By The Stream

Azalea hummed aloud as they walked. They weren't quite sure what they were humming exactly...perhaps some old elven lullaby mothers used to sing to them? Whatever it was, it had a melodic and catchy sound to it.

This rather uncharacteristic behavior for the normally shy and reclusive Azalea was likely due to the fact that it was currently snowing. When there was any kind of water in the air--rain, hail, mist, snow--they became a lot more cheerful and carefree, especially if they didn't think anyone was watching or listening.

Azalea was dressed warmly, but not as warmly as one might expect in this kind of weather. They wore a simple long sleeved, black, crew neck t-shirt, a denim skirt, aquamarine leggings, black flats, black fingerless gloves, and a long, thin, wispy scarf the same color as their leggings. Around their neck was a black-dyed cotton cord with a single gray feather tied to it as a pendant.

Azalea wasn't really sure where they were going. Maybe to that one little babbling brook they'd found the other day? Ultimately it didn't matter much, they were just enjoying the cold and the snow.

As they walked, Azalea fiddled around with the snow all around them, causing bits of it to melt into liquid water, and twirling these droplets around themelves in amusing patterns. So preoccupied were they by the agreeable weather, the tune they were humming, and the water they were playing with, that they closed their eyes for a few moments and were oblivious to the fact that they not actually alone. This resulted in them colliding with Oluremi with an audible "thud," the droplets of water they were twirling around falling to the ground as a result.

"Urk...sorry! Really sorry, didn't know anyone else was out here."

Azalea attempted an awkward smile from their new resting place on the ground, rubbing their now-sore rear end while looking up at the imposing figure with the one eye not currently hidden by their disheveled bangs.

Azalea accepted the hand gratefully, picking themselves up and using their hydromancy to pull out all of the snow that had gotten into their clothes, turning it to liquid water as they did, and coalescing it into an orb of water, which they dropped gently off to the side with an audible "plop."

"Oh I'll be fine, don't worry. I may bruise easy, but..." Azalea lifted their shirt a bit as they spoke, revealing a mark on their stomach that was already starting to blacken into a bruise. They gathered some water and ran it over the fresh bruise a few times, the water luminescing some as they did, and then allowed this water to fall to the ground. The spot that had been bruised was completely healed, as if nothing had happened. "I can fix that easily enough."

Azalea smoothed their shirt back down over their belly and looked back up, smiling a little less awkwardly now. They gave a courteous and graceful bow, just like mothers had taught them when they were little.

"Azalea Snowflower. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

After a brief pause, Azalea's face scrunched up in a look of concern. Waves of worry and embarrassment were pouring off of Remi and saturating Azalea's mind through their empathic sense. Without context, they just suddenly said, "no, no it's really fine! It's my fault, I'm really clumsy. But don't worry, I'm fine, see?"

Azalea was glad to feel the worry disappear from Remi's surface emotions, even if some tension remained, but was a bit confused as to how it happened so quickly. They cocked their head slightly in reaction to this, but didn't say anything.

"Elementalist? I...suppose so, yes. I use elemental magics, if that's what you mean. And...let's see...on my non-gestational mother's side, there's a bit of water elemental. We don't know exactly how it happened. Might be one of my ancestors fell in love with a naiad of a nearby pool or river. Either way, it means I can do this."

Azalea closed their eyes and willed their form to shift. Their whole body became a mass of water, though they willed themselves to retain their general humanoid shape, so for a few moments, their body was made entirely of water, with a billowing aura of mist emanating a couple feet out of them in all directions. After a few moments, they reverted back to elven form. Notably, the mist aura did not really fade, or at least not right away. It lingered for several minutes, and even then, it only really passed because the water in the air was freezing and falling to the ground as tiny beads of ice.

"So I suppose we have that in common. The elemental part, I mean. Admittedly, my elemental heritage is only a small bit, a couple generations removed."

Azalea actually jumped up and down a little and clapped their hands at the sight of Remi's transfomration.

"That's cool! And really pretty."

Azalea listened intently as Remi mentioned wanting to learn new forms

"Oh! Um, if you wanted to practice alone I can leave. I was just going...actually I didn't have a destination in mind really, I just like to walk in the snow. Any weather that involves water, really, liquid, solid, gaseous...doesn't matter."

Azalea's skirt pocket suddenly vibrated. They pulled out a simple, small cell phone.

"Ah, it's my sister. She's wondering where I am."

Azalea began finger-typing a response, but then suddenly looked puzzled, and scanned the area around them.

"Were...am I, exactly?"

"Oh, I think I know the stream you mean. I found it a couple days after we moved into the area and was hoping to find it again today. I still don't know the area very well though; it's only bee a couple weeks, and we spend most of our time so far applying to college, signing up for classes, and exploring the city. Today I finally decided to take time to explore the nearby wilderness, though. There's a lot of it where I come from...if I ever feel like, off balance, or out of sorts, the only way I can center myself again is in the wild places of the world. And if they have water, all the better!"

Azalea paused for a moment and giggled a little, recalling a childhood memory.

"I've always had an affinity for the water. Mothers would chastise me for playing in whitewater rapids when I was about this big," Azalea held a hand out at their knee level, "without a care in the world. Of course, Rosie wasn't any better...always hanging from trees and vaulting over fences. Quite frankly it's a wonder we both survived to adulthood."

Azalea stopped to listen while Remi offered to show them around.

"That'd be lovely, actually. And I know what you mean; my sister and I usually go everyehwere together. However, she was right in the middle of a very important video gaming session when I decided to go for a walk, you see. In any case, she can catch up. We have ways of finding one another when we're seperated."

At this, Azalea reached into one of their skirt pockets and retrieved a single dried pink azalea petal, which they laid carefully in a spot just noticeable enough for Rose to see it, but just inconspicuous enough for it to not create an obvious trail for any other passerby to follow.

With this done, Azalea walked over next to Remi and motioned with their arm as if to say 'lead the way.'