Corey actually blinked at that. "Um. Yeah. That sounds kinda weird," he agreed. "Unless you're secretly a magpie. The only thing I can really think of is that dragons like shiny things."

"Like I said," Faith replied, "I'm fairly sure it wasn't my dream. I just watched it." Which was an interesting concept, come to think of it, and she vaguely wondered if Lapis could see her dreams as well.

Corey shrugged. "Well, I guess it makes sense, since you two are bonded." It made more sense the more he thought about it. It hadn't happened to him yet, but now that he knew it could he was curious.

"A twisted sort of sense, maybe," Faith replied, grinning. 'Maybe you should ask around and see if anyone has a pearl that big,' she added, teasing Lapis. 'There has to be plenty of pretty shiny things around here that come out of the ocean.'

'Maybe' Lapis responded. 'One of the others told me about pearls and how pretty they were...'

'We'll see what we can find you,' Faith promised.

Corey shook his head. "Pearls. Honestly..." He'd never even seen a pearl before, and he had no use for them. So far, Vyren hadn't shown any interest in shiny things either.

Faith shrugged. She'd seen pearls before, she knew what they looked like, and really, she didn't see any reason why Lapis wouldn't want them after hearing about them. She was female, so she understood the desire for pretty things.

Corey sat down at the breakfast table, hungry now that all the excitement was over. It was kind of fun to watching hatchings. He made a mental note to attend every one he could within reason in the future. Watching the baby dragons stumble away with their dazed bonded was fun.

Faith sat down as well and immediately reached for the tea. She wanted something to help her wake up a little more, now that she was out of bed for the day. She wasn't used to her day starting quite THAT early.

Corey got some coffee and put a bit of milk in it before he drank it. Ah that was better. He felt much more awake now.

Corey, I caught a fish!

Vyren sounded so excited that Corey just had to laugh. Good job, he praised. You're getting better all the time.

Faith raised an eyebrow when Corey started laughing.

"Anything you'd like to share?" she teased. She had no idea what the dragons were up to at the moment, but she was certain Lapis would tell her if anything interesting was happening.

"Vyren caught a fish," Corey said with a big grin. "He was really proud of himself. It's the first fish he's ever caught."

Blech. It has a lot of scales... Vyren grumbled. But it is still tasty.

"And apparently fish have too many scales and fins for his taste." Corey grinned even wider.

Faith snickered. That mental image was just too amusing.

'Faith, why are fish so hard to catch?' Lapis suddenly asked. Faith snorted.

'Because they're fish, my lovely,' Faith replied.

'But Vyren caught one,' Lapis pointed out.

'Then ask him how he did it,' Faith said.

Corey grinned when some of the other mountain dragons started asking Vyren how he'd done it.

"Oh this is way too amusing," he said with a grin. "Apparently Vyren is now the expert fish catcher since he caught one fish."

"Actually, no, that might be my fault," Faith admitted, snickering. "Lapis was complaining that she couldn't catch a fish and Vyren could, so I suggested she ask."

"Well it seems all the others took your idea, too. Apparently most of them are asking him now." Corey snickered. "I think he's going to get annoyed pretty soon and go find something else to do, like bird hunting."

"Careful, they may end up following," Faith joked. "At least they all get along, I don't think we can ask for much more than that."

"Yeah, really. Although I still have never heard of dragons not getting along. Maybe just because we haven't been around for very long, but still." Corey shrugged. "It could be a lot worse, I suppose."

"There's probably tons we're going to figure out eventually," Faith said. She grinned. "Like the fact that apparently, mountain dragons like to swim."

"No kidding." Corey shook his head. "It's kind of fascinating, though. All the differences we've been spotting and all the things we've been learning. It's like school, only way more fun and with dragons instead of English and math and crap."

"English wasn't that bad," Faith protested half-heartedly. "But you're completely right. This is way more interesting than school ever was."

Corey grinned in a very "see? I told you so" way. Then he stretched out, pushing his plate back.

"I say we go hang out on the beach for a while and laze around. We haven't had much time to do any of that recently."

"Relaxing on the beach sounds like a wonderful idea," Faith agreed. She grinned. "It might even be warm enough to go swimming."

"It will be for sure if you're anywhere near Vyren," Corey said with a snort. "He warms up the water around him. Nutty dragon."

Still shaking his head, Corey got up and led the way out to the beach. A couple of the other dragonriders their age joined them, just relaxing and chatting and playing some games.

Faith absently looked around for pretty shells as the group walked along the beach. She wasn't sure if she'd find any, but it was always fun to look.

At about midday, a sudden swarm of people arrived at the beach.

"What the heck's going on?" Corey demanded of one of the Ocean riders.

"One of our best treasure finders is bringing back the things she doesn't want," the rider said with a big grin. "Our dragons can dive and find gems and things on the bottom of the ocean, and they dump the things that they don't want off at the beach. It's kind of a free for all once they hit the sand, though."

Corey blinked, perplexed, and looked over at Faith. "Did that make sense to you? Is this a female thing?"