Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was several hours before they arrived at the city, and when they did it was very suddenly. It was invisible against the red rock that surrounded it, and really it was only when they came across people that they knew they had arrived somewhere.

"All right," Shoneah murmured, slowing to stick closer to Eron and looking around thoughtfully. "Now, where did they say we would find her?"

Several people had recommended this woman to them as someone who not only knew the entire continent well, but who was also willing to help those who needed it.

Shoneah nodded. "The clinic it is then," she murmured softly.

Hefting her bag on her back again, she started towards someone who didn't look like they were in a hurry. While she walked towards the red-haired man, she listened to some of the conversations that were taking place around her, getting a feel for the language she expected they would have to speak After five weeks of having the gift of tongues thanks to eating the dragon she'd killed, she was getting used to changing languages at will, but it was still good to prepare herself, she found.

"Excuse me," she called out to the man to get his attention. When she had it, she asked him for directions to the town's clinic, and he gave them to her willingly. She thanked him, then turned back to Eron and smiled tiredly.

"Not too far," she told him quietly. "Come on."

There was little to tell the clinic apart from the buildings around it, except for the carving above the door that showed a bird, which they had been told to look for.

"Looks like this is it," Shoneah murmured, looking up at the door. She stepped forward and pulled the door open, holding it for Eron. "Go ahead," she invited him, nodding at the open door.

Shoneah stepped in behind Eron and closed the door behind her, and since he had called out, she took the chance to look around.

The chairs she saw around the room looked very inviting, but she declined to sit in them. She had a feeling that if she were to sit down, she wouldn't want to get up again, at least not for a good long while. She also took note of the books on the table in the middle of the room. It was their first chance to really see the written form of any of the languages here, and she was curious about it.

She was distracted however when another red-haired elf entered the room. He was wearing robes and had his hair pulled back, and looked every bit as if he belonged there.

"G-g-good morning," he stuttered in greeting, eying them uncertainly.

For a moment, Shoneah was worried that they were frightening him, but then he smiled at them.

"How c-c-can I help you?" he asked them. "Are you in n-n-need of h-healing?"

A crease appeared in the man's forehead, and he let out his breath slowly. "Oh d-d-dear," he murmured. "That ... uh ..."

Shoneah's heart skipped a beat and for a moment she was afraid that they'd done something wrong somehow.

Then the man sighed and looked over his shoulder. "Kyrie!" he called, not too loudly. He looked back at the two of them. "It's my w-wife you're looking for ... I'll l-l-l-let her t-talk to you."

The man pursed his lips thoughtfully and looked as if he were about to reply when a woman, not much taller than Eron, with short black hair, covered with scars and dressed rather skimpily, her bare abdomen showing a tattoo of a dragon, stepped out of one of the doorways behind him and came up beside him.

Shoneah was surprised by the woman's appearance. She'd gotten the impression from just about everyone they'd met that like married like in this place, so to see a woman so different from the rest of the city's populous married to a man who was very much the same as the others was ... well, surprising, to put it mildly.

The next thing she noted that struck her as odd was that the woman did not seem overly surprised by their appearances.

"K-Kyrie," the man stuttered, looking at his wife, "these p-p-people are trying to g-g-get to C-Caras Galadhon."

The woman looked at the two expressionlessly. "Oh?" she asked, her tone inquisitive.

Shoneah watched Kyrie for her reaction to Eron's explanation. Aside from a slight narrowing of her eyes when Eron explained that they had come from another world, there didn't seem to be any reaction at all.

When Eron finished, Kyrie was silent for a moment, and then she turned to her husband and murmured, "Why don't you go back to work, Ahkshi? I'll take care of this and tell you about it later."

The man nodded, and with a final glance at the two arrivals, he headed back deeper into the clinic.

Kyrie motioned for Eron and Shoneah to take a seat in some of the chairs in the waiting room, though she herself remained standing against the wall.

"Before I agree to help you," she began, "I first have a question for you."

"What is it?" Shoneah asked as she took a seat in the nearest chair, setting her bag gently on the floor.

Kyrie looked from Eron to Shoneah. "What is the name of this world that you come from?"

Kyrie's dark eyes flickered toward Eron, and she nodded to herself.

"I wondered," she said thoughtfully. "I presume then that your purpose in going to Caras Galadhon is to find someone who can return you to your own world?"

"Yes," Shoneah said quietly. "We were told that people from all the nations live there together, and that if anyone could return us to Gaia, the knowledge for it would be there."

Kyrie smiled. "Well, perhaps, but ... I think I can do better than that." She paused to think before she spoke again. "I have already been hired to guide a group of people around the continent. If your goal is to get to Caras Galadhon, I can offer you a few options. If you are in a hurry, I can give you maps and advice. If you are not in a hurry, I can take you there myself, albeit the long way around. And I do mean long."

She hesitated a moment again, then added, "But ... I feel I should add ... the people whom I am guiding ... most of them are also from your world, from Gaia ... and I do know that it is their intention to return there after their journey here is over. They do have a way back. Whether you go to Caras Galadhon immediately, or accompany us, you will not get back to Gaia any sooner."

Shoneah's heart leaped into her throat and her eyes began to sting. They could return - it was possible! But ... how long was long?