Welcome to Gaia! ::

Earendil smiled and stood up again, then hugged Lin with one arm. "See you in a bit," he murmured. "Stay safe."

He pressed a quick kiss to her forehead, then gave her another quick smile and headed towards the door.

When Miyuki and Lin showed up, they were just loading the last of the cargo. The work had begun about halfway through the night so that they could make as much progress as possible that day.

"Ah, there you are," Earendil beamed as Lin and Miyuki showed up with Kaito trailing them. "Perfect timing! Celeb is just loading the last crate, so once everyone is on board we'll be setting sail."

"Come on, hurry up!" Amalirahc urged them, running up from behind Earendil. His golden eyes were bright with excitement. "Hurry up so we can go! You're almost late, you slowpokes!"

"Amalirahc," Leyenda called from the ship's deck, "watch what you say!"

"But I want to leave!" the boy called back.

Earendil chuckled. "Well, they're not slow, and they're not late. So be kind."

"Yup. Sorry!" Amalirahc grinned at Miyuki and Lin. "But come on, hurry now, okay?"

And without waiting for a response, he turned on his heel and ran towards the ship.

Leyenda laughed and waved for Lin and Earendil and the others to come aboard as well. "I think he's just excitable, and he really loves ships and journeys."

Amalirahc giggled and ran across the gangplank and onto the ship, where he did a little twirl and threw his hands in the air. "And IIIII'm the winner!" he announced, as if it had been a race. "Come on, Miyuki! Let's go and I can show you the rest of the ship too!"

While Amalirahc disappeared into the interior of the ship with Miyuki, the rest of the travelers boarded the ship after Lin and Earendil.

"It's very easy to read Amalirahc," Leyenda laughed as Lin and Earendil joined her on the ship. "You can see everything he's thinking as easily as reading the words on a page."

Leyenda laughed. "He's too innocent," she grinned at Lin. "He's never had any reason to hide anything he's felt, so he has no idea how. It has never entered his mind to tell an untruth, or to hide something that he's done, even bad things. He's just such a good boy. And that makes it easy for anyone to read him, even complete strangers."

Sure, as his mother, there were some nuances that she saw better than others could, but other than that, her boy was just plain open.

"I can only wonder, how long are they going to be about the same age?" Leyenda mused. "Though I suppose, if Miyuki grows, she would probably be closer to Amalirahc's size, if nothing else."

She knew that Miyuki was a stage-grower, and she knew what that meant now. But she had a feeling that wouldn't change things - at least not too much - with Miyuki and her son.

"Everything is set," Kelirahc said, the last one aboard. "Leyenda, will you help me cast off?"

Leyenda nodded. "We'll talk to you two again later once we're on our way," she grinned at Lin and Earendil: and then she headed off.

Earendil looked down at Lin, puzzled. "What do you mean?" he asked her, putting one arm around her shoulders and beginning to walk around the deck with her. "I know from my perspective it seemed like you were taking forever to grow, but that's because in your world, time passed so much more slowly. I mean, I could age ten years and for you it would have been what, a month?"