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Andarien thought about it while he sipped his water. "I guess that makes sense," he decided.

Still, he thought, it would have been nice if they'd translated for him, just so he knew what was going on.

After a while, they were joined by others: Laer and Lex, her husband, and a few of the plantation hands who were closer with the family. A large lunch was served, with plenty of water for everyone, and Laer made sure that everyone had the chance to wash the dust from their bodies.

Andarien was also sleepy, but instead of being asleep like he normally would be, he was listening to Sylvar, who was telling him about how the plantation worked.

River was intrigued by the plantation. She was used to the Borderlands, which was a hunting and farming community: here was an element of that, but the acres and acres of grapevines was so vastly different, as was the production, storage and shipping part of it.

She spotted Miyuki cuddling with Senka under the tree in the yard and headed over to join her.

"Hey, sleepyhead," she teased Miyuki. "I was going to wander around and explore a bit. Want to come with me?"

She supposed she could take Amalirahc, but he had vanished with Ivy a while before already.

River shrugged one shoulder. "He ran off a while ago with Ivy," she said dryly. "Those two are two of a kind. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes it's nice to be able to explore a place without being dragged around everywhere."

She was faster than Amalirahc, it was true, when they were running, but she liked to take her time and really explore things sometimes whereas Amalirahc just wanted to rush from one thing to the next all the time.

"I know," River giggled at Miyuki's first comment. "But yes, once I've seen everything at my own pace, then I won't mind running around with Amalirahc. Besides, it's too hot to run."

River turned and headed towards the orchard where they'd first arrived, more so that she knew they would at least be starting in the shade than anything else. It was indeed very hot there: not quite as hot as the desert itself had been, nor the city of New Kaliningrad, but still, it was in the desert, and it was very hot.

"How old is this place, do you think?" she asked, looking around. She noticed a small building that had a rune on it that she'd never seen before, that had been scratched over to the point where it almost looked like a dog had simply scratched at the door.

River grinned. "Well, let's just hope we don't get lost then, yes?" she winked at Miyuki. "I know this place is huge. But I guess if we do feel lost we could just ask someone which way to go. If the line of houses along the lane where we came in is any indication, there are probably a lot of people here. Maybe even as many as are at home!"

As they wandered through the orchard, birds sang to each other from the treetops. A slight breeze rustled the leaves, but aside from that, it was almost eerily silent, as if there were no world outside of the orchard.

"It's beautiful, but ... disconcerting," River murmured softly, her eyes filled with awe.

River looked around. The orchard was quite large, and she knew that on three sides it was surrounded by desert. The storage barn made up the fourth side of it, so overall she felt that it was quite cut off from the rest of the plantation.

She voiced her thoughts to her friend.

"Besides," she added afterwards, "the plantation itself is the size of a city. It's massive! It's not surprising that we can't hear Amalirahc and Ivy. The vineyard itself is the size of the entire ranch."

"Grapes, at the very least," River mused. "Though I suppose they would have to have some kind of garden or field to make the food to feed them, too. They can't go to the city for everything, after all. I don't think there's one close enough. Like back home, we can get some things, but if we were to rely on cities for our food, we'd starve."

She smiled softly. "This place is just like home, I guess."

She had to fight off a feeling of homesickness. "You know ... it's been almost a year since I've been home."

River's smile widened as she thought about that. "Yes ... it's kind of funny. I was so excited to come on this trip, and really I'm so glad I did ... but I really miss my family. Right now, all I can think about is going home again."

She started wandering back towards the rest of the plantation so that they could continue their exploration. "I wonder when Celeb and Haldia will rejoin us," she said, changing the subject. "Alyarra will be more than half a year old, too."

Of course, that all depended on when Haldia would regain her ability to summon her Spirit.