"That's okay, no need to apologize," Aurelle said, smiling. She meant it, too-- it was fine. What was she going to do, start yelling at a child who almost died two minutes ago?

She hummed for a moment, considering his questions instead of answering right off the bat. She was fairly certain no one was just mean for the sake of it, though. She'd certainly never met anyone like that. "I think getting hurt makes some people mean, yes," Aurelle answered. "No one wants to be mean, not really. People who are usually very nice might get hurt by people they like and take it out on others, for example. It's a... defense mechanism, I suppose."

"Think about it like this: if someone very close to you hurt your feelings, you might never let anyone close to you again. That way you can't be hurt like that again. I'm sure not every case of someone being mean is like that, but I think it's a good indicator that something is wrong, and they might need some help," the elf went on. "I think it's an important thing to remember. Hurting other people just spreads more hurt people, you know?"

At Edgar's next question, she tapped her chin gently. "Well, ahh, I'm not sure if I can answer that, Edgar," she said, honestly. "I don't go into water unless I have to drink or bathe. But... all water has to come from somewhere, and then go somewhere else, or else all the caves would be flooded, wouldn't they? Perhaps there's ways to get to different rooms that I don't know about."

It's not like she'd be able to see them if they were obvious.

"Why don't you have a little swim around?" She suggested, good-naturedly. "See if you can find any little tunnels or passageways. I can wait here and hear about them once you come back."

Aurelle considered this, too, very seriously. "I might," she said, honestly. "But if I did, it wouldn't be intentional, I think. If I ever say something that hurts your feelings, you should tell me so that I can say sorry and learn how to talk better." That seemed fair. It's what Aurelle would want someone else to do, if they accidentally hurt her feelings.

Her finger traced her bottom lip thoughtfully. "I've met some people who were unkind, yes," she said. "There was someone who started calling me names, once, when I was young, and I cried for a while. And when I was older, I realized I should have just left instead of standing there, letting them do it. So now, if someone is unkind and doesn't want help, I just leave them alone. I want to spend my time with people who are nice, after all."

When Edgar left to look around, she said, "good luck!" And, of course, she waited. When a few minutes passed, she trudged to the shallower waters to sit down-- but it wasn't like she'd gone very far, or even was very difficult to spot, even for a shark.

Sitting in the lapping water was much nicer than standing there, too. She felt a little less indecent with her dress under control, too.

Aurelle was just kind of relaxing peacefully when Edgar sprayed her with water. She blinked, her ears perking up almost stark upright on her head. "Oh! A tunnel, yes, there's lots of those on land, and they go everywhere. I'm not so certain where it might go, but.." she hummed.

"Well, water is in most places. So, ahh, I think you should be able to go just about everywhere if you can find the right tunnel. There's lots and lots of places and lots of people to meet," she said. "You might meet mostly people who are under the water, or you might meet people who are coming for some water like me."

"Oh! Are you hungry?" She asked half-out-of-the-blue. "Hungry kind of feels like a tummyache. We can try and find some food that you like."

Aurelle nodded thoughtfully. "I can come here more often for water so you can find me, then I can meet all the friends you make. Maybe one day I'll bring my friend, Lichen along, too, and you can meet her." Lichen wasn't exactly the most sociable, but it was always good to get her out and meeting people.

She tapped her chin, thinking. "I eat just about everything," she said. "Berries, mushrooms, meat. You can usually tell what someone eats by their teeth-- people who only eat plants have really dull teeth, and people who only eat meet have really sharp teeth. What kind of teeth do you have?" (It wasn't like she could just look down and see).

"Depending on what you eat, we can try and get you some food," the elf offered. It'd be easiest if Edgar liked berries and the like; fruit was always fairly easy to find when the caves were warm. If it were meat, Aurelle wasn't so sure she could catch something for him. Lichen usually did that work for her.

But, you know, she'd try.

"Oh, well I can't--" Aurelle began, but she heard the dim splashing of Edgar rolling over. She had two choices: a quick spellcast, or jamming her fingers into Edgar's mouth before flipped back over. One of those was a lot less invasive than the other.

It wasn't the strongest cast she'd ever done; she didn't have a huge amount of time or focus like she usually did, but it sure did the job fine. She could sense the Edgar-shaped mass in front of her based on how many bacterium was swarming all over him (and water was very, very loaded with microbial life), and, dimly, his open mouth.

Mouths were always one of the clearest things she could sense with this spell. Mouths were... particularly gross, and one in a list of many that Aurelle tried not to think about too much. She could make out, just about, rows and rows of teeth in Edgar's mouth before he flipped back over.

Interesting. What did he need all those for?

"I think they're sharp," Aurelle said eventually, her head finally turning to face Edgar properly, instead of blindly staring in his approximate direction. Until he moved slightly and she had to go back to tracking him based on his voice and noises. "So, you probably eat meat. Ahh... you'll have to learn to hunt."

The elf tapped her chin. "I don't really do the hunting," she admitted. "But, my partner says that she just waits for things to come near her nose. Though, ahh, she can't see either." Ahh... I'm being very unhelpful, she fretted briefly.

"Are you very fast?" She asked. "Maybe you could, ahh, just bolt after another fish and grab it. Make sure it's smaller than you, though."

Usually, when someone hunted, she could hear them walking off. It took her a moment to realize that Edgar had already went, however, her mind not quite catching up despite his words and the little splash of his head sinking back beneath the water (which, in fairness, she'd gotten quite used to by now).

She supposed, after a moment, she'd never exactly heard anything move beneath the water. Things splashing on the surface didn't count. When Edgar returned some five minutes later, he found the elf curiously touching the surface of the water and sinking her hand in, testing where the limit was meant to be between what she could hear and what she couldn't.

"Oh!" she said, head turning back to Edgar's general direction. "Good job! Was the fish good?" She wasn't much of a fan, personally. Too many scales, and even when the tavern offered fish unscaled and unboned, she still occasionally found one in there. It was unpleasant, to say the least.

But, as long as Edgar enjoyed it. "Different kinds of fish will taste different," she offered wisely. "So, if there's a fish you don't quite like, you could try another. Maybe I'll bring some land-meat over for you to try another day, too." She wondered if he'd prefer them raw or cooked-- but as far as she knew, there wasn't much way to cook underwater.

Actually... "are you cold?" She asked curiously. "Or do you feel normal?" She got cold when she got out of water, but maybe fish didn't feel that way considering they... well, never got out of water.