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"I had four," Amalirahc said proudly. Though to be fair, he wasn't as particular as Miyuki. "And that gives us six! We are already halfway there!"

As much as he protested against his lessons, it was clear that he did learn from them, whether he wanted to or not.

"Uh-huh," Amalirahc nodded, kneeling down to look again. It wasn't long before he found three more that were a good size, and once he had passed them off to Earendil, he looked up at Haldia.

"Haldia," he said, his tone questioning, "why is this your special place? Is it just because no one else knows about it? Or is it because of the mushrooms?"

Haldia smiled and put one hand on the boy's head. "Well ... both," she told him. She knelt next to him and looked into his eyes. "Do you ever have times when you just wish to be alone?"

Amalirahc shook his head. "Normally I go everywhere with Mama and Papa," he told her solemnly, "but when I don't, then I'm with Miyuki, so it's fun."

Haldia looked at the children, from one to the other and back again, and there was a look of such deep yearning on her face that Earendil couldn't help but be startled by it. But as quickly as it had come up, it was gone again, and she clapped her hands together.

"Come," she said brightly. "We have all of the mushrooms we need. We will put them in my bag, and then we can try to find out where the water that is dripping in here comes from."

She took Amalirahc's hand and ushered him back towards the entrance of the small cave.

Earendil ushered Miyuki forward as well, and as they headed out, he leaned down to Lin and murmured softly, in High Elven, "It must be worse for her here than she's letting on."

Then again, he probably could have guessed that when she had said that the thought of leaving and never coming back didn't bother her in the least.

"Probably," Earendil murmured back, "though it also sounds like she just wants her own space. I mean, face it - she had a huge room to herself no matter where we went, and whenever she wanted to be alone, that was fine ... if the guy from earlier was any indication, she probably doesn't get any time to herself here, except possibly during the day, which would really set her apart from the rest of the people."

At the entrance to the cave, Haldia pulled back the foliage and held it so that the others could pass through and back out into the open air.

Earendil nodded. "Exactly."

He let Lin lead the way, then followed her out of the cave.

"So how do we find where the water is coming from?" Amalirahc questioned, ignoring Lin and Earendil's conversation. He was able to understand them, but he just plain didn't care what they were talking about - it wasn't about him, so what did it matter to him?

Haldia let the foliage fall back into place. "We climb," she replied simply.

"Over the cave," Haldia smiled at Miyuki. "The water was coming in from above, yes? So we must look above it to see where it comes from, and where it goes to."

The cave from the outside looked simply like a large rock, and Earendil had to wonder how it had seemed so much bigger from the inside.

"The walls must not be thick," he mused, letting Haldia lead the way. "It's not much bigger than the inside at all."

"And that is quite fine by me," Haldia quipped with a grin.

"How are we going to climb?" Amalirahc asked, voicing Miyuki's question.

"Use the plants that are growing over it," Haldia told him. She led him over to a spot that was growing a particularly thick section of ivy and vines. "Here. Use the vines like rope."