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"Is this a normal load?" He looked at the stones critically, as if they held any answers. "But yeah, sure, let's re-surface like a blue whale." With the sassiest flip of his feet he could manage (read: not very sassy, but points for effort), Horace began to swing up towards the light of the surface. Maybe, finally, he could put the tentacles behind him. Behind. He snorted and that noise of amusement caught in his throat and died.

Swimming above him and then, worse, toward hims was the most massive weird shark-jellyfish hybrid he had ever seen. Horace had seen exactly one, if he was counting the current threat, but it was still huge.

Dawson waited wisely until the creature passed, even if it might have looked a bit cowardly. Poor Horace. The only real way was to learn through experience rather than repeated warnings, unfortunately. These creatures could be some sort of sneaky all right.

Puffing as he broke the surface of the water, Dawson removed his goggles and nearly flopped on the sand next to his friend.

"Oh, that's ******** f'I know," he replied with a wheezy laugh. "Welcome t'sea horror 101, buddy. But hey,w e got us a nice haul, huh?" He jiggled his bag eagerly. "Ready t'learn how to carve?"

and ignore this post

"Dawson-sensei, hah! I like that." Much better than, say, Daddy Dawson.

First things first: they had to return the wet suits to the Sun lockers. Afterwards, he led Horace to a niche outside, not far from the Sun building and in the shade.

"Key t'carvin' s'that you stay focused," Dawson explained as he pulled out his tools. "Y'gotta think about the Uruz itself n' what it's gonna be used for. I hear some people like chantin' n' stuff, but me, I like playin' stuff like Enya in the background so I get in the right sorta mood." He chose not to bring his iPod this time in case the noise affected Horace's performance.

Brow furrowed in concentration, he walked his friend through the basics of carving and, once his pile was finished, he separated them into three piles. "Those don' work out," he said as he indicated the runestones that weren't glowing. "Yer gonna get a lotta those, don' worry. These," he pointed to the pile of glowing stones, "you can use fer everyday stuff like chargin' yer electronics. These, though." He pat the collection of runestones that glowed even brighter. "These're the sweet spot, superior runes. That's the stuff we need to power the real high tech stuff, like portals n' runic weapons. That's what we try t'aim for. Ready?"

"You'll only like it until someone shows up outside your door dressed in a plaid skirt and asking for extra credit." He snorted, then followed Dawson, shimmying out of his wetsuit awkwardly. Then, finally, he settled down to actually watch Dawson.

He waited, and watched until Dawson had sorted everything out. "Ok, I think I got this. Chanting doesn't seem too much my style either." Carefully, he bagan to carve. Well, sort of carefully. Horace was sometimes too impatient for his own good. But, soon enough he was done.

"Alright," he said, gesturing to his piles of stones. "-what d'you think, Dawson-sensei? And What do we do with the duds - toss 'em?'

29 stones

11 fails
10 regular
8 superior