[Gift] Hot spring Planning

Camille was letting the water grab a hold of her. The warmth that was the hot springs embraced her as she floated carefully beside Fell. She would occasionally let out a sigh as if the weight of the entire world was benign taken off her shoulders when she laid in the hot spring.

“You know what? That’s the calmest I’ve seen her since she was inside her egg.” Kassadin let out a laugh at Cantaloupe’s statement.

“Well actually, remember how that egg was thrashing around? Maybe this is the calmest she’s ever been.” Kassadin added in. Camille didn’t seem to mind at all what her dads were talking about. She had longed since she heard about the hot springs to go to them and now they were here. It hadn’t been especially hard to convince her parents to go here. All of them had been really curious about the hot springs as well. She only needed to ask once.

“Did you come a long way here?” The grey and purple carno, who had introduced herself as Armania when they first met, asked the Styras.

“Not too long away from here.” Fell answered first, followed by Brick who expanded on his partners answer:

“It took us about half a day to get here.” 

“Yes. So we were planning on staying here for a bit. So we can really enjoy it.” 

“We should stay here all winter long!” Camille exclaimed. Clearly she was listening to her dads despite looking as if she was asleep, having laid her head on top of Cantaloupe’s leg as she had slowly floated among her dads in the water. 

“We can’t stay here all winter.” Fell looked down on Camille who looked slightly disappointed. 

“Why not?” Camille asked in a way where she was trying to understand his logic but it was just too much for her to understand. She couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t stay here the entire winter. It was warm and comfortable.

“Well. If we stayed here all winter. Who would make sure our home was safe?” Camille rose from her half slumber.

“That’s true. All my things are there. My shiny rocks.” She looked up the hill they had arrived on.

“Exactly. We can be here for a whíle but eventually we have to return.”

“Most of us leave after a few days. There can be such a thing as too much relaxing. Plus it’s hard to get food out here.”  Armania looked at the little raptor. 

“How far did you come from?” Camille suddenly changed the subject slightly. She had just realised that she didn’t know how long Armania had gone to get here and she was now incredibly curious.

“Oh. Mmh.” Armania looked up at the darkening sky above them. “It was about 3 days for me.” She nodded. “Yes, three days.”

“Three days?!” Camille exclaimed. She seemed shocked at how long the Carno had gone. “Aren't there any hot springs near you? Did you have to walk so long to find one?” 

“Hot springs are fairly rare.” Armania laughed at the outburst the little raptor had. “You are lucky you are quite close to the hot springs. You can return here again soon after you leave. I will not return here until next year. I will have to wait. But that’s why I have to make sure to really enjoy these days I have here.”

Camille looked in awe at the Carno at this information. 

“You can’t return until next year…” The raptor let herself soak down into the hot spring slowly until the water was at her jaw. 

Cantaloupe looked at his partners. Kassadin was clearly holding back laughter while Fell and Brick looked at their daughter with a mix of pity and love. It was clear that she could not understand how anyone could miss out on this for an entire year. She was not old enough to understand that enjoying something forever isn’t really feasible. That missing out on something for a while made it so much more enjoyable. 

“But, can we come here next year as well?” Camille asked suddenly as she jerked herself up from the water, drenching Cantaloupe with hot spring water at the same time. 

“Of course we can.” Brick answered, looking at their daughter with a tiny bit of curiosity.

“And you will return next year?” 

“Probably yes.” The Carno answered as the question was clearly meant for her. 

“No, you have to promise. Because if we promise to get back here next year we can meet again!” Camille was doing her best to stop herself from jumping up and down in excitement. Cantaloupe was doing his best to hold her as still as possible as well so she wouldn’t cause waves in the limited spaced hot spring. Even if it was big. The waves would easily spill over if she decided ot jump around too much.

Armania laughed at what she said. She wasn’t laughing in a mean way. She was laughing in a slightly shocked way. 

“I will do my best. I promise Camille. I will do my best to return here next year at the same time.” 

“You better.” Camille said. Finally calming down again. “And we will return next year as well, Papas.” She looked over at all four of her dads. 

“Do we have a choice?” Kassadin laughed as a response.

“Nope.” She said proudly.

“Okey. So how do we know when the right time is to go over here?” Armania asked, her curiosity had been spiked by the young raptors' insistence that they would absolutely meet here next year as well. “Otherwise we might miss each other.” 

This made Camille thoughtful. How indeed would they know when the time aligned correctly for them all to return to these hot springs. She looked up at the Carno. She had 3 days to walk. They had half a day. Camille looked over at Cantaloupe again. He was the closest one but perhaps not the one with the answers to this specific question. 

“Is there a way to tell when it’s the right time?” Camille asked them all. They all just shrugged. Not because they didn’t know an answer to the question but because they were all curious as to what she would come up with. After a few minutes of silent thinking she exclaimed.

“I know! When we get the first snow!” All five of the grown dinosaurs looked curiously at her. “When we get the first snow - if we wait til the next full moon.” She pointed at the rising moon. “Then we would probably be able to meet each other. Especially if we wait two days before leaving.” Camille puffed out her chest at the idea. She was real proud of it actually.

“That’s a really good idea.” Armania smiled wide. “I really like that idea. I am on board with it.”

Camille got so excited about her agreement to the idea that she couldn’t contain her self and jumped right out of the hot spring.

“I think you need to calm yourself a bit.” Cantaloupe yelled after her as she ran out to the snow. “Take it easy. We don’t want to have any frostbite on you.”

“A quick roll in the snow and then back here.” Kassadin yelled after her. A few other youngsters seemed to have seen Camille and joined her in a very quick play in teh snow before everyone, including Camille, rushed back to the warmth of the hot springs again.

“I can’t wait til next year.” She smiled brightly.