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The fact that Lin was adopted helped Mikhail to understand why she was so small in comparison to Donovan, but he was amused by the idea that she was so like the man who had adopted her.

"Well," he shrugged, "for a human, Donovan is a very good person to be like. He's intelligent, strong, and has a good heart. I don't see that it's such a bad thing to be like your father, either."

Of course, he had only learned the day before that Donovan had made a trip to this world, a second trip, mind you, just to free Serenity from the men who were threatening her - another fact he had just learned about ... though he still didn't know what to make of it. He had never met his mother ...

Mikhail burst into laughter at that, though he was certain that she would not usually be using that sort of language if her parents were around. Then again, she said she didn't know what it meant ... so she probably didn't even know that it wasn't polite language.

"It's not a very nice term," he told her, still chuckling to himself. "And it's not something you should usually say ... it's a grown-up term."

It had worked with him when he was little, perhaps she would be satisfied with that answer as well.

"Yeah ... those would be the words," Mikhail nodded. "Adult words."

And even as adults, those sort of words were generally not used in public - or even in private.

Mikhail grinned and put two fingers to Lin's forehead, the sign of making a pact with someone.

"Promise?" he asked her, leaning down so that she could do the same to him.

Mikhail was taken by surprise by the hug, but he smiled warmly and picked her up so that he could hug her, too.

"I think I like you better than your father," he chuckled as he lifted her to his shoulder. "You're cuter."

By the time the group finally reached the dwarfish settlement, the sun had set and the weather had turned nasty. Lightning flashed to the east of them, and an east wind sent shivers up their spines. Even Gion had put on a few layers of clothing and added his cloak, and he was quite likely the best suited for this type of weather.

He stopped them in a sheltered area, big enough for all of them to lie down anyways, surrounded on three sides by overhanging rocks. There wouldn't be room for a fire, but at least they would be able to keep a little bit dryer here.

They were just in front of a small cliff, and looking over the edge they could see the dwarfish settlement. It was a fair size, about the size of a small city, and though there were a few buildings made of piled rocks and roofed with thatched grasses, most of them were nicely carved bricks (carved, not baked, for they were stones cut from the ground, quite possibly a cave, rather than clay-baked bricks) and had stone shingles for the roofs. There was a stone wall around the city, and though it appeared that there was no one on top of the walls, Gion was certain that there would be elven guards about somewhere.

Inside the settlement, torches lit the streets, fueled by oil and unhampered by the weather that had sprung up.

Nadya wasn't sure that amazing was the word she would have used to describe the sight below, but she did have to admit that the fires looked inviting.

"The pity is that we can't have a fire of our own," she murmured in reply, casting a glance back at their makeshift shelter. "I don't think I've ever been so wet ... or so cold."

Immediately, she regretted her words. "I shouldn't complain ... there are many who go through much worse ..."

"Not really," Donovan murmured watching Gion, "Without knowing exactly the problem is, all we can do is ask around."

Which was unfortunate, but there was always some legwork to do, it was just they were really doing this from scratch. He doubted elves were liked here, or at least friendly terms would be tense, and there were not the usual resources to fall back on.

Oh yea.. .there was also the language problem.