Welcome to Gaia! ::

Earendil grinned at Miyuki and turned towards the door. He gave Amara one final wave as they left, and held the door open for Lin to come outside.

Haldia and the roc were already there, just outside the door, and Haldia was speaking softly to it and stroking its head lovingly.

"Ready?" she called.

Earendil knelt and made a stirrup for Lin to help her up onto the roc's back and smiled at her warmly. "Up you go," he murmured.

Haldia just grinned.

"I've got her, don't worry," Earendil smiled. He picked up Miyuki and held her with one arm, and with his free arm he climbed up onto the roc's back. Once up, he settled into position and placed Miyuki in his lap, as they had done before.

A moment later, Haldia had also climbed up, and then they were in the air once more.

Haldia kept their altitude as they flew back towards the ranch, and only as they neared it did she fly lower. She set them down in the yard in front of the house. It was quite dark, but of course she had no trouble seeing: and with the snow, it was easy to see that there was no one below them.

Once they had landed, Haldia hopped down, and Earendil followed her and then turned and held up one hand to help Lin down as well.

"You know," Haldia mused, looking around as she unsummoned the roc, "I think the snow is deeper here than it was up on the mountain."

Earendil looked down. It seemed Haldia was right. "Probably because up on the mountain there was nothing to stop it from blowing away," he commented. "Whereas here there are so many obstacles that it would just gather."

Earendil wasn't sure if Miyuki was worried about the doll, or if she was asking him for help, but he scooped her up and held her in his arms so that she wouldn't have to worry about the snow.

"I've got you," he murmured softly. He turned to the others. "We should go inside. I'm sure Haradhel's anxious to know where we are."

Haldia nodded and ran forward to get the door. Like Earendil, she also walked on the top of the snow, and didn't think anything of it.

As they headed inside, Haradhel's voice rang out from the dining room: "Who's there?"

Leyenda appeared in the dining room doorway and grinned. "Hey, you're back!" she beamed. "We were starting to get worried about you, being gone for two days and all."

Leyenda giggled when she saw the doll. "It's Earendil, huh?" she grinned. "Well, I guess when you can't have the real thing ..."

She laughed. "Come on, we're already eating dinner. I'll tell Grandmother to set more places for all of you. We've only just started, so there's plenty of food left."

She motioned for all of them to follow her to the dining room, and headed off.