Welcome to Gaia! ::

Lore smiled as he motioned for his assistants to follow him up the stairs. It was a long way up for those who weren't familiar with the way the family was arranged but he was sure the three would be alright.

"He is going upstairs because there is a portal up there, and that is how we are going to get to the castle," Lore explained.

Queen Atalya and King Reave were both for once in the study, looking over a map together when there was the knock at the door. They exchanged a glance, and then Atalya smiled. Lin. Of course. She hadn't been around in a while, not since she had grown. She nodded for one of the guards to open the door, and the one nearest the door bowed his head and headed over to open it.

He blinked when he saw the crowd of people on the other side of the door, but he recognized Serenity and he turned back to the queen and king and cleared his throat.

"Your Majesties," he coughed. "It is not Lin ..."

Donovan was waiting on the otherside with Lin, he had made her stay with him so that if the others got too far ahead at least she would know where they were going. He didn't, after all he hadn't visited since planning the Ranch, which was a very long time indeed.

The king and queen exchanged a glance.

"Not Lin?" Atalya repeated, raising one eyebrow and looking back at the door.

When Serenity came into the room her eyes lit up brightly, and she and Reave held their arms out to give their greatgranddaughter a tight hug.

"Welcome back!" Reave said warmly in elvish. He looked at Jair, and then at the trail of children following Serenity into the room. "Wow ... a visit from the whole family?"

Atalya paused. She could hear other voices ... voices she didn't know ... a great number of them ...

"More than the family, I think," she murmured softly, waiting to see who else would appear.

Donovan would have mentioned that Triton was young (ish) when he started teaching Celebor. Even though technically Triton wasn't the one who polished off Celebor's training, which was probably why he wasn't saying anything.

Lin grinned and pointed a playful accusing finger at her nephew, "It has been a while, and you should visit home a bit more often. Otherwise someone is going to have a kid and you won't know it till way later."

Celebor chuckled at Lin and swatted her finger away. "Well you've grown, so obviously things have been happening here," he laughed, "but you have to remember, I have a family to take care of now, I can't just take off all the time. I'm sure you've been told already but I do have four children and a wife."

Aras nodded her agreement with Lore, giggling as he patted her on the head.

"Well, I guess Daddy knows best," she admitted. "So it's okay."

Elnara smiled at everyone and led them forward. "We should hurry, who knows how long the others have already been here," she urged them. They were only a minute or so behind them all, but in this world who knew how long that translated to?


"This place is huge!" Jair exclaimed, his green eyes wide, taking in everything that he could.

Serenity giggled at her brother and smiled at the king and queen. "Everyone's come for Mama and Papa's wedding," she told them happily. "We would have sent warning, but that's kind of difficult with the time difference and all ... so ... there's all of us, Mama and Papa, Grandma and Grandpa, and all of our aunts and uncles and I think some cousins too ..."

"Mi!" she tried to melt into Yue's back legs, which wasn't possible unless you had the magic to do so, which she didn't.

Large people, large people... a lot of large people. It was a wonder wh ythis was an issue, and Yue had kind of hoped that being on the Ranch would have desensitized her to tall people.

He chuckled a bit, though it sounded like a sigh of a parent who had been through this one too many times with his child, "This is my daughter Miyu, she's very shy but she'll adjust."

"I don't understand it," Yukito murmured scratching the back of his head, "She stays with the scariest people, you included Yue, and it doesn't bother her."

Not as much as normal people, she just seemed to adjust faster around scary people.

Lore smiled, "Don't worry, there are plently more things for you to learn now, and every time you get older there will be even more things open for you to learn."

Tristan giggled, they were just waiting for Lore to ask about book learning. What sort of grandfather librarian does not ask about book learning of some sort?