Welcome to Gaia! ::

The group turned to look at Miyuki when she spoke to them, and their eyes all lit up brightly.

"Miyuki!" the tallest of the boys exclaimed. "It is you! I thought so, but Arya said not."

"Well I couldn't see her," retorted the girl next to him. She turned to the smallest girl in the group. "Rayne, did you see her?"

Rayne shook her head. "Of all people you ought to know you need to ignore Elwin," she told Arya. "You're the one marrying him, for Valar's sake."

The others laughed. They were the same bunch that Miyuki had always played with, but obviously very grown up. Then Rayne looked back at Miyuki and smiled.

"Anyways, welcome back, Miyuki. We've missed you around here."

"And we were running because it's not a good idea to let Aethos-sola catch you laughing at him," another boy spoke up: Yacob, the boy on whom the rock had fallen when Miyuki had grown so many years previous. He still had a slight limp from the incident, though since he wasn't walking at the moment it was hard to tell.

"Though I have to say, it was awfully brave of that woman to hit him," added Selene, who had grown into a beautiful young woman. "And I'm confused as to why he essentially let her. He didn't resist, no repercussions ..."

"He would love for us to talk to him?" asked another one of the boys, Mylar.

Sheena, the fourth girl, asked hesitantly, "Are you sure?"

The other two boys, Rowen and Chervin, exchanged a glance. "Miyuki-sol, we don't mean to be negative, but ... Aethos-sola doesn't talk to people."

The group of friends all looked at each other in amazement. None of them had ever thought about it that way. Then again, they had all been children when the sola had left, and pretty much everything they knew about him, they had heard from their parents.

"I ... suppose we could give it a try," Selene ventured hesitantly. "If ... if you're certain ..."

"Well we might as well try," Rayne spoke up more boldly. "Miyuki-sol is right, he needs a chance to talk to people. Even the older people have been ignoring him, we all saw that."

The others nodded their agreement, and at last, Arya, who had been the leader of the group when they'd been children and who still seemed to hold sway over them, said, "Miyuki, lead the way."

The others had moved a bit up the street. While they hadn't wanted to get too far ahead of Miyuki, they couldn't afford to take too much time, either: they had a lot to do, and Aerin's time was precious.

"Who's the little boy with them?" asked Rayne, pointing ahead at them.

The group stopped to wait for Miyuki and her friends, but Andarien, who had been a bit disappointed when Miyuki had run off, ran back to join her.

"Mi, where did you go?" he demanded. "I thought it was just going to be me and the grownups!"

Andarien shrugged. "Sometimes when you say that you're gone for a while," he replied frankly.

He looked at Miyuki's friends thoughtfully. "So you're the ones that Mi used to play with here?" he asked. "But it's been a long tine since then, I guess ... because Mi said you were little."

Selene laughed. "Yes, it's been quite a few years. We are all quite grown up now."

"Except Elan," Rayne added softly. "She never got to grow up. She died in an accident a few years ago."

"What happened?" Andarien asked anxiously.

Chervin grimaced. "She was flying with her father ... her first flight. She didn't tie herself down properly."

"They're coping," Rayne replied softly. "It's never pleasant, but it does happen from time to time, so it's not as if it was an overly shocking death. I mean, in how it happened. Her father blames himself for not checking her harness before they started off, and honestly I can't blame him. But they're getting by."

They caught up with the rest of the group, and the teens first bowed low to Aerin and Caranthir before also greeting Aethos in the same fashion.

"Welcome home, Aethos-sola," Elwin spoke up for the group, speaking quite solemnly.

Aethos smiled at the group, something which caused the teens to look at each other in surprise. "Thank you," he said warmly. He glanced at Miyuki. "Miyuki, perhaps you could introduce your friends? I would like very much to know their names."