Welcome to Gaia! ::

Earendil chuckled again. "I can go with that." He turned to the group of men surrounding the two racers, and within a few moments he had ushered them away, giving the two some space to catch their breath. Kelirahc was lying on his back on the sand, his chest heaving, arms and legs sprawled out as he gasped for air. Leyenda, on the other hand, was on her kneels and leaning forward, breathing in deeply, slowly, and with each breath she let out water poured from her nose and mouth.

"Ugh," Earendil flinched and looked away. "Gross."

Leyenda giggled. "The only downside to breathing underwater," she quipped, spewing water as she spoke. "This feels so weird. Every time."

Leyenda blushed a bit, unused to such scrutiny. It had been normal for her for so long that she had forgotten what it was like to those seeing it for the first time.

"Well ... I have to breathe something," she pointed out. "And if it's only water under there, then that's what I have to breathe, right?"

The water was slowing now, just a trickle every now and again.

Leyenda laughed and squeezed the water out of her hair. "It might be different for them, who knows?" she grinned. "Maybe the water just doesn't go into their mouth and nose. I don't know."

She rubbed her nose, which seemed to have stopped dripping, and smiled. "Ah, better," she sighed; and she turned and lay on her back, resting her head on Kelirahc's chest.

Kelirahc smiled and rested one hand on her forehead, then looked up to Lin. "Ura have question, yes?" he asked, getting back to the reason that they had been called over there in the first place.

Kelirahc shook his head. "They are not tattoos," he corrected them, "they are marks." He looked down at the mark on Leyenda's shoulder, then reached down and brushed his fingertips over it lightly. "They have ... many meanings," he murmured softly. "They are very important to my people."

"Why is that?" Ura asked curiously. "I mean, I can see how they would be handy, but ... why so important?"

"The mark you receive ... shows what is your family," Kelirahc explained. "I have dragon ... my father name Amalirahc, is ..." He racked his brain to think of the translation, but he didn't know the Common word for it.

"Divine dragon," Ura supplied, his shared knowledge of the language revealing itself.

Kelirahc could only assume that the translation was correct, and he nodded. "His father name G'eldirahc, friend of dragon. I am Kelirahc ..." He stopped abruptly and averted his eyes slightly, and though his black skin showed no colour, it was clear that he was embarrassed about something.

Ura chuckled softly. "Legendary dragon," he grinned. "Nothing to be embarrassed about, especially as I would say he's already lived up to his name."

Without looking at them directly, Kelirahc nodded slightly. "Is a great honour to have such a name," he said solemnly. "Father and Grandfather ... legends to our people. Greatest men village ever know. I ..."

He reached up and ran his fingers through his shaggy white hair. "Hard to live up to name," he murmured. "Many ... expects."

"Expectations," Leyenda corrected him softly. "That's something that I can understand." She opened her eyes and tilted her head to look at her husband. "But that's why we decided that we would go with my parents when they leave, right? So that you wouldn't be forced into such a position."

Kelirahc smiled and nodded. "Yes, that is right. Can be free to be me ... with you."

Kelirahc stroked Leyenda's hair softly and nodded at Lin. "Everyone. Some young, some older, but all receive it. Most when do something to earn it ... sometimes by saving life, sometimes not. I save Omarerd. Haldia show great wisdom. Alaundil take care of child not her own. All receive mark. Sometimes mark of family, like me ..."

He touched his mark. "Aleanath ... noble line of dragon."

He laid his hand back on Leyenda's head. "Sometimes not mark of family. If not have one when marry, get mark of husband or wife's house. Like Leyenda."

Ura caught Lin's glance, and he decided to ask a question that had been bothering him and that he knew would intrigue Lin.

"How were the animals chosen for the families?" he asked. "I mean ... why is your family's mark a dragon, and your friend's is a roc?"

Kelirahc smiled. "Each family have mark of creature their first father make pact with," he explained. "My grandfather make pact with dragon, so we are house of dragon. Haldia's first father make pact with roc, so her family have mark of roc."