Welcome to Gaia! ::

Amalirahc pointed down at the floor and looked up at his father again. "Foh!"

Kelirahc smiled and set the boy down on the floor, then moved to close the door so that he couldn't wander off, and then closed the door to the bath chamber so that he couldn't get in there either. Once they were closed off, he went back to his chair.

Amalirahc was curious about the new person, and he toddled over to her (walking smoothly and straight now, without the waddle of sea-legs) and went on his tiptoes to peer at her. "Ah bah!" he said, looking up at Lin.

As the soother skittered away, Amalirahc chased after it, pouncing on it to stop it. He picked it up and got back to his feet, holding the soother up triumphantly.

"Ah dah!" he said proudly - and then he stuck it in his mouth and started sucking on it.

"Amalirahc!" Leyenda laughed, reaching forward and taking it out of his mouth. "That's not yours!"

She held it out to Lin again, holding it above Amalirahc's fingers so that he couldn't reach.

"Does she suck on her fingers?" Leyenda asked as Amalirahc followed the soother with his eyes. He watched as Lin put it in the bag, then headed over to the bag and poked at it with his hand.

"Dah," he said to himself, trying to reach for the opening of the bag.

Leyenda kept an eye on him. "Amalirahc likes to suck on his whole hand, something I'm trying to get him to stop. If it were just a finger it would be one thing, but ..."

Leyenda shrugged. "Then all I can suggest is that you continue to take it out of her mouth, until she stops altogether. I've been doing that with Amalirahc, and it's working slowly ... though I think he started to stop himself from doing that when he started walking around and getting into other things. Now that's what goes into his mouth instead of his fingers."

She laughed softly, watching as Amalirahc tried to reach for the bag, grunting softly with his effort.

Kelirahc chuckled softly. "It sounds as if the children from your world are no different from the children in our world," he smiled. "I was often told, growing up, stories of the things I had eaten when I was small. I was raised by my whole village, so they all had different stories to tell me."

He leaned forward slightly and held his hands out to his son. "Amalirahc, come," he called in the ancient tongue.

Amalirahc looked at his father over his shoulder and pouted, then shook his head and turned back to the bag, stretching his fingers just a little bit further in his effort to reach it.

"Knowing how they're attracted to you," Earendil commented, "that's a real possibility."

Leyenda sighed and got up to move Amalirahc away from Lin and the bag. "He just wants it because it's something he's not allowed to have," she murmured. "Amalirahc, where are your toys?" she asked him, switching languages. "Go find your toys."

"Bah," the boy replied, looking around. He scampered off to a small wooden box filled with toys and started pulling them out one by one.

Earendil nodded. "At least you won't need them for scouting on this trip," he pointed out optimistically. "We're going to charted lands, inhabited lands." He chuckled. "Not that the islands we visited weren't inhabited, but we of course didn't know that at first."

It was going to be such a different experience, traveling the known world instead of the unknown.

"Not to mention," Leyenda added, watching Amalirahc to make sure he wasn't trying to eat everything, "it's all going to be over land, and not over water."

Which of course, travel wise, had been the longest part of the trip.

Amalirahc found a toy he wanted and brought it over to Kelirahc. "Bah!" he announced, dropping a large wooden ball into Kelirahc's lap.

Kelirahc smiled and leaned forward, and rolled the ball along the floor towards the bed. "Go get it," he grinned.

Amalirahc squealed excitedly and ran after the ball, clapping his hands together.

"But," Leyenda added, giggling now, "I'm glad that we're going to see more of our own lands. And that I'm going to finally meet the rest of my family."