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The flat stone skipped across the surface of the water several times before it sunk with a small splunk, and he paused long enough to watch it sink. It wasn't that uncommon for Saekagi to spend a little time lingering away from others, though he had to admit he really should have been in bed. He was certainly tired enough. It didn't come that close to the firelizard, but he stopped short of throwing a second stone when he realized that he wasn't seeing things as the ripples of her passage spread outward, and he glanced over in surprise toward Gabriel at the sound of her voice.

He remembered seeing her shortly after he'd arrived, and he felt a little guilty being outside when he probably shouldn't have been, wondering ridiculously for a moment if she were out looking for him. He almost even responded that he wasn't swimming, just throwing stones, then realized she was talking to the swimming firelizard, and was glad it was too dark for her to see him blushing.

"Gabriel?" He asked in surprise. "What are you doing out at this hour?"

"I just didn't want to run into any of the Healers." he admitted. "All the new ones that have come in..." He tugged at his hair as he wandered over to stand near her, flushing further and drooping his head, although he knew she was teasing about him being a spy. "I don't know if any of them are from Ista." he admitted. "I haven't checked." he admitted, glancing back at the swimming flit. "I sure picked a great time to get here didn't I?" He laughed quietly. "...I'm avoiding them, I admit. I didn't want to run into anyone from Ista." He added, as though this wasn't fairly obvious. "...It's such a mess in there now, I don't want to be the spark that sets off a wildfire."

Tempers were as easy to set off as dry grass in the hearth, and who could blame them. The queens were on edge, the riders were on edge....

"I...Ooph! I know!" He raised his hands to protect his ribs from a second nudge, though one didn't come. "I'm wondering what the hatching will be like. What do you think they want to know? Do you think it means they're having more trouble clutching than they want to admit?"

It seemed a logical question, but then, maybe there were things he didn't know about getting a clutch on the sand, let alone two, that he just wasn't in a position to know, let alone guess about. Surely they couldn't be here to try and sabotage the clutch? No one would do -that- intentionally would they? But really... he continued his earlier train of thought out loud, breaking out of a brief frown of deep thought as he chewed his lip and then spoke. "...Something must be... I don't know. It's just a feeling, but I wonder if they're not getting as many hatched dragons as they need, if their queens are producing more duds than we know about. They may be starting to worry about their numbers, so if that was the case, and I really don't know, maybe that's why they've got all manner of healers here peering at the eggs. They might be trying to figure out how to do it for themselves. But I've never been to Benden, or seen one of their clutches. I really don't know. I mean they could be here to jeopardize the clutch on purpose for all I know."

He was a little afraid for the touching, with the crimson whispered to be so agitated. What if it ended up not being -safe- to have a touching? What then? What if they ended up needing so many healers because so many were injured by frightened dragons?

He did flash a crooked smile at her laugh at their expense. He'd gotten more accustomed to the heat at Ista, but it had been pretty clear there were plenty of new arrivals that hadn't. A few times you'd been able to smell them coming, no matter how often they bathed. "I bet some of them could be followed down the halls. Just watch for the puddles in their path." He joked, still fidgeting, as he twisted a few strands of hair in his fingers. "Do you think it will all go alright?"

"Maybe they're not sure if they'd do something correctly?" He shrugged, helplessly. "I wish I had the slightest idea. My spy training didn't cover sweaty healers."
Another lopsided smile followed this thin joke, though it was only a short one, with so much at stake on the sands.

The appearance of the firelizard made him give a short, surprised laugh though, although he leaned away from the green in surprise as she fluttered wetly over to his shoulder.
"Mossy is a good name, Moss likes wet places too." He noted, blinking at the small creature in the dimmer light.

"Well with all these clumsy healers running around, someone was bound to give me away." he joked, ducking his head and grinning, enjoying the jest but somewhat shy of the attention still.
"Don't worry about it, I'm sorry if I upset her. I...don't keep flits."

To be perfectly honest most of his experiences with them had been... well... large in part annoying, with one or two exceptions. Most of the ones he remembered from Ista were usually owned by candidates, and most of those had been poorly trained at best, and were mostly well fed pests.

"I hope you're right." Saekagi put a hand up to the side of his face and winced at the memory. "...I don't want to go back to the Weaver hall like this..."

Was that stupid sounding, he wondered? It was true anyway. "I don't know if there's enough Klah in the entire countryside for all of us though, not as ragged as they're running us." He stifled a yawn, covering his mouth with the back of his hand. "...Sorry." He apologized, both for not being particularly fond of flits, though this one seemed better than some he'd encountered, and for the yawn. "They make me nervous though, all the Healers. There's so many it's like they expect thread to start falling in the hatching sands, and that's if they don't confuse the hatchlings into mauling someone."

He finally admitted to his earlier apprehensions out loud, perhaps hoping that saying it out loud would dismiss his apprehensions, make them sound silly when exposed to air.

Unfortunately it didn't do much, and he went back to nervously tugging at a few strands of hair.

"Cool and calm?" He shook his head and held up his hands. "Well... I'll ask you in advance to help them find all the bits when I fail." He mocked his own lack of composure with a grim smile. "I suppose you're right though, we should get back."