Welcome to Gaia! ::

"In the house of healing," Earendil replied softly. "You passed out just before we arrived at the city ... and ... uhm ..."

"Grew wings," Kaito grinned in the way that only Kaito could. "Welcome to the world of the living, Lin. How do you feel?"

Earendil rolled his eyes at Kaito. "There are better ways of telling people things, you know."

Kaito shrugged. "Takes too long."

Kaito laughed at Lin. "They're almost as big as mine, I think," he winked at her. "But look at the bright side - now you don't have to come up with excuses why you're immortal! Now you don't even have to say that you're human! You could just say you're an angel, like Obaa-san!"

Suddenly he tilted his head and looked at her curiously, his ears flicking back and forth. "I wonder if you are still human," he murmured.

Kaito shrugged. "Then maybe you are too," he concluded. "Everyone has always said how much you look like both Obaa-san and Ojii-san, even though you're not their blood daughter, maybe it's just ... slow in revealing itself." He shrugged. "The only vase I was around for was Jair's, and let's face it - he hasn't grown since he was born, and he's Naida's age! She grew a long time ago, and you can't tell me that he doesn't get into any less trouble than her."

He stopped, realizing that he was getting off topic.

"Anyways, point being, I don't know anything about Seconds," he concluded. "You should ask someone else when we get back. Maybe Shiro would even know, I think he's getting close to figuring out exactly how Ura is connected to him, too."

The healer was amazed at Lin's recovery - but then, he had never seen anything like it before, so he really had no idea what to expect from it. Frankly, he was amazed at all of it.

"You are all right?" he asked anxiously. "Forgive me for asking ... but ... what is your race called? Kaito here was trying to explain it to me, but I do not understand the word ..."

Not that he had understood what 'neko' meant either, the word simply didn't exist in the High Elven vocabulary.

"Lin," Tinuviel murmured, "you have to realize ... the concept doesn't exist in our world. And especially in our language."

She turned to the healer. "Angels are a race of winged human-like beings," she explained to him. "They are not from our world, Arda ... but from another world, called Gaia. They are visiting us through magic."

The healer nodded slowly. That at least made a bit of sense - even if he found it very difficult to believe.

"Perhaps if you're better, we should find the inn, rather than stay here," Earendil suggested to Lin. "Besides, Aranel and Regan are waiting for us. They will want to know that you're all right."

Earendil held his arm out to Lin. "Take my arm," he murmured, "we'll get you to the inn and then you can rest. We'll worry about the rest afterwards. If we need to stay here a little longer, that's all right. We'll send a letter ahead to let everyone know so that they won't be worried about us."

"Knowing Shiro, he would be late back anyways," Kaito piped up.

Tinuviel thanked the healer for his efforts in helping them, though of course he hadn't really done anything except wipe up her back, and then the four of them and Senka left.

Aranel was waiting anxiously outside, keeping an eye on the horses while he watched over Regan, who was playing in the grass. When the others came outside, he rose quickly to his feet.

"Lin's all right?" he asked, looking at Regan and Kaito, who were the first to walk outside.