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Kelirahc closed his eyes, still stroking Leyenda's hair softly. "Omarerd is the only one who can give marks," he murmured. "If something happen to him ... end of marks. People of village keep him safe. He is very old, not so strong now as one time."

"He must be very old then," Ura remarked. "I've never heard of an elf so old they grew weak."

Kelirahc nodded. "Old like time."

"I think he is one who was in prison of Morgoth," Kelirahc offered hesitantly, "but he no talk about it so ... is just guess of me."

"That would explain why he actually looks old," Leyenda mused, "and why he's a bit weaker than the rest. But that would make him a first generation elf, and I thought someone told me that all of the first generation elves were gone from your people ... and if he's a first generation, wouldn't he look more like us, rather than the Night Elves?"

Kelirahc looked thoughtful. "I do no know," he admitted softly. "It make me think ... maybe ..." Now he was curious. He wondered, if he were to talk to the old elf, if he would get any answers.

"Could always ask," Ura suggested, but Earendil shook his head.

"If that's the case," he pointed out, "I'm sure it would be quite the painful memories."

Kelirahc looked thoughtful. "Maybe," he murmured, "can ask Alaundil ... she is chief elder, she knows all history ... history of our people. She will know." He looked at Earendil. "You want continue map even with rain, yes?"

Earendil nodded. "If it's possible, yes."

Kelirahc smiled. "Then I will go with you. Can visit Alaundil, stay with village, work from there and save you time. Show you how to live in trees so safe from rain while sleeping."

Earendil glanced over at Lin. "What do you think?" he asked her. "Sound like a plan?"

Kelirahc nodded. "Then I take you. Not today, not tomorrow - rain tomorrow. After tomorrow, when rain is done for a while. Then we go. Should get ready, have lots of food - not so much fruit on trees. Some but not so much."

Earendil looked up at the sky, but there wasn't a cloud in sight. His brow creased slightly. "Are you sure about that?" he asked. "There aren't any clouds in any direction ..."

Kelirahc inhaled deeply through his nose, then smiled and nodded. "Big rain tomorrow. Wait. You see."

Earendil still wasn't sure, but he would be the first to admit that he knew nothing whatsoever about rain. After all, he had only seen it once now.

Ura nodded his agreement. "There's always clouds before rain," he agreed. Then he shrugged. "But this land is completely different, so who knows."

Leyenda sighed softly. "I guess that means it's time to get up," she murmured, though she was quite comfortable laying the way she was. "If we have to pack everything before tomorrow."

But before she could sit up, Kelirahc put both hands over her stomach, trapping her against him. "Pack tomorrow," he smiled. "Today, rest." He was still a little tired from their race, and just as comfortable as she was.

Earendil chuckled. "Then perhaps you two would like to be left alone," he grinned, rising to his feet. "I'm going to go make sure I have some clean clothes." He waved at the others and started down the beach.

And so they all parted ways (except for Leyenda and Kelirahc, who stayed together in the sand) and did their own thing. As Kelirahc predicted, sometime in the night, clouds appeared, and before the sun even rose the next morning it was raining, and it rained throughout the entire day and into the next night. But when the sun rose the morning after, the sky was clear once more, and only the damp sand indicated that there had been any rain at all.

Earendil had no idea how Kelirahc had known that it would rain like that, but he simply chalked it up to experience and instinct.

"Ready to go?" he asked Lin as the sun began to rise higher into the sky.

"Good." Earendil put his own bag over his shoulder. "Then let's find Kelirahc and Leyenda. They were the only ones who wanted to come with this time."

The two were just outside the shelter, and Kelirahc was drawing something in the sand and explaining something to Leyenda in the ancient tongue, which she now knew almost as well as he did. They looked up as Earendil and Lin approached, and stood up to greet them.

"Off we go?" Leyenda asked with a grin.

Leyenda looked down at the scribbles in the sand. "Just some ideas he's had," she replied. "Wherever we end up settling down, we're going to need a house, and we were just talking about things we would like for it."

She smiled at Kelirahc. "We didn't get too far into details, but I think we might do some more traveling in the Four Lands before we settle down anyways. We might not even settle in the Southland, who knows?"