Welcome to Gaia! ::

Before Andarien and Miyuki had to wait too long, a young girl appeared and greeted them warmly. She seemed just a bit younger than River and Aranxia, possibly about Miyuki's age, and there was a slight flush on her cheeks that complimented rather than contrasted her flaming orange hair.

"Welcome," she said warmly, brushing her hands on her green dress as she approached the two. Her smile was gentle, almost apologetic. "I'm afraid I must ask you to leave your animals outside, though we can give them food out there if you would like."

Andarien blinked, but after a second he nodded and smiled back. "Eon and Ponydash don't need anything, thanks." He pulled their Pokéballs from his belt and with a quick push of the buttons and two flashes of red light, the Pokémon were gone.

The girl blinked with surprise when she saw the Pokémon disappear, but she hid it quickly and motioned for the two to follow her.

"This way," she murmured, taking them over to one of the tables near the back wall. She pulled out chairs for them to sit down. "What can I offer you?"

Andarien sat down with his back to the wall and settled his chair into place. "Umm ... what do you have?" he asked in reply.

The girl indicated two menus which were sitting on the table. "Take a look, I'll be back in a few minutes."

Andarien already had his face behind his own menu, looking it over and trying to decide what he wanted.

"Mi," he asked without looking up, and without realizing that she was looking at him, "what's a baked potato? Aren't potatoes always cooked?"

Typical for a young boy, he was focused solely on what was directly in front of him.

Andarien pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Well ... there's like ... a whole bunch of kinds of potatoes ... mashed and baked and fried and stuff ... and ... meat ... fish and fowl, whatever that means ... vegetables ... some fruit ... sandwiches ... soup ... hmm ... freshly baked buns and bread ..."

He lowered his menu and looked across the table at his sister. "Mi, why don't they ever have anything like pizza here?"

He pushed his goggles up on his forehead and rubbed his eyes.

"Eyes hurt," he muttered in response. "I'll be okay."

When he lowered his hands, he kept his goggles on his forehead. Then he leaned forward and looked once more at the menu. "So what's fowl, anyways?" he asked. "They don't have deer here, so it's not that ..."

And he had never found out what the meats they'd eaten in Gaia were from.

"The only birds I've seen here is rocs," Andarien shrugged. "I think maybe I'll try a bun with some fowl or something. Can't hurt to try, anyways."

He pursed his lips, and his forehead creased thoughtfully. "Or maybe baked potato, that sounds good too ... or ... um ... well, I like fish too ..."

He rubbed his eyes again, and this time when he lowered his hands, his eyes were slightly red. Still, he paid them no mind, but went back to pondering the menu.

Andarien nodded and put down his menu. He looked over to see if the girl was going to come back soon, and sure enough, as soon as it looked like she was needed, back she came.

"So what have you decided?" she asked them brightly.

The girl smiled warmly at the two. "My own personal favourite is the stuffed baked potato with fish. My brother prefers it with fowl, but that's a bit dry for me. Unless of course you like it with gravy, then it's good, too."

Andarien mulled it over. "I think I'll try it with fowl," he decided. "We had enough fish on the ship, I want to try something different."

The girl nodded and turned to Miyuki. "And for yourself?"