Re: Easing Through Eaulir - 119 4A

[Nara-pyon]

Some of them - particularly Lancaeriel and Cael - had done more with their rooms than others. Of course, those two had more abilities than most, so there was more that they could do, in addition to Cael's artistic abilities.

"Perhaps Miyuki should lead the way," Earendil suggested with a smile.

Atl and Chelan pushed their chairs back and rose to their feet, and Atl also pulled back the chairs of his wife and son. Teslin however didn't see too interested in seeing the bedrooms - he made a beeline for Amir and Kaede, and this time Atl didn't stop him.

[Kara Winters]

Rising from her seat, Miyuki motioned for them to follow her.

"The residential hall, as we sometimes call it, is this way," she told them.

True it could have been called the sleeping quarters, but that wasn't quite accurate. The kitsune slide open the hall door and led the others in.

[Nara-pyon]

Atl and Nix followed first, and Chelan, after glancing at his nephew, followed after them silently.

"You must be very powerful to have the ability to create something like this at your fingertips," Atl said, almost admiringly, as they started down the hallway.

Nix frowned. "The doors are so close together ... are the rooms that small, then?"

[Kara Winters]

"Really the hard part was wrapping my head around ideas that make no sense initially," Miyuki admitted.

Maybe it was because she was a kitsune, maybe it was because she was practicing magic long before she began to do runes, for whatever reason, energy wise... most of the time it didn't bother her.

"Each door, leads to a space," Miyuki explained to Nix, "That space can be as big as the creator wants it to be. So in terms of dimensions that you can see from the outside, it can be very misleading."

She started at the far end of the hall where Rose's and Holly's rooms were. Opening the door to Holly's room, Miyuki showed them inside. It was much larger than the space between Holly's door and the next door would have suggested.

The neko took with her, much of her bedroom furniture as she could (with help). This included a poster bed (that had to be dismantled to fit), a full body mirror and a vanity desk. Unlike the others who had cabinets and drawers for their clothes, Holly had requested of Miyuki a closet so she could hang her dresses, and have shelving for her many, many clothes.

Though she did have one chest of drawers, it was to keep her knitting and sewing supplies in order. On top of the basket of yarn that she kept by a rocking chair.

[Nara-pyon]

"Misleading, indeed," Nix murmured in admiration as she looked around the room. "Even having seen the difference between the outside of your tent and your kitchen, this is most impressive."

Of course, so many of the things in it were foreign to her, but that didn't take away from the grandeur of it in her mind.

[Kara Winters]

"Holly and Rose brought with them, a lot of furniture from their homes since they would be moving to wherever they decided to settle," Miyuki explained.

Most of them didn't have bed frames or even western style beds.

"The wall over there," Miyuki nodded to where the closet was, "Opens up for more space. Holly is a seamstress by trade so she has made a lot of clothes over the years."

[Nara-pyon]

"Unbelievable," Atl murmured. "Of course, we have no need of such things in Kilemtor, but .."

"Still impressive," Chelan agreed with a grunt.

Nix's attention was more on the clothes than the space and furniture. "Why so many, I wonder," she murmured, more to herself than anything else.

[Kara Winters]

"Holly... due to unusual circumstances ended up in a human country without warning. It wasn't her intention, just by accident, one of the things she brought with her was her favourite style from home. However, it was a very different style than the humans in the town was use to, so she often made clothes as a way to show others what it would look like in practice. Using herself as the model."

Miyuki also suspected that Holly did so to keep herself distracted. It must have been hard to hide who she was for all those years. Motioning for the group to follow her, she led them to her room.

[Nara-pyon]

Nix nodded as they followed Miyuki to the next room.

"We've no use for different types of clothes under the water," she murmured. "If it is more than this," she gestured towards her own clothes, which covered no more than Kyrie's or Daenis' clothes, "then it serves only to hinder our swimming. Our variety lies in colour only - at least, mostly."

[Kara Winters]

"That's understandable, Holly mentioned the same when she asked if we wanted clothes to swim in," Miyuki replied, "On land, the cut and amount of cloth depends on the culture the clothing type comes from."

Skipping Rose's room (for the furniture type would be quite similar), Miyuki went to her room. It hadn't changed at all since she showed it to Rose's parents way back. There might be more ribbon on her scribe desk, but these were hair ribbons inscribed with binding runes, both to help them stay in her hair (so she could take it out quickly when needed) and with runes to bind attackers. There was a set up to keep the ribbons taunt while being written on and tools to write very small.

It was her other personal project.

[Nara-pyon]

With spending most of her life under the water, Nix was accustomed to the necessity of ting back her hair from time to time, and she recognized the hair ribbons for their most basic function and nothing more.

"Whose room is this?" she asked, looking around. Of course she recognized that it must belong to one of the women in the group - and by the size and decoration, one of the single women - but there were a few of those, and she knew nothing about any of the individuals that would allow her to make an educated guess.

[Kara Winters]

"This is my room," Miyuki explained, "Feel free to look around further."

She felt more comfortable letting people do that with her room than others, even with everyone's permission. As she assumed, like herself, some of the travelers worked in their rooms when not in their workshops.

[Nara-pyon]

Atl and Chelan stayed in the doorway, but Nix stepped forward and looked over some of the things on Miyuki's desk.

"What is all of this for?" she asked curiously. The writing instruments were foreign to her, as ink would be useless underwater and there was no need of it on land, and of course all of Miyuki's notes about runes and whatnot were things she had never seen before, nor imagined.

[Kara Winters]

For a second, it was a strange question, until Miyuki remembered they normally lived underwater. It made her wonder if the Water Elves had instead, a strong oral tradition like the Night Elves.

"These are for writing," Miyuki explained as she joined Nix, "I don't know if Water Elves have a writing system, but I use ink and a brush or pen to write. Also, a lot of my magic knowledge is in runes, which is used to make things like a space within the tent. Runes can be written, carved, painted... and applied in many ways. Though I find writing is the easiest for me."

She hadn't gotten to the point where she could imprint runes using magic.

[Nara-pyon]

Nix nodded as though she understood - and she did understand most of it. But writing things with ink was foreign to her. For the Water Elves, most things were either carved or displayed in permanent mosaics.

"It seems that there are few limits in what you do," she murmured. There was no admiration in her tone, but neither was there dismissal or arrogance. It was simply a statement of fact, nothing more and nothing less.

[Kara Winters]

Miyuki supposed it did seem that way, even though she didn't even know what the limits were for runes. She hadn't been doing it as long as some people and really was focused on a few things.

"I have had good teachers over the years," Miyuki murmured softly, "Especially one that taught me to keep working."

While Lanceriael had taught her magic, it wouldn't be possible if Miyuki wasn't first taught to just keep trying and keep learning.

"At any rate, let's keep going," Miyuki motioned to the room on the other side of the hallway.

Which was her brother's, and Miyuki had not been in there since it was first made.

[Nara-pyon]

Andarien's room had changed quite a bit in the time that he'd been living in it, especially since he and Shoneah had been able to do so much work in the forge. His was still in the style of a traditional Japanese room with paper walls and wooden floors, and his bed was a futon rolled out in one corner, covered with his blanket, stitched with gears and bolts. Next to it was a tatami mat, a large one with two worn-looking spots where Eon and Zeus slept each night. His gear-locked chest was at the foot of his bed, the gears lying in a pile atop it, its key key attached to a leather thong that hung from a link on the chest's lid and dangled almost to the floor.

The rest of his furniture, however, was markedly Western in style, much of it with a Victorian twist, though of course Andarien hadn't had any idea of that when he'd requested it from his uncle. It had just seemed to match his preferences. A large writing desk, complete with rolling top, was in one corner, with a solid chair in front of it. The roll-top was up, and the small compartment shelves on the back of it were filled with his design tools - pen, pencils, ink re-filler, pencil crayons, small knife - and a few even had odds and ends used mostly for reference, including hinges, gears of various sizes, and chain links. There were two stacks of notebooks - one on the left which were neatly piled and closed and one on the right which had loose papers sticking out of them. There were also various sketches and designs tacked up on the walls, carefully stuck up with tiny nails on the wooden frames between paper squares. There was also the odd paper on the floor, but not many of them.

There was a bookshelf, a chest of drawers, and another bookshelf along another wall, and atop each of these were various completed projects of his, including a handful of pocket-watches of diverse designs. The musical egg from which he had been born stood in the place of honour, centered on the chest of drawers, resting atop a square of hunter green cloth that had been turned sideways like a diamond beneath the egg. On one corner of a bookshelf was a metal stand that looked almost like a miniature hat-stand, though rather than holding hats, there were a few pairs of goggles hanging from it.

The only other thing that was really noticeable was a miniature grandfather-style clock, complete with brass pendulum, that stood on the floor, about chest-high in height, near a corner. It kept Ardan time with fifteen hours on its face, the same idea as Gaian clocks whose hour hands circled the face twice each day. To show the difference between morning and afternoon hours, an additional gear had been added which circled the entire clock face and had been decorated, first by shaping and moulding the metal and then by adding paint, to show various times of day. Only a part of it showed at any given time, the part that matched the time of day. At the moment, it showed a full sun that had passed its peak and was heading ever so slightly towards the horizon.

It had been the biggest collaboration Andarien had ever made: he had designed everything, from the clockwork to the woodwork and painting; Shoneah had helped him with the metalwork and putting everything together; Daeron had done the woodwork for the clock's casing; and Cael had painted the shaped brass that showed morning or afternoon, day or night.

Almost everything in that room was new to the Water Elves, and after a moment of looking around, Atl asked, "What ... is all of this?"

[Kara Winters]

Miyuki figured Atl was asking about the copious amount of gear and gear related items. Since that is what mainly was in the room for decoration and use.

"My brother makes gears and clockwork items for a living," Miyuki explained, "The shelving along that wall has many of his completed projects. That item on the floor is another one of his completed projects, that one is a clock. It keeps track of time during a day cycle."

She pointed out everything she knew that was in the room, but there were a few things she didn't know.

[Nara-pyon]

The gears were something unheard of for the Water Elves - understandable, since metals tended to rust under the water, salt-free though it was - and even Chelan was fascinated by it.

"Do you think I might speak to your brother further on the subject at some point?" he asked Miyuki, for the first time truly showing interest in something.

[Kara Winters]

"Of course," Miyuki brighten at the question, "Andarien loves talking about his work."

And she was certain with the way the Water Elves were straight to the point that Andarien wouldn't have trouble understanding what they meant. Once she was sure the Water Elves were ready, she showed them Daenis' and Mailon's room.

[Nara-pyon]

Daenis and Mailon's room had changed only slightly since they had been married. It was still very cold and full of snow, and the walls were still lined with furs, and Daenis' cornett was still sitting on its perch of fur atop a pedestal of snow. The pile of furs that made up the bed was larger now, enough to fit two people; and it was no longer on the floor, but on an icy frame. Likewise, shelves of ice, clearly a product of Mailon's magical abilities, held their various sets of clothing - though the only colour was from Mailon's forest clothing. Metal S-shaped hooks had been poked through some of the furs on the walls, and Mailon's weapons hung from them, near the door in case of emergency but safely out of the reach of those less than four or five feet tall - important, with the pending arrival of their firstborn.

On that note, preparations had already been made for the unborn child. A crib of ice had been erected next to one wall beside Daenis' cornett, and there were already blankets in it made of fur hides that had been worked so soft that when one ran one's hand over them, they were almost impossible to feel. Daenis' pregnancy was close to if not already past halfway, and she was excited to become a mother.

The couple was out at the moment, out of the tent, in fact: Mailon had convinced Daenis to join him outside for some sun, with the promise of doing what he could to keep her cool.

The Water Elves stood in the doorway, stunned. None of them had ever seen or heard of snow before, and they had no idea what they were looking at. On the other hand, they couldn't even feel the cold, so they had no idea that the snow was cold.

[Kara Winters]

Miyuki stood at the doorway with them, mainly because she was affected by the cold and she was barefoot at the moment. Having known mers, she figured the Water Elves couldn't tell it was cold in the room.

"This is Mailon and Daenis' room," Miyuki told the group, "They're White Elves, so out of all the rooms in the tent theirs is the coldest, at least it's cold to the rest of us..."

[Nara-pyon]

"But what is the white stuff?" Nix asked hesitantly. She took a step inside and picked up a handful of the snow, and she watched in wonder as it melted into droplets in her palm.

"Mailon and Daenis ... they're the White Elves, right?" Atl asked. "Where are they from? What kind of climate?"

He knew enough to realize that it wouldn't be anywhere like their climate.

[Kara Winters]

"It is called snow, the two from far North where is cold enough to make water solid. Snow, is just really tiny crystals of solid water, and ice is another though larger chuck of frozen water, which all their furniture is made out of."

Miyuki wouldn't have imagined living in such a place, but then again she had limits to how cold she liked any place.

[Nara-pyon]

"And this is a natural thing?" Nix murmured in amazement.

Atl looked back at Miyuki. "You keep it cold enough for this using magic, I suppose," he said, though it was also a question.

Personally Chelan was of the opinion that it didn't look very comfortable, but what would he know? It wasn't his culture, or his home.

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