Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tinuviel smiled. "Good," she murmured. "I can't be gone too long anyways, I do have duties here after all. Though in every city, I'll have to make some official appearance or another ... just to warn you, our stops in the cities will be a few days at least."

"At least we're guaranteed the best lodgings," Aranel winked. "No more alleys for me."

"Quit whining," Earendil shook his head at his brother in law. "You haven't slept in alleys since you were a kid, and you know it."

Aranel smiled back at Earendil. "I know. I owe your family more than I could ever repay." He slipped one arm around Tinuviel's waist and pulled her in for a snuggle.

Earendil chuckled and looked up at Lin and the three nekos. "Then there's only one question. At one point, we're going to have to go about three or four days without a water source, which will probably also be the hottest part of the journey. Do you want to do that part first or last?"

It would determine in which direction they would travel, which wasn't terribly important except to let Ruel and Luthien and the king and queen know where they would be (in theory) on certain days, and when to expect them home again.

Earendil blinked and tilted his head slightly, reaching out for the bag that Lin was offering him. "Oh?" he asked, his eyes lit up curiously. "What's this?"

He turned the bag this way and that in his hands, looking at it from every angle, coming at last to a stop and staring at the rune that was on the bottom of the bag. "I've seen this before ..." he murmured softly. "Where was it ..."

Earendil's eyes lit up brightly, and he grinned widely and threw his arms around Lin, squeezing her in a bear hug. "Thanks," he murmured into her ear. "You really are amazing."

He chuckled softly and let her go again. "Well, now I can prepare for anything," he grinned. "I won't have to worry about my maps."

Earendil chuckled. "You could say that. When Ada-tol showed me the ones he had made, and I told him I was going traveling ... well, the look on his face would have convinced anyone to go into mapmaking. I find it rewarding. There's a strong sense of satisfaction in knowing that you're doing something that's going to matter for longer than just ..." He trailed off and shrugged.

"You think that your training of the Home Guard hopefuls wasn't important?" Aranel asked, raising one eyebrow skeptically.

Earendil shook his head. "Not that. It's just, that wasn't my job, that was my uncle's job. I wasn't needed for it. But with all of our plans for traveling - it's something that I can do, that I can do well, and that will benefit many people, besides those I work with directly." He chuckled sheepishly and added, "And I think a bit of Ada-tol's passion wore off on me as well."

Earendil nodded. "He said something to that effect. At any rate, we need to plan our own route ... and since you decided that it would be best to do the hard part first, visiting Uncle Gion will be our first stop."

He spread a map on the desk and beckoned for the others to come and look at it. "Here," he said, pointing with his finger. "Two days' ride across the desert to the plantation. Then south along the Rainbow River to Rainbow Valley, maybe we'll get lucky and see some unicorns at the falls. Down to Namonuito, where Arwen and her family is ..."

He paused, almost as if pondering where to go from there.

"Well, we have two options," Earendil showed her. "We could go east to see the coast, and then backtrack and continue west to Namu Ngulu, or we could skip that and simply go west."

Kaito's ear flicked interestedly. "I'd like to see the coast," he piped up with a catty grin. "If no one else minds the extra travel."

Earendil grinned. "I've always wanted to see it too," he chuckled. "All right then, that's settled ... now from Namu Ngulu, we could either head straight north along the Phoenix River back to Tor Karad, or else Raybes is further up the Zapanizan, about another day that we would have to backtrack again."

"Earendil," Tinuviel spoke up, rolling her eyes, "if you keep talking like that we're not going to see most of the Southland."

"To be fair, we're going to be missing two of the cities anyways," Aranel pointed out. "Admittedly, it would add weeks to the trip."