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"Did she never teach you things?" Lin asked, "Or sing songs?"

Everyone at one time had heard Nina's chatter, which amused the younger ones to no end.

"She did," Daeron replied, but then sheepishly he added, "but I don't remember any of it. My father says that when I came back I wouldn't shut up ... but then he got me to stop it so much that I don't remember any of it anymore. Perhaps if she were to come again and remind me what I've forgotten ..."

He shook his head. "But as it is, I can't remember any of it."

"Oh... that's sad," Lin admitted, "Nina still likes to sing, no one minds. Except when she sings the bottle song and then Daddy threatens to muzzle her."

Donovan despited the Beer Bottle song, and wished it's creator to high hell for all he cared.

"Oh good," Celebor grinned. Then he waved. "See you in a few days, then!" he called brightly after them as they left the room.

"See you," Elnara smiled; and she headed with Lore towards the stairs once more.

"So it's finally time," she smiled up at him. "We should probably go down the mountain first so that no one sees us ... we can leave then from the old city, it's just across the river."

Which she knew would make no sense to him, but he would be able to see once they were out of the city.

"It might be the bottle song, Daddy says that's the most annoying song in the world," Lin paused for a moment, "Next to the song that never ends."

She grinned innocently.

Elnara nodded, then looked at Lore with her eyebrows raised in surprise. "I forgot," she said, "I ... don't think I've ever told you why things ware the way they are, why my mother had to leave us, or why my father was killed ..."

She blinked. "Did I?"

"Hmmm..." Lin nodded as she tried to think of which song first.

How about the annoying song, since it was the type of song that Nina would sing anyways.

"Errm.... 100 bottles of beer on the wall, 100 bottles of beer... take one down and pass it around, 99 bottles of beer on the wall!"

She paused for a moment and then added.

"It's not very long, you just keep going backwards, it works.. unless you can't count."

"Ah," Elnara nodded. She shifted her bag on her shoulder and faced forward once more, leading the way down the stairs.

"Well," she began softly, "my father had a brother ... identical twin, that's important ... who didn't like my mother." She shook her head. "No, that's an understatement. How to put this ..."

She thought carefully for several moments, then said, "He didn't know that she was a shapeshifter, all he cared about was that she wasn't a Southlander - not a true Southlander, at any rate - and he did everything he could to break the engagement between her and my father. When that didn't work ..."

She shrugged. "He hired a group of dwarfs to destroy our plantation and kill her ... when that didn't work, and we escaped here, they murdered my great-grandmother, then destroyed that castle ... from there it was all-out war. The entire city was destroyed, and it sort of spiraled out of control until my father killed my uncle, who was spying for the dwarfs."

She half-smiled at him. "It's not general knowledge. As far as most people are concerned, the dwarfs became hungry once more for power and tried to take over." Then she sighed. "It's better that they think that."