Welcome to Gaia! ::

Aliya stuck her tongue out at Feng. "I wasn't paying attention then," she retorted.

She finished her food and pushed her chair away from the table.

"Anyways, it's late, and we have to be up early again," she smiled at everyone, "so I'm going to go to bed. Good night." And she touched her forehead briefly and left the room.

Ulani smiled at Feng and Ryu. "You're welcome to stay up as late as you want, or to sleep whenever you want," she invited them, "but I have to warn you, when Aliya says she's going to be up early, it means early ... and she'll be waking the two of you up with her."

"Well, it's not like there would be anything wrong with it," Ulrich shrugged.

"Except she would have to get changed again before she left," Ulani commented thoughtfully as she began to collect the dishes, "and that would make her a bit later than she wants to be."

From his seat, Adonai muttered something else, but it was too quiet for even his parents to understand what he said.

Adonai cleared his throat and sank down into his chair. His face turned bright red, but he didn't say a word.

Ulrich sighed. "Off to bed with you, then," he said, waving his hand at his son.

Adonai nodded eagerly, glad of the excuse to leave the table. He slipped around and gave his mother a quick hug, then ran out of the room.

When Aliya left her room the next morning, dressed and ready to go get Feng and Ryu, Ulani was already awake and ready to go.

"I was just waiting for you," she smiled at her daughter, quickly tucking something into the front of her tunic and patting it flat. Aliya's sharp eyes noted the second string around her mother's neck and nodded to herself. She knew what that was.

She smiled. "Well, why don't we all go together, then?" she suggested. "Come on, let's get Feng and Ryu, they might already be awake anyways."

Ulani agreed, and together the two of them headed outside and to the back of the house, to the river.

It was early morn at the ranch when Lin snuck out of her room, the door having been left open for the tiny Second since she could not reach any doors. She looke down one hallway, and she looked down the other before padding down quickly with glee. She was going to head straight for the stairs, and best of all there weren't as many stairs to get down as there was at home, she might make it all the way this time before someone finds her and picks her up.

"Eep!" Feng frailed her arms about as she giggled like a mad little child.

She grinned as she rearranged her hair a bit more leaning against her companion. Feng was re-setting her hair into it's usual loops for the day, since that is how she liked them.

"He should be up in a moment."


Sure enough the water rippled in the middle of the river, breaking the current as the waters went around the thing that was blocking it's path. Ryu surfaced flinging his wet bangs away from his face.

"Good morning."

"Good morning!" Aliya grinned brightly at Ryu. "Come on sleepyhead, I want to check the horses before Elberon puts them out to pasture again! Let's go!"

And she jumped to her feet, anxious to get going as soon as possible.




Haradhel meanwhile was confused as to what the noise in the house might be. She dressed quickly, intent on finding the source of the strange sound, and headed out of her bedroom and looked down each of the hallways for a moment.

She heard it again ... thump ... thump ... thump ...

Her brow furrowed. What on Arda?

Lin paused for a moment and peered down counting the rest of the steps. She cound count further now, all the way to hundred and beyond, unfortunately not as well in other languages. Still, she could count and she still had quite a number of steps to go. So once more she began to go down.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Her stomach was getting a bit sore pressing against the earlier step.