“And this one?” Xoco asked, pointing to another set of notches and lines in the book.

Isak leaned in, squinting hard and summoning all of his willpower to push his brain to its absolute limit to decipher the old script. “Uhhhhhhh no.”

The two groaned and slumped onto the table in complete defeat at their long shot desperation plan of turning to random pages and seeing if Isak recognized anything else had failed after all the good ideas ran out about half an hour ago. Nelli gave a slight nudge to Xoco’s cheek which perked her up a bit. Isak received no such gesture of solace from Vidal, but shooting a glance up to the towering wall of rock and flowing water he was actually glad he didn’t have to find out how careful Vidal was with pats on the back.

“You’re sure you don’t recognize any of this, Vidal?” Isak asked as he rested his head on his arms.

“I know your languages, Master Isak.” Vidal answered with a slight tilt of his head down towards the pages. “None others.”

Isak frowned, flicking at a speck of dust on the table. “Eh, it was a longshot. I guess I wouldn’t be able to tell you much about the stuff I’m made of on my own either. Not until I was taught that. Kazimir didn’t teach you any of that?”

“I know no such individual.” Vidal affirmed.

This was enough to get Isak to prop himself up and stare at the rock man as he thought over this new information. “Huh...so no old bald human? Skin kinda like mine? White beard?”

“No.” He again confirmed.

“Huh…” Isak held his chin in his hand as Xoco looked on with curiosity, her eyes widened as she started following his line of thought.

“You’re thinking Vidal was never ‘awake’ to see this Kazimir?” The jungle troll asked, next to prop herself up and once again unintentionally loom over Isak.

Isak made several sounds of hemming and hawing as he rubbed at his chin shortly before throwing his hands up in exasperation and leaned back in his chair. “That, or if he’s ever put back in small rock form his memories are reset.”

The human boy’s eyes went wide and his blood turned to ice at the thought of such a possibility, and at some point his chair started tipping back as he lost all sense of awareness at that thought. Xoco darted across the table to grab his arm right as Vidal moved his own arm to stop the boy’s chair from falling any further back with minimal effort.

Momentary free fall followed shortly by rescue at the literal hand of his familiar and girl he really liked shocked him back into hyper awareness.

“Uhh.” His voice was hoarse and unsteady as he leaned back forward into safety, who took a very odd form in a jungle troll whose blushing had turned her green giving a relieved smile filled with knives and a lessened grip of claws poking into his forearm. “Th-thanks.”

“Of course! It was a horrifying thought! I know I would- oh!” Her eyes shot open again and she withdrew as she saw the four tiny pinpricks of red on Isak’s arm from her claws. “I’m so sorry!”

Somewhere in the hyper awareness was enough adrenaline to make such a thing not hurt in the slightest, as Isak looked down and saw the beads of crimson forming on his arm. He laughed and waved it off with his unharmed arm. “It’s nothing!”

He frowned as he turned to Vidal with sudden worry. “It’s nothing I swear! Don’t hurt her!”

“All harm was done under the pretense of good intentions at preventing greater harm, Master Isak.” The rock man said from his unmoving stance.

“You know Tonauac was trying to do the same...actually this is exactly the kind of thing he could help out with right now.” Isak said as he fished out a small handkerchief from his book bag to dab at the blood, Xoco wincing in her seat as she pet Nelli out of nerves.

The pet rock turned ever so slightly to look down to the human. “You were in no immediate danger, I apprehended the aggressor until he could be questioned on his motives.”

“And that is...actually a very good stance to take.” Isak nodded at the surprising restraint as he dabbed up the last of the blood from a few well intentioned stabs. “Let’s keep doing that. Unless I say otherwise.”

Xoco was still avoiding eye contact as she gently combed her claws through Nelli’s feathers, causing the feathered serpent to cozy up around her shoulders more. “I am sorry, truly. Back home well...trolls heal very fast and lizardfolk heal decently fast and also have scales so it’s easy to forget that-”

“I’ll be fine! I’m not even worried about me!” Isak smiled to show he wasn’t concerned at all, which was true for the few moments before he remembered the thought that led into this. “Just...just worried for Vidal is all. What if it’s something like...like earth returns him to just being a rock?”

The jungle troll tapped a claw on the table, idly flicking at an open book before flicking it shut. She stared down the book written in an ancient script, casting a fast detect magic spell towards it and coming up with nothing in one final grasp at information to force another sigh before looking back up at Isak with an uneasy smile not showing a single tooth. “Whoever made Vidal obviously made him with care, I don’t see them making it possible to reset him in the middle of a tense fight just by accidentally kicking dirt at him! Or...or too much dirt on your hands after a hard day’s work and you give your trusted companion a human five!”

Isak’s moping stares at Vidal were interrupted by this sudden mind bender, and he turned with a raised brow to Xoco. “A what?”

“A human five?” She said pointing to her hand in obvious confusion. “You know, when humans are like...they celebrate something and they both hold up a hand and touch them together in a non hostile way?”

The human blinked a few times as his mouth hung open, eyes narrowing as his already stressed mind tried to make the puzzle pieces fit. Finally, they fell into place as he chuckled. “You mean a high five?”

The jungle troll tilted her head. “Really? That’s what it’s...hmmm. Well another thing that never happens when everyone has claws. It would just be raising your weapon to strike.”

Isak couldn’t help but laugh more. “Sorry, sorry. You can laugh when I don’t understand one of your customs.”

She giggled a bit in turn as she gathered a few books to check out. “I’m holding you to that! Now, The Empire wasn’t united in a day and we’re not figuring out a probably ancient secret in one either. Why don’t we call it a day?”

Isak stood and stretched as he gave a sorrowful look to Vidal before picking out a few books of his own for further reading. “Yeah...alright, just hang in there alright buddy?”

As Isak reached a hand out to pat the rock man on the arm, he froze and pulled back before turning his palm over to stare at it. All the books down here that they went through that were rarely touched had been dirty, mixed in with a bit of blood, probably some sweat as well after a warm day.

He curled his palm shut as he pulled away with drooping eyes, not wanting to find that perfect unknown combo that turned out to be Vidal’s reset. “Hey Xoco uh, what time is it?”

Xoco quickly pretended she had been looking at something else rather than someone lost in poorly hidden rumination. She gave a small flinch as she herself tried to hide a bit of contemplation before pulling out her pocket watch from her bag and having her eyes go wide at the time. “Oh! Oh goodness you’re right! We’ll be late for meeting Zyn and Tonauac!”

The two quickly gathered the last of the books they wanted to take before placing the remaining ones back on their shelves, not wanting to start the year off with an angry horde of librarians after them. A horde that seemed to be always working full time as they passed no less than a dozen library workers on the way to checking out their books at one of the exits.

“Excuse me but uh, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about this book would you?” Isak asked as the librarian finished stamping. The older drow man dressed in dark blues held the book up, carefully inspecting the spine and a few pages within. His eyes narrowed, magnifying all the creases and lines around them.

“Afraid not, lad. It’s nothing I recognize.” He smiled, pushing the book back to Isak. “If you would like to leave it with me I could ask some of the professors here?”

“NO!” Isak quickly lowered his voice while putting on a smile. “Uh, no thanks sorry. We really have to be getting somewhere soon! But thanks! And sorry for the yelling.”

The old drow looked a bit concerned with the slightest frown lasting only a moment before his smile returned to politely inform Xoco that she would have to choose 2 books to leave behind as she was at her limit. The jungle troll gave a subdued groan as she picked two that were largely for her own entertainment, sighed, and surrendered them to the librarian.

“Don’t worry.” He assured her as he carefully handed them to his tunnel squid who immediately sorted them onto a cart. “I can confirm that this latest in the adventures of ‘Yatzil in The Sky City’ is worth the wait.”

Xoco’s eyes went wide as her lips curled into a smile. “Does she-”

“Ah ah, you shall need to read about that yourself.” The old man held up a single finger as the tall girl loomed over him in his seat. She grit her teeth, pouting slightly but relenting.

“Another day then.” Xoco lamented as an amused Isak took mental notes with serious look about him.

The two ascended the spiral staircase, blinking hard a few times as windows once again became a thing after they were no longer underground in a short transitional room letting out just a short ways away from the dining hall and the large clock it bore on its exterior ticking away. The small group had all agreed to meet here earlier to celebrate their first day being done. No further plans had been made past that, and all celebrations would be of the “whatever sounds good at the time” variety.

They had decided on this location, just in front of the old stone ruins, as it was central enough with a clear view of the large clock to help with planning and scheduling. Many students used “Relic Square” for similar purposes as a gathering area, and thanks to Zyn it was known that long ago the institute had planted more trees and installed more benches to accommodate the popular spot. There were even a few currently extinguished magelight lantern posts of coated steel to stand up to the ocean air.

It was there on one bench that Zyn and Tonauac were currently sitting and waved for the arriving pair to join them as the drow boy grinned from pointed ear to pointed ear as he pat the large burlap sack filled with something lumpy he had on the ground before him.

“Okay.” Isak raised an eyebrow, looking at Zyn’s precious prize. “Call me curious. What’s in the bag?”

“Well, Curious, it is this afternoon slash evening’s entertainment!” He pulled open the drawstring to reveal several freshly picked coconuts. “Also possibly appetizers!”

Xoco and Isak both gave searching looks to the drow as they tried to piece together whatever he could possibly be talking about. Tonauac looked between both the newly arrived pair and the drow several times as the confusion and mystery refused to subside.

“Should...should I tell them?” The lizardlad asked.

“No, see it’s great really!” Zyn said as he hoisted a coconut out and held it aloft. “See I was thinking, we had things kinda like this back home and Ozzy liked to bite a hole in them, eat the insides, and use it as a hidey house. So as I discover these ‘coconuts’ here I think hey, food for Ozzy? And I think hey, Vidal can probably hit things with lightning and whatnot, how better to test it out on a technically fleshy target and see what he can do?”

Tonauac cleared his throat, tail flicking in mild annoyance behind him through the bench that lacked a lower back like so many others produced for the population as a whole. “Zyn was going to try climbing one of those trees and possibly fall and hurt himself-”

“I would never!” Zyn defended.

“-but I pointed out Patli could just fly up there and save everyone the trouble!” Tonauac gave a pat to the great multicolored vulture on his shoulder. “Also he found several tree crabs and shared one so Ozzy was still happy. Does Nelli eat crustaceans?”

The lizardfolk held out a still freshly impaled with a beak crab to Xoco and the feathered serpent around her neck. She put a finger to her lip as she leaned in before frowning and shaking her head as Nelli turned her nose away from it. “Too crunchy for her.”

“Just as I had feared.” Tonauac shook his head. “However I still wanted to be thoughtful with Patli’s bountiful harvest of crabs and coconuts! Vidal! Do you...do you eat?”

“No.” His voice boomed.

“Worth an ask!” The lizardfolk split the small crustacean in half and tossed one half up to Patli who hopped off his shoulder to pick out the meat, and the other half to Ozzy who slithered closer from the bench’s backrest to begin feasting. “And I will be more than happy to eat any smashed up bits of coconut so they don’t go to waste! Research and a delicious meal!”

Isak crossed his arms with a grin. “That had better not be your entire dinner plans.”

“Says the man who took only a few bites of lunch!” Tonauac wagged a finger at him. “You too, Xoco! Both of you didn’t get nearly enough to eat with those hot blooded metabolisms of yours!”

“That’s not true!” Xoco held up a hand in defense. “We went out for lunch 2 after we were done with our last class of the day!”

If he didn’t look at him, Isak wouldn’t have to acknowledge Zyn’s growing grin and knowing look. If he didn’t acknowledge it, it didn’t exist. So the drow bearing the smuggest grin right now and leaning back against the bench with raised eyebrows out of the corner of his vision did not exist.

“Really? Lunch 2? A wise decision!” Tonauac cheered back up with his version of a smile, mostly existing in his eyes. “It’s good that you two were looking out for one another!”

Peripheral vision absolutely did not count. Isak had gone without a haircut for a while now and his hair was starting to reach down to his collar. With a slight tilt of his head to free a few locks from behind his ear it further blocked vision of that theoretical entity that did not exist. And Zyn still did not exist as Isak kept his eyes focused on Tonauac and not any nosy drow smirking clear through him right now.

“And your coconut dinner?” Xoco asked, crossing her own arms and raising a brow as she studied the lizardfolk.

Tonauac laughed, which for him involved a good deal of hissing. “As Zyn said, appetizers! And you should know I don’t need as much to eat!”

“That,” Isak started in a firm tone after chewing at his lip, taking command of the conversation again as he finally uncrossed his arms. “sounds like a wonderful idea. It would be good to know just how uh…dangerous Vidal is if I don’t have him capture enemies. Of which I would like to be very clear, my friends are not.”

The four, even Zyn now, looked to Vidal with the smallest amount of concern after a moment for some confirmation.

“Acknowledged, no threats detected.”

The group breathed a sigh of collective relief as they made for the beach to test just how well founded their worry could be.