Welcome to Gaia! ::

Aliya smiled and led Feng back to the couch so that they could sit and chat without worrying quite as much about waking the newborn infant.

"It went very well indeed," she said warmly. "Amdir's parents are wonderful ... they're very kind and loving, although I have to admit, the spoiled the children something awful."

She laughed softly.

"You should ask Adanedhel about what he did there, but make sure you've got a few hours to kill first," she grinned. "He'll talk your ear off about it, and then he'll go on and on about all of the new things Aragost is teaching him, and then he'll go into the reason ..."

She grew quiet, and the light faded from her eyes.

"He was kidnapped by slavers last summer," she told Feng softly. "I don't ... even know how it happened, he was supposed to be going to see Aragost, but a long time after he left, Aragost came here, looking for him ... he and Mum went off to find Adan, but it was almost four days before they came back."

She rubbed her arms in agitation. "I never thought that they would come this close ... I had always felt safe here before then, but now ... I don't know if I can let the kids outside without me or Amdir or Mum or Ada or Aragost with them ..."

"Well this would be a good time to bring up the subject as any," Feng murmured, "Aliya-chan.... I was wondering, would you mind if one of mother's pets stayed here with you? Her name is Tao, we can't keep her on the Ranch since she'll scare the horses, but mother wants Tao to have more room and have use for her training. She could keep an eye on the kids for you, she's really good at stuff like that."

"One of your mother's pets?" Aliya reeated, her tone surprised. "I ... well, if she helps watch the children, then I couldn't say no ... but ... what is she, that she would scare the horses?"

She would have thought that Feng's world would have the training facilities necessary for training any creatures that were from there as well, so why here?

"And what kind of training?" she added. "What does she do?"

"Tao's a griffin," Feng replied with a grin, "I don't know much about the place that Tao came from, I just know the griffins were separated into classes of fighter, guardian and scout. Tao is supposed to be a guardian class griffin, though mother knows more about what Tao is capable of than I am."

Tao had been around longer than Feng, so it never occured to Feng to ask something like that.

"Very mean people," Starr agreed with a frown.

"Hey look!" Storm grinned, pointing ahead at a break in the trees. "Buildings!"

He looked eagerly up at Donovan. "Is that the ranch?"

Ahead, he could see a very very big house-looking building, and he couldn't help but think that it looked ... quaint.

Donovan looked, "Yup, that would be it."

Good, it meant they were close he hoped that they wouldn't surprise Haradhel and Elrohir too much.

"Daddy....." Lin looked up at Donovan with a smile now that she knew they were almost there.

"Already?" Donovan murmured.

Aliya's smile widened. "Oh, your mother is here as well?" she beamed. "What about Ryu? Who else is here?"

She glanced down at the basket where her youngest son was sleeping. "I'm tempted take him out in the basket just so that I can see everyone," she giggled. "It's been so long ... yes, let's do that."

And she hopped off the couch and headed over to where Adonijah was sleeping, picking up the basket carefully and heading back to Feng. She balanced the basket against one hip and adjusted the blankets so that the infant would be covered, grinning at Feng. "Come on, let's go outside," she said excitedly.