Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Uhm.. wow..." Ryu murmured as he followed Aliya towards the man.

There was something kind of creepy about that, but hey if the guy felt that way. It was no wonder why Ulrich got the wrong idea, that sounded down right... flirty.

If Ryu thought it was completley flirtly, Feng was completely confused. Not that she wasn't aware about attraction (though as a Winters child she could be a bit dense), but rather no one was as forward as this man was.

"Do you... prefer drawing people?"

"Halmír!" Aliya called out as she headed towards him and Feng. "Don't go scaring her, you hear?"

Halmír, who had been about to reply to Feng's question, turned at the sound of Aliya's voice and broke into an even wider grin. "Aliya! Fair maiden! I can't believe I'm seeing you this early in the day! What uncommon good luck I have today!"

Aliya reached them and put one arm around Feng's shoulder reassuringly, grinning. "Don't pay any attention to him," she told her friend with a laugh. "He's a little eccentric when it comes to his art. Been in a few too many wars."

"Nothing to laugh at, young lady," Halmír frowned, trying to sound as if he were scolding her. He succeeded in making himself appear even more grotesque, but that was about it. Aliya just laughed again.



Ulrich smiled but for once didn't say anything. Yes, Lúthien did of course have non-violent ways of making Ruel behave, but that was, in the first place, not his business, and in the second place, would likely go over the child's head.

Not to mention it would be rude to mention it. He didn't particularly care for Ruel, but from what he knew, Lúthien was a wonderful woman - especially to have to put up with so much - and he would never do anything to dishonour her.

Lin smiled back as she sank into Donovan's pocket, the other nice thing was she didn't really have to be awake to go to the ranch. Though at this point, there was doubt she would be really able to sleep.

"Lin keeps going over to the castle, she's wanted to since the first time she snuck over," Donovan murmured.

Feng waved bye before turning to Aliya grinning, "Oh yea, that's why we came here early," she remembered now.

She had already quite a bit of excitement, but she was always up for another 'adventure'. Though she didn't know whehter to call riding lessons as an adventure, it sounded like another lesson.

"So... back to the stables then?" Ryu inquired.

"Slowly getting used to things," Ulrich replied. "Haradhel of course isn't used to people calling her 'my lady' all the time, but I suppose she'll have to get used to it, since the men won't call her anything else." He shrugged. "But she and Elrohir are settling in nicely, I think. They have everyone's respect, and they've done a lot with the ranch house already to make it more hospitable. Made it a home, I guess. It's quite lovely there now."



Aliya shook her head and led them in the direction of a small circular structure to the west of the stables. "First we have to talk to Amdír," she told Ryu. "I take care of breeding the horses and making sure they're in good health, and as much as I love to ride, I do prefer walking. Amdír is our trainer, he'll know which horses are best for beginners."

Ryu made note of that, probably one of the people they would be interacting with quite a bit, and one of the people that Donovan would have to get to know in his time here.

Feng was nearly giddy with excitement, "So do you two work together a lot then?"

Since she figured it went hand in hand.

Feng giggled at that, "Do you talk his ears off then?"

She could imagine it, after all what else does one do if the person in question won't talk back that much? This sounded interesting, though Feng wanted to see for herself what this perosn was like.

"I try to," Aliya giggled. "He's got to reply eventually, right? After all, no one can stay quiet forever. I've seen him talking with other people, I'll get him to talk to me eventually."

She winked at Feng, then laughed as they approached the training pen.

"Amdír," she called out brightly. "Good morning!"

Amdír, in incredibly tall man (who made even Aliya look short) with white-blond hair and a kind face, turned at the sound of Aliya's voice, and a smile flickered across his face briefly before disappearing. He said nothing, but nodded politely at her before turning his gaze to Feng and Ryu.




Ulrich nodded. "Her dream was to be one of the Home Guard, to protect the royal family. Of course, she never imagined that she would marry into it." He laughed. "Ah well."

He nodded ahead at the ranch house that was just coming into view above the treetops. "And there it is. Three floors, nearly as much space in there as the old palace in old Tor Karad. Bit smaller than the castle Reb's had built now, but there you have it. Still, lots of room all around, so no worries about running out of room for the children. 'Course, Elrohir and Haradhel are already getting a head start on filling it with kids."

He shook his head. "Newlyweds."