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[Random the Navigator]

Enya, smiling gently with her chin parked on her knuckles, listened to the pair's pleasant banter, her mind seemingly elsewhere when she was not being directly addressed.  Actually she was taking note of their tones of voice, their turns of phrase, the rise and fall of their speech...  You could tell a lot about people from the features of their speech that weren't actually words.

Once in a while one of them said something that drew her thoughts into the conversation.  Wet feet in shallow waters? --That sounded so much like a ball game the children of her homeland played in the shallows, wherein they piloted little skin-boats and tried to whack a ball made of a blown-up quillfish skin with their paddles.  Almost everyone eventually tipped their boat over and got very wet, with the real dunces ending up with the quillfish tangled in their hair.  But this game was how they learned to balance in a boat; it trained their sea-legs.  She thought about sharing that little factoid, then thought better of it; this conversation was about Bjorn and Rowellan, who, it turned out, did have a name that was easier to say.  'Rowy', hmm?  Maybe she like it if I call her that too.

But at the mention of Hibernia, her own non-verbals got the best of her; she couldn't help pricking her ears.  She shot a glance around the Hall, hoping nobody had seen her give herself away like that.  Silly me, she admonished herself right afterwards; with all the hubbub so natural to a gathering-place, who would have noticed, let alone made anything of it?  But her companions had certainly noted her sudden interest, and there'd be no escaping their questions now except by cutting in front of them.

"Hibernia, hmm?  Did pass through there on way to here...  Okay, maybe more than 'pass'; maybe stay a little bit.  Was cold there, too, a lot.  But people be warm, 'least if you dressed like me or young like me or blue like me...*I* not know why they like me!  But did like them, too; is why this fighting make me sad.  Yah, ev'ry journey take you from someplace, through other places and to other places yet.  Did come here through Hibernia.  Would like to go back and forth without being called 'treason'."

Then she got an idea...hopefully not as 'upside-down' as the last one.  "Maybe we go with you?" she asked Bjorn.  "Rowy get to see you, we both keep you safe, Enya get to visit friends without being put all fulla holes?  And they understand 'bout Soul-friends; I not gotta worry 'bout where I gonna let 'em out without being seen."

[Kiyevanie]

If Rowellan's ears had been pointed and movable like Enya's, they might have perked up at the blue girl's words - the same way as her eyes lit up, hearing that old, endearing nickname again.  So Enya had passed through Hibernia - and made friends there?  The young huntress mentally smacked her forehead - but of course!  The blue girl had not fallen from the sky - she had travelled here, across the ocean, across the lands that lay between here and there.  And she was an outsider, coming from a land so far away it kind of hurt Rowellan's head to think about it, and she had nothing to do with the ages-old squabbles and fights the three Realms were stuck in.  In that light, of course Enya's crazy first idea of making peace suddenly made sense - nobody liked it when their friends were banging their heads together.

"I can understand why," she half-smiled.  "Someone who doesn't like you has to have serious problems with their head and their heart, and not even Firbolg and Lurikeen are that stupid."  She took a breath.  "And there's absolutely no reason why the fact that *we* don't know anything else but fighting should keep *you* from making friends wherever you can find them."  She looked over to Bjorn.  "Do you think that'd work?"

The skald rubbed his chin. "Hey, I'd be glad if you came along... having nice company like that sure beats travelling alone. But I'm not straight away on my way to the Hibernian Border. Actually I've just sent a message to the Jarl of this keep here and I'm waiting for her reply now - she already said it could take a few days and that I should sit and rest my feet for a while."

He eyed the two girls. "What were your plans so far? Maybe I could first join you on your journey for a while before you join me on mine?" Actually he wasn't too eager to already say goodbye to an old friend and a new interesting acquaintance yet.

Rowellan smiled now. "Well - I was on my patrol and wanted to show Enya some of the beauty of Midgard's borderlands... personally I'd love to have you along. Almost like in old times..." Then her expression went merry. "And if I remember right there was still a bit of Tale-speaking to be done."

[Random the Navigator]

Enya smiled at the Skald winsomely.  "I not going straight to Hibernia either," she declared.  "Just came from there to here, ya?  O-kayy, 'come here' did take a long time...  But Rowy was gonna show me never-froze lake and forest named after Father-tree.  We got Mother-tree back home, you know?  Maybe they know each other, maybe they will... Be sweet if they got married.  No fighting with Alola then--is where I from; is my home.  And stories...?  How 'bout you start one and me and Rowellan pile on?"  She grinned, then scowled and shook her finger at her companions.  "And you not pick on Lurikeen!  Do know Lurikeen 'chanter who like me very much!!"

[Kiyevanie]

'Never-froze lake' was clear to Bjorn and he smirked.  "I'm sure you'll like that lake; it's a good place for people not used to the cold," he said.  "But what's the forest named after Father-tree?"

"Yggdra Forest," Rowellan explained.  "When Enya described their Mother-Tree to me, at first I thought it might be Yggdrasil, the Tree of the Worlds, but it's something different.  Still, we wanted to have a look at it if possible."

Bjorn nodded in understanding. He too knew that the forest was a special place and worth a visit from a stranger who wanted to get to know the land. "Maybe you can tell me more about that Mother-Tree one day?" he asked Enya curiously. That sounded like a story worth knowing and telling to others. "If She might be married to our World-Tree we should maybe know Her better?"

He rubbed his chin then. "Stories though... yes, I got one in mind. There is a Lurikeen in there, but promise, the story won't pick on him!"

Then he took a long swig out of his mug and cleared his throat. "Anyway - as we're all comfortable now I will start my story here." He looked between the two girls. "One thing to know beforehand: Rowy here knows already and you, Enya, should, because one day it might save your rear or at least keep it warm... This place here ain't the only one that offers shelter from the cold.  There are others as well.  Caves, some of them natural, some of them built with the help of Dwarves; they're awesome when it comes to three things: Beer, steel and carving stone.  Those shelters have different sizes; you have to know where they are and usually they're magically sealed, so only the ones who know how will get in there."

[Bjorn then tells the two girls a long story - one he says is very personal for him - about a cold winter's night where four people proved that meetings between the Realms don't always have to end in bloodshed, but instead they can help each other... that they can even fall in love and have families, like the Midgard healer and a Celtic girl who are part of the story, the girl giving birth to their daughter.]

[Random the Navigator]

"Do know 'bout rocks and caves," said Enya with a smile; "We got 'em back home, too.  If you not got a cave close by, leeward side of a rock is good...but only if you got a Pepper to make up for not being inside!  He huge; he just curl up 'round me and I be toasty-warm 'til we leave again."

It *did* intrigue her, though, that in Midgard some of those caves could only be accessed through magic.  It was awfully thoughtful for the Dwarves to scatter these shelters about, and to mark them so that anyone who knew the marks would know they were there.  Was this what the Celts meant when they talked about the First Folk, the people under the hills?  She'd just figured they were like the Menehune of her homeland.  But if they'd actually come walking out of a magically sealed hill with no obvious exits, she could well believe they might have inspired a few legends.

The bear chase that worked its way into the tale put a different kind of smile on her face, one backed by a certain crafty look in her eyes.  She thought about how her companions would handle a bear.  She thought about the cave, too, and how Tayu could have gotten her in; Grass broke up Rock just by growing in the cracks.  By now, the combat of the elements was her stock in trade, her weapon, her shield and her ally.  This wasn't magic, as far as she understood the term.  But it'd been mistaken for magic enough times that it'd brought her here from the other side of the world.
  ...

Once the Skald seemed to have finished, Enya mulled the long tale over for quite a while, mostly sorting through the relationships between the characters.  Only one had been left unexplained: Bjorn's stated personal interest (or involvement?) in the tale as a whole.  He'd plainly been waiting for the right time and the right person to tell it to, but with the way it left her eyes crossed, that person surely wasn't Enya.

"So, umm...where you come into it?" she asked him, cocking her head.  "Did say this one very personal to you; how so?  Is nice story, seeing Kobold and Lurikeen, Norse and Celt get along, but what it got to do with you and me?  I not soldier, I not spy; have never made babies..."

[Kiyevanie]

Rowellan only could nod to Enya's question. "Yes, where's the connection?" she asked curiously.

Bjorn hesitated for a while, suprisingly for a Skald, looking for the right words there. "For one - because it's a story that proves that all our people can get along." He smiled at Enya. "You are not the only one who made friends in Hibernia, because in the end they're not so different from us at all. They love, they hate, they have families..." Again he hesitated.   "This story is personal in the true meaning of the word.  That baby girl that was born that night...her name's Ailis, and she's my mother."

He took a breath.  This had been his best-kept secret; he had hated to keep it even from friends like Rowellan, but he hadn't been sure how they'd take to knowing about his ancestry.  Back in the day, the young huntress had been so eager to defend her home Realm, but now he felt that his friend as well as her travelling companion should know about it all.

[Random the Navigator]

"Ahhh, so you got little-bit to do with Hibernia too, hmm?" Enya said, beaming.  The question was neutral enough if overheard, especially considering the Skald's role as an ambassador, and only the three at the table could know what she really meant.  Still, she lowered her voice before adding, "So you an' me got same-same secret.  Did come through Hibernia.  So, in a way, did you.  And world not be turned upside-down yet, so maybe I share my big idea sometime...but not here.  Have freaked Rowy out already, and she knows me."

She winked at her archer friend, then continued.  "So we know we can trust each other with secrets.  So maybe I gonna trust you 'bout Soul-friends too...and maybe you gonna meet them somewhere besides in their balls.  Gotta go to stables for that; some of them not gonna fit in here, not if you want room for people too!"

Though Wuffels had dashed into the Great Hall in front of everybody, and though Enya had surreptitiously released 'Iheyu so that dog and fox could join in the meal, this was the first time she'd referred to them as anything but pets to Bjorn.  With his sense for a story, she hoped he'd pick up on that...

[Kiyevanie]

Bjorn did indeed pick up on that term, "Soul-Friend". Enya had used it before and it had roused his curiosity even back then. Now, with what he had seen of her pets and everything else he was even more curious than before. And the way it seemed he would get a few answers in the not too far future.

But for now there was a more urgent matter at hand. He had seen Enya's beaming reaction to his story and his ancestry; but he didn't know how Rowellan thought about it all - she hadn't said anything so far and looked thoroughly stunned, only self-discipline keeping her jaw from dropping to the ground.

And that was indeed how the huntress felt: Thoroughly stunned! A good bunch of emotions run through her almost at the same time. Surprise, of course, as that was something she would never have suspected. Of course they all had shared stories about their families, but all she had known so far about Bjorn's parents was that they had an inn in Jordheim and his mother was a great cook - nothing unusual at all. And now she learned that her friend's grandmother had been a Celt?

Next thing was a certain kind of hurt - why did he come up with this right now, after all those years and hand't trustet her with it before? Understanding was there, of course - you had to be sure of someone to tell them something like that, and maybe in her early years she had been a bit overeager...

But in the end it all didn't matter, didn't it? The man sitting there, with his secret on the table, was still Bjorn, her old friend and travel companion, someone she held close in her heart.  Had anything about him changed at all? She internally shook her head - no, nothing had changed about him, it was just her knowledge that had changed. Still... phewww...

Rowellan let out her breath and then a helpless laugh. "Alright, this is the day for surprises, it seems!" She shook herself, like a dog coming out of the water. "Maybe I needed that anyway, getting a few things shaken up," she mused. "I definitely got a few things to think about today." She smiled shortly, reaching out to Bjorn, squeezing his hand for a moment, then rubbed her temples. "Maybe we should indeed go to the stables," she suggested. "I've been sitting on my hindquarters for far too long and need to stretch." She made a slightly sheepish face. "And sort out my poor, muddled brain." The smile she shared with her two companions showed that she wasn't in any way miffed or something, just surprised and a bit confused.

"Sounds like a good idea," Bjorn replied. He had spotted a lot of emotions running over Rowellan's face and a stone had slid off his heart when he saw her final smile. "A bit of fresh air won't hurt...and then I'm really curious to see your Soul-Friends." He turned to Enya. "Outside of their balls," he added with a smile. "I guess I've seen Pepper inside her ball already - and she or he is one of them."

[Random the Navigator]

Enya, who a while ago had refused to leave the Hall until its warmth had worked itself all the way through her, jumped up now like she'd just been let out from school.  Wuffels, tumbling off her lap, almost fell on 'Iheyu before Enya picked them both up (wriggling and kicking) and tucked them under her borrowed cloak again.  "Rowy...?  When we get *my* cloak, make sure it got lotsa pockets inside, hmm?"  She grinned, then recalled 'Iheyu so that she wouldn't be seen walking out of the Hall with any pets other than the one she'd come in with.  Then, on an impulse, she handed 'Iheyu's ball to Bjorn too.  "Pepper's ball, you held fire in your hand.  'Iheyu's, you hold lightning...  And you gonna meet Earth and Forest, Spirit-world and Sky."

[Kiyevanie]

"All the elements... and some more", Bjorn muttered while he took 'Iheyu's ball with even more respect and awe than he had held Pepper's. Back then it had been a strange item that promised a tale. This time he knew that inside that ball was a living, breathing creature, with an own will, with bristling fur and a deep love for Enya and her pettings. Someone that the blue girl called "Soul-Friend", so deeply connected were they. There were a million questions running through his head.

[From here our crew finds their way to the stables, discussing more mundane matters.]

[Random the Navigator]

The preparations complete and Kilvanä's hay-net and grain bucket having been properly stocked, Enya returned to her companions.  "You maybe not ready for this," she told Bjorn.  "So maybe Rowellan gonna 'splain it to you, 'cause have already 'splained it to her and she seen it once already, and Soul-friends not gonna want to go hungry while I tell you things she already knows.  Here goes..."
 
 One by one she detached the steel orbs from her belt, releasing their occupants as quietly as possible under the circumstances.  'Iheyu, any more than the others, did not experience the passage of time in her orb, so from her perspective she'd been sharing a table with Bjorn just a moment ago; now she grinned at the talespeaker as if she'd walked in just in time to catch the punchline of a joke.
 
 Pepper shook himself out, sending tiny embers flying.  Auryn fanned his crest and screed, delighting in his freedom, but clean spoiling Enya's short-lived attempt at being subtle.  She couldn't have pulled it off much longer anyway, not the way Kilvanä's feet hit the ground like four separate thunders...  And Tayu, of course, was Tayu, looking around the building disdainfully before giving Enya another 'Hmph!'
 
 Enya  led them to their quarters without further comment, other than the affectionate murmurs she bestowed upon their ears.  Fire-dog, ghostly archer and protean griffin got their share of the roast, Auryn pinning his down with one taloned foot and merrily shredding it to bits. Wuffels and 'Iheyu prowled around the larger carnivores' feet hoping for one more scrap.  And Kilvanä, never happier than with her nose in a grain bucket, cleared out the loose husks with one mighty, contented sigh and tucked in.
 
 But once Pepper was done eating, he peeked back out of his stall and tipped his head at the Skald as if he were trying to remember where they'd met...

[Kiyevanie]

To say that Bjorn 'wasn't ready for that' was some kind of understatement.  He had expected something extraordinary to happen; the bits and pieces he had picked up so far had told him that much already.  But watching Enya's Soul-friends pop out of their balls just like that and still acting like they were just ordinary animals - which they were most definitely NOT! - going for food and affection, that was something that even a Skald's wild imagination wouldn't have come up with.  He blinked.  "Wait... what?  Um...how?  But..."

Rowellan watched his jaw drop with a slight smirk - she could relate to it very well; she had been in his place just a few hours ago.  "It pulls the ground from beneath your feet, doesn't it?"

"Hmmmhm."  Bjorn nodded his agreement, watching the Soul-friends again.  At second thought, there was even more to them - not something on the surface, but certain vibes coming off from the animals.  May it be the owl's slightly disdainful manners, or the grounded and almost maternal air of Kilvanä, they all had something special going on.

"Don't ask me how it works," the huntress admitted.  "How someone like Kilvanä..."  She pointed at the huge horse who was happily tucked into her meal. "...can even fit in an orb that size.  I think it's a certain kind of magic..."  She scratched her head.  "I'm not completely sure if I got it all right, but I'll try my best for an explanation. --Enya, chime in if I'm messing things up, okay?"

She paused shortly.  "Things are different at Enya's home - they have one Mother God, she told me, not a whole family like we.  And Enya said that Her spirit is in everything and can take every form...a forest, a rock, a wolf or a tall blue girl."  She scratched her head, trying to recapture more of Enya's explanation.  "So, as the form doesn't matter, they can all connect in some way.  And her Soul-Friends kind of connect with certain aspects of Enya herself.  She said Tayu's her sharpness, her seeing and her flight, Kilvanä's her strength and her caring...and so on."

That was the moment Pepper chose to come out of his stall, tilting his head at Bjorn.  "And Pepper's her fierceness, her fangs and her fire."

Bjorn swallowed hard - partly trying to digest the information, but also due to being eyed by a creature as fierce as Pepper, realizing all of a sudden that he had held that very orb just a short while ago.  "Ummmm...  Hey Pepper," he greeted respectfully.  If that huge, fiery dog was as ferocious as he looked, there wasn't anything else to do but treat him with all the respect he deserved.  "I hope I didn't mess up anything."

[Random the Navigator]

Enya couldn't help but giggle at the Skald's dumbstruck expression; she never thought she'd reduce a talespeaker to near-wordlessness.  "Na, Rowy, you not mess up...'cept by talking 'bout fangs and fierceness just when Pepper wanna come say Hi!  --He not gonna eat you, Bjorn, 'less he think you gonna eat me first, and even then he wait 'til I say.  Lurikeen friend, he got good way to say how is Pepper: 'Gentle when stroked, fierce when provoked.'  Think anyone with any spirit be same way.  Right now, he just want pets and loves and to get to know you the rest of the way, 'cause did already sorta-meet you when you held his ball."

At her nod, the huge canine stepped forward and stopped just beyond Bjorn's arm-reach.  He stretched his head forwards, taking tentative sniffs, then deeper ones, as if sifting through the Norseman's essence.  Anyone knew a dog was the best judge of character...

Up close, it was clear that Pepper wasn't made of fire so much as he embodied it.  The glow of his coat, the warmth of his aura; the, yes, fierceness of his gaze, which yet had a fatherly kindness in it; the way any little draft or breeze stirred his ruff, his mantle, or the plume of his tail so that they caught the available light and seemed to flicker like flames...  All of these things reminding Enya of a captive blaze--a hearth or a campfire, perhaps, and the comfort, security and sense of home they meant.  But he had wildfire in him too, waiting only for Enya's word to release it; and when he did, they were some combination of a craftsman showing off his best work and a child being let out to play.

Pepper, in short, exemplified Enya's life with these creatures.  To see one was to reveal a part of herself; to capture one was to embrace that aspect; to train one was to explore, express and master a facet of her many-sided but unified soul.

[Kiyevanie]

"Mmmmhm - alright, that wasn't the best timing," Rowellan admitted a bit sheepishly, watching her friend and the huge canine together. At the moment it didn't look as if the 'fire' Pepper radiated was the one that could burn down forests, but the cozy one of a hearthfire, the one that gave warmth on a chill winter's night. And in some way it kind of mirrored Enya's own warmth... that connection between them again?

Bjorn saw that warmth as well; he also noticed that almost fatherly expression in Pepper's eyes and realized that at least this time his head wouldn't be bitten off...or go up in flames. Instead there was open curiosity and a hint of wisdom that more than anything else told about the fact that Pepper was not just an ordinary pet. As none of them were.

A small smile showed up on the Skald's face. So - Pepper wanted to say 'hi' and get some pets?  Cautiously and slowly Bjorn reached out a hand for Pepper to sniff at again, curious himself of how that shimmering fur might feel if he got the chance to touch it. "Hey Pepper," he said, the open smile widening, tentatively reaching out for the huge dog's neck, as he would do with any other unknown canine. If Pepper really wanted "pets", he'd show it; if not, he'd have the chance to retreat. It was always the dog's decision in the end...

[Random the Navigator]

Pepper seemed to forget that he wasn't a cat; he came the rest of the way forward and planted his (very warm) forehead on Bjorn's chest, leaning into the expected neck-rubs and puffing his (very warm) breath into the Norseman's palm.

Enya turned away from the scene and looked for Tayu, who was perched on one of the stall dividers a little too close to a Dwarven pony.  At her whistle he looked backwards all the way over his shoulder the way an owl does, the rest of him still leaning towards the pony.  "Tayu...Sanctuary," she murmured.

Now he *did* turn to face the humanoid trio.  Muttering deep in his throat, almost seeming to be weaving some enchantment of his own, he spread his wings as if mantling his prey.  A soft quietness fell over the stables then, even the sounds outside becoming muffled, then silent.

" 'kay," said Enya.  "Now we can talk...  'f we gonna travel together, is stuff 'bout me and Soul-friends you gotta know--you and Rowellan both, and nobody else."

[Kiyevanie]

Now those were signs that were hard to misunderstand - Bjorn's smile changed into a grin and he enthusiastically got into the task of thoroughly giving Pepper the neck-rubs the dog expected. The fur felt indeed warm beneath his hands - as did Pepper's breath in his neck - and surprisingly soft. "Didn't you say that in bad weather you curl up with Pepper?", Bjorn asked Enya, then smirked. "I can see that very well." He scratched a spot that Pepper just had presented.

Then Enya spoke to Tayu and both Norse could feel something else on their skin besides the warmth Pepper was radiating. A slight prickling, over in the wink of an eye, and then the silence. As if they were sitting beneath some kind of shelter, away from the rest of the world.

Rowellan raised a brow, then sat down on one of the boxes standing there. Whatever Enya was about to tell them had to be important. Really important, cause never before the blue girl had considered it necessary to do something like this. "We're listening", she quietly said and Bjorn nodded.

[Random the Navigator]

"Okay," Enya said--the whole word this time, not her usual Island slang.  Indeed, her demeanor was suddenly more formal than Rowellan had ever seen it, a far cry from her usual playful, breezy warmth.  Even Pepper looked back at her and nodded as though he understood.

"Rowy, did say Pepper be my Fire, and Tayu my Seeing.  Maybe you think that means they stand for those things, like carvings stand for stories or gods.  Is not so.  When do have Pepper make fire, is my fire he make; my breath he take in and blow out; my strength and braveness and power and running and even my fierceness.  Pepper not 'stand for' anything.  Pepper be me, that part of me which is Fire.  I lose him, I lose my Fire.  He not exist without me.  Apart from me, yes.  But not without me, and not if I not did have Fire in me to begin with.

"Same-same for Tayu.  When I say Tayu be my Seeing, I not mean my eyes.  Na, 'Seeing' among my People means seeing into, seeing through, knowing invisible things like Spirit-world or someone's heart.  When Seafolk say 'I See you', is to say they know your heart.  Not your mind or all else about you, but your heart, what kind of person you be, even if you not sure yourself.  Imagine losing that, after being born with it and having it so strong that it shows outside you as an owl who travels with you and guides you.  Imagine losing that.  Is what I be like if I lose Tayu.  Be lost and blind and cut off from Spirit-world.

"Is like that for all Soul-friends.  They be soul-shards, more like it.  Living ones, with own Being.  And when they come out of their balls, yah, they solid and real, hungry or bored or eager to play; soft or scratchy, chipper or snooty--these things be their own.  But powers they have be my power.   You know them, you know me.  Do all-the-time worry 'bout someone taking them, stealing their balls from me.  Thief not gain anything by it; they not parts of his soul, but mine; they not gonna obey him.  But me without them--any of them, all of them--I not be Enya anymore 'cept as spirit in branches of Mother-tree.

"This is what I protect you with on journey.  My whole Being.  And this is what you gotta protect for me, these parts of me that be strong enough, brave enough to live out in the world.  Is much too easy, someone take my belt, unless I sleep high up or make myself wee-small or have Tayu hide me in spaces between stars."

[Kiyevanie]

When the impact of Enya's words sank in, Rowellan was glad she was already sitting - it straight away knocked her feet from under her.  "Wait..." she started, then paused, realizing that she didn't have the words yet to describe her thoughts.  Heck, she didn't even really know what she thought right now...

Bjorn, too, was at a loss for words at first, and glad for the support of Pepper's massive shoulder as he found his knees quite as solid as they used to be.  Due to his extended contacts with delegations from Hibernia, he had seen and talked about a bit more and more diverse concepts of magic than Rowellan had.  Still, none of them included the magician giving away shards of their own soul, of their own being into their magic.  Their strength, their willpower, yes - and a spell broken could result in the spellcaster being exhausted and, if it really got bad, being bedridden for a good while.  But that was nothing they couldn't recover from.  Losing a part of someone's soul though - that was different.  It was like losing an arm or a leg...and Bjorn wasn't sure if even that was the right comparison.

He suddenly realized the trust Enya had put into two almost-strangers, not only telling them about it all, but also handing them Pepper's ball to hold.  The Skald let out a breath.  "That... that's... phew!" he started, again sorting out his thoughts.  Enya's "Soul-Friends" being not some creatures she had befriended on her travels, but manifestations of her own being - that explained a few things.  The wisdom behind those eyes, the playfulness and also the strength Pepper radiated.  It also explained a lot about the strength Enya as a person had, bringing out "Soul-Friends" strong and fierce and wild like that.  It explained why she had such a close bond to her companions; although they had a will of their own, they still were parts of herself.  But it did not explain why she was out here on her own... because one thing was true: the moment Enya was asleep, with her friends in their balls, she was helpless.  Helpless to any prankster or thief who might take away one of those balls for fun or profit - and it wouldn't just take away her company or her belongings, it would take away those very parts of her Self.

He shook his head.  "How did you make it so far?" he asked, suddenly worried for the girl and the extended travels she had been on.  "You can bet on one thing - as long as you're travelling with us we'll protect you and your 'Soul-Friends' with every part of our own being too - even if we can't send it out like you."

Rowellan nodded, slowly having come to similar conclusions.  "That."  At one point in her own thinking her eyes had turned hard like stone for a moment - that was when she had thought of what Enya had told her.  That the girl had been sent out to close holes in the sky, sent out because her 'Soul-Friends' were the strongest... sent out by adults who probably knew very well what Rowellan and Bjorn had just learned.  Rowellan hadn't thought much of those adults from the beginning, but now she felt herself getting downright furious!  How could any adult in their right mind dare to risk part of a child's being to fix something that was so huge that those adults and even some minor gods weren't able to do it on their own?!?  She took a breath to calm down again - if those were that people's habits and ways, she had no right to judge.  Plus, it was done and over and getting angry now wouldn't help anyone.

Then another thought crossed her mind.  "I'll talk to Venn," she said.  "You know, I've told you about him - he's a wolf and a friend.  And he knows a lot of other wolves...  I'll make sure that every wolf of his pack will know your name, your face and your scent - and that they'll watch over you when you sleep somewhere and you're alone.  Nobody's ever gonna come close to you."  She got up from her seat and - now knowing that Enya's personal space was up to hugs - did just that, give the girl a tight hug.  "There won't be any sleeping on trees or hiding between the stars as long as you're travelling in Midgard."

[Random the Navigator]

Enya actually looked rather pleased at having blown her friends' minds out of the water the way she just had.  How fun these strangers could be when she revealed things that, at home, needed no explaining!  Ahh, sometimes it took having your world stood on its head to clear your mind and make way for a new perspective!

But she hadn't said what she'd said to garner worry or pity or to invoke anyone's parental instincts.  It was as she'd said in her very first words to Rowellan on the Wall: You not worry for me; I not alone.  So she endeavored to answer Bjorn's question:  "'How I make it'?  In this, in travelling with Soul-friends, I not a child.  Do know people here see this as magic.  If so, I be stronger in this magic than anyone else in all my land.  No boast.  Ask Rowellan, she knows..."

She took on a whole other look then: a look that hinted at not just inner strength, but true power.  "Small gods call on me; their shamans call on me," she said now, addressing them both.  "In Alola, finding and bonding with Soul-friends is a thing that only a child can do.  And I do it better than anyone.  Is why I travel; I not gonna get stronger sitting at home.  Have met armies, sent pirates scurrying, and mended holes in the sky.  You treat me like any other strong wizard or dragon or sea-monster who only her friends know that she got a weakness.  Ya, even a wizard like that 'preciates having friends watch over her and keep her secrets.  And you'll know why you want to when Pepper melts armor or scorches whole wheatfield into ashes.  And you not gonna feel sorry for me; you will be proud to have such a wizard as your friend."

[Kiyevanie]

Rowellan nodded. "Yes... she's told me, back at the wall." And although Enya might like the stunned look on her Midgard friends' faces, she wasn't one to boast - she just told the facts as they were. And that was something she had to tell herself as well - Enya was right: she was strong, she hadn't gotten where she was cause she was a helpless child. So, curb your maternal instincts, she drily told herself. "Without Enya and her Soul-Friends those small gods and their shamans would have really been in trouble." She gave a half grin. "And that part about not getting any stronger by - well, I've heard that a few times ago already. For some reason it's very true."

"Sorry for you?" Bjorn again looked at Pepper, cross-checking the huge dog's look and warmth with Enya's explanation, and smirked. "Maybe I'd better feel sorry for whoever is in that armour Pepper's melting," he stated. "Doesn't change the fact that it doesn't hurt to have someone to have your back."

Rowellan nodded again. "Yeah - it's something that we learn from the start - to look out for each other." Now she smirked too. "And yes, you told me not to feel sorry for you when we met this morning. Wouldn't dare, not with Tayu around." She shook her head. "Never met a bird that could do 'hrrrrmp' as well as him." As much as she was wrapping her head around the fact that this probably was another facet of Enya's complex personality, it was just easier to talk about the critters as their own 'people', with their own mannerisms and quirks.

Softly she added: "And I'm proud and glad to be your friend anyway, mighty wizard or not."

[Random the Navigator]

Enya's firm stance relaxed now that she was sure her companions could relate to her as an ally and a peer.  "Not so mighty," she smiled.  "What I do, what I be is hard to 'splain to people in a foreign land.  If they call it 'wizards' and 'magic', then I say it that way.  Did tell Marble on the Wall 'bout being sorta like a shaman, since he know 'bout shamans but not wizards so much.  A real wizard would laugh at me.  But then I laugh at him back, 'cause he not can do what *I* do either!

"So...is good, we all watch over each other.  Soul-friends know they gotta look out for me, and I not gotta tell them to look out for each other...but sometimes, being so brave, they forget they need protection too.  Think they gonna like Rowy's wolf-friends.  And I sleep better, knowing I not the only thing between them and danger now."

Then she cocked her head at the huntress.  "Rowy?  How come you always look mad when I talk about Tapu and Kahunas and holes in sky?  Was my honor to do that, to be asked to do that.  Nobody make me, and risk was all mine, and did take it willingly, because would rather lose some of me than all of home."

[Kiyevanie]

"I start to see how very much things work differently in your home than here," Rowellan started, hesitating. More and more she realized how her first thoughts might have led her in a wrong direction here - actually she was talking and thinking at the same time. "Not just as in 'you're eating more sea fish than fruit and dress in a different way, and you have one Mother God where we have a whole family of them.' That's true too, but right now I start to see a few more things and they're even deeper and more important. See, I admit my very first thought was not very friendly of the adults at your home... how come they ask of a child all those things? It didn't sound fair to me..." She blushed slightly, her few freckles standing out in her face. "And even more so when I realized what's at stake for you." She raised her hands. "In the village I grew up in children helped with everything as well, were parts of the community, as far as their strength and talents went, but the buttload of what was to do was on the shoulders of the grown-up."

She sighed. "But I guess I've been wrong there. I start to see that what had to be done could only be done by someone like you - because you and your Soul-Friends were just the best ones to do it. Age just didn't matter there. And I see how it's an honour - heck, an honour you probably worked very hard for, for to get where you are now. It's just that part of me that flinches when a child is sent out to do an adult's work. Even though the rest of me just knows better - all the adults would have failed where you were successful."

[Random the Navigator]

"Ah...do see how that maybe look strange, seem strange," Enya acknowledged.  "But is foolish to send grownups to do a child's work, too.  Say is something that needs a small person; a grownup not fit.  Or a light person; 'f a grownup try to pick coconuts off a palm tree, he gonna break off a leaf and fall.  Or a fast person; or, most of all, a person who not got grown-up learning and grown-up worries.  Grown-up learning does shrink the world to what you can know by learning.  Grown-up worries take you away from being a child.  I not can work a field all day or build a house or raise a family; takes bigness and learning to do that.  But that grownup working the fields, he thinking 'bout soil and bugs and what he trying to grow there, and hoping the weather stays right, and hoping the next Clan over gonna want his berries as bad as he want their bark-cloth.  Child not gotta worry 'bout that, 'cause grownups do all the worrying for us, and they provide.  And grownups not gotta worry 'bout losing touch with Eywa, not as long as She keep sending Soul-friends to children."

[Kiyevanie]

Suddenly Rowellan felt a huge lump in her throat. When in all those struggles and fights of the last years had she lost that simple view of life? When had she lost the contact to the girl that had run over her village's meadow, just for the fun of it and cause the grass tickled at her bare feet? The girl that could see whole epic stories in the dancing of a bonfire's flames or the clouds in the sky? Had all of that been lost in between the almost daily fights with foreign intruders? In the mere struggle to stay alive out here? Worrying - heck, yeah, she had become really good at that over the years! And right now, right here, sitting on that chest, she felt the weight of it almost crushing her down.

She blinked really fast. "M-maybe that's somethig we're missing here", she said, very quietly. "Losing our touch with being a child, just worrying too much."

Bjorn, who had stowed away the name "Eywa" and had been just about to ask if that was the Mother God's name, instead stepped over, sat down beside his friend and now it was his turn to give a hug and a shoulder-squeeze.

[Random the Navigator]

"Aww..."  Enya's ears lowered a notch, her face growing soft with empathy before she, too, joined in the embrace.  They stayed in a little huddle long enough for the outside to come drifting back in - people talking, the smell of roast, the mists of early evening creeping in.  In a battle Tayu's Sanctuary lasted five rounds, and the trio had indeed had five exchanges since he'd first draped his metaphorical cloak over them.  The Seafolk girl waited long enough to be reasonably sure the others had noticed, then drew back and smiled a little sadly.

"Grownups gotta be grownups," she said.  "Is strange to me why so many want to be kids again; grownups have own things, important things to do.  But maybe Rowy hadda start doing grown-up stuff too soon?  Heia, not can do anything 'bout it now..."  Then her face lit up with an impish grin: "...'cept maybe help me run my Soul-friends ragged tomorrow!!  Ev'rybody out of their balls when we get to Yggdrasil's Forest!!  'Cept you, Auryn; you gonna be out the whole trip, 'cause you not really meant for ball-travelling, and somebody gotta carry Wuffels!"

The stables erupted with the sounds of animals in varying states of anticipatory glee, the griffin tossing his head and prancing, while Kilvanä stretched her neck out far enough to gently snuffle Rowellan's hair.