Welcome to Gaia! ::

Fletcher looked up from his whittling, then set it aside and moved to take the chair that his wife had vacated.

"Well," he smiled, "it was long before Aliya was born ... the first time your parents were in our world. When Terexin, Ulani and Ulrich's youngest son before Aliya and Adonai, was still alive."

He told the tale about how Elnara had been on her way home after being missing for eleven years, and how Triton had accompanied her as friend and bodyguard. How Kara, worried about the disappearance of one of her pets, had shown up. How Donovan had come shortly afterward with Jin, how he had confused everyone until it had come out that he and Kara were a couple (though they had all been surprised when they found out it had started while they'd been visiting there).

"You wouldn't have recognized anyone back then," he concluded. "Ulani and Ulrich, while they were well enough with company, were a depressed lot. Especially after Terexin was killed. Amara and I didn't visit the valley much after that either ... it wasn't until your parents came back and your father started the ranch that we began to live again."

He nodded slowly as Amara came back into the room, carrying a large basket. "Yes ... we all owe your parents a great deal."

"Lin," Earendil chuckled, "you make it sound as if the world only came into being when you started visiting."

Fletcher laughed. "You must realize," he smiled at Lin, "your parents were here ... I believe a full ten years before Aliya was born."

While they talked, Haldia sat in her chair, her legs curled beneath her, staring at the fireplace. She was listening, but most of the talk was going too fast for her, and really had nothing to do with her, and her mind had begun to wander.

Earendil didn't know if Miyuki was bored or tired, but he didn't dare put her on the floor. There were all the wood chips from Fletcher's whittling, and the knife was somewhere on the floor as well. No, he wasn't going to put her down.

He turned Miyuki so that she could lean against him if she wanted to, and continued the conversation with Fletcher and Lin.

"To be fair," he replied to Lin, "a few months in your time is decades here."

"And there are always so many changes between your visits," Fletcher nodded. "I know you have never seen us before, Lin, but we have known about you since your first visit. Amara gets all the news just about every day from Ulrich. She's got the gift, just as he does, to speak to people from afar. So even though we're rarely in the valley, and no one ever comes up here, we know what's going on."

"Miyuki," Earendil frowned, prying her tail from her mouth carefully. "No ... you're going to get hairballs if you keep doing that."

Fletcher chuckled at Earendil, then turned back to Lin. "Well, considering that with Ulrich, news can travel at the speed of thought ..."

He shrugged. "Let's just say, news can travel very fast. And he doesn't even need to tell only one person at a time: as far as I know, he can tell as many people as he likes all at once."

While the three of them talked together, Amara moved to sit over by Haldia and began to speak with her quietly.

Earendil smiled gently down at Miyuki. "Don't pout at me like that," he murmured, lifting her and turning her to face him again. "You know I can't take it." He hugged her gently and began to stroke her back again, hoping it would keep her distracted just as it had down at the ranch house.

Fletcher nodded. "Aye, before we even were in the house for the night, we knew there were visitors, and we knew how many and what their names were. That was about it, though. Then we knew when you left for the Eastland, and when you returned. However, when we were outside this morning, we saw with our own eyes what your daughter did to the small black child."

He chuckled softly. "We heard his shriek all the way out here."

He glanced up as Amara and Haldia rose from their seats and headed off down the hallway.

Fletcher was taken by surprise by the question, and he glanced in the direction where the two women had disappeared. "Amara? No," he replied thoughtfully. "But she ... is very thoughtful, very mindful ... I'm sure she's trying to learn Haldia's language."

He turned back to Lin and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I'm afraid I have no skill with languages at all," he admitted. "In all of my thousands of years, I've only ever learned two languages, and that's because I grew up with them. I don't even know High Elven."

"How true it is," Fletcher agreed.

Earendil pursed his lips thoughtfully. "I don't know," he murmured. "I mean, I was in my seventies when I learned the Ancient Tongue, and I didn't have too much trouble with it ..."

"You also have languages in your blood," Fletcher pointed out. "Your grandmother has the gift of tongues. Most of your uncles do. Your aunt does. Even if it does not manifest as a true gift in you, it would still have influence."

Earendil blinked. "Which also explains why Leyenda had it so easy," he murmured.