To gain and to lose

She had to return to the ocean just one more time... she had to go back to the nest and make sure that she wasn't there. Her heart was beating a thousand miles an hour as she clng tightly to Zinnath's back as they sped their way through the sky, towards the calm sea. 

She had been missing for three weeks... Hydrianna, her dragon, her mother had just up and disappeared. At first, she thought she had done something wrong... then she thought maybe Hydrianna was just on a long hunt... but then the more time passed, the more Aayla could feel the dread of the situation weighing down on her. Her mother was gone.. she had left her behind...

The thoughts of her leaving brought tears to her eyes as the two raced through the clouds above the calm Sea. She could tell exactly where their nest was even without being in the water yet. As they sped their way upwards nto the clouds to gain a little bit more momentum, Zinnath (the Serpent) bumped into something on her way up, easily tossing it aside however as they continued to climb before suddenly diving back down towards the water below.

Zinnath dived down until she nearly hit the water, but pulled an impressive stop while Aayla jumped off of her back and propelled herself down into the depths of the Ocean, hoping to find her mother returned to their nest. Meanwhile, Zinnath beat her powerful wings to stay airborn, glancing up towards the sky once more as she wondered just what it was she ran into.

Zinnath's eyes landed on the cloud that had formed seemingly out of no where, picking up the dropping form that she had hit earlier. Apparently, she had hit a human of sorts... a human that had no fear of the large Serpent and came down, floating on his cloud to talk to her. At first, Zinnath readied her hydro pump, a magic circle appearing before her large mouth, however as the human man sat down, the circle disappeared. What was she supposed to do with this human? What would Aayla do with him..? Then he asked her what she was and found herself unable to reply, only sticking out her tongue, tasting the air around them and taking in the man's scent. She thought of her of response before plunging herself down into the ocean, swimming only far enough to reach the other side of the man's cloud and bursting up out of the water again and flying back up into the air.

Aayla searched and searched but found nothing... no trace at all, not even a lingering scent. She sighed as she sat in the middle of the dark nest, being so far under the oceans surface, and pondered what to do. She would of course keep looking for Hydrianna.. but who knew what happened to her? She couldn't help but feel guilty... as if the fact she couldn't find her meant that she had abandonned her, and not the other way around.

Unable to do anything about her lost dragon, she sighed and slowly began her ascent to the waters surface.

Aayla came up to the waters surface, barely disturbing the surface of the water as she  came up. She brought her hands up to pull her long blue hair back, now wishing she had thought to bring a hair tie with her. When she let her hair go, it fell like waves around her shoulders. She stopped fiddling with er hair though when a strange scent caught her nose, causing her to sharply look up at a low hanging cloud that Zinnath seemed to be entertaining herself with. It definitely smelled like another person up there, and as soon as he started yelling, her eyes narrowed on the cloud. She wouldn't let anybody eat her friend!

She let herself sink back underwater before swimming under the cloud and staying underwater, watching and listening...

As soon as Lucas yelled, Zinanth recoiled, beating her wings heavily to get away from the strange human on the cloud, and when she could smell his magic coming for her, she opened her mouth as a magic circle appeared there once more. This time, the Serpent didn't hesitate as a large jet of water shot free from the Serpents mouth, aimed to knock the man off his cloud for frightening her.

Aayla watched as Zinnath let loose a hydro pump on whatever was on the cloud. It never hit though as clouds suddenly formed in a triple layers barrier, blocking her target from getting hit by Zinnath's attack. She frowned as she swam back up to the surface of the water, bringing her hands to her lips as she whistled loudly, causing the large Serpents head to look down. Once she saw Aayla, she abandonned the man on the cloud, diving back down into the water once more.

This time when the Serpent emerged, the water dragon slayer was standing on her back, water clinging to her hands as she prepared to attack the person only if he attacked her first. Zinnath flew up to be level with the cloud again as Aayla's eyes landed on the form of the man standing there.

"What are you trying to do to my friend?"
She demanded of him, a stern look on the little girls face that was only betrayed by the slight fidgeting of her feet. She hadn't seen everything that had happened and therefore didn't understand that the other was just trying to be friendly, she could only act on what emotions she could feel coming from the Serpent which were confusion and uncertainty.

"O... oh..."
The water that had built up around her hands dropped back into the ocean as she carefully sat down on Zinnath, taking in the frame of this new man... and his strange expressions. He was actually kind of funny once she relaxed a little.

"I'm sorry... Zinny just seemed so defensive I thougt maybe you'd attacked her...  It's not easy to earn a Sea Serpents trust you know... but once you do... they're your best friends, and they grow differently depending on those around them too..."
She began but froze when he accused her of hitting him first. Her face lushed as she brought her hands to her knees and bowed her head towards the man.

"I'm so sorry... I needed Zinnath to gain altitude so I could drop farther into the water... we were looking for something... and hey... Zinnath's not a pet, i'm not her owner. We're partners, she doesn't have to stay with me if she doesn't want too."
The girl instinctively ran her hand down the back of one of her side fins however, causing the Serpent to shake her head lightly and fly closer to the clouds. Once close enough, Aayla leaped off of Zinnath's back and onto the cloud, drawing the water from it, and the ocean to create a semi stable surface for her to stay afloat on. She had never tried anything quite like this before, and had her hands extended to make sure she didn't lose her balance until she got down onto her knees and once more bowed her head politely.

"I am very sorry we hit you Mr. Cloud man... if you're hungry, maybe I could catch a few fish for you to eat?"
She offered the man as Zinanth curiously flew around the cloud to continue staring at Lucas.

Aayla wobbled slightly, even while kneeling down, her face suddenly gaining a green tint as the cloud began to move, her motion sickness quick to kick in. She brought her hand up to her mouth as if she was going to be sick.

"Oh... boy... uhm... that seems like... like it will... take forever to... catch a fish... hmm.."
She waved Zinnath down, beckoning her closer and she quickly jumped off of the cloud and clinging to Zinnath, taking in a deep breath to get over the sick feeling that had just washed over for her.

" This is much faster..."
She said with a relieved sigh before rubbing Zinnath's scales. The two plummeted once more towards the water, plunging straight down into the Ocean. They swam down and down and down, careful to mind the others method of fishing. 

Aayla got off of Zinnath's back, letting the Serpent fold in her wings and swim off on her own to go hunting while Aayla swam herself towards a school of fish. She let her body 'disappear' with the water, disguising herself as she swam into the school, her water claws raised. She swam alongside the fish for a while before driving her claws straight into a pair of the fish. 


"Hehe"
She giggled as her body returned to normal. The fish freaked out at the sudden attack and dispersed, swimming away in mad confusion from the predator. She swam back up to the surface of the ocean, looking around for Zinnath while holding the fish above the water.

"I don't think so... she's probably off chasing a shark or something..."
She said non chalantly, as if that was something you heard every day. In truth, fighting it out with a shark was something Zinnath loved doing. They weren't easy prey, they put up just enough of a fight for the Serpent to feel content with her catch.

Whenever Zinnath came back to the surface though, she had a big, nastly dead octopus in her mouth, causing Aayla to stick out her tongue and make a face at the sight.

"Eww... Zinny..."
Zinnath looked confused whenever Aayla didn't seem pleased with her catch, ink was dripping from her nose as she bit down harder onto the octopus.

"I'm sorry... i suppose you'll be wanting to cook these now right?"
She asked with a light smile, wondering why it was she felt suddenly so friendly with the man.

Aayla reached up and gave Lucas only one of her fish, keeping the other impaled on her watery claws as she brought her hands to her side and drew two waves of water towards her, manipulating it into a funnel that she used to leap back up on top of Lucas' cloud. She watched what he did as he began to cook the fish from his cloud, wondering if that would actually work. In the mean time however she used her claw to put of the fish's head and yank at the exposed bones, pulling them out and tossing it down onto the ocean's surface where Zinanth's eyes darted.

The serpent didn't go for the head, yet, as she was still working on downing the Octopus, bringing it into her mouth a little bit more at a time, eating the creature whole. Meanwhile, on the cloud, Aayla bit into her raw fish as she watched Lucas cook. Eating the sea creatures uncooked was another perk of her being a dragon slayer... she had lived underwater for a long time with her dragon and had no means to cook the food they caught. It took some getting used too, but now she found that she much rather eat the fish raw.

"That's really cool... I can't even hear the lightning... hunh... oh... I'm sorry too, my name is Aayla, Aayla Mizune. I'm a Sabertooth Wizard. It's nice to meet you."
She said with a bright smile once she had finished her small bite of fish.

Spoiler:

The smell of the fish was amazing, enough to make her sniff lightly at the air to get a better smell of it. Maybe she should have just given up both fish and let him cook them both... Nah there was a much more natural flavor to eating it raw. She went to shake Lucas's hand, a bubble of water appearing there and rinsing off her hand before she took it with a grin before returning to her meal.

She ate the fish rather fast, having only just noticed herself that she hadn't eaten in quite some time... she hadn't bothered to stop and eat while she looked for her mother, a thought with made her sigh lightly as she tossed the tail over to Zinnath, who now swam over to eat it, and the head of the fish tossed earlier.

When Lucas asked about how long she had been in Sabertooth, she tilted her head to the side, her hand going up to her chin as she thought about it. She was almost 15 now... which meant she had been in the guild...

"Maybe... 6 months? I'm still pretty new to Sabertooth but... it feels like I've been there for much longer. It's so much fun there... I have so many friends there that I never thought I could have at all... They've been really nice to me.."
She said wth a soft smile returning to her face as she looked at him.

"What about you? Are you in a guild?"

"Really? I thought all wizards were in a guild of some sort... it's the easier way to make jewel isn't it?"
She asked curiosuly as she smiled brightly when the chopsticks were offered. She was really excited to taste the fish he had just cooked as the smell nearly had the young dragon slayer drooling. She unwrapped them and carefully took the fish Lucas had left there, opening it as he did to let the steam out before speaking again.

"Guilds... they're like big families... at least mine is... When I joined Sabertooth... I was being hunted by dark wizards who had been sent after me... the minute I stepped onto their front door... Marick and Mr Zenshin took me in right away... they didn't even hesitate... the didn't ask me who I was or why I was there... they saw I was in trouble and took me in."
Her cheeks flushed slightly as she smiled and took the first small bite of the fish.

"I'll never forget that... they'll always be more than my friends... they're my family... and I have to keep getting stronger...for them..."

Aayla's face blushed brightly as she continued to take smaller, more polie bites of the cooked fish. She hadn't really thought of what she looked like eating the fish raw... it was so normal to her that it didn't occur to her she might be being un lady-like. So, she tried to eat this fish much more properly.

"I didn't think there was... anyone as good as they are I mean... it was really wierd to find them... but i'm glad I did. You should come by Sabertooth for a visit sometime! I"m sure you could learn a whole lot about guilds if you did."

She stated with a bright smile before finishing her fish. She had tried to be so polite eating it, but she had still eaten it pretty fast.

"Oh... hehe... the fish was very good. Thank you."
She said politely just as Zinnath took off from the Water's surface, speading her wings and showering both humans with water. If serpents would of been able to grin, Zinnath's would have the most mischevious grin of all as Aayla shot her a frown and a pout.