Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Like you!" Rhea giggled without missing a beat. "You're my new friend, right? We can have lots of fun together!"

She hugged Cindy around the chest, since the girl wasn't all that much bigger than herself.

Days passed, and bit by bit everyone settled into their new routine. Rhea especially loved the way things were going now: she was allowed to use her magic in the mornings (she didn't care that she had to be supervised, she just loved to be able to use her magic as much as she liked) and she wasn't getting into as much trouble as she used to. Shael was glad because it was easier for her to get the housework done, and easier also to teach Rhea in the afternoons. As for Adonai ... he just liked to watch Cindy and Rhea working together, studying his daughter to see how her magic and her use and control of it were progressing.

After about a week, Rhea had a new question for Cindy, one that had nothing to do with her lessons:

"Do you want to come to the ranch with us today?" she asked her teacher with the excitement that never seemed to die. "We're going to see the children! And you can meet them too! They're really nice and lots of fun!"

"We are," Adonai spoke up, entering the room silently. "It's a nice day, even though there's so much snow, and Rhea's been doing well with her lessons lately. And I think Shael could use a day to herself," he added with a chuckle.

"And we can see my friends!" Rhea beamed. "Come on, let's get ready to go!"

And she ran out of the room to where the cloaks were kept.

Adonai smiled. "Well, to be fair, it's the first chance she's ever had to play with other children her age. Adonijah's the next youngest here, and even he's nearly an adult. Will be in about a month. With ten years between them, and Adonijah's ... reclusive tendencies ... well, it's safe to say that Rhea's never really played with anyone at all until these children were brought here. There have been other rescues since she was born, but ... those children were always brought home right away, this is the first winter rescue."

Rhea reappeared suddenly, wearing her own cloak and holding Cindy's in her hand.

"Here you go!" she giggled, her eyes bright with excitement. She held the cloak out to Cindy, just about fidgeting in her anxiety to get there.

"Of course!" Rhea said brightly. "And some of them can use some magic, too! Elladan can run really really fast and Celebrian can talk to birds 'cept there aren't any birds around in the winter, and Baradir can make fire - but most of the rest of them are too young to use magic yet, Papa says I'm a special case because I'm part Valie, so-"

"Rhea," Adonai interrupted, nudging her gently towards the door, "we're wasting time. It's a long walk, you can tell Cindy all about them on the way there."

Rhea giggled and blushed slightly, but headed obediently towards the door. "I'm going," she murmured, a little embarrassed, "I'm going ..."

The walk to the ranch took longer than usual, due to the deep snow, and it was nearly an hour and a half before they made it.

"Come on come on!" Rhea cried gleefully, taking off suddenly and running towards a group of boys that were playing out in the yard.

Adonai chuckled. "If you'd like to check out the medical situation inside the house, come with me," he smiled at Cindy. "The children will be here a while, and to be honest I wouldn't know what to look for."

Adonai chuckled. "Rhea is quite the social butterfly, as I believe you say in your tongue," he smiled warmly. "But yes, come, we'll check everything over."

He led her to the house and opened the door, holding it so that she could head inside first.