Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Hello," Pen grinned at Lin as if he hadn't just discovered something new about Lothiriel. "I've heard about you. Your father owns the ranch we're headed to ..."

He paused. "I don't suppose this is it?" he questioned, looking past the children up the river towards the houses that were there. "Bit small. And lacking in horses. And hands."

Lothirien rolled her eyes. "Of course this isn't the ranch," she told him. "I showed you this morning, the ranch is outside the valley."

She nodded at the boys. "Then this is Adanedel and Ahren ... cousin Ahren ... son of my Uncle Elrohir, of course."

"Let's go then," Donovan murmured getting to his feet.

Besides, it would be interesting to see how things have changed again... and Haradhel probably had her baby by now.

Lin giggled, thinking he was being silly.

"It's a bit further away from here," she told him.

As Adan moved to gather up the fish that they'd caught, Ahren looked at the two travelers curiously.

"Why are you in such a hurry to get there?" he asked. "It's not like you'll miss something, there's nothing special going on today."

"Except Timaeus's birthday," Adan put in, slipping his knife back into its hidden sheath.

Lothiriel giggled. "It's not that there's something going on," she assured the children, "it's just that it got a little boring, traveling pointlessly for so long, so we started setting goals for the time we arrive at our destinations. It makes it more fun."

"Since we're such a dry bunch," Pen agreed, tapping his head and nodded at Lothiriel behind her back.

Without even looking, she reached back and slapped his hand. He sighed. "That's what I get for traveling with a seer," he muttered - but he was grinning.

Lin looked at Adan thoughtfully and then looked back at Lothiriel and Pen, now that she thought about it... the two did kind of act like that. The sort of way someone who was in a long relationship or married tended to act.

"That's a pretty good question."

Seeker's answer made perfect sense to Ahren, but Pen's reaction confused him completely. Did it mean something special? Was he just being silly again? Was there a way to tell?

Finally, he decided that he had no choice but to ask, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Though he couldn't help but notice that Pen was also correct in his silent comment.

A startled look briefly flitted across Lothiriel's face but it was quickly replaced with a look of anger.

"Pen!" she exclaimed, turning to face him. "What are you doing behind my back this time?"

She hadn't seen anything, so he must have said something ...

Pen grinned at her, nonplussed. "You know, if you keep looking at me like that, I'm going to have to kiss you sooner or later."

"If you would like to keep your manhood," the woman retorted, crossing her arms, "you'd better rethink that."