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Haldia grimaced. "Some days are better than others ... I think I cannot vait until this little vun arrives, he is very tiring. I just vant to sleep, though I know I need food first ... for me and for him."

"Trust me," Leyenda grinned as she brought some food over to Haldia. "You'll feel a lot better in the morning if you do eat some dinner. Besides, Celeb would never forgive you if you went to sleep without him," she added teasingly.

Haldia laughed. "Is true!" she giggled, accepting the food. "He likes for us to go to sleep together. And I do not mind to admit, I like it that vay too." She started eating.

Haldia smiled at Miyuki. "This is not dinner," she told her. "The rest of you vill have something varm, I think, but this is just from yesterday. Leyenda knows I sometimes cannot wait for food to be cooked, at least not vithout having something to snack on. It is just some dried meat, vould you like some?"

She held out a strip of the meat to Miyuki in offering. It wasn't much, but it was enough to her their stomachs from growling while they waited.

Haldia smiled. "All right."

Just then Celeb returned with a smile on his face.

"We were right," he called out to the group. "They'll willing to let us set up camp out here, but they won't let us into the city with all of our things. There's simply too much of it, and no space to keep it. And though we are welcome in the city, we are advised to have someone watching our things while we're here ... be on the lookout for thieves and pickpockets and the like."

"Lovely," Earendil said dryly. "Well, at least they're not going to come and try to kill us." He smiled encouragingly at Lin. "That's better."

Earendil grinned and put one hand on Miyuki's shoulder. "Tomorrow," he affirmed. "Tonight we wouldn't see much anyways, and by the time we eat it will be getting close to dark. Why don't you go wait with River and Amalirahc while your mother and I set up our tent?"

He shifted Andarien to his other arm carefully so that he could use his stronger arm to help with the tent.

Earendil smiled at Miyuki. "Sure," he agreed. He held Andarien out to her. "Careful so he doesn't wake up, all right? We don't want him to start crying yet ..."

Though of course there never really was an ideal time. Still.

Andarien squirmed slightly as he was passed from one person to the next, but when Miyuki started walking again, he settled back into his nap, yawning widely before falling still once more.

"He sleeps a lot," Amalirahc commented as Miyuki joined him and River. "Do all babies sleep that much?"

"Brooke did when she was that little," River giggled. "She used to cry a lot too."

"Mama always said that it's when babies sleep that they grow," River added knowingly. "So it's good for them to sleep."

She peered over at Andarien. "I wonder how things are at home," she mused.

"They were good when we were there last," Amalirahc offered. "But that was two weeks ago. Still, I'm sure things will be good."

"They're always safe there, you know that," Amalirahc grinned, trying to comfort River.

River smiled at her friends. "Thank you."

She felt so lucky to have friends such as she did.

Very soon, the camp was set up and dinner was ready, and after that Leilani played her flute for a while while they all relaxed. Then it was time for bed, and off they went.