Welcome to Gaia! ::

Amalirahc nodded. "And then inside ..."

He stood directly in front of the ship and carefully removed a panel which revealed its interior.

"There, that's where we would come in," he pointed carefully. "And then down those stairs ..."

He pointed out the various living quarters, the storage, and so on, and then suddenly he heard voices downstairs.

"Hey," he grinned, interrupting himself, "I think your parents are back!"

Downstairs, Earendil was helping to empty the cart of the items that Arwen had asked him and Lin to collect for her: boxes and crates of supplies, everything from extra canvas for sail repairs to crates of nails and other building supplies, hammers and chisels, and more. At any rate, the boxes were very heavy, many of them well over a hundred pounds.

Earendil was stacking them in the living room, right up against the wall. Kelirahc and Roydon were also helping him to unload, and the door had been propped open for them to pass through easily.

"Ah, there she is," Earendil grinned when Miyuki came down the stairs. "I was wondering where you'd gone."

Earendil laughed and caught Miyuki in his arms and hugged her tightly. "He did, did he?" he grinned. "Which one? All of them?"

He remembered Leyenda showing them to him and Lin the first time they had been there. She had been so young then, and so proud of her ships.

Amalirahc grinned brightly. "Yeah! Mama taught me to swim, and if Miyuki could swim then we could swim together!"

Earendil looked at Lin. "Well ... we won't have time before the trip, and it's too dangerous to learn while we're on the ocean ..."

Maybe once they were on the island, where it was safer?

"Maybe," Earendil nodded, turning back to Miyuki. "We can see what happens, see how things go. I can't promise you that you'll learn there, but I think we can promise that we'll try to make it happen."

He looked back at Lin. "Sound fair?"

Earendil smiled. "Good. Then how about you help your mother hold the door open so that we can keep carrying everything in, all right? We want to get this done by dinner so that we can get a good night's sleep before tomorrow when we leave."

He grinned at Miyuki.

The job did end up taking up the rest of the afternoon, but once the job was finished Arwen and Leyenda had a good meal ready for all of them. Just as they were all sitting down to eat, the front door opened again and a male voice called out, "Wow, it looks like you've stocked half the city's supplies in here!"

"Nana-tol!" Amalirahc exclaimed excitedly, scrambling from his chair.

Earendil chuckled. "Sounds like someone else has grown up, too."