Ridahne’s suggestion was sound, but Darin found herself saying, “Children.” She smiled as she reclaimed the trinkets, “They can come closer.” She indicated a place just about her chest, “The ones that are this height. Well I suppose that height is a bad indication. So maybe no older than about to start an apprenticeship.” She smiled at Ajoran, “I’m not sure how old that would be. In humans it would about 13, 14, 15.” She smiled, “It still surprises me how much older Ridahne is than me. Just talking to her I would assume she was at most a few years older than me.” She whispered as imparting a deep secret, “I’m only 20.”

That was the end of that conversation as they reached the shore. Darin forced a smile to her face as they disembarked. Her attention was grabbed by the sound of Taja announcing his presence. The hawk circled over the three of them for a moment before coming in. Darin held out her arm and bent her knees to help disperse the momentum his swift dive created. Darin heard the shocked gasps at the bird’s display, but the human didn’t care. Her smile was certainly less forced and more genuine as Taja flapped his wings again. Darin tossed her arm upwards to help him take flight. He circled again before disappearing again. He left a few feathers behind that Darin ignored.

Then she told Ridahne, “Coconut trees. I would like to see them.”

The human followed Ajoran and Ridahne to their destination. She couldn’t do anything about the crowd that was following her, so she took her sister’s advice and ignored them. Darin wanted to see these trees without branches and try her hand at climbing them. Based on how Ridahne had described them she was imagining something similar to spring poles used for dancing back home. She didn’t think that climbing them would be easy, but hopefully her belt would go all the way around. If so, she had a plan. If her belt did not go all the way around, she might be in trouble.

Occasionally a child would make it pass the guard set by Ridahne and Ajoran. Darin took the trinkets as she ruffled hair and laughed with them. A boy with closely shorn hair handed her a grey stone shot though with streaks of white which had what Darin knew was the symbol for Astra on it. A girl that only came up to Darin’s waist handed her a carefully done wood carving of a star. A boy with dark solemn eyes held out a sheet of blue stone so thin that when she held it up to the light, she could almost see though it. Darin was worried about what would happen if she dropped it. A set of near identical girls came with a circle woven out of some sort of leaf that Darin didn’t know. She solemnly knelt to let them place in on her head. It was slightly too big and tilted to one side. Before they could get too upset about it, Darin swept them up. They giggled as she spun them around before running off when she put them down. It was shortly after they left that they stopped before a tree. It was mostly branchless, but the trunk lent towards the ocean. She could see leaves up above and knew what her circlet was made of now.

Knowing she was being watched she made sure to speak only to Ridahne, “I didn’t think you were lying, but I’m not sue I believe that there were trees without branches until this moment.” She hopped around on one foot as she removed her boots, “This may be tricky.”

She exclaimed as she almost tumbled over from the bouncing on one foot. She started to laugh as she regained her balance by suddenly grabbing Ridahne’s arm. Soon, for the second time that day, Darin was barefoot. She removed her belt and tossed it around the trunk. It just reached with just enough space for her to grip the ends. Darin would have liked a little more room, but it would be alright. She started to grin. This may not be bad at all. Tossing the belt up to a little above her head she braced her feet a little way up the trunk and started her climb.

It was not an easy climb. She basically tossed the belt up while resting her weight on the balls of her feet. She would then hop a little further up the trunk. It gave her arms a workout, but if she could push a plow and swing a sickle she could and would do this. Darin slipped once about halfway up and then again towards the top. Each time she had a brief moment of panic. Then she recovered before continuing her adventure. At one point her circle of leaves fell off and she could only hope that someone caught it for her. She wasn’t sure how long it had taken but soon enough she was where the leaves meet the trunk. There were circular fruit Darin could only assume were coconuts.

She called down, “Hey Ridahne!” She carefully readjusted her grip, “How do I tell if the coconuts are ripe and ready for picking?” She careful pressed against the trunk to tie herself to it with the belt as she muttered to herself, “I really should have asked that before coming up here.”