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Pippin watched him carefully as he began to play, starting to swim again, so she wouldn't fall behind. She rocked her head from side to side in beat with the music. The song oddly... felt happy. It was strange to her that a sound could cause that sort of feeling, but she liked it. "Yeah, I like it." She said decidedly, continuing to move her head. It just felt... natural.

Pippin smiled happily, he had called her miss. It made her feel fancy, and they were heading to the palace which made the whole experience even fancier. He may have told Pippin that he wasn't exactly a prince, but in her mind he was one. She was quiet for the rest of the swim, simply listening to the music, until she finally spoke when the city came into view. "Oh... I thought it would be a lot bigger. She said, not quite realizing that it only looked so small because they were still ten minutes away. "But... it is a lot prettier than I thought." For a moment she wondered what it might be like to live there, but she couldn't, right?

Pippin nodded her head slowly, somewhat in awe of the place, especially now that she was standing at the base looking up at the grandeur of it all. "Yeah... that'd be okay." She said, suddenly acting much more quiet then she had been for the rest of the trip. At each of the locations he showed her, Pippin remained quiet and observant, until he finally stopped and asked her what she thought. Pippin opened her mouth and took a deep breath. "Whatwasthefirstroomwesaw, wasthatthequeen, isthereaking, whatwerethosenaiadtalkingabout, donaiadreallylivehere." And more questions, she spoke so first, chances were that Hjortur would hardly catch a word of it. When she was done she took another deep breath and stopped to look at Hjortur expectantly.

Those that helped the Queen, whether directly or indirectly, lived in the palace.

Though it may have been hard to say how well Aeroniel had served lately.

Aeroniel had been making her way towards the banquet hall, planning to request the chefs give her some of the food prior to the banquet just so she didn't have to deal with the possibility of seeing any of a certain slew of people she had been trying to avoid lately.

Chromis. Tariel. Turin. Generally anyone.

Perhaps it was just her misfortune that she would come across someone anyway.

Hjortur.

Well... could be worse, she guessed... Wait, was that a kid?

What was he doing with a kid?

She hated kids.

It was probably better to not get involved.

She hated them, especially as of late.

But since when did Hjortur have a little one? She doubted this was his sibling. Vera and Snorri had not spoken of welcoming new naiad to the society.

Groaning softly to herself, Aeroniel swept over, clearing her throat in an attempt to get their attentions. "Hjortur, who is this excited little one?"

She could nearly puke at her false, child-pleasing enthusiasm.

Laughing, Hjortur shrugged and gave Pippin a small pat on the head. "Unlikely, but I could certainly ask the chefs if they might be willing to give a darling little princess a small snack. Would you like me to check..." his voice trailed off at the sound of someone nearby. When he turned his head, he couldn't help but mentally curse.

Then again when he remembered that she could read thoughts.

And yet again at that ill-timed question of Pippin's.

Looking to the child beside him, he shook his head with the straightest smile he could manage. "No, Miss Pippin, this is Lady Aeroniel, a friend of my mother's and one of the closest to the queen. We are certainly not having relations." It was a miracle that his mind did not wander to think of such things. Perhaps the time he'd had to practice drawing a blank mind around her.

Looking back to Aeroniel, he motioned to the little one with a soft pat on the back. "This is Pippin. I found her attempting to fish outside of the city," he would leave out the details of his being gone unless explicitly needed, "She said that, in her failure, she would return to seaweed for her sustainable, and I simply could not let such a thing happen." A smile. "So I brought her home with me for a meal." It was somewhat apparent at this point how little he'd thought it through; namely, what was she going to do after eating.

Pippin's eyes grew wide upon the ladies introduction, why were all there names so hard to say?! "Can I just call you Lady?" Pippin said with a look of minor distress on her face. Pippin looked back and forth between the two older naiads, coming to a quick conclusion that grown ups were weird.

"I'm not related to him either!" She piped in. Although she hadn't asked if the Lady was his mother, she had asked if she was his girlfriend. Silly grown ups. "That's the queen, right?" Pippin said with a sideways glance, she was certain she had heard that name a few times now.

"That sounds like a good plan though." She said turning to follow after the nice and pretty Lady.

Lady?

She hated kids. She hated them so much.

At least she was using her title, though, and nothing demeaning like a nickname failing to acknowledge her title. And it was a kid. She guessed she'd take it. Besides, what was the point with arguing a child, anyway... It was just a starving child who seemed to have no family. What kind of parents would abandon a poor little naiad to fend for herself? Perhaps she never had any parents in the first place.

Hjortur was probably better than any alternative, though she was right in her instinct that he had no idea what he was going to do with her. When Hjortur started with a Well, she gave a small, derisive snort, swimming with the young naiad "princess" and letting Hjortur try to figure out what he was going to do with her in that bumbling mind of his.

The fact he wasn't going to just dump her on his parents, though, showed a small element of maturity she wasn't used to from the usually responsibilities-dodging naiad. Aeroniel would give him that much, though the solution didn't exactly sound ideal.

"That's a start," offered Aeroniel, shrugging her shoulders a bit. "I'm sure Vera and Snorri would accept your proposal, just keep in mind they may expect you to take more responsibility than that." For a moment, she glanced over her shoulder at him, before looking back to where she was going. "Perhaps you should consider actually using those instruments for more than just fun?"

Vera and Snorri's dreams of him being a guard were likely long behind, but the naiad had always loved their entertainment...

"And yes, Pippin! Queen Tariel is her name, and she is a very powerful, very beautiful naiad in our society." Speaking about Tariel briefly soured her expression, but she attempted to plaster the happy face back on before the child picked up on the irritation. "I am her right hand, so I can convince the chefs to give me some food early."

And then she would have done her good deed for the day or ... something. Maybe the chefs would be less annoyed if she had a needy kid with her.

Swimming into the banquet hall, she dodged around a corner and swam over to the kitchen, hoping the overexcited kid and the usually lazy Hjortur knew enough to follow her. When they arrived, Aeroniel had already started pilfering a few food items from what had been prepared.