Samen now considers this opportunity to be at least as educational as Branch will be.
"Trái lại, chúng ta biết rất rõ nguy hiểm. Nếu nó làm hài lòng bạn, chúng tôi sẽ đồng hành cùng bạn trong lần tiếp theo. Tôi rất thích tìm hiểu về những cách Undine từ một người chạy nước thích hợp! Tôi chưa bao giờ có cơ hội! Tại sao chỉ có Undines có thể làm điều đó? Bên trong ma thuật của bạn trông như thế nào?"
He activates his sight and follows the magic as best as he can. He takes down notes and makes drawings as seems useful.
Thứ Hai claps earnestly as you melt a good portion of the snow in front of you with a well-aimed blast of intense flame, like a bonfire leaping from your hands. She comes down from the trees, coming by your side when the display is over.
She gets a quizzical look on her face, and begins speaking quickly, flipping her long braid of lavender hair forward and back. "So what is an ifrit who is a powerful fire sorceress and also a reeeeally good speaker doing along this lonely path?" Her eyes widen and she smiles, half-serious, and whispers theatrically, "Are you a spy or maybe a wandering knight or something? That would be so exciting!"
Without a word, Marianne takes up patrolling the right side of the path, while the first sister remains on the left.
Bố nods at you amiably, clearly glad to have company to talk to. The conversation takes time, as he spends most of his breath on singing, but eventually he answers your first query.
"Bạn cũng có thể hỏi tại sao chỉ có orows mới có thể đào hang. Hoặc tại sao chỉ có ifrits có quyền kiểm soát ngọn lửa như vậy. Họ là trái đất. Họ là lửa. Chúng tôi là nước. Câu đố không có câu trả lời."
"You might as well ask why only oreads can burrow. Or why only ifrits have such control of the flame. They are earth. They are fire. We are water. Riddles with no answer."
Wamblee cracks a slight smile at the sister's comments.
"Ability to harm is not the same as danger but I will take those as compliments in these hazardous times."
Wamblee looks onwith great interest at Iniga's growing capability with fire.
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Iniga smiles at the oreads questions. Her guesses were uncannily accurate but Iniga didn't usually admit such things openly. She turns over her planned response in her head swiftly for a moment before offering a grin "Sorceress, I like the sound of that. With that said, I used to be a bit of a wanderer, travelling around, helping someone one day and then moving on the next. Like a roaming knight to borrow your expression. I haven't done that since joining my family though. As to what I'm doing on this path, I heard oreads have the best libraries and for a bookworm like me, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity."
Samen laughs at Iniga. "Careful there, cousin! If you get too famous as a fire sorceress, they'll never let us anywhere near the books."
"I imagine that the librarians of Branch have long since worked out means to counter fire, mundane or otherwise."
Between watersinging and firespeaking, you make good progress on the trail through the afternoon. As Bố starts taking out cooking supplies for the fish his daughters caught on their patrols, he waves Samen over. "Bạn đang đi đâu Nếu đó là phía nam, bạn được chào đón để lên thuyền với tôi. Chúng tôi sẽ thực hiện với một phần của con đường vào ngày mai, và chúng tôi sẽ tiến bộ tốt hơn trên sông sau đó."
"Where are you headed? If it is south, you are welcome to come on my boat with me. We will be done with our part of the trail tomorrow, and we will make much better progress on the river after that."
Iniga, Thứ Hai nods sagely at your words. "I knew you were a knight or something. Đầu Tiên never believes me, but I think she's just jealous of my hunches, you know?"
"I see no reason not to remain on the same route south and the river would aid us also. I would accept."
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Samen translates as expected.
Samen laughs at Iniga. "Careful there, cousin! If you get too famous as a fire sorceress, they'll never let us anywhere near the books."
Iniga smiles at Samen "Thats very true I guess."
She turns to Thứ Hai and smiles again. "You should always be proud of your hunches, and I believe you listen to them. I listen to mine and things usually turn out ok."
Bố Ba claps his hands together when he hears Samen accept. "Tốt! Tôi sẽ gặp bạn vào buổi sáng sau đó. Tôi cảm thấy những vết nứt và đau nhức trong những dòng sông băng."
With one final burst of buzzing song, he clears away the snow from the surrounding area, making it more comfortable to sleep.
[b]"Good! I will see you in the morning then. I feel cracks and aches in the glaciers of my bones."
"Hey Iniga! Are those firehands of yours good at cooking? I don't care for raw fish, no insult intended to our guests."
Iniga frowns a little. "I doubt that I have the fine tuning required to control the flame intensity. I could probably use it to start a campfire though that you could then use to cook something to the way you like it."
"Hmm, guess you'll have to practice then. I want to know if magical fire makes things taste different!"
Swaddled in the dim, fuzzy womb of dream, you are all abruptly awoken by an ear-splitting
brrrrrap!
blearily, you think it may be coming from the old undine
brrrrrap!
and the old undine, laughing, pulls a remarkably small frog from the sleeve of his stiff, hempen workclothes. And one more
brrrrrap!
issues forth from the little green frog, impossibly loud for the small creature to produce.
(undine)
"Haha! Hello ếch nhỏ! Did you wake your big sisters up? Hahaha!"
Iniga stretches, a little disgruntled by the loud noise waking her up but otherwise makes no comment.
Wamblee only moves his eyes and head enough to see what the old undine is doing.
He watches carefully for as long as there is something to watch, or until enough time passes that he feels that it is worthwhile to sleep once more.
Wamblee feels sleep reach for him and he welcomes it.
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Samen has his staff in his hands before he's aware, ready to strike the unseen threat. When his wits finally settle in, he grumps at the Undine before beginning his normal morning meditation.
Unfortunately the noisy amphibian is too much of a distraction, so he leaves the camp, far enough to not be irritated, and begins anew.
Bố seeks out Samen after his meditations are over.
(undine)
"Sorry about ếch nhỏ, he is stubborn and set in his ways! I forgot to ask - will you and your companions be comfortable on a boat of ice? I confess I have never taken any of the other races on it before."
"Samen? Mar? Would you be alright? I do not worry for myself, and I doubt much could chill Iniga."
"I'll be fine. Found some nice fur-lined boots at the Meet after I saw Samen playing with ice during his magic duel." She looks over at Iniga. "Umm, are you sure you won't melt the boat?"
"I think that it should be fine provided nothing gets me super angry I think" Iniga responds after careful consideration.
"No calling you Knees, then?" A younger cousin's smirk.
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”Probably not unless you want to be knees deep in water” Iniga quips in response.
Samen nods to Wamblee. "I'll be fine. If I had to guess, as long as Bố Ba maintains his focus, the temperature of the 'ice' won't really matter. That's just a mental construct for 'solid water'. It will be held together by his will, so as long as you don't burn him, the boat should hold."
Marianne rolls her eyes, but cannot come up with a come back.
Bố Ba has finished the last of his assigned path, gently pushing snow aside with his wavering tenory song. This trail meets up with a larger one, which is still white and untouched.
(undine)
"Haha! I guess my rival is a little late today. Thought he would have been here already. Napping in riverbeds, ha!"
He points to the nearby river, which has been running roughly parallel to your own path since you left the valley. "Come! Stomp through a little untamed forest and we will make a boat today!"
"As you say, Bố Ba. Do you have need of our hands to fashion anything?"
Wamblee keeps an eye out for animal trails and sturdy plants.
He smiles at Wamblee.
At the edge of the river--made fat and fast-flowing by gorging on snow--Bố Ba shouts, sings operatic overtures to Dead Sky. Accompanying notes leap from the trees, unseen daughters lending their own fairy-voices to forge a minor chord. The haunting sound sends a frisson of icicle-chills up your spine, conjured straight from a deep lake of the frozen dead.
Rising from the surface of the river, not beholden in the slightest to the current, the first suggestions of an iceblock hull-shape resolve themselves into a long, rather narrow boat. Bố Ba, quiet now, nasally and wavering again, uluates intricate shapes into the bow and stern: fanciful waves and gulls and coral all caught in translucent miniature. The iceboat bobs in the water, eager and friendly.
Bố Ba bows and gestures to the boat, as if to say climb aboard!
Wamblee smiles back, watches the boat construction, and once it is ready, gladly steps on board.
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Samen studies the process of building, layering, and stabilizing each part of the construction, trying to gain as much information as possible.
Not wanting to interrupt his singing, he turns to the daughters with uncharacteristic talkativeness. "Tell me, is the magic in him, the song, or both? How is it so indefinitely sustainable? There must be some vast reserve of elemental power he's tapping into. I can do some minor manipulations myself, but it's limited by my strength. It can't be solely tied to river, because the snow isn't connected to river. Can it work with other liquids, like oils or molten ore? ..."
He continues asking questions as long as they are willing to answer.
Iniga is very impressed by the display. She has always dreamed of being able to sing to lava and flame and therefore appreciated what the Undine could do.
Samen, Thứ Hai gapes at you as your torrent of questions comes out. "Umm, he sings, and then it happens. Ask River how it works."
Đầu Tiên, the more taciturn of the two, simply frowns and ignores you.
A slow, lazy vibrato enters Bố's song, and you see the stern--perhaps more appropriately the tail--of the boat start to slowly, lazily undulate back and forth in time with the beat. The tail of the boat grows like time-elapsed crystal, becoming more fin-like now in the water, powerful strokes propelling you upriver. South, and eventually back to Branch. On a watersung iceboat.
Iniga relaxes on the boat as they move - waiting on arrival to Branch.
Wamblee is fascinated by the strange ways of River but more comfortable than he expected to be.
"Wow, fur-lined boots or not, I'll be glad for the comparative warmth of a bedroll tonight. Hey Boba, how much longer until you throw your ice anchor or whatever for the night? You can't drive this thing asleep, can you?"
(undine, singing)
"One or two more burning sticks, as an ifrit might say. I will be looking for a promising spot to make camp for the night presently."
Iniga nods "Thats fine"
At her behest, Samen turns his Sight to the river itself. Hmm. Sounds like holy magic to me. Power granted by a 'god'. Fickle at best, though demonstrably useful. I doubt the deity level elemental is omnipresent within the water. If it is, it must be imperceptibly diffuse, but present enough to be called upon. There should be some way to trace the call of his magic to the entity he's calling. If I can trace that connection...
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Wamblee remains aware. Very aware.