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Earendil chuckled. "Like a baby duck," he grinned. "Except she's the one leading all the time."

"Apt," Ulani laughed. "Come on."

She led them all to Aliya's old bedroom, the large one at the end of the hall, and opened the door. There was no furniture left in the room anymore: from corner to corner, just about floor to ceiling, the room was filled with boxes.

"Now," Ulani murmured, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Which area ..."

Ulani looked around, and for a brief moment the thought crossed her mind if Miyuki would try climbing on them.

"Well," she murmured, "there's ... Adanedhel's carvings collection, that takes up about ... four boxes," she indicated several stacked in front of the closet. "Aliya's old toys ... Adonai's attempts at carving ... clothes from the children, though I suppose they may as well be brought back to the ranch ... old tools ... they really ought to be remade ..."

Earendil sat down on one of the boxes to watch. He was amused by Ulani ... well, and by Miyuki. It was just an amusing situation.

"Maybe here," Ulani murmured, slipping between two stacks of boxes and disappearing from view.

From behind the mountain of boxes, Ulani's voice came, slightly muffled:

"Don't tell me it's that dusty in here! I just cleaned last week!"

Earendil chuckled and checked the seat of his pants. "Good so far," he grinned. "Don't worry about it."

There was silence for a moment while Ulani tried to think about what might be in there.

"Could just be musty," she murmured. "The house is getting to that age ..."

Suddenly she reappeared with a stack of neatly folded clothes in her arms. "Here, try these for size," she murmured, setting them on the crate Earendil was sitting on.

"I'll go join Ulrich and Jasmine for a bit," Earendil smiled, excusing himself from the room. He closed the door behind him to give the girls a bit of privacy.

Ulani smiled as she sorted through the clothes. "Here, try this," she murmured, passing Lin a winter dress. It was made of tightly woven wool, very thick and very warm. It was soft, just like kids liked, and was dyed a light brown colour.

Ulani chuckled softly. "If it fits her, I can cut a hole for her tails. I just need to know the size so that I can do the same for some more clothes for her."

She knelt and fussed over the length of the sleeves and such, then nodded to herself and marked the place where she would have to make a hole for the tails and how big the hole would have to be.

"Now ... usually what we do for kids in the winter, if they're wearing dresses," she murmured, rummaging through the pile of clothes again, "is we give them some pants to wear under the skirt. Keeps their bottom half warm too."

She pulled out a pair of wool pants that was dyed the same colour as the dress. "Try this. I can put holes in that too if need be."

She handed it to Lin.

Ulani giggled. "Well, at lease once her tails are in holes, she won't be able to pull the pants down."

She helped Miyuki take the pants off, then took the dress and the pants and set them atop another crate. "Now you go on back to Earendil then, I'll find some more clothes that are this size and fix them up for you. I'll have at least one set for you before you leave today. The rest will have to wait until tomorrow."