Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Who is it?" Andarien asked curiously, pushing his chair back and walking with Mari towards the door.

The princess laughed softly. "It must be Iadrim. I must warn you, she is ... rather energetic, shall we say."

She opened the door and a young girl, maybe ten or twelve years old but very pretty, burst in. "Are they- oh!" Her black eyes were bright, and she clapped her hands together when she saw the group of travelers. "They are up! And they're just like Kyrie said!"

Wren was thinking along the same lines as Lin, and she grinned at Lin's comment.

"If only she had blond hair, eh?" she laughed softly.

The girl pouted at the exchange between Wren and Lin. "Kyrie said that they could speak our language!" she said in protest to Mari. "Did she fib?"

Mari laughed. "No, Iadrim, but it is not their first language, and Wren does not speak it at all, so you will have to have patience with them." She chuckled and put one arm around the girl's shoulders and led her into the room. "Everyone, this is Iadrim, the youngest child and only daughter of our neighbours. I will take you to meet them in just a moment."

"Oh, they're going to come to our house?" The girl was delighted. "Does that mean they're going to come for dinner? I can help Mama prepare, she's been teaching me how to cook! And Mathias promised to come home with something good for the table tonight, too!" She turned to the others with an eager expression on her face. "Oh, please say you'll come!"

Mari laughed again. "Iadrim was born and raised out here, so she's never met anyone outside of her family, Kyrie, and the three of us who live here."

"And don't you volunteer her for something she doesn't know about," Mari chided the young girl with a grin. "But yes, we will come visit. Is the rest of your family home?"

Iadrim blinked up at Mari. "Papa's out hunting with Mathias, but Ruaven, Hamir and Janos are all out in the field. You could have seen them from the door!"

Mari turned to peer out the door, and laughed softly. "So I could have," she agreed. "Come, let's go then." She motioned for the others to join them, and headed towards the door.

The three people working the field were also young; the youngest didn't look much older than Iadrim, and the eldest not much older than that. They all shared many of the same features, and it was evident that these were Iadrim's brothers.

"Ruaven! Hamir! Janos!" the girl called out, waving to the youths. "They're up!"

Andarien glanced over at his mother. "Nana, we didn't sleep that long, did we?" he asked her quietly. "I mean, sure we slept in, but it's nothing to make a big deal of, is it?"

At their sister's shouting, the boys set down the tools they were working with and started towards the group.

Andarien nodded slowly. "Hm. I guess so," he murmured.

He didn't have the energy to get that excited, and even if he did, he was too worried about his father to become excited about anything.

"These are my brothers, Ruaven, Hamir and Janos!" Iadrim said proudly when the boys were close enough. "They always work really hard so we shouldn't probably talk to them too much, though."

"Have they met Mother and Father yet, Iadrim?" asked Janos, the youngest and the skinniest. His sleeves didn't quite come to his wrists, nor his pants to his ankles, and it looked as though he had just gone through a growth spurt. He eyed his sister seriously, and the strangers with suspicion.

Iadrim shrugged. "No. But Kyrie and Mari both say they're okay, so they must be!" She smiled brightly again, as if the comment had never been made. "If they weren't then Kyrie wouldn't have let them come here!"

Still the boy eyed them uncertainly. "I still think Mother and Father should meet them first, before we get too friendly with them."

Janos didn't seem to be affected by Lin's warm smile. His eyes were still filled with suspicion, and he gestured towards the cabin behind them with his thumb. "Mother's in the house," he said; and without another word he turned and returned to his work.

Mari put one hand on Lin's shoulder. "He's very cautious," she murmured softly to her. "Come. You will know why when we meet his mother."

And with that, she started towards the cabin, motioning for the others to follow.

Andarien wasn't sure why the boy was so suspicious of them - but he had never been in a situation like this before, never been in a place where anyone had been suspicious of him. It was an uncomfortable feeling.

Mari knocked at the door of the other cabin, and without waiting for an answer, she headed inside.

"Dae'er?" she called out as she stepped in.

The room they entered was not a large one and had just enough room for perhaps two people to remove their outerwear at the same time. Mari led the way in, keeping her boots on.

It was only then that a woman's voice called back, "Kitchen."