Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was almost an hour before the girls were ready to leave again, and once more it was Sir Gilead who went with them. Amora's hand had been rebandaged and felt much better.

"So where did you want to visit first?" Amora asked Lin warmly as they walked back towards the city. "Since we did only get to see a few places yesterday."

Amora laughed. "Well we've already been to the glass smith and the woodsmith," she giggled, "so choose something else you'd like to see. There are several others ... blacksmith, goldsmith, silversmith, all different metalsmiths ..."

And that was just the smiths. There was also the jeweler, the bakery, butchery, tannery, tailor ... so many choices.

Amora smiled. "As you wish," she said warmly. "We will only be able to see his shop, and likely not him ... unless he is resting today because of the heat."

Indeed, the heat was far more intense than it had been the day before, and heatwaves shimmered before their eyes, making the world seem as though it were appearing through a watery glass.

"Just be glad we're not actually out in the desert," Amora told Lin quietly. "The stones that the city is made from are light, so they reflect a lot of the heat back into the air ... but out in the desert, the sand absorbs and re-releases it, so it's a lot hotter out there."

Sand, as she had said before, was one of her favourite studies, and it was clear that she knew quite a bit about it.

Amora smiled. "The beginning of it," she corrected. "It was the beginning of all of my studies, actually ... sand was the first study I ever conducted on my own. I was always curious, but ...something about the sand just wouldn't let me go."

She looked thoughtful as they approached the city.

Amora's eyes lit up at the topic. "Water, when I can," she said happily. "It's a bit difficult, but it's very interesting. Air. The weather. Different plants, flowers ... fire. Magic. Anything I can think of, really."

She didn't bother to try hiding her enthusiasm. Knowledge to her was riches, more than anything else in the world.

"I hope to," Amora smiled softly as they entered the city. "Mother and Father both think that it would be a good idea, though I would first have to find a traveling companion. I do not believe that I shall leave the Four Lands, however. I do not want to be too far from my parents, and I am after all first in line for the throne if something happens to them. I dearly hope that nothing ever does."

She had no desire to be a ruler, she simply wanted to live her life. She liked duties and responsibilities, but she saw how her parents were not permitted to spend as much time with their children as she knew they would like. She did not want that for her own future family.