Welcome to Gaia! ::

Emile grinned back at Lin.

"Oh!" Aranxia exclaimed suddenly. "Uncle Earendil, Aunt Lin, Uncle Daeron, Aunt Iorlas - the four of you have been invited to Aennan's brother's house for dinner this evening. He and his wife would like to meet you, seeing as you're my closest relatives here."

Daeron and Iorlas agreed immediately, and Earendil smiled at Lin. "Sounds good, yes?" he asked her softly.

After the enormous lunch, Aranxia went to her room to change her clothes and came out looking - as Shiro described her - as if she had been born and raised in Bollywood. She was wearing a bright fuchsia Eastern-Indian-style outfit, very intricately embroidered with a bright yellow-golden thread, and matching slippers and jewelry. (Jess commented on how the outfit was a similar style to the clothing his mother and sister sometimes wore, and Earendil wondered if this might have been where Jacinthe had traveled as a child. Still, he didn't bring it up, as no one there would have known the answer.)

She also had the notes she had promised to give Lin on the stories she and Aennan had been working on as well as a translation of one of the stories.

The group had gone their separate ways for the afternoon, but as the sun began to fade, Aennan and Aranxia came to find Earendil, Lin, Daeron and Iorlas, and brought them to a cozy little white-bricked home. There were a few small bushes along the path that led to the front porch, where an empty rocking chair faced the street, but aside from that there didn't seem to be any care taken for the yard.

"Come in," a voice called from inside the house; and without hesitating, Aennan opened the door and held it for the rest of them.

"Come on in," Aranxia smiled at her aunts and uncles, leading the way inside.

The first room was a cloak room, and there were hooks for their cloaks next to the door, and shelves for their footwear below the hooks. There were doorways to their left and their right, and once everyone was in, it was to the right that they were directed.

"Go ahead into the living room," Aranxia murmured to the others, nodding at the doorway.

The living room was a very bright and cheerful place, very different from the impression given by the unkept yard. Every inch of wall space was covered by a tapestry of some kind, and just about every other surface was covered with something decorative: pillows, cushions, doilies - and everything, even the curtains and the large floor rug, were covered with highly detailed and very colourful embroidery.

Half-sitting, half-lying on a couch was a petite human woman; and if she were not so thin and so frail, she might have been very pretty. She was very pale, and her dark hair, streaked with gray, made her seem even paler. The lower part of her body was covered with a blanket.

When the visitors entered the room, she pushed herself into a sitting position and greeted them warmly.

"Welcome!" she beamed, her brown eyes sparkling brightly. "I am Galanna, Aennan's sister-in-law. And you must be Aranxia's family."

Galanna smiled warmly. "It's a pleasure to finally meet all of you. Aranxia has told me so much about you all."

"This is where I work on the books," Aranxia explained to her aunts and uncles, coming into the room behind them.

Galanna's eyes lit up brightly when she saw Aranxia. "Oh! The clothes fit you perfectly!" she exclaimed. "I'm so glad! And it suits you very well."

"Thank you," Aranxia grinned. "And thank you for the outfit. I have to admit I've never seen anything like it before." She turned to the others and explained, "Galanna does embroidery, she made pretty much everything you see in here."

"Well, it's not as if I can do much else," Galanna smiled modestly.

"Thank you," Galanna smiled, colour briefly rising on her pale cheeks.

She motioned towards the various chairs that were scattered around the room. "Please, take a seat," she invited them warmly. "Don't mind the pillows, just put them on the floor if you don't want to use them. Can I offer you anything to drink? Wine? Water? Herbal drink?"

"We've had plenty of wine today," Daeron spoke up, leading Iorlas to a chair, "but some water wouldn't go amiss."

"Water would be nice, thanks," Iorlas agreed.

"That's two waters," Galanna murmured. She looked to Earendil and Lin. "And for you?"

"But of course," Galanna smiled at her.

"I'll just have some water, thank you," Earendil spoke up, finally making up his mind.

Galanna smiled and nodded. "Three waters and one herbal drink. Aennan ..."

"I'll take care of it," Aennan assured his sister-in-law. He left the living room, heading back through the doorway though which they'd entered.

"So," Galanna said, looking at her guests again, "Aranxia tells me that you travel. What kind of places have you seen?"

Earendil chuckled softly. "Well ... around our own continent, and we've also visited Amon Darthir and Nauros. Most people here seem to already know so much about them, and about our land, so I'm not sure where we could even begin to talk about it ..."

"I'm afraid I don't know much about other lands," Galanna admitted. "I was born in Gemia, and after meeting Lykor - Aennan's brother - we came out here. Unfortunately, since then I haven't left the house ... so I don't hear much."