Welcome to Gaia! ::

Elnara smiled back at Ruran. She couldn't help but notice how much he looked like his father ... she was sure that he would grow big and strong, just like Celebor.

"Hello, Ruran," she said warmly. "I'm very pleased to meet you."

Celebor smiled proudly at his son. He was indeed being very polite.

Aras paused and turned slightly to look back at Kanis. "I hear someone ... outside," she murmured softly. "I want to see who it is. Maybe we have more visitors!"

And she turned once more and skittered towards the door.

"Thank you, Joruri," Idhril smiled up at him, laying her head against his chest once more. When she was close enough, she knocked on the door with her fist three times, then lay it on her stomach and waited for a response.

Elnara smiled at her grandson. "It was," she assured him cheerfully. "But this world is always pleasant, I find."

She was interrupted when she heard Niyana's exclamation, and she looked over to see Idhril and a very pale and strange looking boy. Idhril looked positively awful ...

"Idhril," she gasped, leaving Ruran and running over to look over her daughter. "Idhril, what happened?"

She ran her fingers lightly over Idhril's legs, then lifted her skirt to see the injuries to her thighs.

Idhril winced slightly. "I was climbing a tree," she explained in a voice filled with pain, "and I just ended up like this."

She looked over to make sure Joruri wasn't going anywhere, but she couldn't see him anymore from where she was laying.

"Joruri!" she called out, fear in her tone. "Where did you go? I can't see you ... Joruri!"

Aras was pressed up against the wall of the cave, her heart pounding in her chest at nearly being run over and trampled not by the strangers - but by her own mother.

Jair looked anxiously over at Idhril, then back at Kanis. "You sure?" he asked her softly. "Idhril looks hurt ..."

He wanted to make sure she was all right ...

Celebor blinked and knelt down next to Ruran.

"Go ahead back to the work room if you want," he told him quietly. "But only until matters here are settled, and then I want you back out here again. Got that?"

Elnara was surprised by Idhril calling out for someone, and she assumed it was the boy she had come in with - and for a moment she couldn't help but wonder if Niyana's earlier comment had been true, if she had indeed taken after Celebor, and in her own words found a mate when she was still so young ...

"Idhril?" she murmured softly, putting one hand on her daughter's shoulder.

Idhril looked from Elnara to Joruri and back. "Joruri was hanging in the tree, I had to save him, Mama!" she said worriedly. "He was dead, his old master killed him and left him in the tree to just be dead, like garbage! I had to save him!"

She looked over at Joruri again and reached one hand out to him pleadingly.

Aras blinked at Kanis. "But ... but she didn't say until I was already there!" she protested. "It wasn't my fault!"

She rubbed her hands anxiously behind her back.

"I'm going to go sit under the table," she murmured softly, "where it's safe."

Ruque looked quizzically at Ruran, then shrugged his shoulders and clambered back to his feet again. "Well, if you say so," he acquiesced, even though he really didn't know what his brother was talking about. Still, he seemed to know what he was talking about, so it made sense to listen to him.

He headed off in the direction of the work room, glancing up at Celebor as he passed him.

Celebor noted the worried look in Niyana's eyes, and he couldn't help but agree with her - but Idhril wanted the strange boy so badly, so he can't have hurt her ... could he?

"Aras, Kanis, come," he called them. "We have to wait in the other room with your brothers for now."

And he ushered them off towards the work room.

Aras nodded and grinned at Kanis. "Yeah, that's right! It's the good thing to do! Very noble!"

She giggled up at Celebor. "Kanis is going to be a knight someday, she will be a very good one!"

Elnara kept shooting furtive glances at the strange boy who Idhril so clearly wanted by her side, but she didn't want to press the matter further - not yet. If she found out that the boy had hurt her daughter, he would pay - she swore it - but it didn't help to jump to conclusions ... that was one thing she had learned from her blood family.

But she wasn't going to let him see what even Idhril's family would not.

"Please turn away," she requested of him crisply as she lifted the bottom of Idhril's skirt, holding it up around her uppermost thighs.

Idhril was a mess. Elnara however brushed her worry aside. Idhril needed healing first and foremost.

"Heal," she breathed, tracing her fingers along the wounds. The skin closed up, the bits of wood fell to the bed, and the redness faded from Idhril's legs as Elnara's hand passed over them.

Idhril held tightly to Joruri's hand. Even if he couldn't be helping, she didn't want to let him go, didn't want him to leave. Even when her wounds began to heal, she kept a tight grip on him.

Jair blinked at Kanis. He, being a mer and having a long tail, was a bit bigger than she was, and being a water creature he was heavier ... could she carry him?

Well, he would let her try.

"Okay," he murmured, putting his arms around her shoulders and holding her tightly.

Celebor smiled proudly down at Kanis. "That's a very noble dream you have, Kanis," he told her happily. "You hold on to that, and you'll make both me and your mother very proud."

"It's not that bad, Mama," Idhril told Elnara softly, "it was just the tree ... and it was starting to storm so I was a little scared and I fell sometimes ..."

Elnara nodded and willed her magic to work faster, healing up Idhril's legs so that they were back to normal - though the wood chips that had been in her thighs were now littering Celebor and Niyana's bed.

Once her daughter's legs were fine, Elnara moved to heal her hands.

"Can you tell us exactly what happened?" she asked softly.

Idhril nodded. "I was walking yesterday and it was getting kind of windy ... so I was thinking about coming home again ... but I saw a vase and it was broken, Mama, so I knew there was someone who was hurt ..."

She looked over at Joruri, her eyes shining with unshed tears. "He was up in the tree, all tangled up with his strings and stuff ... and I thought he was just a puppet like Yuki showed us that one time, but he was going to get all broken in the storm ... so I climbed the tree to get him down, but it started raining so it was slippery ... and I cut myself ..."

Jair nodded, his chin rubbing against his niece's hair.

"I'm used to it," he assured her, "cos I can't move much without doing that myself anyways."

She was strong, he had to admit - and he couldn't help but grin.

In the workroom, Celebor peered out at his daughter, watching her proudly. He knew she would be hard pressed to get Jair all the way to the work room, but he wasn't going to interfere - she wanted to train, it was obvious from the look in her eye, and he wasn't going to stop her.

Elnara was also listening intently to Idhril's story.

"And then what?" she asked softly.

"Well, up in the tree, he was ... um ... suspended?" Idhril replied. "So ... it was like he was dead ... but he was just a puppet then because he was dead ... so I got him out of the tree and I thought I broke him because I dropped him so far ... and then I got out of the tree and got his vase and when I got back to him he was talking and he really surprised me, but then when I tried to help him stand up he was all heavy and stuff and I couldn't even lift him anymore ..."

Her golden eyes filled with confusion. "I don't know ... but I think maybe because I had his vase, he woke up or something. But then he helped me, he carried me out of the storm to a cave where we were safe, and then he got me some water in his vase so that I could wash myself up but I didn't have anything to use so I had to use my dress ..."

She looked down at her tattered skirt. "So that's kind of why it's all ripped up and stuff ..."

"Well, I want to learn the spell," Jair nodded, "but I have to learn it from the goddess, I don't have my magic phrase yet. But Mama said she might take me after we visit you today."

He had already been working out with his arms but the point of fact was that he was just not much good at dragging himself around.

"Oh, maybe this will help," he grinned, flapping his wings and trying to make himself lighter for her - since his wings were too small yet for him to fly.

Celebor averted his eyes from Kanis and Jair and looked instead at Ruran. "I'm not sure," he admitted, putting his hands behind Ruran's back and turning him so that he couldn't look in the direction of the main room. "But I'm sure we'll find out shortly."

Elnara finished up with healing Idhril and brushed the splinters of wood away from her, off the bed and onto the floor. "Come on, let's get you changed," she murmured.

Idhril nodded obediently and let go of Joruri's hand, giving it a tight squeeze first to reassure him.

"Mama, can Joruri come home with us?" she asked as she lifted her arms to have her dress taken off of her. "Or at least his vase? He'll die again if I don't take his vase ... I don't want to kill him, Mama ..."

Elnara's brow furrowed thoughtfully, worriedly. She didn't know anything about this boy, and he was very strange ... but at the same time, she couldn't say no. She had taken in so many who were also strange in their own ways - like Kaito, who was still so cat-like, or Ura, who still defied anyone's understanding ...

Jair flopped onto the floor and giggled, slapping his tail against the hard stone ground.

"Wow, you're really strong!" he exclaimed, turning so that he could sit up on his tail. "I bet you'll be great at helping people!"

He grinned. "Yeah, I want to know how to walk because the only water at home is in the fountain where me and Uncle Ryu and Aunt Feng and Naida live ... and if I want to go anywhere or do anything I have to find someone to carry me. But I want to do things on my own."

Celebor nodded thoughtfully, watching Ruran curiously. "Well I'm glad that you're trying to be nice," he said honestly, "but you must never see a girl without her clothes unless she is your mate."

Elnara nodded at Niyana's words. "Your sister is right, Idhril," she agreed. "We need to know more about him ... how did he end up in the tree? Why? Why is his vase broken? Does he have a family, someone he belongs to?"

"But I know all of that already!" Idhril cried, hugging the oversized shirt to her body. "His old master didn't want him anymore so he suspended his life and threw him away! And everybody was just mean to him! Mama, can you heal him too? He has a big scar on his chest, really huge! Can you make him better? Please?"