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Aliya watched Feng and Ryu carefull, watching at the same time for any sign of fidgetiness or shyness in the horses - but the horses were being quite well behaved, enduring the ups and downs patiently.



Elros chuckled again - he couldn't help himself. "Well then why not something general?" he asked her. "I have to admit, I've been around for a very long time, I could probably tell you just about anything you're curious about."

Elros nodded, his face expressionless once more. "What was it?" he asked softly. "Perhaps I could help you."

He was amused by this child ... she was like nothing he had ever seen before - and that was saying something.

Elros debated for a moment about how to best answer the question, though his face remained impassive.

"Well ... a moor is an area of land where not much can grow besides shrubs and grasses," he began. "The soil is not very good for growing anything else ... trees, crops, anything. Sometimes there are swamps in or around them - actually, there's a moor not fifty leagues west of here. At any rate, it's a desolate but beautiful area of land where little can survive."

He paused.

"Moor cats, then, are cats, perhaps a bit like the ones you know, perhaps not - I don't know the animals of your world, after all - that live in the moors ... most of the time. If it's difficult for them to find food they have been known to wander far from their homes."

He looked down at her, his cold blue eyes startlingly clear of emotion. "Would you like to see one?" he asked her softly.

Elros nodded and crossed his legs comfortably, then leaned his head back against the building and closed his eyes. For a moment nothing happened, and he looked as though he was trying to collect his thoughts; but a moment later he opened his eyes and looked at the space directly in front of him.

At the same time, his lips parted gently and began to move, almost as if he were talking - and yet, no sound issued forth: rather, an image appeared in front of him, an image of a moor cat, life-sized.

It was more than half his height standing, and taller than he as he was sitting at the moment. In length it was nearly twice his height, fifteen feet from nose to tail: and its teeth, razor-sharp, were as long as his hand.

It was, for all it size, quite similar in appearance to a Gaian housecat (though of course Elros knew nothing of this) but more muscular, and far wilder. The look in its enormous golden eye was that of a carnivore, one that indicated that this ... this was an animal that would kill anything it came across, whether for food or otherwise.

Elros sensed Lin's movement and looked down at her, and as he stopped singing the image dissipated into nothingness.

"Are you all right?" he asked softly, a hint of concern tracing his voice. "I didn't frighten you, did I?"

Elros chuckled softly. "That's good. But if you ever run into you, you should be afraid. There are few who have ever survived an encounter with the beast ... and at your size, I'm afraid you wouldn't stand a chance."

He smiled down at her kindly. "But now that you know what one is, is there anything else you would like to know?"

Elros was more surprised by the fact that she was trying to climb onto him than by her question, and as he thought about the answer he helped her up to sit on his knee.

"A very long time ago," he began softly, his normally clear blue eyes clouding over slightly, "everyone lived all together, both Light and Dark elves. But a great number of them decided that they were too different, and that they needed to separate themselves. So, the Light elves, those with light hair, migrated to the west, and called themselves the Westlanders. Those with dark hair, the Dark elves, moved to the south, and became known as the Southland elves. For Ages, the separation was so complete that many of the Westlanders forgot about the Southlanders' very existence ... but those days have passed."

He smiled at her again. "This Age has brought them together again, though not in the Westland, or the Southland. Only here, in the Borderlands, or east, in the Eastland, will you find elves of both kinds together."

Elros nodded. "It is true, at first we all had the same colour of skin ... it was only after a few generations that the Southlanders' skin began to darken ... and then those who lived there turned darker as well, so even those who began with lighter skin are now darker."

He smiled down at Lin, suddenly very fond of her indeed. "And I agree with you, little one. It was very foolish, what the elves did back then. It should not have happened ..."