Welcome to Gaia! ::

Shael nodded thoughtfully once more. "I ... suppose I can see that," she agreed, "since of course no matter how long you're the same physically, your mind will continue to grow and blossom ... still, it's just so very unexpected."

"Then again," Haradhel pointed out, "it's been a very long time since we've seen anyone from Elnara's family, besides her and Lore and the twins of course. Before they came here for that year, we saw them at the palace ... but Shael and Adonai stayed here, so they haven't seen them in many more years."

She grinned at Kara. "You should convince them to visit again," she winked. "Or at least the children, if the twins are still too young for Elnara to travel with them."


Rhea held up one finger. "Come with me," she told Toshiro and Miyu, beckoning for them to follow her towards her father's library. She ran off in that direction, opening the door without knocking and running into the room.

"Papa!" she called, startling Adonai as he was working at his desk. "Papa I need paper and a pen!" She jumped in his lap and reached across to open one of his desk drawers, taking out the things she was looking for.

Adonai got over his surprise quickly and put his hands on Rhea's shoulders so that she wouldn't fall. "And just what do you need them for?" he asked her quietly, attempting to be serious even though there was a note of pride in his voice.

"Learning new things," Rhea smiled innocently. "You always tell me to write things down that I learn, so that's what I'm doing! Did you know that the other world is connected to more worlds? That's where Toshiro and Miyu are from!"

She pointed towards the door. "See?"

Shael nodded. "Yes ... I do recall now that Elnara mentioned someone by that name ..." She looked at Ryu curiously. "Is he a mer, like you?" she asked. "I'm just guessing, since you say he lives with you ... which makes me think it's in the water."

"Feng's promised to ask Serenity to paint us a picture - or a series of pictures - of their new home," Aliya put in with a grin, "so we can all see it someday. Of course, with the time difference ... it's going to be a while, but still."



Adonai chuckled softly and waved at Miyu and Toshiro. "Good morning," he smiled warmly at them. "It's nice to see you again. I see Rhea's already found her interest of the day ... quite the inquisitive one, aren't you my dear?" He chuckled again and hugged Rhea gently around the middle.

Rhea squealed and held her paper and pen tightly. "Let me go, Papa, I have to learn!" she giggled.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Adonai teased her, his eyes sparkling brightly.

Without hesitating even an instant, Rhea turned her head and gave her father a quick peck on the cheek. "I'll be good!" she promised. "No wings in the house!"

Adonai let her go and laughed softly. He had been expecting a 'please', but a kiss worked just as well. "Be careful."

"Mhm!" Rhea ran over to a smaller desk near a window (there was also one above Adonai's desk) and set her pen and paper down. "Come sit with me!" she invited the others, pulling out her chair. She was about to sit on it when she paused thoughtfully, then stepped back. "One of you can sit on it," she smiled brightly. "I can stand."

She did have manners, she just had to sometimes stop and think about them, was all.

Haradhel laughed at Feng. "Well, that makes sense," she agreed, amused. "But yes, poor Jair would be lonely on his own ... I don't think he's been here yet, what's he like?"

Sure, Elnara and Lore had talked a bit about him, but really ... so much time had passed since then ...

Rhea smiled widely when Miyu sat down, and she reached forward and opened the window.

"So what's the world called that you're from, and the world your Mama's from?" she asked Toshiro, who was obviously the more talkative of the two. "I have to write this all down so that I can write a book about it later, just like Papa! And if I don't write it all down then I might not remember all of it and then I can't write good like him."

"Well," Adonai corrected her quietly, not looking up from his work. "Write well."

"Yes, that," Rhea giggled.

"It seems that most of your family, both your children and Elnara's, are eager to explore and learn," Aliya commented. "How do you manage that? I mean, Adanedhel and Adwin are like that, but Alyse still just wants to read all the time, and ... well ... you know what Adonijah's like."

Alyse frowned. "I do not spend all of my time reading," she protested. "Of late I have to say I've been quite adventurous."

"Going out for research doesn't count," Aliya said flatly. "The day you do something voluntarily that has absolutely nothing to do with reading or research, I'll be amazed. I wager you even had something like that in mind coming here."

Alyse blushed. "Well ... I did want to check Uncle Adonai's notes on the falcon," she admitted hesitantly.

Aliya rolled her eyes, but Shael giggled softly.


Rhea wrote as fast as she could, trying to take down everything that she was being told.

"Earth," she murmured as she wrote. "Like the ground?"

Haradhel smiled. "Well, I managed to meet ... I think at least most of them during our stay in the Southland," she murmured. "I don't know, they seemed adventurous enough to me ... but then, that was all in one building ... it's different traveling outside ..."


Rhea nodded and continued to write, and as her excitement continued to mount blue sparkles flitted around her back, attracting her father's attention.

"Rhea," Adonai said in a warning tone, looking at her out of the corner of his eye.

Rhea looked up at him and her concentration broke, and at the same moment the sparkles vanished. "Da, Ada?" she asked him in elvish.

Adonai sighed and shook his head. "Never mind."

Rhea frowned. She hadn't been doing anything wrong, had she?

"That is a good point," Haradhel conceded. "So really I don't know half your children at all." She laughed softly. "Well, perhaps someday some of them might be inclined to really change and explore. After all, they can't all stay home forever ... can they?"


Rhea blinked at Miyu. "Sparkle?" she repeated. "Was I?"

She grimaced. "That's what happens when my wings are going to come out," she murmured. "I'm not supposed to do that in the house ... I always knock something over ..."

She pouted. "But I can't help it sometimes! Sometimes they just want to come out all by themselves!"

Haradhel smiled. "I didn't mean come to this world necessarily," she said softly, "just ... out in general. Not living at home anymore. That's all."

She could understand not wanting to go to other worlds - after all, was she not the same? She would never leave this world, no matter what ... and she trusted that her family would respect her wishes (and fears) and do the same.


Rhea looked over her shoulder thoughtfully. "I ... don't know," she murmured. "I don't put them out much ..."

"I have a theory," Adonai smiled from his seat, leaning back in his chair and looking over at the children. "But in case it's wrong, I'd rather not divulge it just yet."

Rhea blinked at her father, then pouted. "That's not fair, Papa."

Shael giggled. "Well, I can't say that I would find it a bad thing to have your children stay with you," she smiled. "I know Rhea's still so young, but I already find myself fearing the day she leaves us ... one way or another."

"I think we can all agree that Rhea's a bit of a special case," Aliya pointed out. She glanced at Kara. "Have you been told the circumstances surrounding her existence?"


Adonai was impressed. "Very good, Miyu," he smiled widely. "You are quite correct. But there is also a second reason ... I simply do not want her to change the way she is.Both her mother and I love her dearly, and if she changed very much she would not be our little Rhea anymore."

Rhea tried to keep pouting, but after words like that from her father, she could only smile widely.