Riptide

"Any way, so this is the sleeping caves, that's the music room and . . . yeah! There you have a complete Jade mountain tour, courtesy of yours truly!" Tsunami said brightly.

Riptide grinned.

"I thought I paid for the Luxury tour."

Tsunami stopped walking for a moment, thinking, then smiled and lead him towards the eating cave.

"Hey Clay! One very large fresh . . ." she looked at Riptide.

"Salmon" he said.

"Salmon! She ordered.

Clay looked confused, but shifted through a pile of large fish and handed one to Riptide. "Here you go" he said cheerfully. "El Salmon ala Clay"

"What?" Tsunami snorted.

"It makes me sound cool!" Clay defended.

The blue Seawing shook her head hand grabbed Riptides talon.

"Come on, I'll show you to your room we'll leave Clay to his weirdness. I think you will like the cave I picked for you. It's nice and dark, and really close to a nice underground lake, which has a skylight that you can see the stars through at night."

"Thanks" Riptide said.

"Tadaa!" Tsunami smiled brightly as they approached a large cave. Riptide peered inside.

It was dark, but not pitch black, with a cool damp atmosphere. On the ground in a corner was a large sleeping mat, which looked extremely welcoming after the long flight from Sanctuary to Jade Mountain.

"Do you like it?" Tsunami asked, with a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"I love Tsunami, it's perfect" he said. "You guys really outdid yourselves with this place"

Tsunami beamed proudly.

"Of course we did. If you're going to go to the trouble of making a school, you may as well go to the trouble of doing it right. Students here are assured the best education in the whole of Pyrrhia."

"I bet" Riptide said. "They all seem to enjoy themselves a lot."

"Yes they do" Tsunami agreed. "Anyway, I've got some important head of school stuff I need to do. I'll be finished by dinnertime, but in the meanwhile, you can do what ever you want, explore, go swimming, hunting . . . or you could even join a class" she teased. "Might help smarten you up a bit"

Riptide swatted her gently with his tail.

"Uh huh. Thanks for the offer, but I think I might actually sleep for a bit. That flight is a little longer than I'm used too."

"Oh yeah, sure. If you haven't woken up by the time I'm done, I'll wake you up myself. But make sure you don't snore. If you do I'll get Clay to dump you into our coldest river."

Riptide laughed, and Tsunami left, promising to return soon.

Once he was alone, Riptide padded softly to the sleeping mat, and lay down, giving a relieved sigh as his sore muscles began to relax.

He was asleep before he knew it.

Riptide looked around, smiling contentedly as he flew through the sky. Tiny fish darted around him, flapping tiny multicolored wings.

The blue dragon looked down, where, far below him, the ocean glittered in the moonlight.

Cows swam elegantly, and far away, he heard the sounds of elephants trumpeting as they dived for deep sea oysters.

Everything was peaceful, and just the way it was supposed to be.

he chanced to stop and rest on a particularly inviting cloud, and gazed around.

"Riptide" 

He looked around, and too his surprise and joy, saw a familiar deep blue Seawing.

"Oh hey Tsunami" He sight brightly.

"Come on, get up . . . I want to show you something."

"What, right now? I'm kind of tired."

She rolled her eyes. "You've been sleeping for hours. Come on"

"Fine, but this had better be cool, this thing you want to show me." he said, getting to his feet and leaping off his cloud.

"Oh it is. Now come on, get up."

"I am up" he said frowning.

"Come on Riptide, don't make me get you"

He blinked, just for a split second his eyes were closed. When he opened them, Tsunami was gone.

Tsunami?"He called, worried.

"Down here"

He looked down at the ocean. Beneath its vast glittering surface, he could see the silhouette of a dragon.

"Tsunami?" she didn't answer.

He made up his mind, despite his fear.

Seawings were supposed to live in the sky. When a sky being went into the water it disrupted the cosmic order of everything. But Tsunami could be in danger.

He steeled himself, and dived, holding in his breath.

He was mere dragons away. Tails, talons, claws-

SPLASH

Riptide woke with a start, coughing.

Even when one has gills, having ones head unexpectedly doused in freezing water can still lead to said water going up ones nose. And even for a Seawing, that is still thought of to be uncomfortable. Not to mention shocking.

"W-what was that for?" Riptide asked, as soon as he had regained his composure.

Tsunami was doubled over, laughing her head off. A large shell, that had presumably held the water that now soaked his scales sat innocently in her talons.

"Sorry" she wheezed. 

"You wouldn't wake up, I had no other choice. Your face though!" She burst into another fit of hysterical laughter.

 "Three moons! It was hilarious!!!"

"Right" Riptide said.

"Well what happened to make you need me to be conscious so badly? Shouldn't you be working?"

"Riptide, it's past midnight" Tsunami snorted.

"Really?"

"Yeah"

"Oh. Okay. Uh, so did you need me?"

He couldn't help the slight hopeful tone slip into his question.

"I did actually, if you aren't too tired to come with me." Tsunami said.

"No it's fine, I'm perfectly awake now. What do you need my help with?" he asked.

"This way" Tsunami dropped the large shell and kicked it out of her way, leading him out of the cave and through  tunnel, where they then entered a new cave.

"Ready?" Tsunami asked.

"For what?"

She smiled and nodded for him to go in.

At first it was pitch black, but then, Riptide began to see little patches of light, here and there along the walls.

Glow worms. he realized.

"It's just up ahead" Tsunami said from behind him.

What ever Riptide expected, this was about as different as whatever his imagination could have cooked up.

"Moons . . . " Riptide trailed off, amazed.

In front of him was a large pool of water, lit over head by a skylight, through which he could see the moon, and the stars.

He crept closer.

The water was illuminated and glowed with an ethereal blueish light.

"It's . . . beautiful." he said.

"I know, it's my favorite place. I thought you might like to see it."

Tsunami stood beside him, and smiled up at the small patch of starry sky that was visible.

 Suddenly, Riptide had an idea. Before he could think better of it, he pushed the dragoness beside him with a strong but gentle force, and she went flying headlong into the water.

She emerged, spluttering and opened her mouth to say something loud and angry, but then closed it and sighed.

"Okay I guess I deserved that" she laughed.

Riptide grinned and slid into the water diving down to the sandy bottom.

Tsunami joined him, and for many hours, they swam about, laughing, splashing each other and sharing the rest of the night.

Riptide was happy.