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"Well," Amdir replied thoughtfully, "she's been asking lately about her blood family ... her real name, where she's from and so on. Of course, none of us know - no one here knows anything about before she showed up here. On the other hand ..."

He paused.

"Well ... you know how Aragost has a knack of ... knowing everything about a person, right? Apparently ... she's been asking him."


Adanedhel grinned at Lin. "Good," he nodded satisfactorily. "That means we can have a lot of fun and work hard and learn a lot together, right? And you said you like going up on a mountain, you said you have a mountain you go up when you go see Elrohir's nephew, right?"


Aliya laughed softly at Kara's question. "Well ... one of my gifts is tenacity. I don't give up on anything. Unfortunately for Mum, that includes asking permission to do things I know I shouldn't be doing, or anything like that. I didn't stop asking her for things I knew I would never be allowed to do when I was a child, and I drove her crazy."

"Hmm...."

It was true that Aragost had this ability to simply know, and by this time Donovan had pretty much figured it was a gift of some sort. Otherwise for the life of him he wouldn't know how Aragost knew what he did.

"I suppose it was only a matter of time before she started to wonder, but just because Aragost gives her the answers, doesn't always mean she'll leave," Donovan shrugged, "I don't know, will see what happens, but I guess it shouldn't be a surprise."


"Right," Lin replied, "It's high up, which... getting up there I'm getting use to, I'm just not use to working up that high. I don't get a chance to do that often."

So she might as well do that here too if she could.

Aliya laughed along with the other two women. "Well, I didn't always listen to Mum, either," she grinned at Kara. "Permission or not, I usually ended up doing what I wanted to."


Adanedhel nodded at Lin knowingly. "Ara-kun took me up there for a day last week already," he said solemnly, "and it was kinda hard to breathe once we got up at the top. Still, he says if I go up there every day, and work and run around and play and learn, then someday it won't be hard to breathe and then I can run faster down here where there's lots of air, too."


"I'm not so sure he did give her answers," Amdir admitted to Donovan. "There was ... a change in her, after she went to talk to him ... hard to describe, but you'll understand when you see her again."

He paused as they reached the barracks. "Then again," he mused, "it's been quite a while since you've seen her ... she's changed more than anyone else here, I think, except of course for the children, still growing so fast. I think you would find her quite different no matter what."

"It has been," Donovan admitted, "I left as I usually do as soon as I arrive and only stay for the over night because Kara insists. I didn't visit Ulani and Ulrich last time, I should go see Shael."

It had then probably been four years then? That was a long time.


"Yea... Earendil said the air is thinner up higher," Lin murmured, "I bet Miyu and Mom and the other angels though aren't bothered by it though if they had to go up."

Which would defeat the purpose of going up there in the first place.

"She must have still been a child the last time you saw her, then," Amdir murmured thoughtfully. "She's an adult now ... quite grown up. She turned out very well, too, I might add - she's as kind and gentle as ever she was, and rather lovely as well."

He grinned. "At any rate, here is where I leave you," he added, nodding at the barracks door. "I have to find Elrohir, so I'm sure I'll see you later."

And with that, he waved and headed off into the forest.


Adanedhel pouted. "That's not fair," he complained softly, in a teasing tone. "Still, Ara-kun says that if it's not hard to breathe up there before you get used to it, then you can't improve down here either. So ... I guess it's good that it's a bother for us, right?" He grinned proudly. "It means we can get better at doing things down here!"


Aliya looked a bit sheepish. "Yes ... Adan's always had an alarming amount of energy," she admitted, "but ... I have to admit, I take advantage of his relationship with Aragost. Since the twins were born, Aragost has been helping to take care of Adanedhel during the day, and lately he's started to teach him a lot. I feel as though Amdir and I should be taking a greater part in his education, spending more time with him, but on the other hand ... this makes things a lot easier, and Aragost is probably a better teacher than us. Besides, Adan doesn't show much interest in training the horses, he prefers the forest, and the mountain, and running around, and ... aye. Who knows? Maybe he'll grow into it. But for now, he doesn't much like working with Amdir."

She paused. "To be fair," she amended, "it is too dangerous for a child to be in the training pen. It's even dangerous for Amdir at times, we've had to put a few horses down because they were simply too dangerous."

Donovan waved for a moment before turning back to the barrack door. He had to admit, he really needed to keep up to date better, even though he always went around asking whenever he could. Ah well.. .things tended to happen, he would have to just work more or spend more days or something.

"Come on," he told Celebor before opening the door.


Lin hadn't thought of it like that, "Yea, that's true. It's better for us, well I suppose they could go up higher or something."

She never understood why or how angels could stand thin air, but she supposed it had to do something with the fact they flew. It would be bad to pass out while flying due to lack of air.

Haradhel smiled at Kara. "I understand that in your world it's common for children to have other people teach them," she said softly, "but here ... it's almost unheard of not to teach your own children, at least during their childhood. Of course, later on it's common enough for them to learn a trade from someone else, but ... other than that ..."

She trailed off and shrugged.


Arwen grinned at Miyu. "Of course I can!" she agreed enthusiastically. "How about tonight? Mama sometimes lets me stay up a bit late if I have a good reason, and it's a nice sunny day outside so it probably won't be cloudly, I'm sure we'll be able to see the stars real clear! Maybe we can go out with Aragost, Mama doesn't like us being outside by ourselves at night."

"Yes...." Kara murmured, "I have gotten that impression, and you are right having other people teach their children is more common. After all that is where I work, in a place that does that."

Granted because of that, and because the children were put into the school, in a way she never stopped teaching her own children. She just bowed out when it was something she could not teach.


Miyu nodded, "That would be fun, I know where the bunches of stars are, but most of the time... I don't know the names."

She had to be told that, which was different.