Welcome to Gaia! ::

Rhea giggled at Kara, turning around to face her again. "Mama says that I have wings because there's a part of the Vala Yavanne that's inside of me so I can do things that she can like have wings and make spring even if it's winter and make flowers that are really pretty and some that Mama never saw before and some that even Papa never saw before and Mama and Papa say that someday maybe if I'm strong enough I can even fly around just like Elros says that the Valar used to when they lived with the -"

She ran out of air and gasped for a breath before she went on again as if without interruption.

"- elves but Papa says that was a really long time ago and it must have really been a really long time ago because it was before he was born and he didn't even know them then and he's never seen them so it has to be a really long time ago because my Papa knows everything -"

"Rhea," Shael interrupted her, putting one hand on her daughter's head, "I think you might need to slow down a bit before you start turning blue again."

Rhea blushed, but she was smiling widely.

"Would you like to come inside?" Shael asked Kara in the sudden quiet. "Adonai would be happy to see you again."

Shael smiled ruefully. "It has been a long time, indeed," she murmured, putting one hand on Rhea's shoulder and ushering her towards the house. "So many things have happened ... Rhea being the most important, for Adonai and myself ..."

She held the door open for her guests. "I'm not sure Rhea's much for playing, really," she giggled softly at Toshiro, "but if you like debates and learning about how things work, then you might be a bit more interested."

Rhea ran inside, squeezing ahead of the others, her wings dissipating into blue sparkles once again. "Papa! Papa! They're here!" she called out, running through the living room and into her father's library - a recent add-on that was less than a year old. As a result of it, the living room had been let to be just that - a living room, where they and any guests they entertained could relax and enjoy themselves without being surrounded by mounds of books.

Aliya giggled at Naida. "I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself just as well without physical playing," she assured the tiny mermaid. "Rhea likes to answer questions, why don't you ask her something that you're wondering about?"

Rhea's eyes grew bright as she opened the windows in the room to let in the fresh morning air.

"Yes!" she beamed. "I like questions! Ask me!"

Shael motioned for everyone to make themselves comfortable, then leaned against the doorway that led to the hall. "Would you like anything to drink?" she offered.

Shael smiled and nodded, sitting in a chair across from them all.

"How are Lore and Elnara and the twins?" she asked them softly. "I hope they're doing well ..."

She regretted not seeing more of them when they were there, but Rhea had just been a newborn, and after everything she had gone through with her pregnancy and delivery, she hadn't been up to much at all during Rhea's first year.


Rhea giggled at Naida, and since no one was asking questions, she started out instead. "What are you?" she asked brightly. "You're like a half girl half fish or something, are there lots of your kind where you're from? Mama says you're from another world. I don't really understand that, but Papa says someday he'll explain it all to me so that I can understand."

Shael's eyes grew warm. "That's good," she murmured. "Adonai always stayed close to home when Rhea was born ... actually, he didn't leave the house for a few months, not until I was strong again ... but Elnara was strong all the way through, so she would be fine then. What about the other children, don't they live with them?"

Kara had made it sound as if Elnara lived with just Lore and the twins, which rather surprised her - but she was used to families living together until the children married and moved out.



"Oh, I see," Rhea giggled. Then she turned her attention to Toshiro and Miyu. "And you two have wings like your Mama, do yours go inside you like mine do? What race are you? Papa says that here only the Valar have wings, and only when they want to, that's why I can do it, except I'm not a Vala, I just have a part of one in me is all ..."

Shael was shocked.

"Little Idhril?" she repeated. "Has her own family? That's ..."

Startling, for one thing ... a complete surprise, totally unexpected ... she had just been a little girl the last time Shael had seen her, and she knew how slowly time passed in Gaia - look at Miyu, she had been a child long before Idhril, she was sure! And she was still a child!


Rhea nodded, thoughtful now, and her flow of questions stopped momentarily as she digested what she had been told. So there were different kinds of angels ... she wondered how that had come about. She knew there were elves that looked different, and that were called different races, but she knew that they were still the same inside.

Her dark eyes showed wisdom beyond her years. "But you're nothing like the Valar at all, either," she murmured softly, her young mind trying to take it all in and make sense of it all.

"Ah, I see," Shael murmured. "Adoption, then, and not biological ... yes, that makes a bit more sense ... still, she's so young ..."

She smiled faintly. "Though I will be the first to admit that the time differences between our worlds still confuses me at times," she laughed softly. "I suppose I really have no idea how old anyone is anymore. Not to mention the fact that your race grows in such strange manners."


Rhea blinked. "So you and your Mama aren't from the same world, either?" she asked Toshiro in amazement. "Just like you're not from this world either?" She tilted her head curiously. "How did you find each other then?"