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Abha considered the question, racial features particular to her spices, well that was pretty easy. Abha wrote down fins and strong tail for swimming. Webbing on fingers and toes also an adaptation for swimming. Scales though Abha herself didn't have any, she wasn't really sure what they were for anyway. She also wrote down that some of her kinda had sharp shark-like teeth, Abha figured it was an adaptation left over for hunting. Abha had a lure that glowed that was an interesting feature that some of her kinda had. She wrote down bioluminescence as a feature that some of her kinda had naturally. All of it was interesting to consider and look over, things that she didn't think about on a normal day to day basis since it was commonplace in her life.

Batholith grinned. He liked this class already! It allowed--nay, it required him to expand his rock collection. Batholith was prepared for his next class (even if getting to a rock store was a little tricky). "The stone I chose was bloodstone, otherwise known as heliotrope. I chose this one because in researching it, I discovered that it's a type of jasper, which is something I'd never known before. I also like bloodstone because of the color. The red colors come from trace amounts of iron oxide in the stone--these inclusions are of a mineral called "hematite," which is also called bloodstone for its color. Bloodstone can be found all over both worlds, where it has traditionally been prized for its magical qualities, many of them related to blood or similar subjects of physiology."

Batholith was prepared for the next class. Since the parameters had been expanded, he decided to pick something that started with a T--the first letter in his boyfriend's name. "I picked turquoise," he said, "which, while in high demand, is still relatively common. Turquoises form almost exclusively in dry, arid places, such as Auster. They form when rainfall dissolves copper in the soil. This coppery water percolates through the soil and finds aluminum and phosphorus. When the water evaporates, the copper reacts with the aluminum and the phosphorus to produce a layer of turquoise microcrystals. Over time, large lumps of turquoise can be formed inside the rock." He held up his stone and pointed to the black markings that ran throughout it. "The black material is called the 'matrix.' It isn't turquoise, but the stone that the turquoise formed in. The less matrix in the stone, the more highly valued it is in jewelry, though some people do prefer it with the webbing, as the matrix is also called.

"Turquoise can come in green if it forms in the presence of iron, or yellow if it forms in the presence of zinc, but it's the blue form that is the most desirable."