Sunday, 19th October

What is there that strikes the same quality of fear into a person's heart than the prospect of meeting their partner's parents" Not much, certainly. Carina was confident that Arandir would get along perfectly well with her parents, though her father was an elf not entirely unlike Aran's mother, and her mother was one of those special humans who had managed to capture an elven heart. She'd gushed about him to both of them so much, this visit was long overdue.

Holding his hand, she squeezed gently as they approached the Marketplace, where her parents lived above their apothecary shop. "Don't look so worried," she tried to assure him. "I'm sure it will be fine."

To say Aran was nervous was a gross understatement, though he had no reason to think Carina's parents wouldn't approve of him. After all, there were more similarities than differences between them, and Carina had assured him that they would like him just fine. Still, this was yet another milestone to him, another unknown, but he was determined to make the best impression he could and successfully win her parents' approval. "What if they don't like me?" he asked, worriedly, despite her reassurances, his palm a little clammy in hers.

"I am absolutely certain they will like you," she promised him fervently. "And even if, for some outlandish reason, they don't, it won't change the way I feel about you." She drew him to a halt outside the little shop, pausing to kiss him softly, trailing her fingertips against his cheek. "Try not to worry so much, Aran. I love you, remember?"

He found himself pulled to a halt outside the shop that he assumed belonged to her parents, turning to face her, her lips unexpectedly touching his. "I love you, too," he replied, that worried frown still on his face. What was the worst that could happen" He wasn't back home; he was here on Rhy'Din, where humans and elves lived in peace together, and he didn't have to worry about being killed just because he was of mixed blood.

She smiled, stroking his cheek once more. Her lips brushed his tenderly as she gently guided him down an alley that lay beside the shop, to a fenced garden at its rear. In through the gate, he was treated to the sight of a garden that could only have been created and tended by an elf, even as Carina was busy unlocking the door to her parents' home.

Though Aran was still frowning with worry, Carina's kisses and caresses and reassurances helped him find the courage to overcome his fears. After all, if he wanted to make her his lifemate one day, he was going to have to meet her parents and ask for their approval sooner or later. "Are your parents..." he paused a moment to find the right word as she led him through the gate and he given a glimpse of the garden. "Vegetarians?" he asked, after searching his memory for the right word.

"My father doesn't like to eat meat very often, but he does eat it at family gatherings, like today," she told him, finally wrestling the key in the lock to allow them inside. "He often teases my mother with the suggestion that she would eat anything if it could prove it had a heartbeat before it ended up on the table."

Thus far, Aran had not made a fuss about eating meat. In fact, he'd had to do some hunting in order to survive during his self-imposed isolation when he'd first arrived. It was something he actually excelled at, though it hadn't been necessary since he'd come out of hiding and moved to the city. "We hunt on occasion, but we don't raise animals to be slaughtered."

"Aran ....you don't have to eat meat if you would rather not," Carina assured him, ushering him inside. Beyond the door was a short hallway with a staircase leading upward, to where the sound of people made themselves known on the floor above.

If it hadn't been her parents' house, he might have found it odd that she'd just let herself in. He understood the need for keys and locks in this world, though there was no need for such things back home. "I'll be fine, Carina," he assured her quietly. Though it hadn't been easy, he was quickly adapting to the customs and lifestyle of this place, at least, as far as Carina's habits were concerned. He tilted his head at the sound of muffled voices at the top of that staircase. Though he was unable to make out what they were saying he thought he could make out two distinct voices, most likely her mother and father. He drew a deep breath to gather his courage. It was going to be now or never.

Smiling, she shut the door behind them and took his hand once again, moving to draw him up the stairs, toward the sound of her parents and the tantalizing smell of the meal being prepared. "Naneth, Adar?" she called out to the people above, warning them that their expected company had arrived.

He followed her up the stairs, a little surprised to find her using words that were at least vaguely familiar, close enough to his own native tongue to be easily recognizable. He wondered a little at that, curious as to her father's origins. Was he from a world other than Rhy'Din, or was he a native" Could there be some sort of connection between his tribe and her father's" These questions would have to wait, however, as the door swung open to reveal a human woman who was obviously some years older than Carina, but just as lovely. It was clear where she got her good looks.

"Carina!" she exclaimed, with a warm, maternal smile, obviously thrilled to see her daughter, though he doubted it had been long since she had seen her last. She greeted her daughter with an embrace and drew her into the room, swinging that same warm smile toward Aran. "And you must be Aran," she said. "It's a pleasure to meet you at last. We've heard so much about you."

Squeezed tight by her mother, Carina was swept into the room beyond - a pleasantly made sitting room that was filled with sunlight from the wide opens that lined one wall - and straight into her father, who chuckled lightly and gently touched his lips to his daughter's forehead. "Hello, little bird," he murmured to her, exchanging a smile with Carina before his eyes turned to the door. He could hear Aran, of course, but until his wife brought the boy in, there was no chance of seeing him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, as well," Aran replied politely in return, as Carina's mother drew him by the hand further into the house.

"Don't be nervous, dear," she reassured him with that motherly smile of hers that almost reminded him of his own mother. "You've nothing to fear from us." She looked him over, recognizing the subtle differences that marked him as one of half-blood. "It's a gift, you know," she told him. "Being of both human and elven blood. You get the best of both worlds, so to speak." She drew him closer, lowering her voice just a little so that her husband and daughter wouldn't overhear her. "I don't know how much Carina has told you, but don't let my husband's appearance shock you."

"It is," Carina nodded to her mother. "It's based on songs that were released by a very popular band thirty or forty years ago now. The music really is fantastic, and Aran's voice is truly amazing to hear."

"Of course it is," Raniel snorted quietly, amusement leaking through his tone once again. "I would be shocked to learn it was otherwise."

"Are we talking about the same thing, dear?" Amara asked her husband with a pointed look, while Aran blushed again when Carina made a point of praising him in front of her parents. He didn't really think there was anything all that unusual about his voice, though Mataya seemed to think otherwise.

"It's just a small part," he said, though that was not exactly true. "I'm sharing the part with someone else." Which gave him ample time to learn it, as it was the very first performance ever in a theater production.

"He has elven blood, of course his voice is excellent," Raniel clarified his position for his wife, though his smile suggested that he had deliberately made the first comment ambiguous. This was a man, it seemed, who very much enjoyed teasing his wife.

"It may be a small part, but it's integral to the plot," Carina went on, taking Aran's attempt to minimize his involvement and growing it once again. "And it will be a fantastic foundation for you to build on for the next production."

"We are taught from a young age," Aran went on to explain, looking from Carina to her parents. "Almost as soon as we can form words." He did not explain how old elves were in general when that happened, but from what he said, it could be inferred that happened while they were still very young. He looked between the three of them again, unsure if they knew the real truth of his upbringing. "I am the only one of my kind there. The only one who is both human and elf."

Carina gently curled both her hands about his one. This was one thing she had not told her parents, deeming it too personal for her to share without his knowledge.

Raniel's stern face softened, compassion wetting his piercing eyes for a long moment before he spoke. "You are not alone," he told the young half-elf quietly, and he seemed to mean more than just Carina's presence in Aran's life. But then, he was an elf, and the amulet Aran wore had been created with elven magic. Even if he did not know what it was, precisely, Raniel could recognize the touch of that magic.

For all Raniel's teasing, his wife knew when the conversation was about to take a serious turn. She had diverted the conversation once, but she was not sure if she should do so again. Instead, she offered a smile and touched her daughter's hand before moving to her feet. "Come and help me finish up with dinner, Carina," she suggested gently, with that motherly look in her eyes that brooked no argument.

"Yes, naneth." There was no question of disobeying her mother. Carina kissed Aran's cheek gently, untangling her hand from his, and rose to follow her mother into the kitchen, not at all concerned. Intimidating though her father could be, he was far more compassionate than many people gave him credit for.

Aran looked to Carina with a brief look of panic in his eyes that she was leaving him alone with her father, but then he sensed the necessity to talk and knew the elder elf probably had a lot of questions for him. He only hoped he had answers. The two women disappeared through a door into what was presumably the kitchen, and Aran wrung his hands a little nervously.

Raniel considered the nervous young man carefully for a long moment, aware that he was making Aran uncomfortable but choosing to pause before speaking again. "Can it be, Arandir, that you do not know what it is you carry with you?"

"What I carry with me?" Aran echoed, in that way he often did when he didn't quite understand what was being told him. There was, however, only one thing the elf could be referring to, and one hand automatically went to his chest, where the amulet rested against his heart, hidden by his shirt. He flushed again, realizing he could not hide even that from the elder elf.

Raniel's eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he considered the boy's uncertainty. "There is great tragedy in the past you carry with you," he said quietly. "Yet you are the means by which that tragedy may yet be averted. You are the only one of your kind to have been born on your world, and yet you have been released, sent here, carrying with you a soul stone that pulses with power. Yet you do not seem to know it."

Aran's eyes widened, not only at Raniel's explanation but at the elf's obvious understanding of something he had not even seen, but had only sensed. "I..." He trailed off a moment, obviously perplexed and unsure what to say or do next, as though some deep kept secret had just been discovered.

"It would appear, Arandir, that our cultures are not so very different," Raniel went on thoughtfully. "I was born in the kingdom of Tethyr, a solely elven community, but unlike our cousins in other communities across Faerun, we were taught to embrace other cultures. Indeed, until I came here, I had not met a human, dwarf, or any other who had ever raised their hand to me in anger. I found that, if I accepted them, they chose to accept me. I do not think this is something you were taught as an infant."

Aran gravely listened to Raniel's words, knowing instinctively that there was wisdom in them, and he found his heart aching with the sense of loss at those he'd left behind, those he believed he would never see again. "It is not the elves who choose to hate, but the humans," he said, his voice full of sadness. There was a story there behind his words, if he choose to share it.

Raniel shook his head. "Sadly, that is not the whole truth," he said quietly. "Where one side feels hate, there will be atrocities committed. Those atrocities will teach the other side to hate with as much passion. The danger comes when the warrior caste find power. Others will seek a peaceful means to end the conflict - a warrior sees only the battle before him."

"My people are a dying race," Aran was quick to point out, though he had not told even Carina this much. "There had not been a child born to them in hundreds of years, until....until me." He flushed again, embarrassed to make himself sound so important, yet this was the truth. He drew the amulet from his shirt and held it in the palm of his hand. "This is all I have left of them. It holds all their memories, their history, their culture. Everything that made them who they are."

"Eavesdropping?" Aran echoed, turning a slightly panicked look toward the kitchen, wondering just how much the two women had overheard. He flushed darkly, knowing he'd told Carina's father even more than he had her and realizing he'd also promised he and Carina would have children one day. "Do you think they heard....everything?"

"Everything," Raniel nodded. The sternness on his face had relaxed completely at the sound of his wife and daughter obviously enjoying themselves. "One thing you will have to learn about women, Arandir ....they like to know, even if they never speak of it. Do not worry if Carina may hold what you have said to me against you - she is a wise little soul, despite her silly tendencies."

"I did not know how to tell her. She worries about me and..." There he was trailing off again, as if he was at a loss for words. "I do not want to cause her worry." The truth of the matter was that was what people did who loved one another, and there was no real way around it.

Raniel patted his shoulder. "I would suggest you get used to having her worry about you," he told Aran rather cheerfully. "It is a part of sharing your life with someone, and, I must confess ....it is rather pleasant to know that someone worries about you."

Aran wondered about that statement a moment. While it was true that he worried about her, he didn't really want her worrying about him. Loving him, caring about him, yes, but worrying no, and yet, didn't they go hand in hand" "I will try," he replied, not quite a promise, though he was being honest.

"That is the best that you can do," Raniel assured him, glancing up as the door to the kitchen opened and Carina was apparently shoved through bodily, her arms laden with plates and cutlery to set the table.

She blushed, biting her lip and laughing. "Sorry."

Aran glanced over at Carina's abrupt arrival, flushing scarlet to know she had most likely heard every word spoken to her father, but this did not seem like the time to explain further. His gaze softened - from the look on his face, he was obviously enamored of her. "Is there anything I can do to help?" he asked, awkwardly.

"Of course," Raniel answered for his daughter, who was too busy giggling in embarrassment to form speech for the moment. "Help Carina lay the table. Excuse me while I distract my wife."

Aran looked almost relieved to be left to such a task, one he thought would be fairly easily accomplished. He offered her father another respectful nod before stepping over to help her as he might. "Can I help?" he repeated when they were left alone.

She nodded, just about in control of her giggles by the time he reached her. "Yes, of course," she assured him, setting her heavy armload down onto the table. She turned him, one hand gentle against his cheek. "Did that help at all?"

"Yes," he answered honestly, even if he was a little embarrassed. Her father had understood him and his past better than Aran could have ever imagined. "I have not been entirely honest with you, Carina. I am sorry," he added with a small frown.

Her thumb stroked over his frown, smoothing the lines away. "You can tell me when you're ready to," she promised him softly. "I won't push you to share anything that obviously so very personal, Aran. Just remember I'm here, when you are ready."

"I did not want to worry you," he repeated the explanation he'd just given her father, though it seemed she understood without him offering any excuses. "There are things you don't know about me, things I don't know about myself. Your father said he would help me understand," he told her, drawing comfort from her touch and hoping she would understand.

"Aran, I worry because I love you, and I can see you struggling with this," she told him gently. "I don't want you to struggle alone, but I don't think it's something I can help with. I will worry, but it is only because I love you."

"I love you, too," Aran replied, reaching to touch her cheek. "I want to tell you, but....It's just hard," he said with a frown. He'd broken down once in front of her father; he didn't really want to break down again in front of her. At least, not here, not now. There was only one way, however, that she was going to truly understand him and that was to tell her the truth.

"So tell me later, when we're at home," she suggested, pausing to cradle his face between her hands and kiss him tenderly. "My father likes you. And my mother does, too. There is no need to feel concerned while you're here, Aran. We're all family now."

He nodded his head, though that wasn't quite true. At least, not yet. They wouldn't truly be family until her father spoke the words that would link their lives, their hearts, and their souls together, but for now, it was enough to know she loved him and to know her family approved. "It's a strange feeling, to have family again."

Her fingers lingered against his cheek for a long moment before she drew back, turning her attention to setting the table once more. "I hope you will get used to it," she murmured affectionately. "Though I also think my mother may strangle you in her joy the day you introduce her to her first grandchild."

He arched a brow, wondering if she'd overheard him or if this was a personal wish of her own. They'd never really discussed children much, though he assumed if they were going to spend their lives together, children would be a part of that. "I would like her to know her grandchildren," he said, knowing the lifespan of humans wasn't nearly long enough. He took the cutlery from her and set it out alongside each plate.

Opening a drawer in a large dresser behind her, Carina withdrew serving spoons from within, setting them along the table for when the food finally arrived. "So would I," she agreed quietly. Her mother's lifespan was not something she often considered, but knowing that she would definitively outlive her was a sad thought in the back of her mind. Sadder still was the knowledge that her father would outlive them all.

He wasn't quite sure what to add to that, knowing as she did that her mother's life was not one that would last nearly as long as theirs, and yet, he had never expected to lose his own family the way that he had, gone all too soon, though they'd been elves. Or so he assumed. "Did you tell your mother our intentions?"

Aran had taken a seat beside Carina and across from her mother. "What did you do as a druid?" Aran asked, unsure if his definition of the word was the same as Raniel's or not. He waited for Carina to pass him a bowl before helping himself to any of the other foodstuffs, but it was Amara who buttered him a slice of bread and passed it over.

"I was a guardian of the forests," Raniel explained. "I had dedicated my life to the gods of the forest, and they, in turn, gave me divine magic to wield in the protection and nurturing of those same forests. Occasionally I was called upon to fight, but I mostly lived wild and alone but for the animals who shared their home with me."

Oddly, it seemed that was almost what Aran had found himself doing upon his arrival in Rhy'Din, though at the moment, he didn't really see the irony in that fact. "And what brought you to Rhy'Din?" he asked, his curiosity piqued, nodding his thanks to Carina's mother for the bread.

"War," Raniel told him quietly, handing the bowl of potatoes over to Carina. "Many years before, an evil god, whom we knew as Bhaal, had walked the lands, spreading his seed. When those children came of age, they brought war and death to the lands, the like of which we had never seen before. I could not stomach it, and I appealed to my gods to save me from it. They brought me here, where I was promptly robbed, beaten, and dropped on Amara's doorstep to die." He smiled at his wife fondly, the pain of that episode forgotten in the joy of what had come after.

Aran arched his brows, once again surprised by the elder elf's story and the fact that they had this, too, in common. Though Aran had not left his world by choice, it had been war that had caused his departure. At least, Aran had been sparred being robbed. He wasn't sure what he'd do if anyone had stolen the amulet. "War is what brought me here, too," he said, more for the benefit of the women at the table than for Raniel, who knew this already, though not in detail.

Carina's hand gently touched Aran's, soft in reassurance as she smiled at him. "Although I'm not glad of the war, I am glad you are here," she said softly, and it was clear from every aspect of her tone and expression that she adored him. Raniel looked at his wife, approval large in his piercing eyes for a moment.

Amara exchanged knowing glances with her husband and very subtly reached over to touch her fingers to his, happy with the choice her daughter had made. She knew the sacrifices her husband had made for her, and she was glad her daughter had fallen in love with someone who would be able to share his entire life with her. "Well, enough talk of war," she pronounced, breaking the small silence that had fallen over the group as Carina and Aran lost themselves in each other's eyes for a moment. "Let's pause a moment to give thanks and then eat before it gets cold!"

For once, Carina didn't blush at being caught in a tender moment, simply smiling warmly at Aran as she wound her fingers between his, lifting her other hand into her father's grasp. Raniel smiled at the young couple, waiting patiently for Aran to take Amara's other hand before speaking a quiet blessing in his own elven tongue. The language was tantalizingly close to that which Aran had grown up with, only a few words here and there difficult to understand.

Aran pulled himself away from Carina's glance and took Amara's free hand, so that Raniel could bless the meal. Even if he didn't understand each and every word, he grasped the meaning behind what was being said, and found the language was similar enough to his own that he could easily follow along.

After a moment of quiet, Raniel raised his head, releasing Carina's hand, and after a moment of gentle tenderness, Amara's, too. He looked at the others innocently. "Well? The food is getting cold, you know."

Amara smiled at her husband for a moment with nearly that same look of tender adoration Carina reserved for Aran, before letting go of his hand so that they could enjoy the meal before them. "Let's eat!" she said, with the same enthusiasm that she put into everything she did. She knew her life span was more limited than theirs, and she didn't waste any time enjoying every minute of it.

Carina laughed, quick to pick up her own knife and fork. The food was good - wholesome and simple, prepared with as much love as with skill, and in a manner that somehow managed to blend elven and human cookery to best effect. As they ate, the conversation flowed easily back and forth; this was a family that liked to talk, and seemed to enjoy the challenge of drawing Aran into their conversations with enthusiasm. It may only have been his first visit to the Cox home, but the bar had already been set. With the approval of her parents, there was only time between now and when he could join with his Carina, and be truly a part of a family once again.

((Yes, it took us nearly a week to write this all out, but wasn't it worth it' Huge thanks to Aran's player!))