Welcome to Gaia! ::

Alyse giggled and nodded. "Absolutely," she beamed at Naida, waving as she closed her door.

Only a few short moments later, she was dressed and ready to join the others for breakfast. She was in the middle of braiding her long hair when she left her room (her hair, a bright gold like her mother's, fell to her knees when it was loose), and she smiled at Feng and Naida.

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long," she said softly.



Haradhel nodded. "I would assume so ... and you wanted to go see Adonai and Shael, and meet little Rhea, right?"

She smiled. "I think you'll find the visit quite enjoyable ... and surprising." She laughed and started to lead the way back to the house.

"Oh, good," Alyse smiled brightly. "Then let's go eat! I'm starving, we missed out on dinner last night. We didn't bring anything along with us, we hadn't planned on being gone that long."

Not that they hadn't had anything, but they hadn't had much. There was no more fruit on the trees, the berries had mostly rotted (the ones that hadn't yet been scavenged by wild animals preparing for the winter) ...



"Then you haven't even seen them since they were married," Haradhel blinked at Kara. "Wow ... that's nearly eleven years now ... you certainly to owe them a visit."

She laughed softly. "I have to confess, it's been a long time since I was out that way as well," she grinned. "There's always so much work to do, especially at this time of year ..."

Alyse had to ponder that for a moment.

"For myself, yes," she concluded, "but for Adwin ..."

She trailed off as her twin entered the kitchen behind them, his face and arms covered in long, red scratches. One eye was a little swollen, but he didn't seem to mind - on the contrary, he was grinning widely and seemed very proud of himself.

"It wasn't interest that kept us out so late," he told Alyse, nudging her with his elbow before sitting down. "It was just that night time is the best time."

"I still think we would have had a better chance during the day," Alyse shrugged, sitting next to her brother.



Haradhel smiled. "Then why don't we head over to the valley," she suggested, "and we can worry about the dishes and such later on? Come on, it's a beautiful day, I don't even think you'll need your cloaks."

The air was crisp but not cold, the sun was shining - it did indeed seem to be shaping up to be one of the last beautiful days of autumn.

"You had better not let any of that get infected," Aliya frowned at her son. "Did you at least wash out the wounds before you went to bed last night?"

"Yes, Mother," Adwin grinned. "And I used the herbs, so don't worry about a thing. It'll be fine."

He chuckled at Ryu. "Mauled is the right word," he agreed cheerfully. "This is what happens when you take a baby falcon out of its nest."

"I told you to wait until the parents were out hunting!" Alyse rolled her eyes. "But do you ever listen to me? Of course not!" She sighed.

"You guys have to see it!" Adwin exclaimed, ignoring his sister. "It's adorable! Hopefully a female, they're better hunters than the males, but still ... I have a falcon of my own!"

Adwin smiled at Naida. "I'm going to train her to be a hunter," he told her proudly. "And to carry messages and such ... falcons are all sorts of useful, they can even defend you if you're attacked or something. It's no different than training the horses to be ridden, or to pull something ... or to raise cattle for milk and meat ..."

He chuckled at Ryu. "No, no fall," he grinned, "though those adult falcons sure tried."

Aliya brought the breakfast to the table, though she was still looking at Adwin's face. "I want to look at those wounds later on," she told him firmly. "Especially the one by your eye."

Adwin shrugged. "No worries, I'll just head up the mountain after breakfast," he grinned. "There's a pool of healing water up there, it'll heal anything you can think of! Nako has an uncle who lost an arm when he was a child, in an accident, and he fell into the pool and got it back!"

"You shouldn't rely on magic to fix your mistakes," Aliya lectured him. "It will only fail you one day. It always does, and when you need it the most."

Adwin shrugged again and turned to Naida. "In answer to your question," he told her, "she's in my room at the moment, sleeping ..."

He turned back to Aliya and spoke to her in elvish, and she nodded at him and replied softly. Then he left the table and headed outside.

"Well, that takes care of some of the waste," Alyse commented as she finished up her breakfast.

Overall, breakfast passed smoothly, though Amdir (when he finally joined them) was groggy and didn't quite feel up to going out to the ranch that day. Declaring that the horses would be fine without him for a day, he decided to spend the day with his family and their friends - a first for him.

Still, Aliya was pleased.

"Oh, here come Haradhel and Kara," Alyse commented, glancing out the window. "And Miyu and Toshiro ..." She frowned. "Rose isn't with them."

"I saw Adonijah and Rose and Adanedhel out back earlier," Adwin shrugged. "Looks like they didn't feel like waiting today."