Corey chuckled. "Yeah, sounds about right," he said with a grin. "Hell, I've never seen the ocean before. It's actually pretty neat. Besides the whole humidity thing."

"The ocean is really impressive," Faith admitted. "Though I think being in open water would freak me out. You never know what could be down there." Open sky she could do, she enjoyed flying with her dragon as much as the next rider, but open water was a whole other story.

"Yeah, I know the feeling. Flying is good. Swimming out in open water, not so much." Corey shrugged, sitting down in the mess hall.

Faith sat down next to him.

"So, what do you think we're going to do around here?" she asked. "I mean, if it's not so different than life back in the mountains, then we're probably going to be attending lessons just like usual." Which probably wouldn't be so bad, now that she thought about it. It wouldn't be quite as much like a break from her routine.

"I dunno. I suppose we'll be doing lessons like usual," Corey said with a shrug. "Maybe do some water things, since we're here instead of back in the mountains."

"That might be kind of fun," Faith replied. "Swimming and things, maybe? And I wouldn't mind going with Lapis on a flight around here, the landscape is kind of pretty this close to the ocean."

"Yeah. I wonder what else lives out there in the ocean." Corey had no idea; the biggest body of water he'd been to was a small lake up in the mountains, and that just had fish. So he was kind of curious to see what else lived out here.

And, like they'd suspected, dinner turned out to be fish.

Faith wasn't surprised that dinner was fish. Right on the ocean, that had to be practically a daily staple. It wasn't any kind of fish she'd ever seen before, though. Everything in the mountain lakes and rivers was different.

After dinner, everyone was shown to bed, and lessons continued as normal tomorrow. The dragons were allowed to go play in the water, and the riders got lessons in cleaning them properly using the fine sand on the beach.

Lapis clearly liked playing in the water, and the sand-scrubbing was wonderful on her scales. They shimmered in the sun, giving off a bit of a blue glow whenever the light hit them just right. Faith made a mental note to figure out how to find the same kind of fine-grained sand back home, so she could keep scrubbing Lapis with it every so often.

Vyren didn't hold still long enough to be scrubbed for any length of time. He was too interested in soaking Corey and the older rider when he came over to help. The older rider's dragon laughed at him when he gave up on Vyren after getting soaked.

Fortunately for Faith, Lapis was much better behaved. However, as soon as Faith was done cleaning her, Lapis went and jumped straight back into the water again. She was having the time of her life splashing around with the others.

Corey finally got out and started wringing himself out, wringing his hair out and trying to dry himself off as much as possible. "Thanks Vyren," he grumbled. Hopefully he'd dry out before dinner.

Faith couldn't help but giggle a bit. He really did look a little like a drowned rat when he got wet.

"You should probably go dry off," she said between giggles.

"I'm working on it," Corey grumbled with a little pout. But he tried to get himself as dry as possible, literally shaking himself out like a dog.

Faith grinned.

"I still think it's funny that Vyren likes splashing in the water," she said. "Lapis is a little better than that."

"Well Vyren's a brat." He continued grumbling, taking off his shirt briefly to wring all the water out of it. He wouldn't do it with his pants, but the shirt he could manage.

"I think dinner's supposed to be done pretty soon."

"Then it's a good thing home is in the mountains," Faith said. She glanced over to where Lapis was paddling around in the water. "I'll head inside in a little bit, I need to drag her out of the water and get her dry first."

"Eh. Vyren will dry himself off. Apparently he has some control over his body temperature." He shrugged. He thought that was kind of cool.

He didn't go inside just yet, though. Instead he just dried off a little more, pulled his shirt back on, and stretched out.

"Really?" Faith asked, curious. She didn't know the specifics about any dragon but her own. "That's kind of neat. Lapis floats, apparently, but I think most dragons do."

"Yeah, I've seen almost all of our dragons float," Corey confirmed. "I've seen a couple of the ocean dragons out there, though. They don't float. I've seen them dive right under Vyren before."

"I think I saw one, too," Faith said. "The thing was massive! I didn't know dragons got that big!" She thought about it for a moment. "It would make sense that they're neutrally buoyant, so they can swim. There's no use for such a thing up in the mountains, so none of our dragons evolved that way."

"Yeah, I figured so too. These guys fly, but I've never seen an ocean dragon fly. I think they have wings, though." He hadn't gotten close enough to one to really see. He didn't think much of anyone had, though. The ocean dragons were all so large and mostly stayed down under the water or in their underwater eyries. He still wanted to see one of those.

"I have no idea," Faith said. "I've never been close enough to one to tell. Maybe we could ask someone?" And while they were at it, they could probably ask about the underwater eyries. She'd wanted to see one, too.

"Maybe after dinner. Everyone seems to have free time after dinner," Corey suggested. "Besides, people are always happier after they get fed."