Welcome to Gaia! ::

Amalirahc smiled sympathetically at Miyuki. "Your ada is really busy here," he murmured. "But my mama says that what he's doing is really important, so I guess that can't be helped."

Leyenda nodded and started them all in the direction of the castle. "That's right," she told the children. "He is helping Queen Aerin do some important work."

"I'm sure he will be," Amalirahc said, trying to make his friend feel better.

And he was. When they arrived back at the castle, Earendil was just leaving Aerin's study, down the hall from the main entrance. He spotted the others as they entered, and he grinned widely and set off after them.

Earendil laughed and caught Miyuki before she could tackle him, and tossed her up into the air and caught her again before hugging her tightly. "Hello, Miyuki," he grinned. "I see you're back from another adventure. And what was it today? More chasing after the gnomes? Playing rescue? Something new?"

She couldn't have been following Aerin today; he and Aerin hadn't left the castle.

Earendil chuckled and hugged Miyuki tightly. "I bet that was a lot of fun," he grinned as he headed over to greet the others as well. "Hello, Leyenda. Amalirahc. Lin."

Since he had Miyuki in his arms and couldn't hug Lin, he leaned over and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

Earendil smiled warmly at her. "Quite. We're making progress, that's about all I can say at this point. Giving advice is one thing, but implementing it is quite another. There are going to be changes in this country ... and getting the people to accept them is going to be a challenge. But we're working on it."

He looked at the four of them again. "Washing up for dinner?"

Earendil chuckled. "So that's what that smell is."

As with the other senses - sight and hearing - the elves' sense of smell was also more acute than that of humans. It wasn't that Miyuki smelled bad at all, it was just a smell that he had been wondering about for the past few weeks was all.

"Come on, you," he grinned, setting Miyuki on the floor again. "Time for a quick bath before dinner!"

Earendil chuckled. "Well, it's just a sort of a beachy smell, which didn't make sense because as far as I'm aware you haven't been taking her to the beach at all."

He took Lin's hand and started leading her and Miyuki down the hall towards the stairs. "Perhaps I should ask Aerin for a day off and we can go together," he suggested with a smile. "After all, we did promise Miyuki that she could learn how to swim, just not on the ship. And we haven't been on the ship in a few weeks now."