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Elnara's eyes were half-closed, made drowsy by Lore's fingers in her hair, but she was quite awake and very comfortable.

"I think that would be wonderful," she smiled up at him. "But not yet, I think ... the fire is so beautiful ..."

They would have to put it out overnight, though, so that they wouldn't wake up to a house on fire, or void of oxygen. Still, sleeping together they would keep warm.

She giggled softly and reached for his hand, clasping it warmly between both of her own. "Besides," she added with a mischievous grin, "this is very cozy. You, me, our baby ..."

Who had thankfully quieted down for the night, it seemed.

Elnara smiled at Lore, the light of the fire reflecting in her green eyes, and instead of answering, she took his hand from her cheek and brought it to rest on her abdomen.

"All quiet," she murmured softly. "Though I suppose from now on, I will only be sleeping when the baby sleeps ... awake when he is awake ..."

She lifted his hand to her lips and kissed his palm. "We shall see how this goes," she giggled, looking up at him again.

For nearly three days the storm increased in intensity, until it finally seemed to reach its peak. By that point the wind was blowing so fiercely they could feel it coming down the chimney, and the fire seemed to refuse to grow as large or as warm as they wanted it. Elnara never seemed to be warm enough ... between the baby interrupting her sleep so that she was always tired, and the fact that she was more used to a desert than anything, nothing seemed to help except at night when she and Lore went to bed together, and they could share their warmth.

Alyse offered to bring the wood in whenever they needed some to dry out for the fireplace, and for once Elnara was more than happy to let her do the work for her. On the other hand, she had been right: the storm was giving her cabin fever, and as the days progressed, she found herself growing more and more fidgety, even with all of the work she was still allowed to do. By the end of the week, she had made three sets of clothes for herself, another robe for Lore, and two more sets of baby clothes. Ironically, it was not food or wood they ran out of during the duration of the storm: it was cloth for Elnara to work with.

"I wish the storm would end," she murmured wistfully, staring at the blackness that had used to be their living room window/wall. "If only to go for a walk ..."

Elnara looked up at the fairy-like light that was in her hair and smiled, cupping her hand around it as if she were trying to catch it.

"I'm not sure," she admitted reluctantly, moving to stand next to Lore's chair. "I'm just so ... fidgety. I need to do something active ... the house isn't big enough to walk around for long, there's nothing left for me to sew, Alyse is taking care of all the work ..."

It had gotten to the point where even the idea of a nap didn't appeal to her. She just wanted to do something ... physical.

"It's a pity we didn't think to have any painting supplies in here before the storm," she frowned, walking back to the window and looking at the wall of snow. "I may not be any good at it, but at least it would have been something constructive to do."

"I did," Elnara murmured, walking back to the couch and leaning against it. "I haven't played it since we came ... did you bring your flute as well? Perhaps we could try to learn the song that Shiro wrote for us together ..."

She bit her lip anxiously and looked up at him, half expecting him to say that no, he was reading - but she was being silly, of course. Still, it had been a long time since she had played, perhaps she would after all be better off practicing alone or something before playing for anyone else.

Elnara's eyes lit up brightly. She hadn't really thought that he would want to, she had thought he had just suggested it to give her something to occupy herself with. But now that he had said he was going to join her, she found that she was excited about this. Nervous, but excited. After all, it would be their first time trying to play together ... she just hoped their flutes were compatible. After all, different flutes could have different tones ...

"And the music for it is in my bag," she smiled warmly at Lore, moving around the couch once more. "Shiro wrote it out quickly before we left, the morning we came here."

Now the only question left was, where would they play? Light wise it didn't matter, Lore could create enough light for them to play wherever they wanted ... it was warmer in the living room, and more spacious ... and wherever they played, Alyse would be hearing them.

"In here, then?" Elnara suggested, her hands on her stomach as she waited for Lore.

Elnara nodded, blushing softly without knowing why. She had a feeling his comment might have been something about her, and how she was always so cold now ...

"Then we should get our flutes and such quickly," she murmured, "so that we don't have to cool down too much while we're at it."

She turned and headed down the hall, and as soon as she was out of the fire's direct range, she could feel the difference in temperature.

Elnara headed directly to her bag, but there were so many things in it still from her first travels that it took her a few moments to find her flute. Once she had found it, however, the task still lay ahead of finding the music that Shiro had written for her ... she had all sorts of papers and books in her bag, and she couldn't tell which was which just by the feel of them.

She took out book after book, stacking them on the floor next to her as she searched ... the book about animals, the manga from Mia, her journal, one of the books she had gotten from the school's library for her research into healing, some of the books she had read to Celebor as a child ...

And much much more.

"I'm such a pack rat," she murmured as she pulled out more books and stacked them. "Maybe I should have just let the children move these things over to the new house for me ... rather than take them with me ..."