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Elnara smiled warmly and marveled at how natural it seemed for Lore to help put the children to bed. She kissed Silvrendir in the middle of his forehead and helped Celebor into bed, tucking the blankets around him as well.

"Don't fidget too much and wake your brother," she warned him as she tucked him in.

"I won't," Celebor promised with a grin.

Elnara smiled, then waved good night and headed out of the room again, waiting at the door for Lore to follow again.

"That's just what I was thinking," Elnara smiled, nodding. She led him to the room directly across the hall and opened the door and stepped inside. There she stopped in her tracks and, looking back at Lore, put a finger to her lips and beckoned for him to look.

Serenity and Skye were both in bed already, and both of them were fast asleep. Their clothes were folded neatly and set on the couch beneath the open window, and they were huddled close together beneath the thick blanket.

Elnara smiled warmly and wished there were some way to keep the image in her mind. It was absolutely adorable.

Elnara smiled and led Lore back out of the room, closing the door softly behind her.

"I think it helped that Serenity was there with her," she commented. "She doesn't mind open spaces as long as she's not alone. But it's not so surprising that she's so tired ... after all, she does tend to tire easily, and it's been an exciting day for the children ... and who knows what she was up to with Haradhel and Elrohir?"

She took his hand and led him towards the tower so that they could go for their walk, now that they had checked on all of the children.

Elnara smiled and linked arms with Lore. "It's amazing, how well she gets along," she murmured in wonder. "Really she doesn't have much more difficulty than any of the others in understanding things, you just have to repeat things for her every once in a while."

She paused thoughtfully. "It didn't look as though Haradhel knew sign language, though," she commented. "I wonder how that turned out."

"My brother Gion doesn't speak," Elnara offered, "though that's the only case that I know of ... except for Sir Ryder, but there's a simple explanation for that. But for my brother ... no one knows how or why it happened, he used to speak just like anyone else ... Other than that, it's pretty much unheard of. So is blindness, for that matter. My mother was blind for ... ten years, but again there's a simple explanation for that."

She shrugged and led him towards the back of the castle, so that they could go through the gardens, rather than the courtyard (which they had already seen) or the front of the castle, which was little more than a road that led to the city.

"I guess not," Elnara admitted sadly. "From what I was told, he was planning on marrying my best friend ... but that would have been years ago now, for them, and Nako says she never did hear for sure whether or not they married yet. From that ... I'd have to say no, he doesn't visit often."

Elnara blushed slightly and lowered her eyes.

"I don't think so," she murmured. "I mean, it would make sense if someone did ... but then Nako would know whether or not he was married yet, wouldn't she? I mean, that's not exactly something Gion would hide from anyone who visited, and anyone who visited would tell Nako, I'm certain ..."

They left the castle, and Elnara led Lore down a small cobblestone path towards the gardens, which were just ahead. From where they were, all that could be seen were the rosebush arches that acted as the entrance, and the beautifully flowered hedges that walled the gardens in.