Welcome to Gaia! ::

Gion looked up at Serenity and smiled, then grabbed his bag and moved to follow her.

Thank you for supper, he signed to Ulani and Ulrich, hoping that they would get the meaning even though he knew they didn't know sign language. He bowed at the waist and smiled at them.

Looks like I might be going to bed now, he told Daemon happily. I'm glad ... I think I miss sleeping in a real bed ... be nice to wake up dry for once.

He chuckled a bit as he followed his mother.

Aye, well, at least the sand was warmer, Gion chuckled.

He more felt like grumbling, but for one thing it was hard to do that though thoughts, and for another, he really didn't like complaining. He wasn't fond of complainers, and knew that others weren't either.

And so he chuckled instead.

Gion nodded and looked around the room that his mother had brought him to. It was a fair size, good enough for him at least, and the walls were painted in a forest scene complete with wild animals - a few deer, a falcon, an eagle, a fox, a family of rabbits, and - this took some spotting to find - a unicorn hidden behind some large fronds.

Nice room, he thought, 'showing' it to Daemon.

Against the far wall was a single sized bed with thick blankets over it. He almost didn't notice the window: it was sizable, but so covered in snow that not an inch of it was visible, and he suspected that even had it been daylight outside, none would have been able to make it in.

TO be honest, I'm not sure who painted it, Gion admitted. But yes ... it does look like whoever did it enjoyed themselves.

He threw his bag onto the bed, then started to undress.

Gion took the sword off his back so that he could get undressed properly, then, when he was ready to hop into bed, he picked it up again.

I'm going to leave the sword on the floor for the night, he told Daemon. So ... I'll talk to you in the morning again. Good night.

And he set it against the wall right beside the bed, then climbed into the bed and settled in comfortably.

His last thought before drifting off into sleep was, Wow these blankets are warm ...

The winter passed slowly, but Gion didn't mind. He was happy to be spending so much time with Daemon, with his mother, and with his (very) distant relatives.

At times, he felt a little bored - it was so strange to him to be stuck indoors for so long, and there was nowhere to train at all; but he taught the other sign language (which Ulani was especially quick to pick up) and in return they told him tales of the times when they were young, the adventures they had gone on, and how they had nearly killed themselves just about every year when they had been growing up.

All in all, he was happy when spring finally came. But still, Serenity wouldn't let him leave for quite a while - not, she insisted, until everything dried up properly.

One evening, just after dinner, Gion found himself sitting on the front porch of Ulani and Ulrich's house watching a sunset.

It struck him suddenly, how colourful it was. How much more colourful than the sunsets he remembered. But then, it was spring - everything was more colourful in spring. Especially after the drabness of the melting snow ... a month of white and grey. Yes, he told himself, everything would seem more colourful after that.

But now he also understood - or thought he did, at least - what Yue and Yukito had meant when they had said that the elves seemed to have a sort of ... glow about them when they had first arrived.

He asked Daemon about it as he stared off into the sunset.

Gion 'showed' Daemon what he could see.

Does it look more colourful than usual to you? he asked curiously. Or is it just because I'm not used to the northern springs? Because I grew up with a desert?