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"Acting weird?" Lancaeriel repeated, her brow furrowing slightly. "How so?"

While she had never seen Pokemon before seeing the three that Miyuki and Andarien had collectively, she knew quite a bit about animals, and she hoped to be able to shed some light on the situation.

"Oh, is that all?" Lancaeriel smiled with relief. She recognized the symptoms. Animals were animals, and many animals had similar habits, no matter how different the species.

Suddenly she realized how callous that must have sounded.

"I'm sorry," she apologized quickly, "I didn't mean it that way. But there's nothing wrong. She's nesting. Preparing for a litter. Many animals do the same thing - cats, birds ... certain people. It's instincts."

They arrived at the ship and started moving up the gangplank to the main deck.

"Really," she assured Miyuki with a warm smile, "she's fine. I promise."

Lancaeriel couldn't help but giggle when she saw Miyuki realize how Ai could have become with litter. Maybe it was just her - having romance on the mind what with Luk and Lily's wedding, and Aennan and Aranxia's courtship - but she had wondered a long time ago already if the two Pokemon would end up mating eventually.

"Good morning!" Arwen's voice greeted them cheerfully as they boarded the ship. She was coming down the steps from the forecastle, looking as bright and energetic as ever. "Lancaeriel, everything's been prepared as you asked, so we're ready whenever you are."

Lancaeriel nodded. "I am ready." She turned to Miyuki once again. "Miyuki," she said softly, "if you would like to help, I could use it. But it will require your full attention and strength, so if you don't wish to help me, or feel too distracted by Ai's behaviour ..."

Lancaeriel smiled warmly at her pupil. She was glad for the help, and she was proud of Miyuki for rising to the occasion.

"I'm going to need your strength," she told her, leading her to the door that led to the captain's quarters, the door that had been set up for her to use. "Most of the preparation has already been done, but we need to activate the runes that I embedded into the frame of the door. You are uniquely able to help me in this task, since there are very few here - if any - who know how to use magic with which they were not born."

She showed her the runes that lined the door frame, so tiny and so numerous that to those who did not know better, they could be simple imperfections in the grain of the wood. "These runes will make sure that we end up where we need to be. What you and I will have to do is imbue the runes with our strength and continue to hold it fast until the crossings are complete. It takes a lot of strength, but I believe that with both of us doing this, we should be just fine afterwards."

On her own, she knew, she would end up sick, and while she was willing to go through that for Aranxia's sake, it was not something she had been looking forward to.

"Do you have any questions?" she asked Miyuki, almost as an afterthought.

"As long as we stand to the side of the door so that we're out of the way, we'll be fine," Lancaeriel assured Miyuki. "Unlike most runes, portals stop when the power to them ends, so we have to keep it going until everyone coming through has finished coming through. They'll need to walk past us, so as long as we're to the side, it's fine."

She moved to one side of the door and touched her fingers against some of the runes in the frame of the door. "Ready?" she asked Miyuki, looking to make sure she was in position on the other side of the doorway.

Lancaeriel nodded and closed her eyes. It wasn't necessary, but it did help her to concentrate her power. She felt her fingertips warm slightly as she activated the runes.

As the others watched, the wood of the door seemed to shimmer, then whirl, colours fading and then vanishing as the portal opened. It didn't look like anything special: it was like looking through an open door, and instead of the captain's cabin on the other side of the door, it was a stone-walled bedchamber. To be specific, it was Tinuviel and Aranel's bedchamber.

Aside from several candles, it was dark in the bedchamber, as back in the Four Lands the sun was not even close to rising; but despite the early hour there, there were five figures, each of them with a bag, who seemed to be waiting.

"Good morning, Tinuviel," Earendil greeted his sister warmly through the portal. "Ready?"

"And eager," his sister agreed. She turned to the others who were standing with her. "Come on, quickly. The longer the portal is open, the more strength it will require from Lancaeriel."

Regan was the first to step through the portal, bag clutched tightly in both hands, and she blinked and squinted in the bright morning sunlight.

"This is so strange," she murmured, sounding as if she were still rather sleepy.

Earendil couldn't help but chuckle at that comment.

Tinuviel followed her daughter through the portal, and then Aranel, and after them came Luthien and Ruel, the latter of which looked as though he would really rather not be there.

"That's all of us," Tinuviel told Lancaeriel, turning to face her as she spoke. "Thank you."

Immediately, Lancaeriel stopped the flow of magic from her fingers, and she leaned against the wall, light-headed from the exertion of the magic required for the portal.