A series of twisted, branching horns rose from the rippling ocean like tridents. The serpent's head breached the surface with its maw spread wide, filled with fangs. "Rude!" it barked in Fia's native tongue. "I'm not a—!"

Fia blasted a fireball into the sea serpent's open mouth.

"Ack!" The neck of the sea serpent snapped backward. Its whole body flipped over and careened into the water with a dramatic splash. It floundered its large fins to right itself. Once it breached the surface, cresting over top a wave once more, a magical light glinted from its blue eyes in preparation to cast a spell. The sea serpent tipped back its head. A rivulet of water poured from its eyes, squeezed shut, like a fountain. The continuous stream joined the ocean, harmless to the dragonets.

"Oh, um," Fia whined, unsure how to fix her mistake. She did not mean to lash out against a baby sea serpent that happened to speak the same language as her. "I'm sorry."

"All you fire dragons are the same, slinging fireballs before asking questions!" the water dragon said in a fast-paced speech. His accent was clipped shorter than the native speakers of the Carlinoa Clan, leading him to rush over his words.

"I'm sorry!" Fia bemoaned again. "I thought you were a monster."

"A sea monster?" the water dragon repeated, spitting the word out of disgust. "What in the trenches do they teach you in Carlinoa? The only monster here is you, little fire salamander. You spat a fireball into my mouth! How savage is that?"

Teardrops wavered at the rims of Fia's eyes. "I said I'm sorry." Normally Viliant caused misunderstandings out of his aggression, but this time Fia had reacted to a potential threat too hastily. The dragonette dipped the lower portion of her snout into the water and snorted a stream of ashamed bubbles.

Despite the serpent's pitiable display, Viliant remained on high-alert. What's happening? You're talking to that guy. What's he saying? Viliant positioned himself in between Fia and the strange, blue dragon to protect her. A low, warning growl resounded constantly from Viliant's throat.

Quickly, Fia summarized how she had upset the water dragon. This also served as a reminder that she ought to translate for Viliant alongside the spoken words. That would help him learn the Carlinoan language, like Diwa had done for them in Malakow. Lowering her head into an apologetic bow, Fia extended a telepathic invitation to the water dragon too. "We've been on the run for a long time. Sorry we're on edge. What's your name?"

"Nuh uh!" The dragon said, shaking his head and refusing the telepathic link. "I don't forgive you—unless you give me food."

"That thing already ate our food!" Viliant burst out. Luckily for the sake of their conversation with the stranger that they had fortuitously met at sea, Viliant spoke in neither a language that he understood nor lent his thoughts over telepathy yet.

"Whoa!" the water dragon shouted. "That's the language of the Syenic plains." He skirted closer to Fia and Viliant through the water and stuck out his fin-like wing in between them. The water dragon bowed his head as if he intended to whisper to Fia, but his voice did not drop in volume. "You know this guy?"

Fia tipped her head to the side quizzically. "Yes. He's my best friend," she said in a matter-of-fact tone. Although Fia wanted to help Viliant learn the Carlinoan language as quickly as possible, she felt bad translating the judgemental sentiments from the water dragon.

The large, aquatic dragon reeled away from the dragonets when Viliant nipped at his wing. "Easy there! Do my scales look brown to you? I'm not one of those Novemis dragons." The sunlight flashed off the bright yellow scales of his neck, which transitioned into a green stripe along his lateral line. Above the stripe, his scales deepened into a blue which matched the ocean all around them. While the dragon ruffled his wings and splattered water off of them, Fia took an opportunity to placate Viliant's temper.

Relax, Viliant. I don't think this dragon is gonna hurt us. He doesn't seem all that bad.

He doesn't seem all that good, either, Viliant retorted. He stole our fish.

We couldn't eat all that by ourselves, anyway, Fia reasoned. He might be able to help us.

I doubt it. Viliant tossed a skeptical look up to the big, blue dragon who continued to snap up their fish. The water dragon hummed and bobbed his head to a sea shanty as he did so.

Is there anyone else around? Fia pressed Viliant.

Well, no, he admitted reluctantly.

Since the newcomer spoke Carlinoan, Fia assumed that he must know the location of her island too. With a final toss of her head, she told Viliant, It wouldn't hurt to share. Let's give him a chance.

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If the dragonets only had to give up some fish, then they only stood to benefit in this exchange. Their surplus fish would go to waste otherwise, but offering it to the water dragon might convince him to whisk them onto dry land. Viliant flashed a critical glare out of the corner of his eyes. He was unaccustomed to how rationality and generosity could align. Fine, he grumbled. I guess I don't see the harm in it. To take out some of his frustration, Viliant focused on a new school of fish which had gathered below them.

"You can have our fish," Fia told the water dragon who gulped down the last of them anyway. "I'm Fia. This is Viliant. What's your name?"

The dragon flipped his head to make some sparkly droplets of water fling off his horns. "The name's Mahirano. Most people call me Mahi, but my friends call me Mahi Mahi. And only my best buds call me Mahi Mahi Mahi!" The dragon lowered his neck each time that he repeated his own nickname. With his chin hovered over the waves, Mahi said, "But you're not my friends. Maybe I'll consider it a token of our friendship if you get me more fish."

A few, surprised blinks fell over Fia's eyes. It seemed that Mahi had an appetite like Viliant, matched to the dragon's larger size. "More fish, coming up!" Fia announced, prodding Viliant to make them appear.

To keep himself busy while his friend handled the talking, Viliant had already raked tendrils of shadows through the scared fish. The school darted with a flash of their silvery scales, catching the last light which their eyes saw alive. A second round of dead fish bubbled up from the ocean before Mahi got bored.

"Ah ha!" Mahi's tail curled into a smile at the same time as his neck curled to strike. With great zeal, Mahi snapped at his pre-hunted prey. The dragon's chest lurched with a burp after he swallowed it down.

While he ate, Fia continued the conversation. "Excuse me," she peeped. "Do you know where Carlinoa Island is?"

"Do I?" Mahi garbled his words with a fish in his mouth. "Of course! I gotta know where it is to stay away from it, you know? Those fire dragons would boil me alive if I got too close!"

If Fia did not use her tail to keep her balance afloat, she would curl it down into a pout. The dragonette did not know much about water dragons, except her parents talked about them with the same disdain and distrust as humans. After what she had seen of the human nation, Fia imagined that the water dragons of the neighboring Azuazu Clan had done something to deserve it. Right now, Fia did not care about the differences between their clans. She needed to recruit the water dragon to help her get home. "Would you wanna see Carlinoa?" she offered. "No one's going to hurt you if you're with me."

"Eh. Not interested." Mahi maintained all his attention on the fish. His belly bloated underneath him as he floated. As soon as he had eaten his fill, the dragon would lose interest in their conversation altogether.

"Please?" Fia begged. "We really need to get to Carlinoa." Her mission hung on the tip of her forked tongue. I need to save my people, she thought desperately, but based on Mahi's negative attitude toward the Carlinoa Clan, she feared that the water dragon might prefer it if the fire dragons were extinguished. Instead, Fia focused on what she could offer him. "We'll feed you fish the whole way there!"

"I can catch fish myself, you know!" Mahi paused his buffet long enough to squint at Fia with narrowed eyes. When he resumed eating, the water dragon slowed his pace.

Viliant continued to employ his shadows for passive fishing. Despite the dwindling numbers from the school, the dead fish bobbed around each other in greater density. Viliant now hunted marginally faster than Mahi could eat.

"If you can fish, why didn't you get your own?" Fia asked. Her simple tone belied her genuine curiosity.

"They taste better when someone else does all the hard work for you," Mahi boasted. "I don't like to catch fish. I just like to eat them!"

"Oh." Fia squinted her eyes up to the big dragon. His wide, stubby wings looked like Mahi needed to grow more in order to fly. After she had met the native dragons of Malakow, whose adult size was small enough to mistake for a juvenile compared to larger species, she wondered if other dragons could grow so massive that they dwarfed the likes of Rokirith. The open ocean seemed like the perfect place to meet such a dragon. "How old are you?" Fia inquired, wondering if Mahi was a fellow dragonet despite his size.

Mahi froze with half a fish sticking out of his mouth. "Like… forty years young."

"Is that young for you?" Fia asked. Her seven years of life gave the dragonette little perspective on time, even if she knew that dragons lived for hundreds and hundreds of years.

"Age is just a number," Mahi replied. What really matters is what's in your heart!"

Fia glanced sidelong at Viliant. After relaying the conversation over telepathy, she prompted him, What do you think? Is Mahi a dragonet or an adult?

Either way, he's stupid. Viliant suspended his willingness to guess. I wouldn't trust him for directions, even if he offered to help us.

Clearing her throat gently, Fia clarified, "I'm trying to figure out…. Are you a dragonet like us?"

Mahi thrashed his head and slapped a fish tail against a crest of water. "I'm an adult!"

"Sorry!" Fia squeaked, not intending her question to bring offense.

Once he regained his cool after the outburst, Mahi slurped the fish's tail into his mouth. "Well, thanks for the food. I'm gonna go catch some waves now. For a couple of dragonets, you two are no fun. Later!" The water dragon beat his wings in a flurry to propel him across the surface.

A splash cascaded over Fia. The salty water dappled her tongue, her mouth hung open. No fun? she heard echo in her mind. Fia struggled to restrain her impulse to play throughout her entire journey. Recently, the dragonette had developed a serious mindset that was necessary to complete her mission. She limited her games to the recesses of their journey, no longer letting them turn into a diversion. How dare someone accuse me of not being enough fun? Fia seethed to herself.

Before Mahi dashed too far away, Fia hollered, "Wait! I'll show you some fun." Dual wisps of smoke drifted from her nostrils, determined to not let him get away.