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Shiro understood her glance. "About how they came to be here, and how they came to be so different from the rest of the elves," he said quietly. He nodded. "I can ask Kelirahc if he knows," he mused, "once he's awake again."

Arwen and Roydon exchanged a glance, and then looked at Shiro and Lin. "You think that they and we have a common ancestor?" Arwen asked.

"Then how did they become so different?" Arwen wondered aloud. "I mean ... they're opposite of us, in every way ... black skin and light hair, instead of light skin and black hair ... and awake at night, rather than during the day ..."

"I would imagine they would have quite the night vision," Shiro quipped. He paused suddenly. "Although ..."

Shiro turned to Lin. "Nowhere in the Four Lands is there anyone with skin darker than the Southland elves, nor are there any elves with brown hair," he pointed out. "Not naturally. Even those of mixed Dark and Light elven blood have either blond, black, or streaked hair. Never brown."

He looked over at Arwen and Roydon. "Yet Arthael has skin like chocolate, and her hair is the same colour. She doesn't know who her parents were. It was clear that her mother was a Light elf, the elves who raised her told her as much. But as to her father ..."

"I don't know," Shiro shrugged. "It's a theory. He might even have been an elf like these, who knows if the same rules apply to them? Their genetics could be completely different."

He didn't say his next thought aloud, but he looked towards the shelter as he thought it: if all went as Leyenda and Kelirahc hoped, they just might find out within the next year.

Shiro chuckled. "Then maybe when we get there, we can ask some of the oldest people there if they've ever heard of him," he grinned. "Wouldn't that be interesting?"

"At any rate," Arwen said, rising once more, "we need to prepare to travel. We'll have most people stay here - the crew, Storm and Starr, Celeb, Kaito, Ura ... Shiro, I want you and Rhea to come as translators, Lin, I know I couldn't stop you if I tried, and then there will be Leyenda and Roydon and I."

"And Kelirahc makes seven," Shiro nodded quietly. "Got it." He motioned to Lin. "Come on, we should get to work."

It was nightfall when Kelirahc awoke - his usual time. For a moment, he couldn't remember where he was, and he looked around. His arms were wrapped around Leyenda, holding her close to him, and he smiled warmly and relaxed, remembering now where they were. At the beach.

For a while, he just lay there with her, brushing her hair away from her face and watching her while she slept. They weren't alone, and he knew it: though the shelter was empty (other than the two of them) he could hear voices just outside, and he knew that the rest of their camp would be wide awake. He pressed a gentle kiss to Leyenda's brow, then carefully rose, making sure not to wake her, and headed outside to join everyone else.

Rhea was the first one to notice Kelirahc as he wandered out into the open air. She was sitting near a fire, eating her dinner and chatting with Lin and Shiro, and she lowered her food to her plate and called out to him, waving him over to join them.

Kelirahc smiled and headed over to the small group, sitting down beside them. He spoke softly, and Rhea translated for him. "He says thank you for welcoming him," she smiled; and she turned back to him and replied politely.

Shiro nudged Lin. "Should we ask him?" he murmured softly. "About where his race originated?"

Shiro nodded and put one hand on Rhea's arm, interrupting her conversation with Kelirahc. He spoke to the man quietly, and Kelirahc nodded and replied quickly.

"It's a long story," Shiro told Lin, looking over at her. "He says get comfortable."