Welcome to Gaia! ::

Andarien frowned. "Huh ... maybe I'll have to work it out with Shiro ..." He looked up at his parents. "But I'll do that another time. Let's keep looking around."

They spent the next few hours simply checking out the market area, which covered a few streets, taking so much time simply because there were so many people there, and they wanted to give Lancaeriel the chance to see them all in case one of them might end up being her long lost husband. Unfortunately, it was not the case, and shortly before noon they returned to the palace for some lunch and to see the spar between Alassëa and the person Caranthir had chosen.

There were many others in the dining hall as well, but when Andarien entered, he had eyes only for Shiro. He made a beeline to his cousin, with Eon and Ponydash following after him.

Earendil led Lin over to where Miyuki was sitting and sat down next to her.

"Hello, Miyuki," he greeted her warmly. "Did you have a good morning?"

If Earendil had not already seen so much strangeness from all things Gaian, he would have been far more impressed, but he was still fairly impressed with Ai's ability.

"Wow," he murmured. "I've never seen anything like that before. And she does it with her mind?" As an afterthought, he added, "And I'm sure that with practice, she'll be able to move heavier objects."

Earendil chuckled softly. "I would imagine that could be very helpful to you," he grinned.

They were momentarily interrupted as the meal was brought in and served, and everyone present began to eat. There were far more people than there had been the day before, as several more had come up from the ship, which meant that all around there was a lot more chatter going on as well.

Alassëa was seated at the head of the table with Aethos, Aerin and Caranthir, but she was not eating. Instead, she seemed to be only listening to the conversations that were going on around her.

Amralirahc had already found Jess, River and Aranxia, and was chatting with them (though to anyone who was close enough, it became evident that Amalirahc was trying to borrow Jess's foot ball to play with).

"Just for a bit?" the black-skinned elven boy asked hopefully.

Jess shook his head. "Maybe later. There's going to be a huge spar any time now, I don't want to miss that."

"I thought you always liked watching spars, Amalirahc," River pointed out.

Amalirahc grinned. "Yeah, but I'm awful fidgety!"

Amalirahc pouted. "We just got off the ship!" he explained. "And we didn't even get to walk up here because Papa said it would be too far for Mama to carry Aravah so he flew us up on here on his dragon. So I still feel like I've been on the ship forever and I have too much energyyyyyyyy ..."

He spun in a little circle, but he was just as bouncy afterwards as before.

Aranxia wasn't watching him, however: she was looking towards the door. "It looks as though they're getting ready to start," she murmured. "Are you sure you can't wait until after the spar, Amalirahc?"

Amalirahc looked thoughtful for about half a second. "Well, if it's gonna be a good spar, I guess I can wait and watch it," he shrugged.

"Yeah," Jess agreed. "Wait until after the spar, and then I promise I'll play with you, all right?"

Amalirahc agreed.

"Who's sparring, anyways?" he asked as Aranxia led the group down the hall, following the others who seemed to know where they were going.

"Well, I suppose we'll find out soon enough," Aranxia said with a smile. "It looks like everyone is gathering outside."

They headed outside after the others and saw that there was a large crowd made up of people from both the palace and the city, and in the middle of the crowd, a large empty space had been kept, roughly circular in shape. Alassëa stood at one end of the circle, talking quietly with Aethos, and at the other end of the circle was a man who carried himself in a military manner, a bit taller than average, with a thickly muscled body, evident even beneath his clothes.

"Three minutes," a voice boomed from somewhere in the crowd; and the wall of observers pressed closer, all of them trying for a better view.