Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Yeah, see you later," Celeb grinned brightly. "And thanks!"

He waved and ran out the door, vanishing as quickly as he'd come.

Earendil chuckled at Lin. "That was nice."

Earendil finished off his meal and leaned back in his chair.

"Rest and relax?" he suggested. "I know I've been sitting around all morning, but that's more exhausting than anything else I've done in a very long time. I would suggest the mountaintop, but I don't know if Miyuki could make it up there ..."

He trailed off, looking at Miyuki thoughtfully. "On the other hand ..."

Maybe she could. Though she wasn't very interested in that, he knew.

"Now that I think about it," Earendil murmured, "you were too small when we left for our trip to be told much about the mountain."

He paused, then smiled at Miyuki. "Well, you know that the city is up on a mountain, right? The palace is the highest part of the city, and part of the palace grounds is the mountain where I trained when I was young. My uncle is the trainer there, my mother's brother-"

He broke off and blinked at her. "I guess that makes him your great-uncle," he realized belatedly.

"If you want to," Earendil smiled. "But it's a long climb. If you get tired, just let me know and I'll carry you."

He stood and looked at Lin, though he was holding his hand out to Miyuki. "She hasn't spent any time with Mother or Father yet, either, has she?" he murmured. "Let alone had them introduced to her as her grandparents."

"This is going to be interesting," Earendil smiled bemusedly. He patted Miyuki on the head. "Come on, we'll go and you'll see as we go along."

There was no point in piling it all on her all at once, after all. Take things slow, one person at a time.

Earendil chuckled as well. "It is," he assured Miyuki warmly, taking her hand and starting towards the door. "Family always is."

Family was the most important unit there was; that was something he had always believed, even if his father didn't exactly exemplify it.

"Indeed we are," Earendil smiled warmly, not missing the movement.

Once they finally made it up the mountain - he was a little surprised he was still used to the thin air, but then he realized that they'd spent quite a bit of time high in the air on Kelirahc's dragon and Haldia's roc - they stopped for a rest and a drink at the spring.

"How you holding up, Miyuki?" he asked her, sitting on the bench so that she could take a break.