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Rhea nodded slowly. "What area do you think you would prefer?" she asked, folding the blanket neatly at the foot of her bed, out of Whisper's way. "I mean, you've been to the Eastland, Southland and Borderlands ... where is your favourite place?"

Rhea herself was undecided. Despite having grown up in the Borderlands, and the fact that all of her family was there, she did like the weather in the Southland. It just seemed safer to her there. No tornadoes, no danger of being snowed in in the winter, no huge storms ...

"Fair enough," Rhea smiled. She tucked her bags under her bed. She would deal with the rest of it later. "There, now if we're finished in here we should go up on deck and help out, yes?"

She blushed a bit as her stomach growled suddenly. "Perhaps once it's all finished we'll ask Arwen for a bite to eat."

By the time the two of them returned to the deck, the second ship had pulled up alongside the Zephyr and the elves had begun to unload it. Leyenda appeared out of nowhere and ushered the girls into the line to help with the passing of boxes, though they wouldn't be doing the final placing of them.

All told, it was another two hours before the unloading was complete, and everyone was allowed to go to their bunks. Arwen handed out wafers for those who were hungry, but she wouldn't give them more than one - she didn't need them sick when they woke up.

At last, Rhea headed down with Lin to their quarters. "I think I'm ready to fall asleep standing up," she smiled tiredly as she opened their door and led the way in. It was dark inside the ship, but someone had hung a lantern in the middle of their ceiling, so there was a bit of light to see by.

Rhea rubbed her eyes, then changed into her nightdress.

"Go on," she murmured. "I'll put out the lantern once you're safely in your bunk ... no need for you to fall or hurt yourself."

She waited until Lin was safely tucked in before she went on her tiptoes and blew out the flame. Then she made her way carefully to her bed, where she nudged Whisper out of the way before laying down and making herself comfortable.

Before she realized it, she was asleep.

Earendil had spent much of the voyage so far learning all about the ship - or at least, as much as he could - and about sailing, and at night he had been tracking the movements of the stars to track their locations. He kept track of it all in one of his many journals, and at the same time he was also in the process of creating a map of the ocean.

But he was taking a break from his work now, and having just finished a meal, he came up on deck to see what was going on. He could see Rhea and Leyenda up at the bowsprit talking together, as they seemed to do quite often nowadays, and he spotted Lin wandering around with her butterflies.

A smile flitted across his face, and he brushed his hair back behind his ears and headed over to join her.

"Afternoon, Lin," he greeted her as he came up behind her. "Been keeping busy?"

Earendil smiled and stood next to Lin. "I feel as if I should apologize," he murmured. "For decades I've been promising that we would take this trip together, and I've gone and spent the first few weeks already just working, leaving you on your own."

There was a slight blush on his cheeks, and he fixed his eyes on the deck at his feet. "It was made clear to me from the beginning what the voyage would be like, and I had always known that I would need something else to occupy my mind ... but I'm afraid I hadn't thought that no one would tell you. I'm sorry, Lin. I should have made sure you would be aware of what it would be like."

Earendil smiled faintly, and moved as if he were going to put his hand on her head, but then he stopped and dropped his hand back to his side.

"If you ever need me for anything," he told her softly, "just let me know, no matter what I'm doing. All right?" He smiled at her, but his eyes were serious. "We're here for you. Nothing that I'm doing could be more important than you. Just keep reminding me of that."

He sounded as if he were afraid of getting carried away with his work - and truth be told, he was. He was just so used to working all the time, because Lin was so often absent for such long periods of time that that was what he did to keep himself occupied.

Earendil chuckled softly, and this time he did ruffle her hair. "It's part of who I am," he grinned. "I'm afraid I can't help it. I worry about the people I care about."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "I think Uncle Elrohir might have rubbed off a bit on me." He grinned suddenly. "And let's face it, if something were to happen to you, or you weren't happy, it's me that your father would come after."