Darin pulled loose one of the ones that looked ripe according to what Ridahne told her and drop it down. Then she undid the belt tying her to the tree and was about to climb down when she felt a gust of wind play with her hair. With a grin on her face Darin let go of the tree to jump down. A stronger gust of wind dropped her to the ground, so she landed gently. For a moment her clumsiness returned and got the best of her and her landing was less than graceful as she bounced from foot to foot. Soon enough she regained her balance. She laughed as she found her footing. She was in too a good a mood to let too much get the better of her.

Her smile widened as Ajoran held out her circlet, “Thank you!” She placed it back on her head only for it to tilt to the left, “I would have hated to lose this.” She turned to Ridahne as her sister handed her half the coconut, “Let’s see what this taste like.”

She took a drink of the liquid before she could lose it. Darin thought it was good. It was better than coffee. That was for sure. She could see why coconut would be so important in a desert near a body of salt water. The juice inside was more like water and could be used to keep hydrated. That had to be important. Darin practically guzzled the liquid. She hadn’t realized how thirsty she was until she started. Swimming in the ocean and all the walking would do that to a person. Once she was done, she considered the rest of the fruit. If she understood the stories Ridahne had told her the white part was edible. With a little bit of effort, she cracked her half of the sphere, so she had a way to scape at the fruit with her teeth. It tasted the same way the water did but she didn’t get much with her teeth. This was going to take a while. Luckily she thought she could do it while walking.

She considered the piece of coconut she was working on as she asked Ridahne, “What now? I want to learn all that I can about Tasen and Azurei.” She shrugged, “Basically the same thing that we have been doing, but now we appear to have an audience.” She scraped her teeth over her treat before pulling out and looking at it, “I like this. I like this a lot.” She smiled at Ridahne, “I’m glad I did this.” Her smile became soft as she looked over towards The Sea, “Today has been a good day. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a day like this.”

That was the truth. They were practically always moving. Even when they got to villages, they only spent time to learn about people’s lives while resupplying. This was sort of the same thing. Darin was learning about Tasen, but she was also having fun. Today it didn’t feel like such a chore. Maybe it was because she didn’t need to worry about keeping secrets. There was one less thing to stress about. She could do without the stares, but at least Ridahne and Ajoran were keeping them away. She would take what she could. Besides the coconut tasted really good. That was certainly helping her good mood.