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Leyenda smiled. "Don't worry about it," she assured her. "I mean, it's not like it's a big deal. We'll be all together again by the end of the day. If it were a longer trip, even just one night, I'm sure she would have come on the same ship as us."

"Understandable," Rhea murmured. She looked further up the river, and noted that the ship was much closer than it had been earlier. "Can you see it yet, Lin?" she asked.

And it wasn't long before they came close enough for even Lin to be able to see the ship clearly. It was anchored a distance from shore, but even so it was obvious that it was absolutely enormous. Five hundred feet long at least, and one hundred feet wide, it was a palace of a ship. Three masts, three visible decks (one of them low around the stern), it was enormous and beautiful. The sails were white, and on the mainsail was the image of a golden phoenix, the symbol of the Southland elves.

"Beautiful," Kaito breathed, having returned to the deck. "It's bigger than the clan manor!"

"Right here," Ura quipped as he and Shiro came up behind Lin. Their eyes were fixed on the ship, and their faces filled with awe.

"She's beautiful," Shiro murmured as they drew even nearer, though more at the pace of a run now. "No wonder it took three ships to take everything we would be needing ... she's huge!"

"Well, she has to fit enough supplies for us for at least a year," Leyenda laughed. "Who knows how long it will be before we see land again?"

Leyenda smiled as she gazed at the ship. It was clear that she was not only looking forward to it, but also proud of having helped to build it. In every sense of the word, it was a beautiful ship.

"Ah," she said suddenly, as if she had just remembered something. "We'll be there in about a quarter hour, we should eat before we get there, otherwise we'll only be taking more time out then." She motioned for them all to follow her to the galley.

Leyenda took a loaf of bread from one of the cupboards and cut it into slices, and put on some slices of meat that she got from another of the cupboards. "It's not much," she said apologetically, "but it will give you some energy for the unloading. It will be dark before we're finished, but once we're done I'm sure you'll be able to get something else on the Zephyr as well."

Ura looked amazed as he reached for one of the sandwiches. "We slept the entire day away!" he commented, surprised.

"Don't you worry," Leyenda laughed, tossing some meat to Senka. "By the time we're finished unloading, you'll be wanting to sleep again. No amount of excitement could keep you awake tonight. I promise you that."

"Sounds good," Whisper murmured, sitting in the doorway at the top of the stairs. "Rhea didn't sleep much last night either. She didn't use her staff, and I think she had some of everyone else's excitement as well as her own."

"I don't think so," Rhea said quickly, defensively. "I've gotten good at not absorbing anything if I don't want to."

"Never is," Leyenda agreed, putting the supplies back into the cupboards. "But sometimes you just don't have much of a choice. Thankfully, we made good time today, so we should be fine."

She brushed past everyone, heading back towards the steps. "Come on, we should be nearly there."