Welcome to Gaia! ::

Earendil reached for the bed and crawled into it. He tried to pull up the blanket, but it was stuck around one of his feet, and he gave up, instead curling up into a ball with his face against the wall. In less time than it took for him to get comfortable, he was asleep.

Alena had already made fast friends of Arwen and Roydon, and Storm and Starr had made an appearance on deck. Rhea had vanished, presumably to check on Haldia with the others.

Alena was in the process of explaining how they had come to live out here, so far away from the land where the Light Elves lived now, and Arwen and Roydon and the twins were listening quite intently.

Alena was just finishing up with telling them how long they had been at sea before finding the island, and how it had at first seemed an ideal place, and how after it had become their home, they had been attacked.

"Hello, Lin," Starr smiled at Lin as she joined the group. "I'm glad to see that you got back safely. How is Earendil doing?"

"That's good," Starr smiled warmly. "I don't think Haldia was able to sleep, she went to her bunk but she didn't want to be alone. Celeb's been with her since she got back."

Storm glanced towards the two, then leaned in to join their conversation. He jerked one thumb at Alena over his shoulder. "Why is she here?" he asked Lin, obviously not too pleased with the stranger's presence.

Storm scowled and looked over at Starr. "We should as Shiro about these gnome things," he muttered. "I've heard of them before."

"They were from Gaia," Starr reminded him, "that's not the same thing. Though I won't deny that Shiro just might know something about them, he seems to know about just about everything."

"He didn't say anything about the elves here," Storm pointed out.

Starr laughed. "We haven't even seen him since finding out that there are elves here! Of course he hasn't said anything!"

"Well, there's no harm in asking," Starr shrugged. "I know he's read everything in Sir Valdemar's library ... Ninako's library, I guess. maybe there was some obscure reference that he picked up on."

She started towards the door that led down to the bowels of the ship. "This way, he said he was looking for more oil for his lantern."

Starr wrinkled her nose. "Well ... Arwen wasn't exactly sure where it had been stowed, so ... he had a bit of a job ahead of him. You know how many crates of supplies we still have!"

"Though the oil would be in a barrel," Storm reminded her. "Not a crate."

"True, but we've got barrels enough as well," Starr laughed.

She led the way down the stairs into the hold, and headed straight for the second level down, since the first level was the crews' quarters.

The hold was lit with small lanterns all around the hull of the ship, enclosed so that they would not be a danger. The entire hold was filled tip to bottom, one end to the other, with crates and barrels, stacked neatly and well organized.

"There, at the other stairs!" Starr pointed, smiling. "Shiro!"

The neko had just appeared at the top of the stairs that led down to the next level of the hold. He blinked, the lanternlight reflecting eerily in his red eyes. "You were looking for me?" he asked, flicking one ear.