Welcome to Gaia! ::

By the time dinner was ready to eat a little over an hour later, the sun had long set. There was a roaring fire in the dining room fireplace, and though the air smelled of snow it was warm inside. In addition to the usual guests from Gaia however, there were a few extras: rather than going to Amdir and Aliya's house for dinner, Rose had instead invited Adanedhel and Adonijah to the ranch, and though Adonijah had been wary and very shy at first, but the thought that his brother and his dear friend would be with him gave him courage, and it was with shaking knees that he entered the dining room behind the two of them.

Arahad grinned when he saw them enter. "Hello, Adanedhel, Rose, Adonijah ..."

He chuckled softly. "How did you convince Adonijah to come? Did you tell him who all was going to be here?"

Adonijah's face turned a bright shade of red, and he lowered his eyes and stepped closer to Rose, who put one hand protectively on his arm. "He came because I asked him," she said quietly, "and don't do anything to make him more uncomfortable than he already is."

Adonijah was still feeling awkward and embarrassed when Saki entered the room, but when she hopped up onto the table his eyes softened slightly, and he relaxed a bit. He didn't mind the talking cat one bit ... as far as conversation went, she was the only one (besides Rose of course) that he was comfortable talking with.

"Hello, Saki," he said quietly.

Arahad laughed again. "Sure, talk to the cat," he grinned. "Ah well. Everyone else should be here any moment. I'm going to help Mother bring the food in."

"I'll go find people," Rose offered, letting go of Adonijah's arm now that he seemed a bit more comfortable. She turned to Adanedhel. "Coming?"

Adanedhel nodded, and the two of them headed towards the playroom, the most likely place for people to be.

Adonijah sat at the table and began to scratch Saki behind the ears. "I don't come here much," he said softly, trying to keep the conversation just between the two of them. A small smile was playing about the corners of his lips, and he couldn't help but relax with the small cat. Like Tao, she had been one of his best friends growing up ... when he ventured to the ranch, that was.


Adanedhel let Rose into the playroom first, then followed after her right away.

"Dinner," he grinned at Kara, Miyu and Lin. "And guess who's joining you tonight."

Almost as if he had read Saki's thoughts, Adonijah began to scratch her exactly where she was itchy.

"I'll visit," he agreed. "As much as I can. But soon you'll have lots of children to play with ... the hunters will be back in a few weeks ... and then you won't need me for a long time, not until the children go back home again ..."



Rose giggled. "Alyse is still working with Adwin and his falcon," she smiled. "No, I convinced Adonijah to come with us ... Arahad is already making him wish he hadn't come, but still ... I'm proud of him for at least trying."

"Try not to make too big a deal out of his presence, will you?" Adanedhel asked sheepishly. "I mean, it's his first time ever eating with people outside the family ... I'm hoping he doesn't get too scared ... maybe we can convince him that people aren't as scary as he thinks."

Adonijah nodded at Saki, stroking under her chin. "I know," he murmured, lowering his gaze and sighing softly. "I know."

Not that it particularly made a difference who needed whom. Either way there was going to be a lot of people there, and he would not be coming back to the ranch until they were all gone.


Adanedhel grimaced. "I hadn't realized that Lin and Miyu haven't met him," he murmured. "He's terribly shy ..."

"He'll be fine," Rose put in quickly. "He'll have both of us with him, I'm sure he'll manage."

Or rather, she hoped.

Adonijah bit his lip anxiously. "Well ..."

He knew he was nearly an adult, and he knew that children were nothing to be frightened of at all ... just like most adults were nothing to be afraid of either. And yet ... and yet ... He didn't know what it was about people, but he just ... didn't have the courage to be around them.

"I don't know," he murmured, his cheeks reddening with embarrassment.

Though to be fair, he didn't even really know how to play ...


Rose smiled at Kara. "Then we should hurry to the kitchen, we'll be eating as soon as the food is on the table."

Adanedhel smiled fondly down at Rose. "Why don't you go with Kara and Lin and Miyu to the dining room," he suggested, "and I'll go find Ahren and Elrohir."

Rose nodded, and Adanedhel kissed her on the forehead and left the room quickly.

Adonijah shrugged one shoulder, stroking Saki from head to tail with his hand.

"I don't know why tall people make them feel safe," he said quietly, not even mentioning his aversion to reading. It wasn't that he couldn't, he just didn't like it - why read when there was an entire world to explore? "Tall people always make me scared."

Then again, so did little people. And medium people. And people in general.


Rose nodded. "He was there when Arahad asked us to find everyone for dinner," she agreed, smiling warmly. "I don't imagine he would have gone anywhere since then, knowing that we would be eating soon."