The following days flowed in much the same way, the group could tell they are just shy of a days travel from the plateau. "Alright, do you want to give one last push and try to reach the base before dusk or set up camp a bit early and finish the trip tomorrow?" Iskandor asked.
"I think we should camp a bit early so that when we get there we have time to figure out what the so called trials may hold and make an attempt the day after." Hikari suggests.
"You bring a valid point, it would conserve energy however if we rush we could treat it as stamina training." Serena brings up.
"If you are worried about low stamina that could be easily fixed by the end of may if mating season takes hold of Iskandor's rationale." Lar argues.
"Hey, not infront of the child!" Iskandor jokes, covering Fenrir's ears to little effect. Hikari blushes at the thought, Serena tries and fails to stay composed and Lar simply laughs.
"So... Considering the one arguement has been... invalidated, I feel it is in our best interest to rest for the rest of the day." Hikari stated somewhat bashfully.
"Perhaps we should get a look of the goods, 16 more days and considering our ancestory it may take them a while to, mentally prepare..." Lar jokes.
"Considering the swimsuit you got me... I'd much rather not wear anything than that... thing..." Iskandor retorts.
"What's wrong with the speedo?" Lar replies, trying to hold back her laughter.
"I specifically said not to get a speedo... And what you got makes speedos look modest... it's the male, dragonborn, equivalent of a string bikini..." Iskandor continues, and at this point Lar bursts out laughing.
"How does that work? are dragonborn tiny?" Serena barely manages to get out.
"Well... you wouldn't be able to tell but it's quite the opposite, you say the "scene" in the movie, you saw how for dragons the size would be a hinderance... in order to prevent that it can be retracted inward... Damn this is awkward to explain..." Iskandor struggles to get out.
The heavily blushing Hikari manages to get out, "Well, it makes sense, it would create drag and thus slow down flight speed, it also serves as a... large... target to it makes sense for it to evolve so that these traits are negated, and there's no reason for it to revert back in humanoid spawn..."
"So this world has some concept of what I know as Darwinian evolution, even if it may not be as sophisticated as my knowledge, no offense, but this makes things easier as I don't need to teach everything that may apply to Terra from my knowledge on Earth." Iskandor explains.
"Seems so, let's not talk about those biological matters for now... let's just relax for the evening." Hikari requests.
"Fine by me, so any ideas of how to pass the time?" Serena asks.
"Maybe you guys could help my research in magic, I've made several observations withing the last few days that I find to be quite intriguing but require more expirimentation." Iskandor suggests.
"Although I wouldn't be opposed to assisting your research perhaps you should find someone with experience so you could see how magic works from an expert's perspective and perhaps gain insight." Hikari mentions.
"Although, who would I do these experiments with? I only have heard of one powerful magician, the author of this book." Iskandor says, pulling a copy of 'The Magic Within' "But even then I don't know their name as they've left a maker's mark using magical ink rather than an actual name. The insights this book details, although not explicitly, show that the writer has a deep understanding of magic and the mark further reinforces that as from what I've read, these types of marks can only be left using magic." Iskandor rants.
"How did you even get your hands on a copy, they are very rare?" Serena asks.
"When we were likely abandoned by our parents, we had a few possessions... This book, another like it going into detail of combat, both written by the same person. Other than the books we had a note left with each of us with our names and presumably some money as we grew up in that house after we reached 10 years old..." Lar explains.
"Probably not abandoned, but purposefully left behind, perhaps we missed a clue or something..." Iskandor wonders.
"The quality of the book appears to be quite high, I've heard that another copy was in what I assume to be worse condition than that, could you perhaps have the original?" Serena asks.
"If that is the case it's very likely one of us is related to the author and is close friends with the parents of the other..." Iskandor concludes.
"We should search for hidden rooms and stuff when we get back... Can't believe we never considered this..." Lar says.
"Well, it looks like one more thing got added to my to do list... Find our parents..." Iskandor half jokes, half groans.
"Focus on the here and now." Fenrir wisely advises.
"Well, on that note, we should prepare some food. Iskandor, get to it. You and I are the only good chefs here and I'll be talking with the others." Lar jokingly orders.
"I haven't been eavesdropping out of respecting privacy but if you keep doing this I'll eventually be eavesdropping as it isn't very difficult for me." Iskandor warns.
"Just go cook us some damn food... What we talk about is not for your ears." Lar jokes but clearly doesn't want eavesdropping.
"Fine, but you are getting smaller portions today." Iskandor tells them and walks off to the side and starts cooking.