Eventually, the two made it to a large, peaceful lake. After this tiring trip, Kantuta used her sweaty hands to form a triangle symbol, shouting, "Resume!"
This caused Siquioce to regain control of his body, allowing him to stretch his limbs as he looked around.
"My goddess," said Kantuta as she wiped her forehead. "You're heavy as a brick! What have you been eating?!"
Siquioce answered, "Well, down in my settlement, I ate whatever I could catch. There' also those bugs I ate in that…"
Her face scrunched up in disgust, Kantuta put her hand over Siquioce's mouth and interjected, "Hey, spare me the details! You just need to go on a diet, that's my advice." She shook her head, "But that can wait; we have some water techniques to learn." She looked around the lake, noticing a convenient, empty barrel. Filling the barrel with water, Kantuta carried it over to Siquioce and said, "We'll start with the basics: liquid manipulation. I want you to try and remove a bit of water from this barrel without touching it.
Looking at the container, Siquioce asked, "How do I do that?"
"Simple," answered Kantuta, "Just close your eyes, take a deep breath, and focus. I'll explain the rest on the way."
Following his ally's instructions, Siquioce put his webbed hands together and went into a rhythm of inhaling deeply and exhaling softly. After a few seconds of this, an image of a spill of water formed in his mind. "Hey," he said, "I can see something! It looks like some sort of puddle.
Kantuta replied, "Oh, great! Now, keep this image in your head and clench your dominant hand, if you have one."
Siquioce did just that, balling his left hand into a fist while staying focused on the liquid.
"Okay," said Kantuta, "Now, open your eyes."
Siquioce catered to Kantuta's orders, causing him to notice a sphere of water floating right in front of him.
"That's it." Said Kantuta as Siquioce admired the liquid mass, "Easy, right? These sorts of skills are much easier for Samanians like you to perform; the process is more complicated for terrestrials such as us. I think it has something to do with that god you worship. I think his name is…Topa? Triton?"
Siquioce gave Kantuta a look, "It's Tomanil. Respect his name."
Kantuta smiled nervously, "Okay, my mistake! I'm just not very knowledgeable about aquatic stuff, that's all." She cleared her throat, "Anyway, on with the lesson. Take what you just learned and apply it to the air. You see, there is always water floating around you, just in a gaseous state; that's called water vapor. All you have to do is extract it. Do your best."
Although he still felt a bit resentful over Kantuta's ignorance, Siquioce did his best to hone his mind, taking what his friend said as the truth. Okay, he thought, She said there's bits of water all around me? I guess I'll try to pull them out… So, he allowed himself to become even more calm, relaxing his mind to the point where his heartbeat was the only sound he could hear. Then, despite no liquid being visible in the outside world, Siquioce saw a massive expanse of water standing right in front of him. Amazed by this sight, he once again clenched his left hand, tightening his muscles for a few seconds before opening his eyes. Wondrously, there was a whole sheet of water floating before him.
"Great job!" congratulated Kantuta, "You're a natural. That should help you with your dryness problem." She held her chin, "You know, I think I can teach you even more water-related tricks…"
Covering himself with the water that he extracted, Siquioce asked, "Oh, yeah?"
"Yep," Kantuta responded, "Although I will need some magic." She turned around and pointed towards the center of the lake, "Thankfully, we're in the perfect spot to get what we need. There's a bed of mallaunas somewhere down there; just swim down there and grab 5 of them and I can get started with teaching you that new technique. Just for clarification, mallaunas are black and yellow striped things with hard shells."
"Wait," asked Siquioce, "If you know what they look like, why don't you go and get them yourself?"
Kantuta angrily retorted, "Look, do you want to learn the technique, or not?!"
Startled by Kantuta's outburst, Siquioce conceded, "Okay, fine." Thus, he made his way towards the lake, taking a moment to get adjusted to the temperature of the water before diving in.
"Okay," said Siquioce as he swam around, "Mallaunas, mallaunas, where are the mallaunas?" He searched through the tangled roots of underwater plants, inside dug-out burrows in the lake's walls, and even inside the dam of a worker rat's family (though he was quickly chased out). At some point, he saw something twinkle out of the corner of his eye. Wanting to investigate this, Siquioce swam downward to find the bed of bivalves that Kantuta mentioned.
"Yeah!" cheered Siquioce, "I found them! Let's see what they can do…" As he was picking up the clams, the Samanian noticed something shifting in the mud next to him. Wondering what could be causing this, Siquioce looked below him, and what he saw made his face drain of color; some creature with a large, blue, bulbous head decorated with a threatening, red spike pattern was staring right at him. Siquioce heard a low grumbling sound as a long, blue tentacle emerged from the mud and took a swing at him. Siquioce just barely swam to the side of the attack, a terrified expression on his face. Fearing for his life, the Samanian swam away as fast as he could, keeping the clams close to his chest as he did so.
Seeing that Siquioce was too fast for it, the creature instead sucked in water with its turret like mouth before firing a glob of purple goo at Siquioce's tail. Feeling a slight icky sensation, Siquioce decided to ignore the feeling, instead focusing on making his getaway.
Siquioce soon arrived back on land, his eyes wide open as he took quick breaths.
Turning around, Kantuta said, "Oh, back already? That was quick." She held her hand open, "Okay, hand me those mallaunas, please."
Siquioce did as Kantuta said, although he found it strangely difficult to do.
Smiling at the bivalves in her grasp, Kantuta said, "Perfect. Now, all I need is another cauldron, and we can…" she looked over at Siquioce with a concerned expression, "Hey, are you okay?"
With his fins looking droopy and his eyes half-closed, Siquioce replied in a tired tone, "I'm…fine…"
Taking a closer look at Siquioce, Kantuta noticed that his skin was not the lapis blue that it usually was; it was starting to turn purple. "Oh no," said Kantuta with a hand to her mouth, "Siquioce, you are not okay. You've been poisoned!" She got her hands into the Suspend spell formation, "You have to get healing ASAP. I'm going to freeze you again, okay? That way, I can take you to a nearby village.
Barely able to stand up, Siquioce murmured, "Okay…"
Nodding, Kantuta activated the spell before tucking the clams under her hat and picking up Siquioce. "Okay, girl," grunted Kantuta as she waddled away, "You've got this. It's just a little walk…"