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Earendil frowned. "If you say so ..." But she wasn't rubbing at her neck, she was rubbing at her shoulder. Still, he wouldn't press the matter. If she felt it was something to worry about, she would let him know.

"So if we travel until sunset, and then start again early tomorrow," Aranel mused, changing the subject, "we should arrive at Namu Ngulu probably in within two hours tomorrow. Phoenix Falls is located there, it's well worth checking out, as well as the agricultural part of the city. Odd as that might sound." He chuckled. "It's quite a beautiful place, we could spend a few days there."

"And it is well worth the anticipation," Aranel assured her with a warm smile.



As predicted, before noon the next day they had arrived at the city of Namu Ngulu - or at least, at its outskirts. The first sign that they were getting close was the soft roar of the waterfall as they drew near, followed by the fields of grain and corn that suddenly popped up everywhere.

Earendil and Kaito were amazed at how suddenly they had come into the fields. The change had been quite unexpected - and it was nearing the harvest season, so all of the crops were beginning to turn the same color gold as the desert sand around them.

"Shiro would love to know how the plants survive, let alone thrive, in this climate," Kaito chuckled.

There was something in Lin's voice that worried Earendil, and he watched her anxiously. She hadn't been herself the day before at all, especially in the second half of the day, but this morning ... there was definitely something wrong. The heat, perhaps?

"I think we should find some shade and rest," the prince suggested, though his tone was urgent. "As soon as we possibly can."

He rode closer to Lin. "Lin, are you all right?" he asked her worriedly. "You sound ... terrible ..." He reached out and put one hand gently on her shoulder.

Earendil hesitated. "Perhaps if you can hold on until we get to the city, the healer could look at it," he murmured softly. "Or if you can't, then perhaps ... Tinuviel ..."

Tinuviel drew closer. "My brother is right," she said worriedly. "You haven't been yourself ... you are not yourself."

Without being told, everyone stopped riding. Tinuviel passed Regan to Aranel, then dismounted and held her hands up to Lin. "Come on, the others will stay here while I check you out," she murmured.

She eyed the cat. "Senka, perhaps you should come too."

"You can sleep later," Tinuviel told her, catching her before she fell. She helped Lin a ways away from the others so that they could have a bit of privacy, then set Lin gently on the ground, sitting up.

"I'm going to take a look at your back," she told Lin, moving to lift the back of Lin's shirt to see what was wrong. "Let me know if it hurts you."

Whatever Tinuviel might have been expecting - that was not it. She had spent her entire life in training to become the next queen, heir to the throne, and in her training she had learned many things - chief among them, never be surprised, no matter what - and if she was surprised, don't show it. But that had never taken into account anything like this, and this was beyond expectations of any kind.

She had to bite her tongue to keep down the scream that seemed to want to make its way out of her throat. How could she even begin to describe- how could she-

"Kaito!" she called, the one person she thought might know what was going on. Kaito was from Lin's world, perhaps this was common there ...

"Yeah?" Kaito asked, jumping from his horse and running towards them.

Tinuviel was holding one hand to her mouth. "What ..." She liefted the back of Lin's shirt again to show Kaito what she saw.

Kaito blinked. "Gross ... Lin, why didn't you tell us you were growing wings?"