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"Well, one thing is for certain," Earendil quipped. "You'll definitely not have any trouble staying in shape."

He chuckled softly. "Honestly, I don't know. I grew up in the castle. There wasn't generally all that much for me to get into. Besides walls, though that didn't happen until my magic appeared."

"Hey, that was how we met," Earendil grinned. "That's one bit of mischief I'll never feel guilty about. Can you imagine if you hadn't? Where would we be today?"

He smiled, thinking back. "I can't remember. Was it then already that you talked about sailing with Roydon? Or was that later?"

Earendil chuckled. "It has been a long time, hasn't it?" he murmured, smiling warmly. "I can't have been even twenty by that time, I'm sure. And now look at us, sixty five years later." He laughed. "Who would have thought back then that we would actually have done it? That we would actually go on the trip we decided on so very long ago."

At least, to him it seemed a long time: but he was eighty one years old (eighty two in a matter of days), and so he had reason to feel that way.

"I think my father was hoping that I would forget about it," Earendil admitted. "But then, he never was very fond of you. He's gotten used to you by now, but ..."

He trailed off, looking thoughtful again. He knew his father tolerated Lin now, and he knew why. He wasn't very happy with the reason, but at this point, he would take what he could get.

"Just between us," Earendil confided, "I'm with you on that one. I mean ..."

He faltered. "Well ... there are limits, I guess. I mean ... well ..."

His face turned bright red, and he sighed. "Never mind."

Earendil shook his head. "It's not that. It's just ... there's a difference, depending on the races, I think. Humans and elves, we are all children of Iluvatar. We were meant to live together in the world. But the dwarfs were a mistake, they were never supposed to be. Their very makeup is different than ours. And the ... the gnomes, they are creatures of darkness, just as the morgawr, the orcs, the creatures that Melkor brought into being. With them, I would say no, I could not see a union."

He hesitated, then looked down at Lin. "Does that make any sense?"

Earendil was a bit worried that she still might not understand exactly where he was coming from, but it was a start, at least.

"You don't sound entirely convinced," he smiled sheepishly.

Earendil nodded slowly, still not entirely convinced she believed him. He wasn't sure why, just something in her expression.

"I know things are different in your world," he murmured, looking at the ground as they walked, "but ... it is a different world. I can't deny that. To my knowledge, your world doesn't have the same problems as ours, you don't have someone who created races solely for the purpose of destroying everyone and everything."

Maybe he was just digging himself into a hole now, but he wanted - needed - her to understand completely. It didn't bother him that there were all sorts of relationships that he might thing strange in her world, but everyone was equal there. Here, they weren't. It would sound bad if he were to say that the elves and humans were better than the dwarfs and other creatures, but it was the truth. Not because of anything they had done, but simply because that was how they were created to be.