Do you want to go to the hotel now?

Maybe? I'm not exactly tired yet and I could use a break but I don't feel - done for today. If there weren't so many people here I'd want to just wander around and get to know the place, but there are.

I think this street's wide enough to take off on, but the winds are funny, like they are around a crazy mess of cliffs, and flying in a place where you don't know the winds is a bad idea. Could we go to a - sports place or an obstacle course?

I can see what there is around.

I've found a rock climbing place, a track, a pool, a ball court, and some kind of maze thing but I think it requires being able to go through smallish apertures to enjoy.

I might break the rock climbing place, but it sounds fun. 

She flexes one handful of claws. 

I don't usually cut things I don't mean to, but it does seem to keep happening here. Do you think I'll make enough concert money to pay for that? Do you think whoever owns it would let me try despite that risk? A pool might be good if not, or a big open track.

I can have someone ask the rock climbing place, but they might take a few minutes to get back to us. The rock climbing place doesn't have real rocks, though, it has fake ones sized for Amentans and might not be much fun for you. The pool sounds like a good idea.

Climbing is fun, but you're probably right if they're not big walls. Okay.

Mahkemiken says that'll be all the questions for now please and would people please step aside? and the Amentans part and they can proceed toward the nearest pool, which is underground beneath an office building.

She stares at walls and floors on the way there, sometimes seeming to stare through them.

Buildings are sort of like caves, right? She's not walking into an incomprehensible hive, she's exploring a weird cave. Calm, calm.

The pool has a nice high ceiling, at least, and it's not too crowded relative to its size at the moment; there's a lap pool with a couple yellows and a grey and a purple in it, and a hot tub with a yellow and a green, and a family pool with some purples and more yellows with their kids. Mahkemiken explains who they are to the person at the entrance. People look around to gawk at River.

...It's not gonna hurt me but wow you pushed all the nature out of your swimming places too.

Whuf.

How deep is the pool? She peers at it.

The lap pool is four feet, the family pool goes from two to eight.

This feels really cramped, and slightly poisonous, but it still won't hurt her and at least she can go back and forth at the deep end of the family pool or something. She waves at the other swimmers before splashing in.

Some of the bigger kids swim over to meet her! (The adults are busy containing their smaller ones.)

-And there's an idea to make this vaguely unpleasant swimming place more fun.

Hello! She sends to the smaller group approaching her. I think none of you could catch me in the water if I don't let you, for I am a Sapphire, and we are practically hatched in the ocean!

"I bet we can if we all try at the same time!" says a purple kid.

The power of teamwork against the power of a Draak? It seems possible, especially in such a little pool! Maybe I will take that bet. If I lose, I will ask Mahkemiken to let you all come to my concert. But what will I get if I win?

"What do you want?" asks a yellow kid.

I like shiny things and adventure!

"I've got a tumbled amethyst," volunteers the yellow kid. "But I don't have it with me."

That sounds pretty enough and would be acceptable. 

(It's doesn't seem like especially good Treasure from the mental image but this is a game with hatchlings- er, kids- and she's not risking anything particularly great either.) 

I would not demand my prize immediately, if it's in your hoard. There should be a time limit or you could just refuse to admit defeat!

"We have to leave in twenty minutes," calls a yellow mom.

The challenge is made! 

She roars - quietly for a roar but it resembles that word more than anything else - and disappears under the water with hardly a splash, tail the last thing to go under.

The kids split up and try to surround her! One of the parents leaves their one year old with the other parent and goes to get a video.

She is swift and nimble in the water, twisting and feinting to avoid their reach despite her large size, and turning on a dime. She also doesn't seem to need to come up to air, though she doesn't just stick to the very bottom, that wouldn't be as fun! A wing or her tail or her head pops out of the surface for a moment with a splash whenever she gets clear enough from the group.

Eventually a yellow kid gets her tailtip!