Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Elvish or solar?" Lore asked without thinking.

He had never been here a full month, and it was a bit hard to tell. Since both versions of a month were thrown around quick frequenately. Stepping into the library he looked around and called out a hello.

Haradhel had been outside tending the plants that grew on the stone deck, but hearing the voices inside the house she quickly made her way inside. She spotted her brother- and sister-in-law immediately, and her face lit up in a wide smile.

"Lore! Elnara!" she exclaimed happily. "Welcome! We were wondering when you would arrive! Come, have you had anything to eat? I can whip something up quickly if you'd like - how have things been? I'm not sure how much time has passed for you ..."

She laughed. "Well come on, sit down!" And she motioned for them to follow her to the dining room and take a seat.

But she wasn't alone, either - a little boy followed her into the house - Arahad, still the same as the last time Lore and Elnara had seen him: bright and cheerful, energetic and excitable.

"Hey! You're here!" he beamed as he tailed after his mother. "Nana said you would come and now you did! I thought you wouldn't cos no one else from the castle came here!"

Elnara sat next to Lore, setting her bag on the table in front of her, and smiled at the little boy.

"We wanted to make sure you'd be here before us," she explained. "We didn't want to be here without you ... it would have been a little awkward, I think."

Confusion gave way to surprise which gave away to a grin, because Lore knew that tone. It was the sort of thing when someone had a suprrise in store, and it sounded like they certainly had something in store.

"Could I ask for a hint?" Lore inquired in turn.

Though he doubted it, but one couldn't blame him for trying.

Elnara's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"But you said we're not staying here, but you didn't say where we will be staying," she murmured. "Is that not a hint in and of itself?"

She looked to Lore to see his opinion on the matter.

Haradhel grinned, but she didn't say a word to either confirm or deny their guesses.

"Would you like anything to eat before you go?" she asked them, changing the subject. "Ulrich brought a bunch of chickens from the Westland on his last visit, we have eggs now if you'd like some."

She laughed softly. "We may have the ranch here, but over at his place it's starting to be more like a farm."

"I like the cows," Arahad piped up brightly. "But the chickens stink!"

"Yes, I would imagine chickens do create quiet a smell," Lore chuckled at Arahad's comment.

He had never been near a real chicken (well baby chicks don't really count in terms of smell), not being in the city. Well.. a Gaian city, he was sure there would be real chickens in the cities here, but not in Gaia. Health reasons stated as much unless you were a certain ways away from the city itself.

"It'll be fun to see all the changes," Lore murmured, "And interesting, how long as it been since anyone has been here from Gaia?"

He couldn't recall asking how long it had been since they last saw Haradehl and the rest of the family when they were at the wedding.

Elnara nodded. She remembered that day. She had been so nervous, going to see her father who had been dead for so long ...

"So we were still the last visitors," she murmured softly. "Well. It seems we will have a lot to tell when we go back."

Though that wasn't for a good long while, so they really didn't need to think about that yet.