"Times change," Cressida said with a shrug, "but you know that already, Jack. Kids today have no inkling of what it meant to have such a short lifespan. Honestly, even I don't have a clear idea of it." She was in her thirties and her birthday was coming up in a couple of weeks, too. Lives gradually got longer, though for elves it was much, much longer. Their lifespan was always in the three digits and supposedly, according to old tales, it went into the fours or more. All legend but legend sometimes had speckles of truth.
The question turned to her Hydras. "My Hydras are . . . Hydras. I suppose that covers it well enough. My most social Hydras communicate in the usual manner, and I have a new one you already know isn't in the dorms. He's a peculiar problem." She let her finger touch over the rim of her glass before she took a drink.
"What do you make of it? You can't be completely comfortable with it, even if Ms. Menides intervened."