Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Besides the sweet shops?" Kaito quipped. "And there are tons of them. But there's the fish market - we'll have to make sure we bring Senka with us tomorrow - and there's a glass shop, only makes figurines and such ... tailor, he makes some really nice clothes ... there's even a bookstore, if you can believe that."

He paused. "Well, he doesn't sell books that are already written, he sells blank books that you can write in," he amended. "And loose paper that can be added to books if you run out of room before you finish."

Kaito gave Lin a funny look. "I thought you already had a journal back home," he said, puzzled. "Don't you?"

"I had never thought of writing things down to keep track of them," Earendil mused. "I only use paper for letters and maps, usually. Notes, a bit. Never just for the sake of it."

He looked thoughtful at the idea.

Kaito laughed. "It would still be cheaper to get another journal or two back home," he teased her. "Of course, they probably wouldn't last as long as these ones either, but still."

Kaito had never really been one for journals - or for possessions of any sort, really. The only thing he had that he refused to part with was the tooth that he wore on a string around his neck - a memento from when he and Shiro had lived on the street.

"You know," Earendil commented, "there is a possibility of meeting other races ... there used to be so many more than elves, dwarfs and humans ... they can't all have been destroyed."

"Centaurs?" Earendil asked, puzzled.

"Half horse, half human," Kaito told him. "I take it you've never heard of them?"

Earendil shook his head. "Night elves, orcs, goblins, gnomes, faeries, sprites ... but never centaurs." He looked at Lin curiously. "What did Aunt Elnara say about them?"

"Storm and Starr met a centaur once," Kaito mused. "Not here, in Gaia. Storm told me about it once ..."

He trailed off. "They should visit here sometime," he murmured sadly. "Maybe not here specifically, but ... the Four Lands. They've both been so depressed lately ... and they refuse to go to school anymore ..."

Then again, they were Lin's age ... even if they were still children, while she was an adult. Perhaps, like Toshiro, they wouldn't grow anymore ...

Kaito nodded. "Thanks. I just hope it works ... they used to be so full of life ... and ... well ... you know what they're like now." He shrugged. "Storm especially, it's like he's living in a hollow shell. His body functions, but that's about it."

Earendil frowned. "What happened to them?"

"No one knows," Kaito shrugged again. "They just ... started acting like that one day, and they've been like that since."

"They haven't gone there in ... probably close to a year by now," Kaito noted with surprise. "I wonder if something happened on one of their visits there ..."

Earendil tilted his head slightly. "Is it just me," he asked, honestly not meaning to change the subject, "or is the roaring getting louder?"

Kaito pointed up the street. "The waterfall's just up a path there," he told his cousin. "Not far."