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"Oh... I see..." Feng thought for a moment before asking, "How long is an Age?"

Becuase to be fair she had no clue on that count.

"They're all different," Aliya replied, "though I can't say why ... I'm not entirely sure myself."

"I can tell you," Serenity put in quietly. "The First Age, no one knows exactly how long it lasted, but some say about a thousand years. It ended when the elves and the Valar separated, when the Two Trees were destroyed, when Melkor was defeated, and when Alyse Aldrich, Aliya's great-great-grandmother, was crowned the first Queen of the Southland Elves."

Aliya blinked. "I didn't know that."

Serenity laughed. "Well, now you do. The Second Age was her reign, and it lasted twenty thousand years exactly. The Third Age began when Regan Aldrich, my grandmother-in-law, Atalya's grandmother, and Elnara's great-grandmother," she nodded at Feng and Ryu, "was coronated, and ended three thousand four hundred and thirty eight years later, when she was murdered, and her reign ended. The Fourth Age is what we are currently living in, and it began with Atalya's rise to the throne."



Elros had to think about that for a moment before he was able to reply.

"Well," he murmured, "I ... watch things ... I'm never truly not working, after all, even when I'm not on duty I am always watching over things, watching people, watching events ... a true fighter is never off duty. Even if it is not official, one must always be on their guard. You never know what might happen, after all, and all the skill in the world will not help you if you have no chance to defend yourself."

Lin hadn't thought of it that way, she was use to people even taking time out and relaxing even the most stiffest of her family members did something that wasn't well.. work.

At least she thought so.

"So there is nothing you like to do when you're not watching?"

"I don't know, I thought it was just another unit of time," Feng shrugged.

After all for all she knew it could have been another unit of time like a millium or a century.

"Oh," Aliya giggled. "Sorry. I guess I just take things for granted, being used to all of it."


Elros nodded solemnly. "Indeed I have," he said softly. "More than most. There are few now who are older than I, very few indeed ... and fewer still who are in the Four Lands."

"You mean like the few who saw those large shining trees that people lived in?" Lin asked.

She had always wished those trees still existed for no other reason than to tell her mom they existed and to go up in one and peer down. After all, who wouldn't want to live in a place like that?

Ryu chuckled a bit, that really did sound a lot like Feng, "You choose, horses or sparring."

Since both were good, they could continue to learn how to ride, or they could expend energy sparring, which would be good practice for them too.

Aliya didn't even need to think about it. "Sparring," she grinned right away, jumping to her feet. "Any more horses today and you two are going to be blistered on your backsides. Besides, I've got too much energy to be around the horsese right now, and I'm sure Feng's feeling the same by now."

She paused. "The only thing is, I didn't bring my sword with me here," she murmured. "So ... I'm going to have to borrow someone's ... unless we just spar with hand-to-hand."




"Hmm," Elros murmured softly, setting Lin back on his shoulder and setting off again, "then I'm afraid you must have been misinformed. I don't know this Sir Valemar person, but I can tell you that I lived there ... I lived in the time of the Trees. I lived, in fact, not two thousand paces from Galadloriel, or Laurelin, as some called it. The trees that we lived in did not have the light, only the Two did."