Welcome to Gaia! ::

"The Southland?" Elan repeated thoughtfully.

"It's probably on the continent or something," Arya spoke up, nodding wisely. "My mama says that's where the visitors that were here last time came from."

"I like sand, it's nice and soft to land on," Eluin grinned, stomping the ground with his foot. The playground had been built on and surrounded by sand to make it better for the children to play on.

"What is your castle like?" Sheena spoke up eagerly. "Is it as big as the one here?"

Sheena giggled. "Yes, silly!" she exclaimed. "Your castle! You know, where your father is prince?"

To her it so obviously - but then, there were so few members of the royal family in this land that they really didn't live anywhere other than the castle. They returned there every night, and wouldn't consider staying anywhere else unless they were simply traveling.

"Birds that aren't rocs?"

The children began to murmur together. What other bird could it possibly be? It couldn't be seagulls, they were too annoying to take as a national symbol. Cormorants had pretty feathers, but they were an awkward looking bird. Fishers? But it was a continent, not an island. And yet what other birds were there?

"Maybe you can ask your mother and tell us another time!" Rayne, the smallest child of the group, suggested. "We would like to know what it is."

"But in the meantime," Yacob said solemnly, "we should keep playing. Come on, I'm King Caranthir! Let's go get the gnomes!"

And the children started running off again, chasing invisible foes with sticks and such.

Elros couldn't help but laugh at the look on Lin's face. "Come, now, I know Miyuki wants to be with you and Lord Earendil all the time, but she is a child after all, and playing with people her own age is enough to distract any child. Watch. It will not be long before she will no longer be clingy as long as she has friends to play with."

He paused. "As for when they are unavailable again ..."

Perhaps her problem was just that she didn't want to be alone, or feel abandoned. Perhaps she just needed attention of any sort. In that case, he didn't know what could help her. After all, she would have to be alone at some point in her life ...

"Truth indeed," Elros murmured softly. "Though she grows as you did, in stages, her mental development is like that of a natural child: it takes time for her to learn things. This is true. And as much as the two of you are alike, you are also very different. Your love for your parents led you to explore, took you away from them, indirectly. For Miyuki ... she still needs you, more than you ever truly needed your parents. Your kind can live on their own in their own world without adults to care for them. Miyuki does not have that, and so she does have a need - a true need - that you never had."

"Understandable," Elros agreed. He touched Lin gently on the arm, urging her forward and down the street. Standing in one place would do no one any good, after all.

"After all, when she grows physically to an older age, her mind will still be as young as before her growth," he went on. "Such as when she grew in the Eastland? Three years physically, but an infant still in skills and abilities."