Welcome to Gaia! ::

Shael's blush only deepened, and she moved to sit on the arm of the couch, next to Ulani.

"Well, all I can say," she smiled, "is that I'm grateful to be where I am, to have the family that I now do. I'm grateful to Donovan and Celeborn for rescuing me, for everyone here for taking care of me and giving me a place to live, to feel welcome, to Ulani for fixing my leg ... for everything that I have."

Ulani smiled proudly at the others. "She's been taking care of a lot of things for us," she told them. "She used to take care of the horses, after Aliya couldn't, and whenever Aliya's pregnant or has a new child, Shael's the one who looks after her and the rest of her family as well."

Suddenly Shael glanced sharply over at Cindy. "You're Cindy?" she asked softly. "Adonai told me about you ..."





The tower leaned visibly in the direction of the newly vacated space, but as of yet it did not fall.

"You got another rabbit, Ryu!" Adwin grinned, holding up the first rabbit Ryu had chosen. "Good for you!"

Aliya meanwhile was looking at the tower in disbelief. "How am I supposed to get a piece out of there?" she asked incredulously.

Adan pointed. "Get this one, Mama, it's a deer just like you got the first time."

"But if I take that one the tower will fall," Aliya pointed out.

Adan thought about that. "Oh ... then ... that one."

Aliya shook her head. "No, same thing. Let me choose one." And she stared at the tower for a long moment, finally reaching around to take one of the ones from the back, countering the one Ryu had taken. Once again the tower wobbled, but this time it didn't stop but continued to sway back and forth precariously, ready to fall at the slightest touch.

"Horse!" Adan exclaimed gleefully. "We got two horses!"

Alyse looked anxiously up at Feng. "Try get a good one, okay?" she instructed her. "Don't make the tower fall!"

Though it looked as though the tower would do so on its own at any moment.

The young(er) woman nodded at Shael's question, "Yes, I am..."

Though she was surprised that Adonai had talked about her, well... she shouldn't be too surprised, but it had been so long since she had seen Adonai though. He had to be a full adult by now, which at times was hard to imagine.

Feng scratched the back of her head, she had to admit this was going to be difficult. It wasn't hard to see where the same type of block was, but the harder was to actually just find a block that wasn't going to make the whole thing fall over. She supposed the best would be chose a place on the other side, or chose one where it wasn't swaying towards. Feng close the latter, edging out a block a bit by bit, even though the tower didn't seem to want to stop swaying.

"Uh oh!" Alyse exclaimed as the tower fell even before Feng had removed the piece she had been trying for. "Boom!" And she giggled, just about diving into the pile of blocks and scattering them all over the place.

"Alyse!" Adan cried in dismay.

"We win!" Adwin announced, jumping to his feet and holding up his and Ryu's pieces triumphantly.

"Actually," Aliya smiled, holding up her own pieces, "we tie. Each of us got three pieces, one double." She glanced down at the mess that Alyse was making and sighed. "Alyse, clean it up, please. Maybe Feng and Ryu want to play again."

Alyse paused and looked up at Feng. "Do you want to play again?" she asked, her bright eyes wide with innocence.




Shael smiled warmly at Cindy. "Adonai speaks very highly of you," she said cheerfully. "He says you taught him about medicines, and how to read in your language."

Lore chuckled at that realizaiton, granted it was a very large family, though then again he was sure she was also thinking about their abilities as well along with that statement.

"Ah... so it happens when there are a lot of children with unique abilities."

Alyse giggled and started scooping up the pieces, running over to retrieve the ones that had skittered under the furniture.

"Alyse isn't very good at this game," Adan sighed - and then he grinned. "But that's okay because it means it's easier for the rest of us to win!"

"Adan," Aliya admonished her oldest son. "Hush." But she had to admit that he was right - it did make it easier for others to win, considering Alyse knocked down the tower just about every time, or made it so unsteady that by the time it came around to her team's turn again it would fall.




Shael laughed softly. "Well, Adonai is quite the scholar," she smiled at Cindy. "He taught me most of what I know now ... education-wise, at least. Sums. reading, writing, plants and animals and their properties ..."

She trailed off, her expression growing wistful. "It really is a shame that he's not here to see you again, I know he would have loved it."

Feng mused on that with a smile, it looked like Alyse didn't mind at all. She seemed to have more fun playing, or more fun in seeing the tower fall. She couldn't quite tell which that was quite yet.

"As long as everyone has fun," she told Adan.


Cindy mused on this, she would have to admit, she would have liked to see him again as well, "I guess... I'll just have to visit more often until I do meet him again."

Alyse giggled. "It's a very fun game, it's good that Adan made it up!" she told Feng from under the couch.

Aliya laughed softly. "The kids love this game," she assured Feng. "Even if they complain about how Alyse plays, they all love it."

"Yeah," Adan grinned. "It's all fun."



Shael smiled and reached out, putting a hand reassuringly on Cindy's shoulder. "I'm sure it won't be too long before you see him again," she waid warmly.

She sighed, and her smile grew mischievous. "Of couse, his level of health depends on how quickly he comes back again," she added innocently.