Welcome to Gaia! ::

Haldia giggled. Miyuki was just plain cute, however she looked at it. "You are very eager," she smiled at the child. "It is good. But tell me, how vas the trip vith the blind voman? She did not come to see us and I forgot to ask Kelirahc and Leyenda. How is she doing?"

"Ah, for lessons, I would imagine," Celeb nodded knowingly. He laughed. "By the Valar, how I hated that when I was younger! I'm sure you must remember. Mother made me stay with her most of the time for lessons when the rest of you were going off on some adventure or other. I was so jealous!"

Haldia smiled, her golden eyes sparkling brightly. "That is vonderful!" she said warmly. "It is good for her to be doing vell. I know it is sometimes hard to remember things, for me too it can be hard to think of the vord i vant, and I know that I do not speak as I should in this language ... but if she can speak already very vell in this language in just von veek, then I think she vill soon speak better than me, if she does not already."

The thought of that amused her, since she'd been working on learning the language for well over a decade by now.

Celeb smiled sympathetically at Lin. "Yeah ... I know she doesn't like her training. Has she found a different weapon she would like to study rather than the blade? It might make things easier all around if she had a weapon she could learn by choice instead of being forced to ..."

Haldia tilted her head curiously at the thoughtful and silent Miyuki. It seemed she had caused her to ponder about something - that was unexpected. Still, it wasn't an important matter, and she wasn't going to press the issue if Miyuki didn't have any comments on it.

"Now, I did not get a chance to meet her before the storm," she said, changing the subject. "Tell me, vhat is she like as a person? I vould not be able to talk to her even if ve did have time, since ve cannot speak the same language."

Celeb nodded, his expression both thoughtful and surprised. "I would never have thought of that," he admitted. "I mean, either the staff as a weapon, or to ask Alassëa to teach Miyuki. It makes sense though, if Alassëa's going to continue traveling with you. Do you think she'll stay with you or stay in her city, whenever you find it?"

That comment made Haldia thoughtful. "Aethos has changed very much since we first met him," she murmured. "Even since he came here, he has changed. It is a good thing, I think. He was not very nice when we first met him."

Celeb chuckled at Lin. "Then my advice is, get Alassëa to teach Miyuki while you can. That way since you have no idea how long she'll be with you, at least Miyuki will have learned something from her."

"We need to get her a staff first," Earendil admitted. "It's one of the reasons we haven't had her start her lessons yet."

"Oh!" Celeb beamed. "Then might I suggest the shop belonging to Whelan? He's the weaponsmith in this village, not the only one, but his work is superb. He does swords and such, but he does wonderful staffs too."

Haldia chuckled at Miyuki. "Yes, he does seem much happier now. It is good that he came with us back here, yes?"

At that moment, Alyarra began to fuss, frowning in her sleep and then wriggling from side to side as she began to wake. Haldia picked her up again and rocked her gently back and forth, cooing to her softly in the Ancient Tongue. For a moment, Alyarra seemed as though she was going to cry; but then she opened her eyes (which were a vivid green, the same colour as Celeb's eyes) a sliver and peered up at her mother.

Celeb gave Lin and Earendil directions on how to get to the weaponsmith's shop. It wasn't far, and his directions were simple.

"Be sure to tell him I sent you," he grinned. "He might give you a deal, who knows?"

"Probably," Haldia affirmed. "But she can vait a bit, it vill not hurt her." She smiled at Miyuki. "Vould you like to hold her for a bit? She is half avake now, but she vill sit qvietly for you, I am certain."

"No problem," Celeb grinned, leaning back in his chair. "And see if you can't convince Kelirahc and Leyenda to get Amalirahc a weapon of some sort as well, won't you? Kelirahc's been teaching Amalirahc wrestling and hand to hand, but I'm trying to tell them that's not enough. Leyenda's convinced that as long as they've got their spirits, Amalirahc will always be safe, but they don't really stop to think about if they're not with him for some reason."

Haldia smiled and stood up, moving closer to Miyuki so that she could set the baby carefully into her arms.

"Very careful," she murmured softly, setting Alyarra ever so carefully in Miyuki's arms. "She cannot hold up her own head yet."

Amalirahc had been sitting in a corner, leafing through a book, so quiet that he hadbeen forgotten (temporarily) by most of the others in the room. He had been listening in on the conversations though, especially once he had heard his uncle mention his name, and now he couldn't help but interject, "I'm learning to shoot a bow from River!"

Celeb and Earendil laughed. Amalirahc was the same as ever.

"Still it's better to learn a close-range weapon as well, since not everyone can be kept at bay with a bow," Earendil pointed out to the boy, grinning.

Once Miyuki was holding Alyarra, Haldia sat back in her rocking chair and relaxed, though she kept an eye on the kitsune and her daughter.

Amalirahc didn't know what weapon he wanted to learn, since he'd never really given it any thought, and he shrugged one shoulder and turned back to his book.

They visited just a little longer, but soon Alyarra was wide awake and very hungry. Haldia took her back from Miyuki and excused herself to the bedroom to feed her, and Earendil commented that they should probably be heading out anyways.

"We do want to look around a bit as well," he told Celeb apologetically, "but it will be dinner hour soon, and we'll have to meet the others again."