Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Ah," Earendil murmured softly, "I see." The disappointment was evident in his eyes and in his voice, but he wasn't going to knowingly go ahead and do something that he knew his dear friend wanted to do and wasn't able. "Then I won't speak to him about it at all."

He reached over and put one arm around Lin's shoulders, drawing her close and hugging her lightly. "It doesn't matter, we'll get along without it," he smiled reassuringly.

Earendil smiled faintly. "I wouldn't feel right, learning something you promised you wouldn't. "And who knows, we might not even need it. We might run into some people who speak an entirely new language. After all, our kind once spoke the ancient tongue - I'm sure any other race who spoke it would have changed it by now too."

He gave her a light squeeze, hoping she wasn't feeling guilty or as if she were holding him back again.

Earendil smiled warmly down at Lin. He liked that she could always be so optimistic.

"So," he grinned, "we have the entire night ahead of us. What would you like to do?"

It would be kind of hard to really explore; after all, all of the shops and everything were closed, and there wouldn't be anyone about to ask questions or tell them anything if they so desired. But it still had not been long since Lin had woken up, and she had slept for almost the entire day - surely she wouldn't be ready for sleep again just yet.

Earendil looked around, then shrugged. "We could start retraining you for your katas," he suggested. "I may not be able to help much with the balance issue, but it will tire you out so that you can sleep tonight yet and be awake for tomorrow."

He grinned. "What do you think?"

Earendil smiled widely. "Kaito," he called out, "we're going to do some training. Care to join us?"

Kaito looked over his shoulder at the two and shook his head. "I'll head back to the inn and go to sleep," he replied. "Don't be out too late. Try not to wake me when you get back, all right Earendil?"

Earendil grinned. "Got it. Good night!"

The only catch now was that they would have to practice somewhere where they wouldn't bother anyone else. And when they were in an elven village, where there was no problem with weather ever, there were going to be a lot of people with keen hearing sleeping with their windows open ... if they had windows at all.

"Perhaps we should practice by the waterfall," Earendil suggested. "If we make noise, at least the falls will mask it and we won't disturb anyone." He looked down at Lin. "What do you think?"

The next morning, Earendil was up just as early as any other day, and it seemed that most of the others were as well. Earendil knocked on the door of Lin's room and leaned slightly towards it. "Lin," he called, "we're going to breakfast. Will you be joining us?"

Perhaps she was still asleep, they had been out quite late ...