It was a great day, the perfect day to make some dye! She had never really tried making dye before, but she had heard from around that there was one that would be pretty easy for her to make. It was called 'Permafrost'. Now that was cool in itself, but apparently that dye also did cool stuff like being cold to the touch, and having an icy aura! Cool!

Comet found a nice area and used her tail to sweep the area flat and clean. Her tail was useful for so many things, she couldn't imagine not having it. Sweep, sweep, sweep. Now that the are a was nice and clean, she could start on making Permafrost! First, she needed some water.

The water those rose up from the ground melted the ice around it, due to the temperature difference, and now she had a nice sized pool of water. Now, what else was it she needed? Oh yeah, colored dyes depending on what color was wanted. But she didn't want a color, and if she had any customers she could leave it up to them if they wanted any.

So with the water part done, all she needed was to cast 'glaciate'. Which was the hardest part of the whole thing. She was not very good at that spell, and hadn't practiced it too often. Oh well, you had to start somewhere.

The spell worked! The pool had now turned into the Permafrost dye, a beautiful substance. But now the question was: what was she going to do with it? Sure, she had brought along some wooden containers to store it in, but she really didn't need this much. Maybe some other animals would want some? "Free Permafrost!" Comet howled, the sound echoed out into Polaris.

The rock was getting very big now. Kaimana had spent whole days trying to prepare for it, trying to talk to it, trying to... to think of anything she could further do for it. She didn't have nearly the amount of toys or... or anything that she would've wanted for it. There was still more to do! She felt so unprepared...

But that shaky feeling of under-preparation was what galvanized her to travel further, to work faster, to experiment more. So maybe it was a good thing! Maybe she would come up with something interesting because of this rush period.

The jaguar traipsed into this room at an eager pace, paws full of vigorous life-- or perhaps that was the anticipation of vigorous life that made her gait as rapid as whitewater? She'd been expecting to find regular glowing stones, maybe something interesting among the mosses that she could get her paws on. What she found was much more intriguing.

"Comet?" The wonder echoed in her voice. What was this one doing here? With... frozen water? Permafrost, they'd called it. "Hello!" The jaguar would remind herself to greet her friend before she started talking business. "Free permafrost...? What does that mean?" Kaimana slowed her pace when approaching -- she didn't want to seem like she was charging the young Comet! She was just... confused. Intrigued! 'What is this material of which you speak, and why do you want to give it away for FREE?'***

@Comet

((OOC: ***This is a thought. It was not said aloud. I try to distinguish 'thought' from "Speech" but I understand that when you're skimming over a not-table, that's a bit harder to do, haha!))

"Oh, hello Kaimana!" Comet greeted the jaguar. Her first customer! To be honest, she didn't exactly know what Permafrost was all that well either, but it looked cool. Literally. "Um, it's like this dye that can make your body look cold and icy. But it doesn't hurt!" She picked up one of the wooden containers and dipped it into the pool with her mouth. "Do you want some? It's free! And you're my friend anyway." offered the pup.

@Kaimana

Oh, a dye? How intriguing! Kaimana could think of a few uses for a dye on the spot. A pleasant smile crossed her face, a natural reaction to the child's enthusiasm. "It sounds very interesting, Comet! It is very generous of you to be handing these things out for free. Since we're friends, I will think of something to recompense you with!" Kaimana paused for a moment to consider what she could give Comet. Then she paused for a moment longer to consider what she'd already given Comet.

" Well-- okay, perhaps I am being unkind. Do you remember when I said I'd give you swimming lessons for a favor from you in return? If you are really sure that you don't want payment for this, then I won't try to give you anything. I will take one... unit, I suppose, of the substance you've made, and rather than give you something, I'll consider this to be your favor to me instead. That way, you don't owe me and I don't owe you, and we both get what we want! Does that sound fair?" If it didn't, Kaimana would gladly offer Comet another trade. Or she would just suck it up and take the gift for free.

She did hope, deep down, that that offer would suffice -- the offer to cash in her favor for a unit of this dye. And why? Well, she didn't want to be away from the stone for too long. Complications would make her stay longer. And another thing: she didn't want to offend her friend! Kaimana wasn't sure why Comet would just give something like that away, but she was sure they had their reasons, and she didn't want to disrespect that!

@Comet

Comet listened to Kaimana's words. So, the jaguar wanted to give her payment for the dye, even though she was giving it out for free. But then they realized that instead of payment the dye would be enough to cover up her debt for the swimming lesson?

That was no the confusing part, no. What confused her the most was why Kaimana even wanted to pay her something for it. Sure they were friends, but this was FREE. Comet had actually forgotten about her payment for the swimming lesson, and if Kaimana offered that the dye would be a sufficient payment, then she might as well take it. "Sure! Now we're even." She handed over the dye.

But now Comet felt a bit bad about it. It was supposed to be free after all. "Wait! I'll give you another dye, this is free. You don't owe me for this one." The first spell hadn't been enough to make enough dye for a second container, so she would have to cast glaciate again.

"And that should be enough!" Comet used the container to scoop up a second batch of dye. "Here you go. And just wondering, what are you going to use the dye for?" she was curious of what you could actually do with the dye other than applying it on yourself. Maybe the jaguar was educated in the ways of dying things.

@Kaimana

Ah, thank goodness, the offer was accepted. Now Kaimana didn't have to rethink her offer and extend her-- wait, what was Comet doing? Another dye? For free?! 'Uh oh.' Kaimana accepted the first unit of dye graciously, slipping in a pleasant "Thank you very much," after the completion of the transaction. However, as soon as Comet set to work on the unexpected second unit, the little pool of guilt began to sprout in her stomach. It seemed Comet wasn't the type to keep the cycles as she did. That was alright, Kaimana wasn't offended or anything. She would just make a mental note to pay back the pup... covertly.

Kaimana watched, her brows raising as the child seemed to make the water colder seemingly through willpower alone. "Is that an example of your magic, Comet?" That was cool!! It didn't seem like something that would require knowledge of swimming to use, but that was probably a safety measure for another spell. Although, that begged the question... what security issues did this spell pose? Something as tremendous as drowning the user? Surely not, since it was just a way to freeze things, right...?

Kaimana would keep her worry-inducing thoughts to herself, opting to answer Comet's question instead. "Thank you again, Comet. And, well, I can think of a few things that could be spruced up quite a bit by just a touch of color. Especially this color, which seems... cold, somehow? That's the magic, I presume? It is impressive indeed! Yes, I could decorate things like toys, walls... even my own pelt, like you said!" She giggled. "If you ever want to join me and figure out what we can paint together, you know where to find me." With that, the jaguar shot Comet a wink, and began to make her way towards the path back home.

Or, well, she made her way towards what she thought was the path back home.

Before she got there, however, the jaguar abruptly halted and spun back around towards Comet. "I hope you don't mind the briefness of my visitation, Comet!" She called back with a lighthearted laugh. "I have to get home quickly to prepare for the hatching of my stone! It's very close now, I can feel it. Feel free to visit us any time!" One last beaming grin -- eyes closed and ears somewhat drawn back to make room for it on her face -- and the jaguar turned and sauntered away.

- exit -

@Comet

((+2 Permafrost Dyes to Inventory [thanks Comet!! :D]))

"Yes! I only learned it recently when I have been practicing in this area. It's colder here. I use it for freezing things, but it is also good for making Permafrost." Comet offered happily, "Not as dangerous as my other spells... I think. I haven't failed this one yet." Now that she thought about it, she wondered how glaciate could go wrong, other than failing. Some of her other spells have failed pretty badly and harmed her, but glaciate wasn't exactly a spell that could cause her dehydration.

So, not only could dyes be used on fur, but they could be used on painting objects too. That sounded really fun, and Comet could use her tail to paint things really quickly. She liked her tail, it was useful for many things. She bet the stone was probably getting really big by now. "Yeah! I will visit you when I have time." The pup smiled back at the jaguar.

That was one customer. Comet doubted she would get many more, so maybe she would just make a Permafrost for herself before leaving. This was the best one yet! She grabbed her last container and scooped up the dye. The wintry swirls in the dye looked beautiful. Maybe she could apply some... on herself? No, not right now. She would ask James to help her. With the container in her jaws, she headed home.

"Exit to home"

@Kaimana