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"As a weapon?" Shael repeated thoughtfully. She looked at the staff, her eyes taking in everything about it. "How heavy is it, Rhea?"

Rhea lifted the staff slightly, weighing it across both her palms. "Not very," she admitted. "It's just really big."

Shael nodded. "Perhaps Ulrich," she suggested, "or Ulani ... or one of the fighters at the ranch ... or perhaps Elrohir himself, I know he spent a number of years training and helping with the training of his nephews."

She winked at Cindy. "If you ever want a good story, ask Haradhel about her training days."

Rhea blushed slightly and gripped her new staff tighter as Cindy addressed her.

"Can I come with you?" she asked her teacher quietly. "I don't get many chances to visit Nako or Neko, it would be nice to see them again ... and show them my new staff."

Shael smiled at Cindy. "I have no objections," she nodded. "Why don't you head over there now? It's still early, I know, but I somehow doubt that even Rhea will be paying much attention to any lessons today."

Rhea's eyes lit up, and she shuffled to her feet, careful not to knock anything (or anyone) with her long staff.

"Are you coming, too, Mama?" she asked as she ran over to the hook where their cloaks hung.

Shael rose carefully from her chair and shook her head. "The snow is still too deep for me," she replied, "my crutch would only sink through it. You go ahead - but you make sure you tell me everything your grandmother tells you, all right?"

"I promise," Rhea beamed, tying her cloak. She plucked Cindy's from the shelf and held it out to her. "Come on, maybe she'll have cookies for us!" she said brightly.

Rhea giggled. "Nako always said she wanted to be able to teach me something before I knew it ... maybe now she can!"

She held her staff straight up so that it wouldn't hit anything, and so that it would fit easily out the door, but she had to hold it with both hands so that it wouldn't fall over.

"Can you get the door?" she asked Cindy, blushing slightly. "Um ... my hands are kind of full ..."

Rhea looked up at Cindy as she dragged her staff along behind her.

"Have you been to Nako and Neko's before?" she asked her curiously. "They just live right there, they're really close."

She pointed to the house that was only a short distance away, very close to the river. The funny thing about it being so close ... was that even Rhea did not see her grandparents often. She was always studying one thing or another.

Rhea's eyes filled with awe. "That must have been a really really long time ago," she murmured in amazement. "Papa's old ..."

She had never thought about her aunt, but the fact that her father was the taller of the two ... though of course, Aliya also acted younger, while Adonai was grown up and serious all the time.

But then she suddenly realized something. "How old are you?" she asked, confused now. "If you knew Papa such a long time ago ... then you must be really old too, but ... but you're so young ..."

At least, she looked young ...

Rhea blinked. No ... no one had told her about that ... but she thought she might understand it.

"Like how two things going in a circle around something don't go the same fast?" she asked. "One goes faster and one goes slower but they're always at the same place compared to each other?"