No Still Waters [DragonSong]

[Juno]

"Extremely common," she said, nodding and folding her arms loosely. It was difficult to hide her amusement at his childlike fascination. "There are trees with them all over. Most places in the world I've been to, at least. But trees can't bear fruit if they're drowned so... I can understand, I suppose."

She turned towards the supplies the ship was bound to deliver and opened a few more sacks and boxes to look at the contents. "Here," she welcomed him, pointing to the few that had other foods. "There's oats there. And carrots. And that one....well, it's herbs. I wouldn't recommend eating but maybe you'd like how they smell."

[DragonSong]

Luca trailed after her like a curious puppy. He looked over these new foods with interest, and sniffed at what she called "herbs."

"They do smell nice!" he said delightedly, looking at her with a big, happy grin. "Do all these things come from trees, like the apple?" He took another bite, crunching as he waited expectantly for an answer.

[Juno]

"No, just the apples. Uh..." How was she to explain agriculture to someone who seemed to know nothing about it at all?

"They're all plants of some sort. Just different kinds. They grow in different conditions and some regions are better for certain things than others. Is there...not a lot of plant variety where you live?" she guessed. "Nothing you just...pick up and eat like an apple?"

[DragonSong]

He tilted his head, considering it. "Well, sometimes I eat seaweed," he mused. "Not often though- it's rather difficult to chew." He shrugged. "I'm not sure about the rest of my kind, but I've never seen anything like this." He waved a hand to indicate the cargo, eyes wide as he looked it over.

[Juno]

"You must not be among humans very often." She looked over the rest of what was there and then looked to his openly curious face. It seemed so out of place for a grown man to know nothing of what happened on land, merfolk or not. She hadn't really thought that he might not have had the chance to go inland enough to see any of the things she'd shown him.

"Are all of your kind so curious?"

[DragonSong]

"I'm not," Luca agreed, nodding. He looked at her, giving a small smile at her question. "I'm not really sure. We tend to be rather solitary people- mated pairs live together, but outside of that we usually only come across each other once in a while, at least males do. Females tend to be more social."

He shrugged, as though his species' behavioral habits was an entirely normal topic of conversation. "From what I've gathered though, I suppose I am a bit of an oddity among my kind," he said with a  small smile, patting the sack he carried over his shoulder absently.

[Juno]

"I see." Well, it was certainly more information than she would have thought to ask for, but she supposed it had answered the question well enough.

Her eyes followed his hand, not understanding how it was supposed to give her any additional information about how he was odd aside from what she'd already witnessed. "Because...they hate bags?" she guessed.

[DragonSong]

He frowned. "What? Oh." Laughing, he followed her gaze, then shook his head. "No, I didn't mean- well, here, look."

He stepped closer and opened the bag, showing the glint of the few trinkets he'd bought and some other small "treasures" he'd found- eating utensils from an inn, a broken comb, a small handmirror, and a few other odds and ends.

[Juno]

Peering inside didn't give her much more of a clue about what he was on to. The odd collection of, to her, ordinary objects left her staring up at the merman in utter confusion. "Why are you carrying all that stuff with you?"

[DragonSong]

Luca grinned, as though delighted she'd asked the question. "Because they're new!" he exclaimed. "Every time I visit the shore I find more new things. It's fascinating!"

[Juno]

"...new?" Awiergan had to quickly slap a hand to her mouth to stifle her laughter.

"What, you've never seen a spoon before?" she asked in disbelief once she'd recovered, gesturing at the sack of items. She supposed she couldn't entirely fault him for being so curious about human creations if he had not grown up with any of those comforts. It was so difficult, though, for her to see an adult man with such a childlike fascination and curiosity. "I'm sorry, it's just- You talk as though you're just a boy, Luca."

[DragonSong]

He shrugged, completely unabashed. "I suppose in a lot of ways I am. Up here at least," he said with a quick smile. "Most everything is new to me. Like this." He tugged at the sack she'd made him wear around his waist. "The first time I got legs, I was so confused why you land folk seemed so scandalized. I thought perhaps the change hadn't worked properly." He chuckled a bit.

[Juno]

"Do your people wear nothing?" she scoffed, slightly disbelieving as she couldn't say she'd ever seen any merfolk in their natural home before to know for herself. She supposed clothing would be rather cumbersome to be forever waterlogged, though.

"How do you stay warm? You just...do?"

[DragonSong]

Unbothered by her tone, Luca shrugged. "No, we don't," he said simply. Then a small smile. "I suppose we just do is as good an explanation as any. I'm not entirely sure, but I believe our temperatures adjust to the water around us- rather like fish."

Of course, he wasn't exactly a scholar. That was mostly  an educated guess.

[Juno]

"Ah." She had no idea herself and she filed the thought away as a mere note of relatively worthless information she'd likely never need again.

"So you collect junk." It was a peculiar thought. Did he have any concept of what might have been valuable or beautiful in a more human world? "Where do you get all of that? Where do you keep it? Just in there?" She gestured at his little sack again.

[DragonSong]

He frowned a bit at the word "junk", but shrugged it off. "I get it all over," he said easily. "Sometimes people drop things from ships, or leave things on the shoreline. Lately I've been trying to get on land myself more."

Then he looked down at the ratty bag and chuckled, shaking his head. "No, it's not all in here. I keep it in my home. There's lots more there," he said, a little proudly maybe.

[Juno]

"Really? More?" Her brows rose in interest, a slight glimmer of greed in her eyes as she glanced over his belongings again to see if she could spot anything worthwhile. "And where is home?" she asked, unashamed of her own forwardness. "Some cave?"

[DragonSong]

His head waggled from side to side. "Of a sort," he replied, completely oblivious to her attitude and any potential warnings it should have given him. "It's actually not far from here. Though I don't know if a human could reach it," he mused, brow furrowing.

[Juno]

His concern was a mere inconvenience to Awiergan. She crossed her arms again and gave herself a moment. Could she really trust a merman she barely knew for the chance a few odd trinkets? What he carried wasn't all that impressive but that didn't mean she couldn't snatch a few of his great "treasures" if she had the chance.

"Is there air? Or is it all underwater?" she asked distractedly. The piratess knew she could be counted upon to hold her breath, though for how long she was not certain.

[DragonSong]

"There's air inside," Luca said slowly. "But it's getting there that's the problem. There's this maze of underwater tunnels and caves. No way a human could hold their breath that long."

Although...there were some legends about his people, about a certain ability... But he wasn't about to risk someone's life on a bunch and some old stories.