Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ulani laughed softly at Lin as she headed for the door, beckoning for their guests to follow her.

"You'd have quite a time staying up on a horse," she giggled softly. "They're mighty big - have you ever seen a horse before?"

"Excellent!" Aliya beamed, clapping her hands together and ignoring her brother's comment. Their personalities were about as similar as their appearances, and as far as she was concerned, her brother just didn't understand her.

"Looks like Mum's taking you to the other house to sleep," she said brightly. "It's nice there. Comfortable. I'm pretty sure the mattresses are either new or very close to it, most of the beds there haven't even been slept in yet!"

She paused and looked at Feng and Ryu again. "Ah, but your Ada said you'll be sleeping in the river, didn't he," she murmured. "Would you like me to take you there?"

Triton chuckled at the exchange Lin was having, and he thought he was stubborn as a child. He waited a bit for Cindy to take one of the bags so she wouldn't have to carry both before following Ulani.

"All right, then, everyone's set? Let's go ..." Ulani led the way out of the kitchen, through the living room and outside towards the second house.

Aliya grinned at Feng and Ryu and murmured, "Perhaps we should just let everyone else out of here first, so that it's not so crowded on the way out."

Donovan followed quickly bringing Lin along, who of course was watching the scenery pass from her view in his pocket. She looked as pleased as punch being there, but probably because she got to see a new place without having to sneak along.

Ulani led Donovan, Triton and Cindy to the other house, directly next to hers and Ulrich's, and opened the door and stepped inside.

The layout of the house was quite different from theirs. Stepping through the front door did indeed land the person entering into the living room, but this living room was more than twice the size, and twice as furnished. To the right was a doorway that led to an enormous kitchen, almost inn-sized, with three walls made up of floor-to-ceiling windows. Down the hall were eight rooms, all of them bedrooms, and all of them the same size as the kitchen. Each one was set up the same: double bed, dresser, closet, nightstand, desk and chair. Each had a square window covered with a curtain, and each room was a different colour. There was also a full-length mirror on the back of each door.

"Come in, choose a room," Ulani invited them. "If you're hungry, there's a pantry through the kitchen ... help yourself, it's well stocked."


Once the kitchen was less congested, Aliya grinned at Feng and Ryu. "Come on, let's go," she said, beckoning for them to follow her. She led them outside, and as they walked she asked them curiously, "So how do you breathe under the water? Don't you drown?"

Triton surveyed the house, it was very impress he thought to himself, it was certainly big enough for a good size family.

"Thank you," he turned to Ulani.

"Well," Ulani reminded Donovan, though so much time had passed that she wasn't sure whether or not he would remember, "Beregond had originally planned on bringing his wife here, and raising a family here, but when he married he ended up moving to Ebonscarp instead. Ulrich and I could have moved in, and considering how small our house is, we probably should have - but really, with just Aliya and Adonai, we do have enough rooms, so why bother?" She shrugged. "As it is, we still take care of this place. Perhaps one of the children can have it when they get married."

Which, apparently, might not be so far off for Aliya, if the rumours were true.

She smiled at Triton, and waved towards the hall. "Go on, get some rest. Come daylight, we'll come and get you again."


Aliya looked at Feng quite seriously. "It would be nasty for anyone to drown," she replied. "I nearly did once ..."

She paused, then grinned sheepishly. "Well, I've nearly died just about every way possible out here, actually." She laughed. "But at least I had fun!"

She glanced at Ryu. "So how many are there like you?" she asked him curiously. "It seems like every time someone comes here from your world there's a new race to meet ..."