Chapter 250 Time to Learn About Water

"Mom!" cried the kids, all running over to give her hugs.

"Did you get caught doing anything bad?" she asked, looking at them, and ending on Merle.

"Of course not!" laughed Merle. "We learn from the best!"

Stella nodded and turned to Aella.

"I know I said I needed you to watch them for a whole week, but I need to get them a little early. Something has come up and we're going to be busy for a while."

"Oh, is it realm eaters again?" asked Sarah with big round eyes.

"No," said Stella, shaking her head. "I'll explain later."

The kids all nodded seriously, and Aella asked, "Is it something that I should know about?"

"No, you're fine," said Stella, waving a hand. "If I didn't get the kids now, then it might be a couple years before I could get them again, and I didn't think you would like that."

Aella's eyes widened in horror at the thought of having these three for several years.

"I'm grateful you came to get them when you did," she agreed, nodding.

"Sorry they don't have time to eat here," said Stella sniffing at the food the robot was setting out. "I'm going to have to take it to go."

The meals disappeared, and Aella recognized it as a form of purse like she had.

"I hope everyone likes living on the turtle!" cried Sarah, before they were all gone.

Aella stood there, looking around for a few moments, enjoying the peace and quiet.

"Do you wish to order anything else?" asked the robot, looking at her pleasantly.

"No, thank you," said Aella, shaking her head.

"Very well. Have a nice day," said the robot, smiling and turning to start cleaning up.

"I miss Bob," sighed Precious, as Aella made her way to the center of the city to see the portal.

The portal was there, just like the kids had said, and it was active. She stepped through it, without replying to Precious, to see where it went. Looking around quickly, Aella saw that she was indeed in the middle of trade town.

"Ah, Aella. The kids had said you would come through that portal soon," chuckled Firion.

He was leaning against one of the side supports, twirling knives as he waited. People were milling around in the late afternoon, perusing the wares available for trade at the various stalls. It had barely been a week, maybe two? Business was already flourishing in the trade town, and Aella couldn't help but feel a bit of pride at the sight of so many different races all intermingling to conduct trade.

This is what she had wanted when she designed the town so long ago!

"How are things going?" she asked Firion, stepping away from the portal.

"Things are going well. We've only had a handful of issues where people didn't fully understand the rules, but overall, I think this place has great potential."

"I'll make it bigger as needed," promised Aella looking around at all of the people who were mostly ignoring them.

"So, does that portal really go to a whole city made by the kids?" asked Firion, pointing back to where she had just stepped through.

"Yep, and it's on the back of a giant turtle," sighed Aella.

"Mind if I explore it?" he asked, sounding much like a little kid with a new toy. "I may move my family there, and work here, with such a convenient method of transport back and forth."

"I think as the current cities overpopulate, and people get used to interacting with the other races, a lot of people will be wanting to move there," said Aella carefully. "I'm not sure who I will have in charge, though."

"I don't mind," said Firion with a grin. "I have more than enough assassins to handle both. Eventually you'll find someone else, though, and they can take over then."

Aella nodded.

"What do you plan to do now that the kids are gone?" asked Firion. "I'm assuming they are gone and that's why you are here alone."

"Yeah, their mother came to get them just a few minutes ago. Something had come up and she was going to have to be gone for several years. I definitely didn't want to watch them for that long!"

Firion shrugged. "They're just kids. I don't think a couple years with them would be that hard. They had some fantastic ideas for me."

"Yeah, and I don't want to hear them," sighed Aella. "I think I'm going to check in with Alfred and Bridgette. Josephine wanted to see me, too."

"You're always busy. You need to take some time, eventually," said Firion, before slipping through the portal.

"Easy for you to say," mumbled Aella, teleporting to the human city. Bridgette had a large group of people in the library, and she seemed to be teaching them their letters, based on the huge chalk board she was drawing letters onto.

Aella stood in the back, invisible, watching for a moment, lost in memories of her father teaching her the letters and ancient runes by scratching them into the dirt of the basement where she stayed. He had seemed happy in the land of the dead, so she turned away from the lesson, hoping it helped those who were willing to learn.

Alfred was sitting in a different section of the library, dozing in a chair, with his son sleeping in a bassinet beside him. Based on the dark circles under his eyes, Aella figured he had been up most of the night with the toddler. Not wanting to disturb him, she left the library, and started searching for Josephine.

The Hero of Water was currently helping her daughter build a castle with blocks. Children were scattered throughout the orphanage, playing with various toys, and Aella was surprised to see children of all races here.

"Aella," gasped Josephine, noticing her at the door. "I didn't notice you come in!"

The woman struggled to her feet, with her wide pregnant belly, and waddled over to greet her.

"I was coming to learn about water, so I might take your powers, but I'm not sure now is such a good time," winced Aella, staring at Josephine's belly.

"Now is a perfect time!" laughed Josephine. "I want to get rid of these powers before the baby is born."

"Alright," sighed Aella. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, I need to make sure you understand water well enough to get it. I know you have all the other elements, except Alfred's light, and I want to make sure you can handle one more."

"So, I'm guess we're going to go to some water?"

"Yep. Let's start in the north, where the snow and ice is," said Josephine.

Behind her, Curt stepped into the room and nodded at Aella. She hadn't seen the Sword Hero in such a long time, she almost didn't recognize him. It looked like he had gained some intelligence as he settled down with a smile to play with Josephine's daughter. He didn't look like the dumb warrior she had seen so long ago.

Taking Josephine's hand with a frown, Aella teleported them to the far north. Sinking into the snow, she turned to see that Josephine was standing on top of the snow, looking around.

"This will work as a start. Water can take many forms, and snow is one of them. If you were to heat this snow up, it would melt into water."

Aella knew this, so she nodded, waiting for Josephine to speak. There had to be more than just that to learn.

"However, snow can take many forms as well," said Josephine with a small smile, bending over with difficulty to scoop up a handful of the soft white snow. "It can be soft like this, or it can be hard, and crumbly. The temperature has a lot to do with how it forms, as well as how much wind is blowing when it freezes. As the sun melts it, it can refreeze into ice."

Aella knew all of this from her time when she had to leave because of her hormones.

"We'll get to ice in a minute," said Josephine with that same small smile. "As the sun melts it, the snow can become a type of slush that can mix with the dirt to make a thick mud. It's much heavier than this fluffy stuff, because it has more water in it."

She threw the snow into the air, and watched as it floated softly back down to the ground, twinkling in the sun.

"The snow is nothing more than droplets of water frozen into tiny crystals."

Aella caught one of the fluffy clusters, and held it close to examine it. The crystals had formed into a cluster of flakes, but she could see several of the arms before the heat of her hand melted it away.

"Now, ice. We need to go somewhere with ice."

Aella nodded. She hadn't realized water could become crystals. Her earth element was also fascinated, though Aella had the feeling it already knew about this.