Welcome to Gaia! ::

Elnara nodded, giving Alyse a look that almost dared her to protest, and headed to the cloak room to grab her cloak.

"We can sit on this blanket," she murmured, holding it up to show Lore the blanket she had taken from their bedroom, "or else sit on our cloaks and under the blanket ... which would probably be warmer."

She wanted to go out in her bare feet, as she had always used to do, and as she was accustomed, but she knew that she should wear the boots that Ulani had made for her, and so she reluctantly slipped them on.

Elnara nodded and reached for the door handle.

"Ready," she agreed, opening the door and stepping outside.

The air outside was fresh and surprisingly warm - that is, it wasn't as cold as Elnara had expected it to be. But the storm had cleared away entirely, and there wasn't so much as a cloud in the sky. The entire world however had turned white: except for the porch, which Ulrich had cleared off, and a narrow path that led through the snow, it had drifted up over the top of the houses, and all that could be seen were the tops of the trees and smoke rising from chimney-like holes in the snow.

"By the Valar," Elnara breathed, her eyes growing wide in amazement. "I've never seen so much snow at one time ..."

Elnara sat on the porch, tucking her cloak beneath herself, and leaned against the wall, waiting for Lore to join her before she put down the blanket.

"Alyse would be happy to see this," she murmured, raising one eyebrow. "I couldn't go for a walk, even if I hadn't promised not to. No way I'd be able to set even one foot off this porch."

She wouldn't dare. But she was feeling better already - the open sky above her, as well as the fresh, cool air, was already doing her quite a bit of good.

Elnara giggled at that, spreading the blanket over both of them and making sure that her midsection was covered warmly.

"It's a shame there's no way that we can show this to everyone back home," she smiled, leaning against Lore's shoulder and looking up at the sky. "We could tell them about it, but they would never believe it ... and even if they did, they wouldn't be able to picture it."

"Well I never bought any pieces of Gaia technology, let along brought any with me," Elnara giggled, "and I haven't seen you with one of those things that takes photos, either - so that's out of the question."

Not to mention, her artistic skills were ... average, at best.

"But at least now that the storm's over, we can enjoy this part of it ... together," she sighed happily, snuggling against Lore to ward off the cold.

Elnara giggled and linked her arm with Lore's.

"Once upon a time," she grinned up at him, "we had to make up excuses. But that was a long time ago ... everything was such a long time ago ..."

She winced suddenly, and then giggled again. "The baby's awake," she laughed. "And trying to tell me something."

Elnara laughed. "Winter has just begun, my love - look forward to several more weeks of it."

Six, at least.

She smiled warmly and set one hand on her belly so that she could feel the baby's movements both inside and out. It still amazed and enthralled her, feeling the movements within her womb ... she could never get enough of it ... though she wondered how much she would miss it after the baby was born.