Welcome to Gaia! ::

Kiara smiled softly. "Then we will both have company while we wait for others to be ready for us," she quipped.

Egleriad chuckled and leaned over and planted a kiss on the woman's cheek. "I'll see you at dinner then, dear. And if you don't stay then at least send word to me. If I let myself be distracted during training-"

"Egleriad!" the male voice came again from the other side of the courtyard.

Kiara laughed. "I know, you'll come back bruised. Go on, then, your father will be growing impatient."

Egleriad chuckled again. "Yes, yes. So long, Miyuki, see you at dinner." And with a wave, he was gone.

"Well, is there anything in particular that you'd like to see?" Kiara smiled at Miyuki. "I can take you somewhere. Show you something you're interested in. It's up to you. Usually when Egleriad gets called for his afternoon training, I head home."

She laughed softly. "Though I suppose that I ought to get used to finding something to do here while he's training. It will be my home too, soon enough."

"I like the corner where Princess Elia reads all the time," Kiara admitted, "but I feel a bit awkward being there when she's reading. I don't like to disturb her. She claims it's no bother, but ..."

She shrugged. "Aside from that area, I do like the entire courtyard. The hedges make it cooler than most other places, and the roses are beautiful." She smiled at Miyuki. "There's a kind of ... calm ... wonder about this place."

"No?" Kiara blinked. "They're quite common here. Especially at the palace, I think Queen Lothiriel is partial to them. Have you not seen them before?"

She of course had grown up with blue roses in her city, so to her they weren't anything overly special.

"Interesting." Kiara smiled softly. "Egleriad told me that your father is from the Southland. His grandmother's cousin, yes? And the blue roses were brought here from there."

She liked flowers, learning about them and such. She knew that the desert was an unforgiving place, and that there were few plants that grew there naturally. She had made a point, when she had been a bit younger, of finding out where the plants that were now common had originated, if they hadn't originated in the desert itself.

"Ah," Kiara smiled as she began to wander through the courtyard again. "I should imagine that you would be eager to go there again and see what it's like. I mean, really see what it's like. I think that in only two weeks, you would not learn everything there is to know about a place. I daresay you wouldn't be able to learn even the half of everything!"

She brushed her fingers lightly over one of the roses. "Even to find the beauty of a place - its true beauty, I mean - would take longer, I believe."

Kiara had to think about that.

"I think it depends on the place," she decided, leading Miyuki around a corner. "I've been spending a lot of time at the palace for three years now, and I'm still finding out new things about it every day."

She paused, then added, "And I think it's more fun that way. Imagine if it took only a little bit of time to learn everything there was to know about a place. How quickly it would become boring!"

Kiara smiled at Miyuki. "Exactly what I mean," she agreed. "And the world is a far more beautiful place for it."

She brought Miyuki to the open area where the dark-haired young woman was still reading her book. She lowered the book to her lap when the other two entered the area, and smiled warmly at the both of them.

"Hello, Kiara, Miyuki," she said warmly. "Egleriad gone off for his training? The way Elwin was shouting, he must have been late."

Kiara giggled. "Yes, my fault, I'm afraid. Miyuki, this is Princess Elia, Egleriad's aunt."