Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Saria, you too," her mother prodded her, nodding at her plate.

"Yes, Mama," the little girl smiled brightly. She stopped talking and started eating, and soon enough she had finished her plate of food. After she finished her glass of water, she piped up, "All done!"

"Good," Pengolodh chuckled. "Now wipe your hands with your napkin, we'll be going soon."

Saria beamed at him. "Good! Then we can go!" she said brightly. She scrambled off her chair and tugged at her father's hand. "Come on, Papa!"

Pengolodh chuckled softly. "Yes, yes, we're coming, Saria."

"We'll see you all again in a few days," Alinda told Pengolodh's siblings as she rose from her seat. "Or you could also come visit us, as always."

"We know," Amora smiled at her sister-in-law. "Perhaps tomorrow."

Saria ran around the table and took Daemon's and Long's hands. "Come! Time to go!"

"No, there's no hurry," Pengolodh said firmly, giving his daughter a look. "Saria ..."

Saria giggled cheerfully. "Yes, Papa?"

Alinda laughed, and Pengolodh sighed. "Never mind. But if you're ready, gentlemen, I think Saria is just excited to meet you and spend time with you, that's all."

"We always go home after we have lunch here," Saria smiled brightly up at Daemon.

"But we can go anywhere you like," Alinda added, falling in with her husband next to the other three as they left the dining hall behind. "Perhaps we will exhaust Saria enough that she will go to bed on time tonight."

"But I always go to bed at the right time!" Saria protested. "Always when I'm sleepy!"

"But the specific time varies from night to night," Pengolodh chuckled. "But Alinda is right, we can go anywhere that you two would like to go. We are in no rush."

"Always," Pengolodh replied dryly. "Lunch is when she's hungry, bed is when she's tired, playtime is when she wants to play, and lessons are when she's curious."

"Fortunately, she doesn't argue much when we put our foot down," Alinda added with a smile, "so it's not bad. And I'm sure that she knows in her heart that that's not the way of the world."

They waved to some of the servants as they left the castle. The heat was more intense outside than in, though it didn't bother any of the three elves as they had been born and raised there.

Saria looked up at Long, her eyes suddenly filling with concern.

"Are you all right?" she asked him anxiously. "Did something happen?"

Pengolodh and Alinda looked at the two humans to see what Saria was talking about, and both of them smiled faintly when they saw how tiny Long's pupils had gone.

"The sun is quite something, isn't it?" Pengolodh asked softly. "Unbelievable, how strong it can be, even in the middle of winter."

Saria blinked up at Long. "Sunglasses?" she repeated, confused. "What is sunglasses?"

To her, this was perfectly normal, and she wouldn't ever have imagined putting something in front of her eyes to help her see - she didn't need anything like that!