Welcome to Gaia! ::

Elnara opened the door to the nursery slowly so that she wouldn't create a breeze, smiling in the direction of the cradle where the two infants were laying.

"There, there," she cooed at them, reaching for a clean receiving blanket and tucking it over her shoulder, "we're here, we're here."

She headed over to the cradle and picked up Garrick - she always fed him first, only because he was the louder of the two and if she didn't she would have a headache by the time she did feed him. Then she sat in the rocking chair in the corner and got ready to feed him.

"At least we've got them figured out now," she smiled at Lore as Garrick began to feed, his cries quieting down almost instantly. "It makes things easier."

She nodded for him to sit in the rocking chair next to her.

Elnara smiled. "Well it's not as if I was any better in that respect," she murmured. "To be fair, neither you nor I had ever thought to have children, until only a while before we married. Why would we have given thought to raising them? Sure, I already had eleven of my own, but that's different ... really they were all self-sustaining, I only gave them a family."

She looked down at Garrick. "And here we're providing them with life itself."

She giggled softly. "It really is a miracle ... to produce life ... and sustain it ... in a way we are not so different from the Valar themselves, or the gods of Gaia, or the goddesses of the Second World."

Elnara nodded. "It does," she agreed. "When we first realized I was pregnant, I was ... terrified. But now ..."

Now she was at peace, and confident that everything would be all right.

"Though I suppose we should start think about heading back home," she murmured sadly. "Our year is nearly up ..."

Which meant that their first anniversary would be soon ...

"Personally," Elnara replied right away, without even having to think about it, "I would like these two chairs ... we're going to need two anyways, and I don't know if anyone would think to have rocking chairs with armrests - if they even prepare a nursery at all."

And she was very fond of these chairs - not only because they were beautiful and comfortable, but because it gave her a special feeling, to be able to sit in one and feed her children, and to have Lore right next to her.

"Of course there are the things we brought here," she added as an afterthought, "and the things for the twins ... their blankets, clothes, and the like ..."

And then she thought of something else, something that made her blush a bit.

"What about ... the blanket from our bed?" she murmured softly. "I mean ... as an object, it's something easily replaced ... but ... what it signifies ... for me ... for us together ..."

Elnara smiled warmly, glad that he agreed with her - even if he was laughing as well.

"Ulrich's handiwork is always so good," she murmured. "I've never seen the like anywhere in Gaia."

She nodded at the cradle. "What about that?" she asked. "Even if they did think of a nursery back home, they would probably only have one cradle ... and even though the twins are so small now, they'll need their own eventually ..."

She looked around at everything that was in the nursery, from the furniture to the wooden wind chimes that were hanging in the window. Everything had been hand carved by Ulrich, and now that Elnara was thinking about it ... she didn't want to leave any of it behind.

"Just that I really like this nursery," she murmured back, still slightly distracted. "I just don't know if the new one will seem ... the same ..."

She shook her head as if to clear it. "But we can't take everything back, that's just silly," she reprimanded herself. "We have to limit ourselves ... the chairs and the cradle, that's it for this room, then?"

She looked to Lore to see what he thought of the idea, or if he would allow her to take more.

Elnara smiled sadly. "Maybe we'll have to get Shiro and Kaito and Ura to help us bring them," she murmured. "They'll be used to moving things by then, I'm sure. The rest ... blankets and clothes and such ... can be put into one of the spelled bags ... did Kara end up putting a rune on yours before we came here?"

She looked at Lore questioningly, lifting Garrick to her shoulder once he was finished feeding.

Elnara blinked at Lore, then giggled. After all the time she had known him, loved him, been married to him, why was she so surprised that he had stuffed his runed bag with books?

"Well, anyways," she coughed, "we can just put our own things and the twins' things in our bags, and then it's just the chairs and the cradle that have to come with us, right?"

She stood and moved to trade babies with Lore, giving him Garrick and taking Hana from him. "It would make things easiest."

She grabbed a second receiving blanket and sat down again, and set about nursing Hana.