Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Maze?" River perked up at the sound of that. The names meant little to her, as she hadn't met those people yet, but the maze sounded interesting, at the very least. "Obviously you didn't get lost ... but was it fun? What's it like?"

She herself had never been underground before, and to be honest she wasn't sure it was an experience she wanted to try. Still, the lure of a maze was always interesting, and she took pride in being able to navigate mazes, especially if it was her first try at it.

River mulled it over for a few minutes as they continued to follow Amalirahc down the hallways. "Well," she said finally, "I've been in a cave before ... is it like that at all?"

She didn't mind the cave with the glowing water: there was light in there, and she knew that the way out was never far away. But would it really be the same in the desert, in a castle of all places?

River pursed her lips thoughtfully. "So there's a portal here that goes to your family's home, and that's where the portal from the Borderlands goes as well?"

Part of her was tempted to try to find that portal so that she could go home - she was beginning to feel pangs of homesickness once in a while, and she longed to see her parents and her sisters again - but the practical side of her told her that it wouldn't be a good idea, as she would probably end up terrifying people in all three areas - Eastland, Gaia, and Borderlands - by disappearing and/or appearing.

"Other two?" River repeated, somewhat surprised. "You mean there's more than just the one to the Borderlands and here?"

That worried her. What if she would go into the wrong portal by mistake? That could be disastrous.

Well, that mightn't be too bad ...

No, River realized, she couldn't do something like that. She tried to abandon the idea out of hand, but she couldn't get rid of it entirely.

"I guess that's where your father is from, isn't he?" she asked Miyuki softly, wishing now that she hadn't told Amalirahc to go so slowly. "I wonder what it's like there ..."

"Really?" River was surprised by that. "Weird. Why would it do that?"

Of course, she only knew about forests, and what seasons did to them - she didn't know anything at all about other climates, other than the fact that deserts were very hot and very dry.

River giggled at Miyuki, unable to help herself. "How would I know? I've never been in a desert before, let alone for the changing of seasons."

Sometimes Miyuki was just plain amusing, she had to admit. And even if there were some things that she would prefer to talk to someone else about, she was glad that Miyuki was her friend.

At last they arrived at the door to the courtyard, and Amalirahc turned and grinned at the girls triumphantly. "See? I got us here and I didn't run even once!"

River bit her lip to keep from saying what she wanted to: that he had gone too slow this time instead of too fast. He was seeming awful sensitive today.

Amalirahc grinned, glad that for once he wasn't getting lectured about something.

"So what do you want to play?" he asked the girls eagerly. "Princess Wren gave me that box so we have marbles and jacks and spinning tops and the bouncy balls ..."

"How about jacks?" River suggested. "It must be close to dinner time, that way if we're in the middle of a round when someone comes for us, we won't have to wait too long to finish up."