Welcome to Gaia! ::

Celeb pointed at the butterfly. "But then it's three things," he pointed out. "It's a butterfly, and it's a fox, and it's a ..."

He trailed off and tilted his head curiously, and looked up at Lin. "Is it a boy or a girl?" he asked her.

Celeb looked surprised. "But ... but it isn't hard, is it?" he asked, honestly not meaning to be rude. "Just look if they have boy parts or girl parts ... right?"

Not that he knew how to tell the difference in animals, after all they weren't like people, not entirely.

Celeb looked up at Lin thoughtfully. It wasn't obvious by the look on his face, but he was trying to think of how old she must be. He didn't know her very well, and didn't know a whole lot about her. He knew that she was short, and that his big sister Leyenda had seen her before, looking very much the same ... so he knew she had to be an adult, at least, because only adults wouldn't change from the time before he was born until now. On the other hand, being so short, she couldn't be very old either, and though he wanted to say child, he knew better than that, at least.

"That's a long time," he said finally, deciding that she had to be at least twenty years old - meaning that she would have been very little, to his mind, well over fifteen years ago. He tilted his head again. "Does that mean that the foxy butterflies are very old, too?"

About an hour later, when the sky was dark, Leyenda came back into the cabin, her face flushed. "All right," she called to everyone, "we're ready for you to bring your things over."

Earendil for one was relieved. He had been getting a bit antsy. "At last," he murmured, reaching for his bag.

Leyenda laughed. "Don't you worry, there are two more ships to unload," she grinned, "and your help will be needed for those ones. Come on, I'm to show you to your quarters. Rhea, we didn't realize that you were coming when we built the ship, is it all right if you and Lin share a bunk?"

Rhea looked over at Lin. "I don't mind if you don't mind," she offered.

Rhea giggled. "Maybe it will be good for Whisper and Senka to live together," she murmured, picking up her bags. "Whisper was always good at getting me to calm down, perhaps she can help Senka a bit as well."

Kaito laughed. "Because like it or not, Senka's going to be stuck with a ship full of men for a very long time."

Rhea laughed. "Exactly."

Leyenda giggled. "This way," she urged them once they all had their bags.

"Besides," Earendil smiled, kneeling and holding out one arm for Senka to hop up, "not all males are bad, right?" He knew that Senka had only accepted him by default, more or less because he had bribed her to, but he also knew that she did like him, despite being male.

Earendil chuckled and nuzzled Senka back, then straightened and left the cabin along with everyone else.

Leyenda led them out on deck, and across the gangplank - which was far too wobbly for Whisper's liking, causing her to fly across again instead of walk - and once they were on the galleon, she paused and motioned towards the ship around them. "Welcome," she smiled, "to the Zephyr, our home away from home for an indefinite period of time."

Shiro looked around, his eyes glowing in the darkness. "Better than she looked from a distance," he murmured. He tapped the deck with one foot. "And less rocky."

Leyenda nodded. "Larger vessels are more stable."