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Earendil was helping Lin to her feet. He was tired, but he was coping well enough; his eyes were open, at least, and his speech was clear, his steps sure.

He spotted Miyuki coming towards them and held one hand out to her. "Ready for bed?" he asked her with a gentle smile.

And so they went to bed.

When morning came, Haradhel served a warm breakfast, and then there was a long line of people (all the fighters and everyone from the ranch) heading towards the valley, where the Yestarë celebrations would take place.

River pushed her way against the crowd, looking for Miyuki. She wanted to go with her friend!

Earendil was more than pleased with his gift, and he tucked it away happily while he waited for Donovan to finish with Miyuki and Lin. He was dressed in a white tunic and pants that were trimmed in gold, even wearing a pair of white leather boots. They weren't new to him, though they were kept in remarkably good condition; they were the clothes that he reserved for the new year, every year.

"Come on," he smiled at the others. "We don't want to be late for Yestarë, it's an hour's walk, after all."

River spotted the group and pushed her way through the crowd to get to them, her eyes bright and excited when she finally arrived.

"Miyuki!" she beamed. "Come on, let's run ahead! Then we can start faster!"

Slipping through the line of people who were heading towards the valley, by the time River and Miyuki arrived, about half of the people from the ranch had as well.

There were a few of the same things as the day before set up, but there were also new things: the river had been made use of as well, and there were a few races that would take place on it that day as well. There would be a canoe race, for individuals, and a dragonboat race, for teams, as well as swimming races for any who dared brave the cold spring water.

There were banners and ribbons hanging up everywhere, and there were several carved posts in the ground, representing the different games that were set up near them.

Today was also set up to be a little bit more child-friendly: there were a few games that were designed especially for children, even though there were so few children.

But the most tables were set up together for food: some food for meals, but predominantly cakes and pies of every sort imaginable.

"It's up to you," River grinned at Miyuki. "There's going to be another archery contest later, but I'm not going to take part. I just want to watch it. Other than that, I'm up for anything at all!"

She didn't want to be the one dragging Miyuki around, after all!

River grinned. "Okay. And Nineko said yesterday that he made something especially for the children, so I guess he'll show it to us sometime too."

She looked towards the games. There was again the matching game, but there were also more thoughtful games - the shell game, which Adanedhel was running, as well as games of estimating how much of something was in a jar, or something similar; riddles and logic puzzles; games of throwing balls at items that had been set up, trying to knock them over; guessing how long someone could do something - and so on.

"What about the maze?" River suggested finally, motioning towards a maze of hedges that had sprung up overnight. "It might take us a while to get through it, but it's always fun. Ninako makes a different one every year!"