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Earendil smiled, then reached over and ruffled Lin's hair affectionately with his good hand. "I do say so," he grinned. "So stop worrying about me. Just be glad that everyone's back safe and sound, and that things have started to be resolved. Although," he added, his smile fading, his expression turning serious as he looked at Lin, "I do want to talk to you about this later, if you don't mind. One on one."

Clearly he wanted to share something about Storm with her, and out of Starr's hearing range.

Starr looked back at the fish and smiled. "Yes," she murmured, reaching for the spit. "I think it is."

She took the fish away from the fire and inspected them. "They just need to cool a bit so that we don't burn ourselves," she told the others. "It shouldn't take long."

Earendil smiled and sat back in the sand, relaxing while they waited. "So Lin," he smiled warmly at her, "what sort of food does Kelirahc's village eat? Lots of fish? Wild animals of some sort?"

Earendil blinked. "Fruits and vegetables?" he questioned. "What kind of a diet is that?" He looked over to where Kelirahc was sitting with Leyenda and her parents. "And how does someone on a diet like that end up so muscular? I would never be satisfied with a diet like that ..."

Starr looked up at Earendil. "Lots of people back home do it," she told him. "But they take vitamins and supplements and they eat stuff like protein shakes and so on to make up for it. They have to be careful though, if they don't do it right they can get quite sick."

Earendil nodded, still looking in Kelirahc's direction. "Though I suppose if that's what their people have been doing for thousands of years," he murmured, "they would be used to it ..."

"Probably," Starr agreed, holding the spit with the fish on it out to Earendil and Lin. "Here, it's ready."

Earendil took some fish after Lin and thanked Starr for it. "Who knows?" he smiled. "But if he's going to be coming with us ... he's going to have to get used to it, because we don't have a large supply of vegetables. Fish is the only real food source we can rely on for the entire trip. And we don't have any fruit at all, it's hard to get in the Southland. What little we had, we already ate so that it wouldn't go bad on us."

"We could get some here," Starr suggested as she began to eat. "The other day, Kaito went into the jungle and he came back with some more bananas and stuff. A lot of citrus fruits, too - lemons and oranges and I think even some limes!"

Earendil nodded thoughtfully. "I'll mention it to Arwen when I talk to her later," he told the others. "See what we can do. Because we don't want to strip the island either, not leave enough for the village ..."

And speaking of which, they still needed to ask Kelirahc and Leyenda if the two wanted to join them on their mapping trip. Though they would probably have to take Rhea as well, then, for translating ...

Just as everyone else had finished eating, Storm began to stir. He sighed softly and sat up, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"Storm," Starr beamed, grinning at him. "You're awake! Good! Your fish might even still be warm, here, eat it!" She took the last fish from the spit and thrust it into her brother's hands.

Storm blinked down at the fish. He seemed a bit confused for a moment, but then he nodded and started to nibble away at it.

Earendil nodded and turned to the twins. "You two are all right on your own now?" he asked them. "We won't be long."

Starr looked up at Earendil and nodded back to him. "We'll be fine," she assured him. "We'll go to sleep as soon as we're finished here. Don't worry. We'll be ready to leave in the morning."

"Good." Earendil got to his feet and held out one hand to Lin to help her up as well. "Then let's go talk to them. And they're with Arwen, so I'll get that out of the way at the same time."

Starr beamed at Lin. "Thanks," she said, half shyly, half proudly. "See you!"

Earendil chuckled and waved at the two as he and Lin headed towards the fire where Arwen, Roydon, Leyenda and Kelirahc were still sitting. "I think," he murmured softly to Lin as they walked, "Storm is going to be all right. It might take him a while, but ... I think he'll be all right. I've talked with him now, I've convinced him to talk to Aunt Elnara about happened to him ... but Lin, I'm going to need you to remind him of that." He looked down at her. "He's ... ashamed of himself more than anything, and he's afraid that Aunt Elnara will blame him for what happened. If you could give him encouragement, perhaps mention something to Aunt Elnara ..."

He shrugged. "It might help."