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Lin had to admit the automobile was not her favourite mode of transportation, and even Donovan in his 'old age' preferred portals. However, the Laus were a bit too paranoid for portals and none of the Winters seemed to be inclined to start a stable.

"I'm many things, a mechanic isn't one of them," Donovan replied.

Though he had to admit, now that he was retired he should really think about retiring his old van for something a bit more sleek. Perhaps something that partly ran on electricity.

"But it'll get us there," Donovan added as he opened the back door to the van, "I'll try to go under the speed limit."

It was funny really, whenever Donovan told normal people he owned a van, they thought minivan because of all the kids, but Donovan owned a working van. Which meant there were only two seats with seat belts, but, Earendil would probably hit his head if he sat on the van seats, so it was just as well.

"I can't imagine anyone speeding in an old work van," Lin admitted opened the passenger door.

"Well you could always ask for horses when you get there," Donovan suggested, "As long as you find a third person to take the horses back..."

Lin looked over her shoulder, or at least as much the seat belt will let her, "We're getting horses on the way back."

She said this dryly because she knew that wasn't comfortable.

Donovan chuckled a bit as he started up the engine and took his van off of park, "Ask your grandfather if he's willing to go with you to take the horses back."

"He rides?"

This surprised Lin, he just didn't strike her as the riding type.

"Just like everyone else," Donovan replied as he drove down the road and out of the clan grounds, "It's a typical part of the education. You should know, you got that education from Vincent."

Donovan chuckled at that, he couldn't blame Earendil. If he recalled correctly, Elnara didn't like it all so much herself.

"Don't worry, it won't take too long...."

Good as his word the trip wasn't overly long (but it rarely was by automobile or horse). He pulled up onto the road that led to the grounds. Unlike the Winters, the Lau compound resembled a university campus with a neighbourhood tacked onto the side. It was this neighbour or residence area that Donovan dropped them off.

"Here we are," Donovan replied, "You two can get to my mother's house from here. I have to go park this thing correctly and then talk to Vincent."

And besides he could talk with his mother more privately on a later date. This was more of a business trip for him.

"For us, it would be yes," Lin admitted.

She knew very well what was considered walking distance to them might not be by other people.

"Though I wasn't paying attention to how fast Daddy was going," she murmured as she watched her father drive off.

And she knew Earendil couldn't see all that well from where he was sitting.

"We'll figure it once it's time, it's still early in the day which was why I had taken Dad up on his offer," Lin added as she took Earendil's hand to lead him into the residence area.

Lin chuckled at that, "It doesn't help that all dad owns is a van and you're very tall...."

And it was the truth, that ride she could tell was very uncomfortable and she wondered if it had been an open roof car if it might have been any better. Of course her father had brought that van for work not for comfort.

The residence buildings very similar to Triton's own home. Except it wasn't muted browns and white. Instead the curved roofs were painted a nice deep golden yellow while the homes themselves were painted in a deep red colour. The porches were also higher and made out of stone instead of natural wood. There was a black side above each door with something written in gold Chinese characters, probably a house number or something of the sort. Which was just as well because minus the personal decorative items like a wreath, plants or the occasional bicycle, all the homes looked the same.

Most of the residents themselves were no better. Those that were walking to or from work/training where all wearing black mandarin style sleeveless shirt, with a hood or cowl attached and long pants. Black wasn't probably a good term for it, for the whole clothing was shades of anything that wasn't gray but not quite black, and to the unskilled eye when their hoods were up, they all looked the same. Except a skilled eye (or perhaps an elven one) could catch as the sun bounced off their clothing, glimpses of patterns and no one wore the same embroider pattern.

"Yes, there are training grounds away from the residence area," Lin explained.

She paid little heed to the people walking past them. Most of them she didn't know or the pattern she didn't recognize. Not that she could see the pattern all that well, only glimpses of them.

Finally, they stopped in front of one particular building. The one thing that stood out from all the other buildings were the two men who were sitting at a table overlooking a game board. The one man, was obviously not a resident of the place.

Daemon Winters stood out as a foreigner in this place with his blond hair and British like clothing. The man sitting across from him, looked very much at home here. In fact, he looked an awful lot like an older version of Donovan with all that gray in his long hair. He even had Donovan's serious look as he was contemplating the game board.

Daemon though was amused, only because he had been sitting there for the last ten minutes waiting for his old friend to make a move.

Lin nodded at this.

As she did so the Asian man picked up a small black stone and set it down on the board. Once he did so, he gave a large and open smile as he then picked up several white stones, putting them into the container close to Daemon. Then replaced those white stones with black ones from his own container.

Daemon looked at the man before him and chuckled as he picked up a white stone and placed it. The amount of black stones he replaced with white were far more in number than what he had lost in the previous turn.

"What....." the older man's face fell, "And there's only three spaces left, you're going to win for sure."

"It's called Go," Lin murmured as she looked at the playing board.

A white board with a grid of many, many squares. Not that she could see it, like Long had said, it was nearly filled up and there were only three spaces left. Though it was clear there were many more white stones than black stones.

"Players take turns laying down black and white stones. At first the game goes really quickly, those more familiar with the game tend to lay them down in seemly random patterns. Once the board starts filling up though, they begin to try and surround the other player's stones with their own. If they surround a group, they turn their opponent's stones into their own colour. So the person who has the most stones on the board wins."

It took a lot of forethought to play the game, where two beginners would just end up chasing each other all over the board.