It was good to know that the negotiations hadn't been too harsh for her. Everything she mentioned did make sense, though it really had to have been a while since she was in these parts. Had she really negotiated back then either? Simon mostly remembered her as his childhood friend, as small as him back then, but then again they had both grown to be something else too. And he had only realised it once she had moved away and he had looked at himself. Perhaps she had been part of the more usual society already back then, while he had just been a carefree creature cared for by his mother. This was his first foray outside of that comfort zone. He sighed as he leaned over the edge of the boat, letting his finger trace a line into the water. It had to be the right choice. Mother wouldn't be there eternally. And he knew he wouldn't be any less curious in the years to come. Trouble would find him if he didn't run from it. Or to it. best it be on his own terms if it happened.<br/><br/>Lilia had something else to say though, and Simon turned his head from following the ripples his finger made back to her, about the warnings of the rapids. He nodded, then turning back to the water. "It's good to know to be on the lookout for them", he considered the fact, drawing a little circle to break the monotony of the ripples. It shouldn't be anything too hard to pass, especially if the man had warned them about them and not simultaneously told to raise the boat out of the water. After all, he'd sold the boat to city folk. Or maybe he considered Lilia to have the knowledge about navigating rivers? Either way, if the fisherman trusted her to make it alone, with Simon tagging along it shouldn't be difficult in the first place. He knew water and how it worked. He saw things in the ripples that only the most dedicated people of the rivers did. It wasn't magic, but rather something he simply knew from the back of his mind.<br/><br/>But it was the following musings that finally got Simon to stop playing with the stream next to them and turn around back on to his back, raising his hands to his lap as he settled laying down between the two seats he occupied, stretching for a moment and rising up to sit on just one. "I don't need much to keep myself happy, that sounds right", he nodded, rubbing his eyes as the glare of the sun reflected from the water around them. "But I can't live my whole life like I have. Swimming and diving, they make me happy, but it won't fill in for other things that I want too. Like a good conversation, like our friendship, things of that nature. And one day mother will be gone. I can't rely it all on her." He was lucky to have thought of this but a few moments ago. "But how about you then?" he couldn't help but turn the question back to Lilia. "There are many things you could be doing, and here you are. Taking the risk of hauling along someone like me who would get us both executed for witchcraft if found out. You have the skills to do all you said, to settle down and work a business, start a family. My options are much more limited. So you are here, helping me find out hints of a very dangerous, apparently murder-happy past. Thank heavens not my own murders, but either way. Do you want this?" It was very early to their shared journey, but since it had been with him all the way to here, he might as well ask it now. No reason to prolong his torment before the matter would surface thanks to one argument or another.