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"I've traveled with children," Daeron replied shortly. "Children are sane. Halmir is not. Come on, Lin, you know him. I'm not making this up, something happened to him when he was a soldier. For a while it's fun, but it doesn't take much for him to go overboard."

"Daeron," Earendil cut in, "really, that's enough." He switched to High Elven, which Miyuki still didn't understand. "You're going to give Miyuki negative impressions, and she's going to be spending a lot of time with him. Not to mention, you really should give him a chance. You've not traveled with him before, he might not be all that bad."

"I have traveled with him, on hunts," Daeron replied.

Earendil tilted his head slightly. "And how did that go?"

"Not too bad, actually," Daeron admitted begrudgingly, "but Arthael was there, and it was all business. This won't be."

Daeron looked at Miyuki and shrugged. "Probably. At any rate, he and Arthael are both skilled fighters, which we will need. Luk couldn't fight to save his life, so it'll be up to the rest of us if something happens."

Which he sincerely hoped it wouldn't, but you never knew.

"That reminds me," Earendil realized suddenly. "What happened to Ura? I've never seen Shiro without him before ... why isn't Ura coming with us?"

It was unthinkable to him - after all, the reason Shiro hadn't come on the last trip was because Ura hadn't wanted to come, and Shiro didn't want to go anywhere without him.

Earendil shook his head. "I'll never understand that, I think."

Then again, summoning demons who were a living representation of one's self was completely unheard of in Arda.

Earendil blinked at Lin. "They're twins?" he asked, surprised. "I never knew that ... brothers, yes, but ... wow. Okay, that explains a bit. I always thought they were more alike than their other siblings."

Daeron laughed. "Come on, I hardly saw them at all compared to you, and even I had figured as much!"

"They are nothing alike," Earendil frowned. "Shiro is an absolute genius ... Kaito ... I don't know that I've ever seen him being serious. He's always joking around, and he never thinks of anything but his belly ..."

Daeron laughed. "That's Kaito all right. But he's a smart one, too, he just doesn't choose to use it most of the time."

"I suppose I can see that," Earendil admitted. "I have noticed that he's either sleeping or hyper. From one extreme to the other ..."

Ah well, if everyone was the same the world would be a boring place, wouldn't it?

Daeron was looking thoughtful now. "At least there will be a number of us," he decided finally. "Even if half of us can't fight. We should be fine."

Daeron nodded. "Yes ... we'll have Lady Alena," he murmured softly. "We will be fine."

Any fire master was a great asset in the best of times, but Alena had a child to protect, which would make her very dangerous indeed. Yes, he was certain that they would be safe.

"So how is everyone back home?" he asked Lin curiously. "How are Triton and Elnara doing?"

They after all were the ones he was most interested in, with their families. They had been the ones to save him oh so many years before.