Day 79,

Fathom spent the day organizing his things and hiding his more valuable possessions. He says that dragons normally ask their neighbors to look after their territories, which seems like a great amount of trust to give, but apparently it's a common courtesy for neighbors.

Unfortunately, that's not an option for us, as any dragon flying around Fathom's territory would risk seeing the Horizon. We've been lucky so far with no one coming to visit Fathom, but I can't just leave the ship here for anyone to find, so tomorrow I'll drive the ship a hundred kilometers out into the open ocean so that I can hide it beyond the curvature of the Earth.

It would still be visible if a dragon flew high enough, but they'd have to be looking for something out on the ocean to begin with, and there's no reason to do that if no one knows I'm here.

Fathom told me about the two dragons Celeste is living with, Ghorrah and Jooral. He also taught me that the -ǂ suffix at the end of their names is something like an honorific. Jooral is notably renowned as a skilled artisan, and her skills are certainly something I'm looking forward to seeing.

I'm excited to be meeting new dragons, but I would be lying if I said I weren't a little anxious.

Alas, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[Expedition Day 79]

"Wake up, Pryce," Fathom said, nosing Pryce awake.

"Wha…?" Pryce asked, rubbing his eyes. The sun had set some time ago, and he had never seen Fathom fly at night before. "Why aren't you sleeping? And where are you going?"

"I need to do something," Fathom said evasively as he added more wood to the fire. "I will be back in about twenty minutes. You will be safe here if you don't leave the cave, but have your rifle ready."

"Oh. Okay…?" Pryce said, frowning at the odd behavior.

"Don't fall asleep," Fathom said, giving one last warning before darting out of the cave.

A few moments later Pryce heard the sound of departing wingbeats, and he was left alone in the cave with his thoughts.

True to his word, Fathom returned about twenty minutes later, his spines quivering with anticipation.

"Get ready to fly," Fathom said, shrugging on the flying harness without further preamble.

"What?" Pryce asked, confused by the odd request.

Fathom didn't seem agitated; if anything he seemed excited, judging by the state of his spines.

"Why? Is something wrong?"

"Just come with me," Fathom coaxed as he nudged Pryce up. "I want to show you something interesting. Bring a container and a microscope," he added.

The dragon seemed determined to be unforthcoming, so Pryce did as he was told, packing the items into his backpack and donning his makeshift flight gear before clipping himself onto the base of Fathom's neck.

"Ready?" Fathom asked, and broke into a run upon hearing Pryce's affirmative. The moment the dragon gathered enough speed he leapt off the side of the mountain, flapping his wings as he soared to the northeast.

"We're not going far, are we?" Pryce asked as Fathom levelled out into a glide. The gibbous moon shone bright above them, illuminating the forest canopy below them.

"We will be there in a few minutes," Fathom said, without turning his head back.

"And when are you going to tell me where we're going?" Pryce asked.

"The ocean!" Fathom called back, an excited undertone in his voice.

"Why?"

"It is easier to see than to explain!"

Any subsequent questions from Pryce only returned other similarly unhelpful answers, so the human gave up on his line of inquiry until they reached the shoreline.

"So, what are we-"

Pryce trailed off in bafflement as he tried to process what he was seeing.

The night had brought about gentler winds for a more tranquil sea, but what Pryce saw before him was an entire region of unnaturally calm water, several hundred meters across and nearly one kilometer long. It was as if some force had smoothed out the wrinkles of an unimaginably vast swathe of cloth, leaving the areas outside of its influence untouched.

"What…is that?" Pryce asked, completely baffled by the bizarre sight.

"I made that using my oil," Fathom candidly replied, to which Pryce could only gape in silence. "Don't you know why oil does that? I thought you could explain it to me," he said, sounding surprised and a little disappointed.

"I know oil floats on top of water, but I didn't know it could do this to the ocean," Pryce frowned. "It must be stopping the waves before they even form, somehow…" he trailed off, taking in the beauty of the scene – the ocean surface was nearly flat, and it reflected the moon and stars above almost like a mirror. "It's very beautiful; I can see why you wanted to show this to me."

"I didn't bring you here just to show you this," Fathom said, chuffing in amusement. "Hold on!"

This was the sole warning Fathom gave before he snapped his wings shut.

Pryce stifled a yelp, clinging to the back of Fathom's neck as they plummeted through the sky. They fell for several seconds before Fathom flared his wings, pulling up into a glide just over the ocean surface.

"What are you doing-!" Pryce exclaimed, but then Fathom banked right, and the human was silenced by the sight of the dragon dragging a wingtip through a brightly glowing ocean.

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"What…is that?" Pryce breathed in awe.

"Shining waters," Fathom replied, alternating wings to straighten his course. "They can be found during some parts of the year; I was looking for them so I can show them to you."

"They're beautiful," Pryce whispered. "I've never heard of anything like this before."

"They're not on the Mainland? What do you think causes it?" Fathom craned his head around to ask, his red eyes brightly reflecting the moonlight.

"They have to be some kind of life, bacteria, maybe. Oh, that's why you wanted me to bring the microscope!"

"Yes!" Fathom said, bobbing his head as he angled himself back to land.

"Can we fly a little longer?" Pryce asked hopefully, glancing down at the unassuming ocean.

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Fathom did not immediately answer, and for a moment Pryce thought his question hadn't been heard. "It is…a little dangerous to do this for very long," the dragon admitted as he made to land. "Once or twice is safe, especially if I fly fast, but the light still attracts large predators. We can fly some more after we use the microscope."

"Oh," Pryce said, feeling a little silly. That would have been obvious if he'd taken the time to think about it.

Each beat of Fathom's wings caused the wet sand below them to pulse with light, up until the dragon snapped them shut.

Pryce immediately dismounted to collect a sample of the glowing water, though he paused to observe his own footsteps which glowed for a moment before fading into normalcy.

"Fun, isn't it?" Fathom asked, drawing a few glowing arcs into the sand.

"Yes, it is," Pryce chuckled, swishing the water bottle around with more force than was strictly necessary.

Fathom crowded over his shoulder as he set up the microscope, laying the fine instrument and its battery on top of his backpack to keep them dry. He placed a drop of water onto a glass slide, then slid it under the microscope.

"What do you see?" Fathom asked, nearly nosing Pryce aside to see what was going on.

"Just hold on a second!" Pryce scolded, without any heat. He set the backlight to the lowest setting, then tapped the glass slide with a fingernail.

Sure enough, the multitude of microscopic creatures pulsed with light in time with each of his taps.

"Yep, they're living things," Pryce said, moving aside to let Fathom hover over an eyepiece. "You can see them light up when you tap the slide."

"It really is alive," Fathom said, gently tapping the microscope's stage with a talon. "I have never heard of anyone who thought fiery water was caused by tiny animals…most of us think fiery water is just water with lots of fire."

Pryce furrowed his brow. "How can water have lots of fire?"

"The same way living things have fire," Fathom said, glancing at Pryce in confusion. "Dragons are more alive, so that is why we are different from other animals, and why we can make fires."

"Oh," Pryce murmured. It was very obviously wrong, but upon considering the idea for a few moments he realized that it wasn't terribly dissimilar from the human concept of metaphorical 'energy'.

"But then, humans are smart, and you have no fires at all," Fathom hummed. "I suppose this means that this belief is wrong, then?"

"Probably, yeah," Pryce shrugged. Perhaps he'd ask for a clearer definition of 'fire' in the future, but for now he decided to relax and take in the magical view before him. "I wonder why they glow," he mused as each wave caused a bloom of ethereal blue light. "It must have a purpose…they only glow when disturbed, so maybe it's a defense of some kind?"

"I don't see how this is useful as a defense," Fathom replied absently. "Glowing just makes it easier for a predator to find you."

"Maybe if only one glowed," Pryce admitted, "but if everyone glowed then that might overwhelm a predator. Or it could be something else, and I could be completely wrong."

"Mmm," Fathom rumbled.

Pryce glanced back at the dragon to see him looking not through the microscope, but off into the distance.

"Is something the matter?" Pryce asked.

"No," Fathom said, tossing his head. "If there were dolphins in the water, then I would know that it is safe," Fathom said as he glanced around. "I tried calling them over earlier, but they didn't come."

"Calling them over?" Pryce asked. "You can do that?"

"Sometimes we hunt together," Fathom said offhandedly. "They hunt fish under water, I catch the ones that jump above water, and we share the fish. I'll try calling them again."

Pryce watched as the dragon took a deep breath, stuck his head into the ocean, and made a strange yet loud clicking noise.

"How did you figure that out?" Pryce asked when Fathom lifted his head out of the water. "That you could hunt with the dolphins, I mean."

"Other dragons have done it for a very long time," Fathom shrugged. "You just need to feed them a bit of food, then they will understand that you want to work together."

"I see," Pryce said, wondering how far back that mutualistic relationship went. "How smart are the dolphins? Do you know if they have a language?"

"We can communicate a little, but not much," Fathom shrugged. "They will understand if I tell them to follow me, or to be ready to catch a fish, and I can understand when they want me to do the same, but it is hard to teach them anything else…mostly because they have no limbs."

"Fins still count as limbs, but I know what you mean," Pryce nodded. Establishing context would be difficult without proper limbs.

"I think they have a name for me. It sounds like ǂǂǂǂǂǂǂǂ," he said, making a very odd and rapid series of clicks and chirps.

"Interesting," Pryce murmured. "That's definitely not something a human can pronounce."

They waited for a response for several minutes, but nothing seemed to happen. "Hmm," Fathom rumbled, turning around to stare into the forest behind them.

"Is there something in the forest?" Pryce asked warily.

"No," Fathom said, tossing his head. "It looks like they aren't around, but I have another idea. You said humans hunt for fish using food on a string, right?"

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Pryce asked as Fathom arced through the skies.

"Of course!" Fathom laughed, dropping the log into the water. Pryce couldn't see below them, but he heard the log splash into the water, and several seconds later a weak jolt told him that the vine Fathom held had gone taut.

A glance behind him showed a glowing trail left behind the log as it was dragged through the ocean. "It looks like it's working!" Pryce called out.

"Good! Keep watching it!" Fathom replied, beating his wings to gain a little more altitude.

Pryce did as he asked, and scarcely a minute later he spotted an immense outline glowing beneath the waves, moving at a ridiculous speed towards their 'bait'.

"I see something!" Pryce exclaimed.

The creature struck the instant Pryce finished his sentence, and his eyes bulged wide open as a gargantuan predator shot out of the water. Luminescent saltwater clung to the creature's body, revealing its silhouette to be similar to that of a finned crocodilian, albeit far larger than any Pryce had ever heard described.

Fathom twisted about, tossing away the vine he held in his talons – he must have seen the glowing vine trailing out of the creature's mouth as it fell back into the ocean, sending a great plume of water into the sky. The myriad water droplets rained back down upon the ocean, causing it to glimmer with a thousand tiny blips of light.

The creature returned to the depths as quickly as it arrived, leaving behind only a tumultuous surface and a glowing trail deep beneath the waves.

"What the hell was that?" Pryce questioned as Fathom flew back home.

"That was an ocean crocodile," Fathom said, turning his head to reply. "It was probably why the dolphins didn't come."

"You were trying to bait that thing?" Pryce asked incredulously.

"It's safe, I was flying higher than they can jump," Fathom said brusquely. "That one was a little smaller than most; I wanted to show you a bigger one."

"They get bigger?" Pryce demanded. It was hard to be certain just how large the ocean crocodile was, but it was easily twice as long as Fathom, and far more massive.

"Yes, but most don't live near land, which is why I had to fly further out," Fathom explained as he flew back home. "Want to fly over glowing water some more?"

"No, thank you," Pryce said, feeling a little ill at the prospect.

"I told you it is safe if you do it near land, especially if you go fast; I have done it many times before."

"I would prefer not to risk that," Pryce said drily, but Fathom only eyed him with a strange glint in his eyes. "No, don't even-"

Fathom folded his wings.

Despite his teasing, Fathom only skimmed the ocean surface a few more times on the way back home, and he only did so along the shallow regions along the shore where the larger creatures couldn't possibly reach.

"That was amazing," Pryce said as they arrived back at their home. "I said it before, but thank you for showing me this."

"It is no problem," Fathom yawned as they landed back home. "You were sad, so I wanted to show you something fun…but we are leaving tomorrow, so we should go to sleep now," he said, curling up upon his bed as if he hadn't said anything unusual.

"...Good idea," Pryce faintly replied, taken aback at the consideration behind Fathom's actions. He hadn't noticed any change in behavior in himself, but apparently it was enough to warrant the dragon's concern.

"Goodnight, Pryce," Fathom said as he tucked his head beneath his wing.

Pryce awkwardly hesitated, then sighed with a faint smile on his face. "Goodnight, Fathom."

[Expedition Day 79, somewhere on Loahm]

Hungry.

He was so hungry.

Ighen salivated as he stalked the oblivious young mountain stag, and his hearts raced as he waited for the right time to strike.

His stores of food had long since been exhausted, and his wounds and sickness made hunting all but impossible. For a time he'd skimmed along the brink of death, beset by starvation and illness, but as always he somehow managed to just barely survive. On some days he was forced to subsist entirely on insects, fruit, and honey. It was only recently that he was well enough to catch some fish, and today would be the first proper meal he'd had since his battle with Hironh.

Ighen leapt out of his cover and pounced upon the stag, tearing out its throat. The creature thrashed as it died, its great horns nearly goring him in the process, but he just barely managed to pin the animal to the ground until its kicks petered out to twitches.

His hunger was so great that he was tempted to tear into his kill right there and then like an animal, but with a great effort he began to drag it back to his den to properly cook his meal.

He would not die.

Not yet.

Not until he made things right.

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