Welcome to Gaia! ::

Within the hour, they were at the base of the mountain. They didn't need to cross the river, but they did travel alongside it, and across it the old city was in sight. There were some people there, elves who were cleaning up the rubble: a cleanup project.

Earendil pointed at the ruins. "Look there, Miyuki," he smiled. "That used to be the city, a long time ago. More than a hundred years ago."

Earendil looked to Lin questioningly. Did she want Miyuki to know what had happened? It was history after all, and really it was good to know.

"Shall I give her the children's version?" he asked Lin in High Elven.

Earendil nodded and looked back at Miyuki.

"A little over a hundred years ago," he told her, "there was a war. A great war. Many people were killed. The city was destroyed. That's why we live on the mountain now." He pointed back to the mountain they had just left. "And now our lives have been rebuilt, and now everyone has learned again why we should not go to war."

Earendil blinked at that. Were they being bad? What kind of a question was that?

Sometimes it was hard to remember that Miyuki was like a real child in that she needed time to learn things, that she had a child's innocent mind: that she was not like Lin had been, an adult mind in a tiny body. She needed to have these things explained to her: she didn't have as many years as she looked like.

He took a deep breath. "Killed means someone is dead," he told her gently. "Not alive. War is when a large number of people, sometimes a country, sometimes a race, fights with another people, country or race. It destroys families and homes and cities and nations ..."

"Horrible," Earendil agreed, not realizing that he was helping Miyuki to grow her vocabulary. "But that's what happens when people don't even try to understand other people, or when they only think about themselves. That's why we need to know about the past, know about the things that happened, so that we can stop them from happening again."

Earendil smiled. "Well ... more like, learn about the past to know not to be bad. Everyone knows how to be good, there's just some people who choose not to. They want things to be their way, or sometimes they just don't like someone. But they forget how terrible it is. They forget how horrible it is to kill someone."

For simplicity's sake, Earendil just agreed with her. Sure, there was more to it, but for a child that was about as simple as it could get.

"Yes," he agreed. "Ignoring would be much better. Still not very nice, but much, much better than killing. The very best thing to do, though, is to talk to the people that you have problems with. If you're angry, or sad, or hurt, then it's best just to talk to them. Let them know how you feel. Usually it can be worked out. But hurting someone is always wrong."