Talori's concern only lasted a moment. She was still preoccupied with the camera and jumped back into wanting to know how it worked quickly.
Brennan was tempted to laugh at how she was able to flip a switch and go back to being excited about the subject at hand but held himself back so he wouldn't offend her. He showed her how all of the different buttons worked but recommended she wait until daytime to try and take any pictures or videos because the lighting would be better.
She nodded and put it back in her bag to return to the palace and do as he suggested. A moment later, she asked him a million questions about what this was or that was while swimming up and down, back and forth, almost too quickly to keep track of as she pointed at various objects.
He couldn't hold back his laughter this time. "Slow down! We have time. I can tell you about all of these."
Talori's tail swished and she rubbed her arm, appearing sheepish. "Sorry. I have been wondering about this for a very long time and got too excited."
"There's nothing wrong with being excited. Why don't why start from one side of the cave and work our way from there rather than going back and forth with everything? That might make it easier.
"What you have here is a boot. Humans—and many races of fae—wear them on their feet for protection so they don't get cut or burned on the ground. You only have one but they typically come in pairs."
"Why do you not have them on then?" Talori asked.
Brennan flushed. "When I got blown away, I wasn't wearing them because I was getting ready to go to bed. I had to run out onto the deck in my pajamas in a desperate attempt to save as much equipment as possible."
He was wearing a gray t-shirt and green plaid pajama pants. He hadn't been self-conscious about it in front of his coworkers because of the urgency of the situation or in front of Talori until now because she wouldn't know the difference. Bringing it up now was a bit embarrassing.
Talori's eyes lit up with more questions. "Are pajamas special bed clothes? What other sorts of clothes are there? What do you normally wear? Are there clothes for every situation?"
"Yeah. There are all sorts. What I wear depends on the situation and what the weather is like. There are specific clothes and shoes—which are different types of things that cover feet like boots—depending on if it's hot or cold. There are even clothes you wear swimming because they're more water resistant," Brennan explained.
"Swimming clothes? Wow! Surface-dwellers truly have come up with a solution for everything. What about this?"
Talori had pointed to the next item and he was a bit relieved they were off the topic of clothes. Fashion had never really been his forte. He wore the basics that were required of a situation and no more.
Clothes were tricky anyway because he had to work around his wings. He had learned how to adjust human clothes but it was a tedious process. He didn't own very many outfits because fairies didn't need to change very often.
When he was at home, he tended to go back and forth between work clothes and casual clothes. He only owned pajamas for overnight research trips so those he was bunking with didn't get suspicious. Most of the time he wore various t-shirts with basketball shorts or sweatpants when he wasn't at work because they were comfortable.
Brennan was surprised by the wide variety of objects Talori had managed to collect. They ranged from combs to bricks to cell phones.
She was especially intrigued by the various pieces of technology that ended up in her domain. The only one he was able to turn on was the waterproof camera so it was a bit difficult to explain what the rest of them did to someone who had never heard of such things before.
Eventually he finished telling her about everything in the cave and she wanted them to go up to the surface so he could show her how flying worked. No one had ever asked him that before.
Fairies hadn't been able to fly freely in centuries because there were too many humans around. They tended to do it only in the safety of their own homes now aside from using the cheat of hovering instead of walking because the latter felt unnatural and heavy.
It was quite a swim to get to the surface but Brennan didn't mind. He had always loved swimming and wasn't worn out despite doing so much more of it lately. His legs and arms might be slightly sore from overuse but that wasn't a big deal.
When their heads broke the top of the water, Talori's hair was no longer flowing around her head in a cloud. It looked like any other person's wet hair aside from the fact that it was purple.
Brennan was finally able to release his magic and breathe actual air, which was nice. It was like the difference between being indoors and going outside where there were trees.
The night air was much warmer than the water had been, though water fairies didn't get cold easily. He shot out of the water and shook off his wings. It was so nice being back in the sky!
There wasn't a boat in sight so he could do whatever he wanted right now. He did a few loop-de-loops and other aerial maneuvers at high speed to try and get some of the water out of his clothes like one of the hand dryers in bathrooms.
Talori laughed and clapped her hands above the water in delight. "Wow! You are much faster in the air than you are in water!"
"Obviously," Brennan said dryly. "I might be a water fairy but I was born to fly. My element is the only one that even can swim because every other element's wings aren't water resistant and get weighed down for months if they get wet."
"Really?"
"Yeah. We're also pretty resistant to the cold but so are wind fairies."
"And fire fairies would be resistant to heat?" Talori asked.
"Exactly."
"What about earth fairies?"
"Depends on where they're from. There are earth fairies pretty much all over the world and they've adapted to be able to live in their native climates but that's different than having a natural resistance," Brennan said with a shrug.