, that reacted strangely with the water in general, betraying and belying the depth of the water by turns, and reflecting off of its moving surface. It was beautiful, really.

Oh but what she wouldn't do to see this regularly. "Will you teach me to swim?" she asked, hopeful, which showed in her voice. "Whenever we go back to shore."

@iris