Welcome to Gaia! ::

The girl squealed and curled up like a pillbug, falling backwards away from Iris and laughing. "You're tickling me!" she laughed again. "Silly girl!"

She twisted away and crawled underneath her grandmother's chair. "Come get me!" she cried gleefully.

The little girl squealed again and crawled away as quickly as her little arms and legs could take her.

While the two played chase, a female servant arrived with a tray of snacks - three small cups of juice and a plate of cookies. Lothiriel smiled and motioned for the girl to bring it to Jair and Naida.

"Wow," Jair beamed, his eyes sparkling brightly as he reached for a cookie. "Thanks!"

Lothiriel smiled at him. "Well, you have yet to tell me your reason for coming here, and to tell me about how your family is doing."

"Well, that's understandable," Lothiriel smiled, taking a cookie when the serving girl brought the tray over to her. "I would imagine that all of the doors look they same, do they not? And with so many to choose from, it's hardly surprising. Besides," she added with a laugh, "if that's what it takes to get a visit from someone in your world, then I'm glad that it happened. We hear so little from your world."

Jair blinked. "Wasn't Lin here a while ago?" he asked.

Lothiriel nodded. "But that was when Amora, my eldest, was still young," she murmured. "Now Amora has children of her own." She looked around for her granddaughter, who was still being chased around the furniture.

"So I've heard," Lothiriel smiled. "We haven't heard any word here yet on how that's going, but they've been gone for two years now. Actually, a little longer, perhaps two and a half. But we haven't heard any bad news either, so we hope that there's nothing to worry about, and that it's all going well enough."

She spoke to the serving girl softly in elvish, and the girl bowed her head and turned and left the room.

Lothiriel nodded. "And of course it has been much longer here than it has been in your world," she mused. "It stands to reason that no one in your world would know how long they have been gone. Still, no one knows if there are other lands out there, or how long it would take them to reach them, or anything ... so there is really no way of knowing when they might be back."

Suddenly a boy entered the room, dressed in fine robes, his shoulder-length black hair pulled back in a half ponytail. He walked straight and proud, but there was a childish gleam in his eye.

"Nako," he said, "you sent for me?" He blinked at Naida and Jair, but said nothing.

Lothiriel smiled. "Is your mother coming as well?"

"Yes, she was right behind me," the boy nodded. He glanced at Naida and Jair again, then stepped closer to his grandmother and murmured, "Nako ... what happened to those two? Did someone try to change them into fish?"

The boy was startled by Iris's sudden movement, and he pointed at her, his expression shocked. "And a cat, Nako! There is a cat girl, too!" He looked at Naida, his brow furrowing slightly. "You say you are mers, but that doesn't mean anything to me!"

He looked around and spotted the little girl who had been playing with Iris. "Maeglin, what are you doing?" he asked her with a frown.

The little girl giggled. "Playing."

Maeglin squealed and took off again just before Iris could catch her, running across the room as fast as her legs could take her.

The boy sighed at his sister and turned back to Naida. "Well, that might be what you're called," he said flatly, "but that doesn't tell me what you are."

"Half fish, half human," a voice cut in from the doorway. Amora had finally arrived, a small infant in her arms. She smiled warmly, her cheeks slightly flushed. "Hello, Naida. Jair."

She smiled at Iris and Maeglin, amused by the chase. "Iris."