There were definite benefits to living on Maple Grove, not least of which was the sheer amount of knowledge concentrated among the Grangers - knowledge they were more than happy to share if asked. Given how very grounded Fliss still was, she'd been reluctant to ask Liv and Johnny to escort her to the museum, and it had only been after teasing her latest assignment out of her that Johnny had had the inspired idea of asking if Dominic Granger knew anything about Mount Yasuo. The anthropology professor certainly did - he had spent a year among the various communities up there, and he knew the stories almost as well as the fairytales he'd learned as a child.

A minor bit of organizing later had resulted in the Storms, the Fosters, and Dom's own selection of Grangers gathered in the Storms' backyard around a campfire, to hear the stories of Yasuo in the manner they had been told for centuries.

With logs drawn up and blankets laid down so everyone could take advantage of the warmth from the fire, various sticks toasting marshmallows and crumpets over the flames, it was easy to lose themselves in the mesmerizing cadence of the stories as Dom told them, exactly the way he had been taught them years before. It was easy to see how he had made such a career out of integrating into other cultures to learn about them; he'd taken on the mantle of a Yasuo elder very easily for one night only.

"....they say that the Great Wind still visits the Singing Lake, and in his sorrow, he rages still against the love that took his daughter from him. Some nights, when the Great Wind blows strongly, the falls almost stop, and the rock is laid bare, but Utomisha will not sing without Tatune's touch."

The older children seemed more interested in Dom's stories, while the younger set was more interested in toasting marshmallows, but it was Fliss and Lucas who really needed to listen, as this was all part of their homework. While it might be cheating a little, it sure came in handy having an anthropologist for a neighbor. Even Lucas' brother Matt seemed interested, though he was not attending Bristle Crios at present.

"So the Great Wind is still trying to keep them apart?" Fliss asked, absolutely enthralled with the stories. She knew this wasn't exactly what Professor Tolmay had had in mind, but she had to admit, it was a lot more fun.

Dom chuckled warmly. "I've been to the Singing Lake," he nodded as he answered. "And there is a rock in the middle of the falls, and when the wind blows strong, the water does almost stop. Maybe her father still misses Utomisha, or maybe not, but it's a good story, isn't it?"

Stories around a campfire beat the heck out of searching through books in a stuffy library, and Dom was as knowledgeable as the books there, if not more so. "There are stories like that on Earth, too," Matt pointed out, more outspoken than his older brother, though this was part of Lucas' assignment, not his. "That doesn't mean they're true though. They're just myths that are passed down from generation to generation to explain things they don't understand."

"That doesn't make them any less relevant to the culture that created them," Dom pointed out, more than happy to debate or answer questions. He was discovering a love of teaching now he was settled in his home life, looking forward to taking on students when September rolled around again. "There's a peculiar tone in the air at the Singing Lake - probably science could explain it as the particular sound that water falling at a certain velocity onto a particular type of rock makes everywhere. But personally' I'd rather believe the myth - that the lovers are still there, singing to each other about the heroes and legends that they knew, once upon a time."

Settled between Liv and Daisy, Elle couldn't help but beam a smile over at Dom, proud to be able to call him her husband.

"This is Rhy'Din," Lucas pointed out, mostly for his brother's sake. "Anything is possible here," he told him. It was hard to believe sometimes, coming from an Earth where magic was nothing more than myth, and yet, Lucas had grown wings and Matt had developed gills, though their father had blamed it on their mother's Rhy'Din DNA.

"True, anything is possible," Dom agreed, "and Mount Yasuo does have its own peculiarities, as well as a long known history with magic. But as to whether their myths are true re-tellings of something that really did happen, or simply the people's way of explaining something that is beyond them to explain, no one can really say. But every culture develops their own stories to explain their world, however big or small. So maybe Utomisha and Tatune are still there, singing to each other from inside the rock, or maybe they were never there. The people believe they still linger, and still sing, and it gives them a sense of continuity, a connection with the ancestors who went before them and told the same stories. And that's not unique to them; we all do it."

"I don't!" Matt declared quickly and adamantly. He couldn't think of any silly stories he believed in to explain things that were simply a matter of science. Lucas cringed, as his brother made his voice and his opinion known once again.

"You don't?" Dom asked in amusement. "So you've never told a fairytale, or sung a nursery rhyme" You didn't believe when you were little that thunder was the sound of angels falling down the stairs, or that there were alligators in the sewers?" He raised his brows curiously. "Every urban legend, every fairytale, every nursery rhyme ....they all contribute to continuation of a culture, and yes, they evolve over time. We have our stories about the Grove, you know, stories that our parents told us, or our grandparents, and that we've told the next generation. So what if they're not true" They're a part of who we are, at the very root of things. Without stories, how do you find the courage to ask why something is the way it is, or to teach someone how to be brave, or compassionate" A story isn't just there explain something away; it's there to teach people how to be people."

"No," Matt replied. "I mean, I did when I was little, but I grew out of that," he said, shrugging, not wanting to challenge the man, but not quite understanding the reason to tell people what amounted to lies either. Then again, it could be argued that even religion was nothing more than myth and legend that certain groups of people chose to believe in.

"What kind of stories about the Grove?" Lucas asked, though this wasn't the focus of their lesson.

"Everyone grows out of believing the exact letter of the stories, but you still tell them, don't you?" Dom smiled his understanding smile, knowing that teenagers were a little touchy when it came to letting go of childish things. They hadn't yet learned to embrace the childlike innocence of the stories all around them. Lucas' question made him laugh. "I'll tell you the stories about the Grove sometime," he promised. "About the haunted house, and old Myrtle's grave, and about the ten foot black cat that scratches at doors when teenagers are babysitting."

Lucas' eyes widened, but Matt only laughed, not really believing that either, despite this being Rhy'Din. "A ten foot black cat' That's ridic ....Ooof!" he muttered, narrowing his eyes at Fliss as she elbowed him in the side.

Each of them likely took something different from the tale, but of the brothers, it was Lucas who seemed most touched by the story. "The moral of the story is not just about not judging a book by its cover," he said, "but it's also about compassion. The dragon could have killed the girl, but he didn't. He chose to reward her instead, turning the tragedy of her village into something good."

Matt snorted at his brother's take on the story. "He left the girl alive so she could warn other people not to mess with the dragon!" he insisted.

Fliss rolled her eyes at Matt, laughing a little at his insistence on taking the straightforward approach. "Well, no, not really," she pointed out. "If all he'd wanted was for her to be a warning about messing with him, then why give her the ability to heal people" He gave her something that meant she could apply the lesson he'd taught her, so she could help anyone who asked and be able to tell the story at the same time. At least, I think so."

"But that doesn't explain the moral of the story!" Matt pointed out. "If there had been no survivors, the moral would simply been not to judge a book by its cover and to always be kind to strangers, but it's more than that. He rewarded her with the gift of healing. Why?"

It was Lucas' turn to speak, having considered the story and its possible lesson carefully. He looked to Dom, as if for confirmation. "Compassion," he said. "The story is about compassion. The dragon showed compassion in letting the girl survive, even though the villagers showed no compassion for him."

Dom smiled as they debated it back and forth. "Some of the meaning is lost as I tell it here," he explained to them, "because we don't live the way they do on Mount Yasuo. We don't follow their society's rules, so we don't realize how terrible it is in their culture to turn away someone who needs help. Courtesy and duty are very important to them. Every person has a duty to every other, and courtesy keeps arguments from becoming battles in a population where every third person is adept at a martial art. The dragon actually speaks the moral in the story. Don't look unkindly on strangers, because you don't know who they are when you can't see them. To him, the little girl is a stranger, but despite the way he was treated, he still treats her with courtesy and compassion, and she repays him by spending the rest of her life treating others with courtesy and compassion."

That was pretty much what Lucas was trying to get at, though he didn't say so. "Martial arts?" Matt interjected, already moving past the moral of the story to ask more about what interested him.

"We're supposed to figure out how the story includes any of the elements from the Circle of Nine Towers," Lucas added, already having stated his opinion on that particular story.

Dom chuckled at Matt's interest. "Let's stick with the assignment for now, and I'll tell you about Jenli and the people there in a bit," he promised the younger teen, turning to the older pair to try and help them make sense of the stories in the context they were supposed to be studying them. "The Circle of Nine represent courtesy, compassion, courage, honesty, honor, sincerity, and duty. The Slumbering Dragon touches on all of them in its way."

"So, do we just pick one and write an essay about how it applies to the story?" Lucas asked further, while his brother pouted a little at having to wait to hear about what interested him most.

"I think she said something about us picking a story that we, personally, relate to, and write about that one," Fliss pointed out. "I kinda like The Slumbering Dragon, it's got everything. But then, The Singing Lake has courtesy, courage, honesty, and sincerity, and it's got love, too." She smiled, glancing at her boyfriend fondly.

Lucas flushed a little at Fliss' pointed look at him, happy it was dark enough to hide the warmth that was creeping into his cheeks. He wasn't so shy that his fingers didn't search for hers though. "I'll have to think about it," Lucas said, torn between the two stories, but they had yet to hear about Jenli.

"There are two other stories that are most told up there," Dom told them, ignoring the way Fliss lit up as her hand slid into Lucas'. He knew that look from Elle himself. "There's The Lion of Jenli, about the hero Oishi Reijiro, and there's Anakusi's Tears, which is about the lake that bears the same name."

"Oh, I think we should hear all the stories before we start making decisions about which one we like best, don't you?" Liv suggested from where she was sitting with Maria bundled up on her lap. "We have all evening, you know."

"Not all evening," Elle piped in. "I would like my husband back before it gets too late. We need to talk," she said, turning a pointed look at the storyteller. There was something she had been dying to tell him all day, but hadn't yet had the chance.

"The mistress has spoken." Dom smiled, assuring Elle with a nod that he understood there was a time limit on this. "So ....Anakusi's Tears." He waited until he had their attention, aware that only the teenagers were really listening to him. "In the time of Kalfyi San, there lived a young girl by the name of Anakusi ..."

Okay, so it might not have been the teaching method Professor Tolmay had originally had in mind, but there could be no doubt that Fliss and Lucas were learning an awful lot from a man who had actually lived on Mount Yasuo for a full year not so very long ago. Stories by firelight were the best way to fall into the culture that had created those stories in the first place.

And a few days later, two essays were handed into Professor Tolmay. One concerned The Lion of Jenli - Fliss' choice, in that she related to someone who had the compassion and courage to answer a call for help, and to trust that those who reached out to him on his journey were honorable and sincere in their wish to help him.

It was a difficult choice, but Lucas chose to write his paper about The Slumbering Dragon, in which he explained that one should not look unkindly on strangers, as one did not always know who those strangers really were. The story, as Dom had related, seemed to focus on courtesy and compassion - two traits he thought were especially important and in lieu of his being different, he thought the lessons were relevant to his own life story.

Whatever their reasons for choosing as they had, both teens handed in their papers promptly after their evening of stories around the campfire, hoping that they would be what the professor had asked for.