Welcome to Gaia! ::

Leyenda looked just the same as Lin. "For what?" she echoed Lin's question.

"For what?" Arwen asked as well, frowning at Rhea.

Rhea cleared her throat. "Um ... that mark on your shoulder ... it's ..."

She coughed, and then spit out her words all at once. "Theequivilantofaweddingring."

Leyenda blinked. "What?" She looked at Kelirahc, shocked. He appeared hurt by the look on her face, and she bit her lip to try to clear her expression.

Arwen simply stared in disbelief, but Roydon cleared his throat and stepped forward. "Rhea," he said firmly, "you and Kelirahc come with me. We're going to talk for a moment, and I need you to translate."

Rhea spoke to the black elf, and the three of them moved off a bit.

"I don't know," Leyenda said, utterly bewildered. It seemed as if it still hadn't sunk in for her. "I fixed his arm, we spent time together, I got a mark like his, we shared a ..."

Her eyes grew wide and fearful. "We shared some wine ..." she finished quietly, looking at her mother.

Arwen wrapped her arms around her daughter. "Did you give yourself to him?" she asked softly, gently.

Leyenda shook her head. "Even I would have known that we would be married then," she whimpered. "I just ... I never realized ..."

She touched one hand to her heart, and suddenly she gasped in realization. "He did tell me ... when he asked me, he did tell me ..." She hit her forehead with her fist. "Why didn't I see it?"

Earendil looked down at Lin. "I have to say," he murmured, trying to relieve the tension a bit, "when I hoped she was somewhere safe, this isn't exactly what I had imagined ..."

Earendil looked over at the dark elf. "Yeah ..." he murmured softly. A pained expression crossed his face. "Maybe we should get Shiro, maybe he can help us figure out what's going on," he murmured. He looked over towards the fires, looking for the nekos.

Just then there was a shrieking cry from above, and an enormous bird - a roc, for those who had seen Elnara transform into one - came swooping down from the sky, a black-skinned, white-haired woman on its back. The moment it hit the ground, it vanished, and only the woman remained, her golden eyes bright with fury.

"Du!" she snarled, pointing at Leyenda. She yelled at her in the ancient tongue, attracting the attention of just about everyone. Leyenda was as surprised as anyone else, but Arwen jumped in front of her defensively.

"Stay back," she warned in a threatening tone.

The woman continued to advance, her eyes fixed on Leyenda.

Earendil ran for Shiro, but the arrival of the woman had attracted more attention than just that small group's. As the woman continued to advance on Leyenda, ignoring Lin and Arwen, Kelirahc shouted out and ran towards her. His expression was furious, and he ran between Lin and the strange woman.

Rhea was close behind, though she stayed back from the conflict. Roydon ran forward as well. "Lin, you get out of here," he ordered her. "This isn't your fight."

He stood in front of her, holding his arms out to protect his wife and daughter.

Kelirahc shouted out to the woman.

"She's his best friend," Rhea blinked. "Always has been ... but ... he will kill her if she threatens Leyenda ..."

As the two dark elves shouted back and forth at each other, Rhea watched, fascinated.

"He's honestly madly in love with Leyenda," she murmured. "He really is. According to the woman ... he betrayed his village, his race, everything that he is ... by giving her his mark, and taking her as his wife ..."

She shook her head. "I can't tell if she's jealous or just angry that he married someone outside of their race."

Suddenly she blinked. "Apparently he borrowed that shirt from her," she mused, "without her permission ..."

Definitely a woman. Though she sounded almost like a teenager with that complaint.

Kelirahc took a step forward, speaking to her calmly.

Rhea winced. "Yeah, it's just her ... either no one else in their village knows, or else they don't care. She's just really ticked off."

Which begged the question, was this about Leyenda or Kelirahc?

Earendil came up behind Lin and Rhea with Shiro and a few others with him. "Have you ever seen anyone like them, Lin?" he asked her anxiously. Valar knew how much else they had in Gaia, maybe there were people like this there too.

"Somehow I get the idea that it's different here," Shiro murmured, watching the two.

He was surprised - well, everyone was surprised, really - when Leyenda slipped out from behind her parents and walked up behind Kelirahc. "Rhea," she called out, "can you come here so that you can translate for me?"

Rhea hesitated, then stepped forward obediently.

Leyenda looked at the strange woman.

"I don't know why you came after us," she began, speaking slowly so that Rhea could translate, "or why you're so upset that Kelirahc gave me his mark ... I don't even know if you are elf-kind, like we are. But if you had done what he did ..." She swallowed hard, a little embarrassed to say what came next. "... fall in love with someone who was a bit different ... what would you think if he came after you and your loved one like you have?"

It grew quiet as Rhea finished translating, and the woman glared at Leyenda. Kelirahc moved so that he was standing closer to Leyenda, and put his good arm around her protectively.

Without a word, the woman touched her arm, and the roc appeared again. She climbed up onto its back and flew off into the night sky and was gone as suddenly as she had appeared.

Kelirahc looked pained, but he turned to Leyenda and spoke to her quickly.

"He needs to speak with his elders," Rhea translated for Leyenda, her eyes on the black elf, "but he will be back here by morning. He promises."

Leyenda bit her lip anxiously, but she nodded. "I understand," she murmured. She hugged him tightly. "Be safe."

He smiled and kissed her lightly on the forehead, then stepped back from her. He touched his shoulder, and a dragon appeared, the same dragon that Rhea and Lin had seen and run from so many times. Rhea gasped and jumped back as Kelirahc climbed up onto the dragon's back, and as quickly as the woman was gone, Kelirahc also disappeared into the night.