“I’ve seen a spell like that before.” Tonauac said, taking the coconut from Vidal for inspection. “Water Whip, I think. Quite advanced.”

Isak nodded, unable to suppress another giddy laugh. “Water Whip it is. I was going to go with Water Tentacle but I don’t want to step on Ozzy’s feet here. Metaphorically speaking. Same reason I ruled out water snake, and more metaphorical feet.”

Ozzy chirped and Nelli squeaked their approval from their places on their respective mages’ shoulders. Xoco gave Nelli a few scritches as she studied Vidal.

“His words do not change when he performs his er...spell equivalents.” The jungle troll circled around Vidal a few times, inspecting every rune she could find with narrowed pink eyes. “In hindsight I’m not sure I was fully expecting them to change, but it is still notable.”

“What if some of those words are like spell names?” Isak asked, studying Vidal even harder for any answers.

Xoco fixed a few wayward strands from her long, violet colored braid as she thought about it. “Hmmm, I suppose that is possible...and a valuable avenue of investigation.”

“You know back in the bad old days of the Queens, they would use slave tattoos as a form of control.” The drow grimaced like he had tasted something bitter and revolting as he pressed on with the history lesson. “Not quite like Vidal with his elements but um.”

The mood had quickly gone somber as the group waited for Zyn to finish speaking. Even all this time later it was a nasty topic to get through.

“Well they figured out how to manipulate living bodies for various nefarious purposes, long term survival optional. The Dwerrow Kings had their own grim experiments in magic so reading about wars in Mu is as rough as reading far back enough on family history.” His red eyes weren’t as vibrant as they usually were, though Ozzy was the first to give him a slight hug around his shoulders.

Followed shortly by his three friends patting him on the back, offering their own condolences. His was one of many all too common stories when digging back to pre-empire days. Just about every people had their own tales of horrors of The Old Masters in whatever form they took. It was something taught in schools and passed down through families as a grim reminder of what once was.

“I was unaware of this.” Xoco said in a somber tone, though she did her best to stray away from the sadness. “But knowing such things could be quite useful here in figuring out Vidal.”

“Yeah, show he's about as old as I thought he was.” Isak moved to rest a hand on Vidal, stopping himself once more as he tried to play it off as running a hand through his black hair. “That or Kazimir is a real trailblazer.”

Tonauac, unsure of what else he could really say looked over the coconut he was still holding as a good enough distraction. “This coconut is still good to be used as target practice. And I know it’s up to Isak but I for one would love to see a coconut get hit by a full on bolt of lightning.”

The group all agreed, aware of the obvious distraction but fully willing to engage in it. Vidal was handed the coconut and with a Water Whip set it down perfectly in place on the driftwood. Isak cast a small spark on him to switch him to his lightning form and everyone took a few steps back as he described this “Lightning Lance” being a lethal attack, reserved only for monsters and very very bad guys as Isak put it. Vidal’s hand changed to a four prong configuration as Isak commanded a Lightning Lance on the coconut.

A split second, and a flash of light later with a low hum and the coconut was incinerated by a bolt of lightning.

The group looked at the smouldering black husk and broke into a collective nervous laughter.

“Still gonna eat it?” Zyn asked in between marvelling at Vidal’s work.

“It’ll just be crispy!” Tonauac laughed.

“I’ll get it this time.” Zyn insisted, using his simple frost spell to cool it just enough to pick up with his bare hands, carrying it back to Tonauac who found it crumbled enough to need no further assistance in cracking it open for the charred remains that he defiantly ate through bouts of coughing from the char.

Xoco was busy scribbling away in her notebook as she spoke. “Don’t mind me, just looking for any recurring patterns between forms.”

“Well fire is next so step back, wouldn’t want you getting too hot.” Isak said to the jungle troll before finding a way to trip over himself verbally. “N-not that such a thing would ever be possible! Too hot I mean...uh, uh see because you’re still very cool! I’ll go place the coconut!”

“You sure?” Zyn said with the smuggest grin again. “Pretty sure it was Xoco’s turn.”

“Too late already going!” Isak shouted over Xoco’s amused giggling and Tonauac’s confused looks between charred hunks of coconut still making him cough as Patli gave the lizardlad affectionate headbutts out of sympathy.

Isak winced, letting out a deep sigh as soon as he was out of earshot enough for the sounds of surf to cover his anguish and muttered promises to himself to just stop talking. When he finally turned back around after having grabbed a small piece of driftwood, Zyn was still giving him a knowing grin and Xoco was still blithely smiling as she tucked her notebook away in her book bag. There was a sort of technical balance there, and whatever it was Tonauac choking down the last of the extra crispy coconut with a final cough sure did something to it. Though Isak had no idea of the specifics of it.

Vidal was good and clear of his friends, who had given the rock man plenty of room as Isak sparked his piece of driftwood into a small flame. He touched the flame to Vidal, causing his fire form to burst forth and light up the already fading afternoon on the beach.

“Alright buddy, how about we go with uhhh. Flame Blast. Nice and easy, distinct enough from certain fire spells I’m absolutely learning for you later on. Make this one something you would use on a monster, big ball of flame.” Isak assured him, taking several steps back to join his friends before shouting his instruction. “Flame Blast that coconut!”

The rock man raised his arm, hand once again morphing into a similar shape to the water nozzle, though distinct enough as Vidal launched a large ball of flame at the coconut. It hit with a small explosion of flame, leaving only the slightest charred remains behind and the driftwood log now ignited in small flames in a few places.

“Is that one going to be too crispy for you?” Zyn elbowed Tonauac.

Tonauac’s tail flitted about in the sand behind him. “That one might be a bit too crunchy.”

Xoco watched the flames of the large log crackle and spread. “It’s different from dragon’s fire. More...explosion, less coated with burning.”

“Less chance of unintentional spread.” Isak noted, casting another light mist of a storm spell on Vidal. “I can work with that. Also, Vidal put out the flames please.”

The rock man raised a nozzle arm and directed a spray of water to hose down the log until all flames were extinguished. Having had more than their fill of learning for the day, even the more fun varieties, the group sat in the sand and talked for some time about their first day of classes. Roughly equal parts complaints and excitement as they traded stories. Isak avoided talking about Basics of Familiar Use and Bonding, and none took notice. He only ever talked about it going “fine”.

After a time, the group started walking back to the main hall for dinner while Vidal carried the sack of coconuts that Tonauac had insisted his mammalian friends divide between themselves after dinner. A dinner which luckily involved no coconut this time after they had gotten their fill of the fruit earlier.

Dinner conversations had drifted away from school entirely in an unconscious effort to take what time they could away from learning while they could before classes really ramped up. Towards the end of dinner, as they picked at the last of their meals amongst a crowded dining hall slowly emptying of students returning to their dormitories the topic changed to literature as they walked one another to their respective dorms, starting with Tonauac’s.

“I had heard about that series, the sky city one?” Zyn asked as the group made their way up the flight of stairs to Tonauac’s top floor dorm.

“It’s my favorite new series!” Xoco was excited enough that she was forgetting to not skip steps and leave even Tonauac scrambling to keep up on the stairs, while Zyn and Isak suffered most. “Well, not new new but three books in three years and it’s really taken off back home to the point where it’s starting to get pretty big elsewhere too and I know that usually happens with the capitol but this one is really really good and the charactersandworldthewritercraftsarealljustsoamazinganditsobviousalotofthoughtwentintothemand-”

“I can recommend it too!” Tonauac interrupted her, trying to give the tall jungle troll enough pause to allow his shorter companions time to catch up. “Some might say the first book starts out a bit slow but just like ‘Under Stranger Stars’ it really picks up!”

“Oh I love that series!” Zyn perked up with a broad smile. “Any idea when book five is coming out?”

Tonauac shrugged, and Xoco slowed down to listen. “Last I heard was ‘next year’, and I swear he’s timing it to a comet’s appearance. Not the first time he’s done that.”

“Ah!” Xoco cried out. “Book four of ‘Yatzil in The Sky City’ was released in the capital on the day of an eclipse a few years back!”

Isak had been utterly and completely lost this whole time as he trailed behind, letting his friends talk. “So uh...this city is big enough for that many books?”

It was a genuine question, as Isak had roughly zero experience inside of actual cities except for the very notable exceptions of travelling through a portal network to first arrive at Black Reef Institute.

“Absolutely massive!” Xoco held out her arms for emphasis, almost knocking one hand into Patli on his shoulder perch. “If you’ve ever read the ‘White Mountain, Starless Sky’ series it takes what it does for multiple regions but scales that down to a massive city level.”

Between gasping for air, Zyn waved his hands about. “Hey careful! I still haven’t read the most recent book of that one! Here I thought it was only popular in Mu.”

Isak cleared his throat, getting everyone’s attention and immediately regretting it. “I uh...I have never heard of any of those. Sorry…”

The three stopped on the upper floor, and Isak stared at the black and gray tile rather than face the questioning stares he could just feel boring through him for being an uncultured small town human. When he finally looked up to them he found his friends looking...guilty?

“I er, sorry.” Tonauac leaned against a wall, Patli flapping at the sudden movement.

Zyn pat his human friend on the shoulder. “Hey no worries! I’m sure you’ve got things that are just huge out in the Western Wastes we city kids have never heard of!”

“Probably some gems we’ve missed out on this whole time!” Xoco offered a pained smile, undercut by the amount of razor teeth she was showing.

This made little sense to Isak, and his face matched his uncertainty as he spoke. “Well, just a two book series uh...see it’s about this old guy and he’s trying to be this knight, even though knights are...well yeah. And people tell him that but he tells them well he’s going to be the knight people deserve instead of what they got. So he’s got his familiar, this old horse named Rocín and...yeah I’m probably boring all of you so-”

“No no! It’s fine!” Xoco held up her hands in defense. “Actually, I have an idea!”

Everyone shot a questioning look at her.

“Book club!” She announced with a cheer.

“Sounds an awful lot like more learning.” Zyn held his chin in his hand.

“Yes!” The jungle troll exclaimed, undeterred. “Learn about eachother’s favorite books, home district favorites, what home is like, and ancient pet rock secrets all in one!”

Tonauac tilted his head. “Sounds an awful lot like an excuse to just hang out when we don’t have other work to do with a focus towards reading. I’m in!”

“Reading and uncovering the mysterious origins of our local mystery.” Zyn pointed a thumb over his non-octopus-occupied shoulder to Vidal taking up enough room in the hall that other students had to awkwardly sidle by on their way to their dorms rather than raise any complaint against the mass of water and rock having to hunch over in the already tall hallways.

His friends finally looking to him expectantly, Isak was stuck waiting for the intense judgment to come after he let slip something he knew others would taunt him for, but that wasn’t happening. He gave a heavy exhale as he looked to each of them. “Yeah alright, good enough excuses to hang out...and uh, thanks.”

They all happily assured him it was no trouble at all, agreed to each find the first book in their respective favorite series to bring to the meetings despite Isak questioning how possible that would be for him, and agreed to have their first official meeting on the weekend at about the time that Tonauac made it to his dorm. The day had ended well for the group of friends, and any apprehension about what tomorrow and the rest of the year would bring had been successfully ignored for the time being.