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"What?" Ulrich stared at Lin. "They can have ten kids in ten years ... it's amazing their population has stayed as low as it has! Sure, Serenity and Garrick had nine children, but do you realize how much of a rarity that is?"

"Besides," Ulani added, "even if elves do have that many children, it's rare for them to be close together. They're usually years apart."

"Hazardous?" Ulrich blinked at that. "How hazardous can their lives be? Other than the slavers, of course. I mean ... it's not as if they're at war or anything, or as if their children are being taken as slaves, or ..."

He looked to Ulani for an answer, but for the first time, she had none.

"What do you mean, Lin?" she asked curiously.

"Well ... yes," Ulani said uncertainly, "but ... that's not hazard, that's just ... mortality. Hazards are things that are outside dangers, unnatural dangers. Situations, items ... but what you're describing is simply the deterioration that comes with age with mortals. But with a birth rate as high as theirs, really it's amazing their population isn't larger than it is."

"I would say that most of their children live to adulthood," Ulrich said thoughtfully. "Not all, certainly, but ... a good percentage. At least nine out of ten, yes?"

Ulani nodded. "Yes, that sounds about right."

"Clearly," Ulrich chuckled. "But all we're saying is, we don't know what it is, and when we think about it it's a bit odd. That's all."

"To be fair, we've been rather preoccupied with our own kind lately," Ulani added.

Ulrich smiled. "I like the design of the new buildings so much better than the old one," he said proudly. "The layout is much more efficient, and with the window in the hallway, no one has to worry about walking into walls or missing their doors. You would be amazed at how often it's happened in the first barracks. I think Aragost, Gwaethir and Bronwe are the only ones who haven't done it yet. Either that or they just haven't told me, but I do think they haven't done it. They none of them are the accident-prone types, and Bronwe can see in the dark as well as during the day."

He was particularly proud because he had been the one to design the new buildings, though he had also designed the first one. Still, he was glad of the improvements he had thought of.

"It's still strange to think that Aragost is blind," Earendil murmured with a faint smile. "He gets around as if he can see everything. And he knows so much ..."

Ulani chuckled softly. "It's a bit disconcerting, isn't it?" she smiled. "But be glad you're meeting him now, instead of when we first met him." She looked over at Ulrich. "We two were the first to meet him. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say we were utterly terrified."

Earendil frowned. "Then how did you end up bringing him here?"

Ulrich laughed. "Because he appeared in the middle of our room in the inn, looked at Ulani, and said, 'Yes, I will come with you.'"

"The first indication that he wasn't the unapproachable iceberg he pretended to be was the day Ahren went missing. Aragost was the one to find him. We fully expected Ahren to be absolutely terrified of him, just as everyone else was, but ..."

Ulani shrugged, and Ulrich chuckled and took up the tale.

"Ahren became his shadow for the next few weeks," he grinned. "It really made us question our perceptions of the man."