Welcome to Gaia! ::

"And I want to ask Shiro if he knows how we can get more potions while we're here instead of in Gaia," Andarien added. "Because they help the Pokemon really well, and we can't just buy them whenever we need to now."

"Well, as long as you don't have to leave the castle grounds, you go ahead," Earendil urged the children. "Make sure you're in the dining room for lunch, is all I say."

"I'll make sure they are," Xion said confidently.

Rhiannon giggled. "Yeah, because you're always hungry," she teased her brother.

Xion flushed, the redness of his face clashing with the copper of his hair. "Shut up."

"Xion."

Rhea's scolding was gentle, but it got the point across. Xion looked at his mother, and his flush grew darker. "Sorry, Mama." Then he glared at Rhiannon again. "Be quiet."

"Oh, I would really like that!" Rhiannon exclaimed excitedly. "Come on, I'll lead the way!"

"Don't go too fast, I don't want to jolt Eon at all," Andarien cautioned the child.

"Don't worry," Xion assured Andarien. "If she goes too fast, I'll take you. She always goes everywhere fast."

Rhea's eyes sparkled, and she grinned at Lin. "Don't you say a word," she said softly. "I know just what you're thinking. And now you know why I don't think she'll be able to handle the life of a Wing Rider very well. A Keeper, maybe, but not a Rider."


Rhiannon didn't go as fast as Andarien thought Xion made it sound she would. She kept looking over her shoulder to make sure she didn't get too far ahead of the others. Yes, she knew Xion was with them and would help them find their way if they lost her, but she didn't want to go off on her own anyways - she wanted to stick with them.

Xion walked with Miyuki, while Andarien and Ponydash trailed behind. They were led up a few flights of stairs and through a maze of corridors until at last Rhiannon announced, "Here's Shiro's room!"

She was pointing at a door that was closed, grinning proudly.

"Now, that's not quite fair," Rhea said defensively. "There are plenty in the Aldrich family who are in the middle. You just didn't spend much time with them because when you visited you weren't the same age as them. Honestly."


It was Kaito who answered the knock. He had changed his usual t-shirt and overshirt for a thick turtleneck sweater, a good idea in the drafty and uninsulated stone castle.

He didn't seem surprised when he saw the four children standing there with their Pokemon, and without a word he opened the door further and stepped aside so that they could come in.

Shiro was seated a large writing desk near the window, his back to the door. It was cold by the window, away from the fireplace, and he had a light blanket over his back and wings which, being leathery like bat wings, did not hold their own heat like Kaito's feathered wings.

Rhea was a little amused. She hadn't been offended, just wanted to point out that perhaps Lin didn't know the family as well as she thought.

"Well, as you said, we do have a new town, Wing Haven ... and I suspect that within a decade, it will have to expand again. All those who were born just after Queen Aerin took the throne are getting to the age where they're starting to get married ... on the whole, the people are doing very well. They've expanded in agriculture, mining, craftsmanship ..."

Her eyes lit up. "They even found a vein of littinum. We're now in the process of re-minting all the kingdom's money. It will actually be worth more than stone!"


The other three followed after Miyuki quietly.

Shiro turned at the sound of his name and smiled at the four of them. "Ah. Miyuki. I see Ai's evolved. What's up?"

"It generally is," Rhea agreed, "but this is a country of firecasters. Really the biggest problem with littinum is that it requires such high temperatures before it can be worked with - here, that's not a problem. The people can handle incredible amounts of heat. With that problem out of the way, they can do a lot with it."


Shiro nodded. "Well, to my understanding, Rest should be enough to put Eon completely back to normal, no matter what might have happened to him. But you need to understand, Ai is now an Espeon. She's now classified as a psychic Pokemon. That means she's going to have incredible mind power - power enough to inflict a lot of damage if she wants to. If I had to guess, I'd say the stress of evolving probably made her perform a psychic attack without realizing it or meaning to. With her increased power, it's no wonder Eon was blasted away."

"So far, just coins," Rhea replied apologetically. "It's a relatively recent find, and it took some time for them to work out the best way to work with it. You'll find that most people are still using marble styl,since for the most part the littinum currency isn't yet in circulation. We're hoping it will be within the year, but you never know."


Shiro pursed his lips thoughtfully. Psychic abilities weren't the easiest thing to explain.

"Well ... most people have physical power, where they can do things with their body," he said slowly. "Psychic ... psychic means having the power to do things with one's mind. Mental power manifested in physical ways, I suppose."

It wasn't a very good explanation, he knew, but it was one of those things that was just hart to put into words.