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From there, Haradhel and Elrohir showed them the room set aside for the children to play or study.

"We plan on getting more books here," Elrohir explained, indicating the nearly empty shelves. They pointed out the boxes in the corners that were presently empty but that someday soon (they hoped) would be filled with toys for the children.

The second floor was quite simple, four halls each lined with bedrooms of various sizes, each with one or two beds. Dressers, nightstands, and shelves were the standard furniture (besides the beds of course) and each bed had the appropriate number of pillows and a few blankets folded neatly at the foot.

One of the halls, however, had an en suite study in each of the bedrooms: this was the area set aside for the Winters family themselves, and as they of course would have their own work to do while they were there, they needed desks and room to work.

Haradhel made a point of mentioning that, while these rooms were specifically for the Winters to work in, they were not the only places where they could work, and she would be more than happy to have Cindy downstairs with her so that they could keep each other company as each of them did their work.

The bath for the second floor was three rooms (two for the three halls of children, and one specifically for the Winterses).

The third floor was divided into two: a suite of rooms for Elrohir and Haradhel and their future family (bedrooms, a bathroom, and two studies), and the other half was another group of bedrooms and a bath for the children who would be staying there.

Altogether it was an enormous but simple house that suited everyone's needs - or at least, that was what Elrohir, Haradhel, and Ulrich all hoped.

When they finished the grand tour they returned to the foyer with Donovan, Lin, Triton and Cindy in tow.

"What do you think of it all?" Haradhel asked them eagerly. She was particularly eager to hear their opinions of the house as she had been working hard every single day since their arrival, and even harder since the shipment of supplies had arrived, to make the house a home, to make it comfortable and convenient as much as possible.

Donovan considered everything, it pretty much had taken into account everything he had been concenred about, and even more than that. Things he wouldn't have thought of by himself.

"I'm impressed, this place certainly has a lot more than the main house in any of the clans," he murmured.

"What's a main house?" Lin popped her head out of his pocket again.

"The house where the dominant family of a clan lives," he replied absently.

Main houses tended to be huge, since they sometimes included second cousins, but they were only impressive for show, but not for the kind of project like this. This was like a homeschool on a massive scale.

Haradhel looked to Cindy curiously. "Did you want to get to work right away?" she asked. "Or did you want to join the others for a tour of the rest of the ranch?"

She after all needed to work - there was still so much to do - and she would be glad of the company.

Elrohir smiled at Triton's comment. "Speaking of children," he said as if suddenly remembering something, "when should we expect the first ones?"

He turned to Donovan questioningly.

Donovan looked thoughtful, "Once I get a feel for the people here, I'm going to take probably one or two fighters with me to go after slavers."

Since, if one was to judge by the amount of work that was put into it, the gold supply he had first given Ulani and Ulrich was probably dwindling by now.

"Since last time I didn't, didn't have the resources," he mused thoughtfully, "But first, need to know the people, especially those looking after the horses and the fighters. Then need to find out where the rats are hiding out and then go after them."

Lot of prep work, but that was the mundane part of the job after all. Which was the safest part of the job.

Haradhel smiled. "Follow me, then," she said, beckoning for Cindy to follow her into the play room.

"I work in here, usually," she explained as she took a seat at one of the desks that was covered in sewing tools. "It's big and empty most of the time, but it's easier than working upstairs all the time."

She nodded at another of the desks that was near hers as she took up her sewing. "Make yourself comfortable," she smiled.

Elrohir nodded at Donovan. "Then let's get going," he agreed. "The less time the children spend in captivity, the better. Where should we start? There's basically the fighters, the horsemen, trainer, breeder, and grooms. Ah, and the field labourers."

"Start with the field labourers," Donovan murmured, "Fighters last, just so I can talk to them without worry of taking up time."

He wasn't much of a social person, but it was good to be at least on a somewhat social level with the people one was probably going to work with. If he had to spend several weeks with these fighters, he needed to get to know them, for no other reason than to ease his own inbreed paraiona.

Cindy giggled, "Sounds like Mom after she began to really take in children," she murmured as she opened the bag.

She wasn't sure in what order everything was in, and she knew sometimes Kara had packed by herself. The young woman began pulling out plushies that ranged from bunnies (Yuki's favourite), to teddy bears, to cats and dogs. There were some people plushies like the ones that Lin was so fond of. Most were elven looking, Cindy had wondered if Helen made them, but there were one or two with cat ears, and at least three with wings.

"Someone is going to play house in the future," Cindy murmured, "I think Helen went overboard," the tight stitching told Cindy that it was her brother's handy work. Well that and the fancy clothes kind of gave it away.

Triton had remembered that, the only thing that had kept them from being buried and frozen to death was the shields that his mother and Donovan had set up.

"Yea, that had been kind of unexpected, it didnt help that it occured shortly after the fight with the slavers."