True to Aunt Mylane's words, Hyron didn't come home until well into the night and Evalon was already in bed. Evalon had hoped to speak with him before he left for work the next morning, but again he was gone when she woke.

Sighing, Evalon ate her breakfast, which was, thankfully, just regular oatmeal instead of that sage whatever-you-call-it she'd had yesterday.

"What do you have planned for today?" Mylane asked from across the table, scooping some oatmeal with brown sugar and strawberries into her mouth.

Evalon shrugged. Rarely did she have plans. "I thought I might unpack all my things and get my room set up."

"That's a great idea. Did you see that Hyron moved all your chests into your room last night?"

Evalon nodded. She had woken up to a pile of trunks and chests by the door that had not been there the night before when she fell asleep. She wondered how the noise of moving them had not woken her up, but Evalon was often a heavy sleeper, and she had stayed up later than usual hoping to speak to Uncle Hyron when he returned home. Chances were she had been so dead to the world in her slumber that a dragon could have roared in her ear and not woken her.

There was a knock on the front door that could only be described as "jaunty". There was only one person Evalon knew who could make something so simple as a knock on a door sound happy, and sure enough, when she pulled open the door,  Elen was smiling brightly at her.

"'Morning," Elen said cheerily.

Evalon couldn't help the tiniest of smiles that came to her lips. "Hi."

"So, what do you have planned today?" Elen asked, clearly moving beyond pleasantries. 

"Uh, I was going to unpack my things and get my room set up."

Elen grinned. "Fun. I'll help you."

"Uh, no, it's okay," Evalon told her. "You don't have to--"

"Nonsense, it'll be fun."

"Unpacking?" she asked dubiously.

Elen nodded so enthusiastically Evalon thought it would have been more appropriate had she suggested they go see the dragons again. "I'm not doing anything else today."

"Uh, um, if you're sure..." Evalon said hesitantly. She had never had someone so enthusiastic to help her before, especially with such a mundane task as unpacking.

"Great!"

Evalon led Elen up to her bedroom and closed the door. Besides the bed, wardrobe, and nightstand, there was nothing decorating the small room. The only additions to the room Evalon had made since arriving in Mydalr were setting her jewelry box, picture, and a cup of water by the candle on the nightstand.

"So, where do you want to start?" Elen asked, clapping her hands together.

"Um, maybe we should pick a trunk and make our way through the pile?" Evalon suggested uncertainly.

"You're the boss, girl," Elen told her. She strode over to the pile of trunks and selected one from the top. "Let's start with this one," she decided. They moved the trunk to the middle of the room, opened it, and peered inside.

"I forgot I had that," Evalon mumbled to herself, picking out a faded blue tunic from the top of the pile of neatly-folded clothes within the box.

"So, clothes," said Elen, noting the contents of the trunk. "Wardrobe, I'm assuming?"

Evalon nodded.

"Any specific way you want them organized?" Elen asked.

"Uh, organized?"

"You know, like order the tunics according to their colors' place in the color spectrum, or sorted alphabetically according to their color name in Toubelle?"

"Uh, no. Just anywhere is fine," Evalon told her, wondering briefly if Elen sorted her clothes in such an unconventional manner.

"Why don't I put these away and you get started on the next chest?" Elen suggested, gathering the clothes from the trunk in her arms and making her way over to the wardrobe.

"Good idea." Evalon grabbed the nearest chest and pulled it towards her, the wood scraping against the wooden floor. The chest wasn't very big, but it was very heavy, and Evalon grunted and groaned with the effort of moving it.

"What's in there?" Ellen's muffled voice from the wardrobe asked curiously at hearing Evalon's struggle.

Evalon unlatched the trunk and pushed the lid back on silent bronze hinges. "Well, that explains the weight," she said.

"What is it?" Elen came over, having finished putting the clothes in neat piles in the shelves of the wardrobe. "Books?"

Evalon nodded. "I don't have anywhere to put them, though. I left all my bookshelves in Gisla."

"Where did you get this many?" Elen asked, picking a thick volume from the top and glancing at its spine. "Have you read all of these?"

"Not all of them," Evalon said, turning pink. 

"What language is this in?" Elen asked, holding out the book in her hand to Evalon.

"It's not in a different language," Evalon told her, struggling to hold back a small laugh. "It's just some letters on the cover are faded."

Ellen's mouth made a perfectly round O and she set the book back in the trunk. "Well, where do you want to put them all?"

"Why don't we stack them at the foot of the bed for now? I can always move them later." They both pulled the trunk closer to the bed and began to set the books in a pile at the foot of it.

"Why do you have this many books, girl?" Elen asked when they were only halfway through.

Evalon shrugged, color tinging her cheeks in both pride and embarrassment. "This isn't even all of them. I'm sure there's two or three more the more than this one."

"Wow. How did you get them all?"

Evalon shrugged. "Lots of places. Most of them are my aunt's, but some of them are mine or were my mother's."

"How did she die?" Evalon had to admire Elen's bravery. Evalon would have shrunk away at even thinking the question. Elen was just the opposite. She didn't hesitate, didn't stumble over her words as Evalon tended to. Evalon wished she could be more like that.

"Uh, she, um, died of childbirth. She lost a lot of blood and died a week after I was born." Confessing out loud that she was the cause of her mother's death made Evalon more uncomfortable than she would have liked to admit.

Elen seemed not notice Evalon's nervousness. Then again, Evalon always acted nervously. "Is that her?" Elen tilted her chin toward the picture standing on the nightstand.

"Yeah."

"May I?" Without waiting for a response, Elen stood and scooped the photo off the nightstand. She smiled. "She was so pretty."

"She was," Evalon agreed. She placed the last of the books on the top of the pile. "That's the last of that chest. What's in the next one?" Evalon was grateful that Elen picked up on her signal and put the photo down to join her at the pile of trunks.

The next chest held more clothes, as did the one after that. The next one held more books and was even bigger and heavier than the last one. Elen talked the entire time, chattering about this and that, never seeming to run out of things to say. Evalon envied her ability to anything and everything that came to mind. She was grateful for Elen's help, though. With the two of them working together, the trunks and emptied much faster than they would have had Evalon done it all herself. By the time Mylane called them down for lunch, they only had two boxes left.

When they arrived in the kitchen Evalon glanced at the antique waterclock in the living room, which was looking a little less bare with the unpacking Mylane must have been doing all day. It was three in the afternoon.

"A bit late for lunch, isn't it?" Elen asked pleasantly.

"I'm sorry, girls," Mylane apologized. "I've been busy doing my own unpacking. I lost track of time."

"Maybe we should just have a small snack, then, to hold us over until dinner?" Evalon suggested.

Mylane's eyes got wide. "Dinner! I completely forgot! I'd better get started right away!" She started pulling out pots and pans and digging things out of the cupboards like a whirlwind.

"So much for lunch," Elen said brightly, not bothering to hide her smile. "She is in the zone."

"Here." Evalon reached into the basket that Elen and Mylane had left and pulled out two strange fruits and offered one to her. "Let's leave her to her madness."

They returned to Evalon's room and munched on their fruits as they opened one of the remaining boxes. Evalon was pleased to find that her selected food was very sweet and juicy. Three times she had to slurp juice from the fruit to keep it from dripping onto the floor.

When they opened the first of the waiting chests they found it contained a few pairs of Evalon's shoes, a small desk waterclock, her old school bag, and a slender, copper instrument of some kind. It was a hollow tube with small holes in a uniform line down one side and a mouthpiece at one end. Elen plucked it out of the chest curiously, holding it up to the light. "What is this thing?" she asked.

"It's a penny whistle."

Elen's greengage lit up. "Do you play?"

"U-u-uh, n-no, not really," Evalon choked out.

Elen raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "No? Then why do you have it?" She had Evalon trapped there, and she knew it.

"I-I-I used to play," Evalon admitted. "A long time ago."

"Were you ever any good?"

"Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no, no."

"Will you play me something?" Elen asked, holding out the whistle to her.

"What?" Evalon asked, eyes wide.

"Play me something," Elen repeated. "Nothing fancy. Just a little tune."

"I-I-I-I don't know if I even remember how to play."

"Then make it up," Elen suggested. She held out the whistle again, and Evalon took it, a panic-stricken look on her face. "Go on. You can do it, girl."

Evalon wet her lips, whether in preparation or nervousness she couldn't tell. "I-I only learned one song. A folk song."

"Play that, then. Go on, stop stalling."

Hands shaking slightly, Evalon brought the penny whistle up to her lips, and, after many false starts, managed to blow out a few shaky notes. The whistle made a terrible squeak and Evalon dropped it from her mouth. "I can't. I don't like performing."

Elen laughed, though not unkindly. "I'd hardly call it a performance. It's just me."

Evalon remained silent.

"Just pretend I'm not here," Elen suggested. "In fact, just close your eyes."

Evalon sighed. She knew Elen wouldn't let her get off with not playing something. Closing her eyes might make it easier...

Taking a deep breath, Evalon closed her eyes, steeled herself, and started to play again. She began to play what she could recall from the folk song she had learned, and while the notes were slow and shaky, Evalon thought she did alright considering it had been years since she had picked up her penny whistle and that she was shaking like a leaf.

When Evalon reached the end of what she remembered she held out the note as long as she could and opened her eyes. Elen was sitting just as she had been when Evalon closed her eyes, but now she was smiling thoughtfully. "I've never heard that song before."

"It's an old song," Evalon told her, turning red.

"It's beautiful. What's it called?"

"Um, I'm not sure. I think it's something like Utque Volans Alas Draco."

"What in the world does that mean?" Elen crinkled her nose. "It sounds like you're trying to throw up."

Evalon couldn't help the little laugh that escaped her lips. "It's from the Old Language. It means Soaring On Dragon Wings."

"Why does the Old Language sound like barfing?" Elen asked.

Evalon laughed for real this time and reached for final chest. "Last one," she sighed, relieved. Being able to laugh had chased away Evalon's nervousness, and her hands hardly even trembled when she pushed up the lid.

Inside the chest were some cloaks, extra blankets, and a worn, faded, orange and blue stuffed dragon the size of an orange. Elen snatched the stuffed dragon from the chest. "Aw!" she squealed. "This is so cute!"

Evalon smiled fondly. "It was my dad's. His mom made it for him when he was a baby."

"This is the cutest thing I've ever seen," Elen said, captivated by the little dragon. "Does he have a name?"

"Uh, I don't know," Evalon admitted. "My dad always just called it his 'little buddy'."

"Aw! This is just too adorable."

Evalon couldn't help but grin at her friend's infatuation with her favorite childhood toy which was little more than rags now. Her friend. Was that what Elen was? Her friend? It certainly felt like she was. It was a nice feeling, like some space in her life that she didn't realize needed filling was occupied to the point of overflowing.

"Thanks for your help, Elen," Evalon said once they had taken care of the last of her cloaks. 

The corners of Elen's mouth turned up in a radiant smile. "No problem, girl. It was kind of fun, to be honest. I've been wanting a break in my day-to-day routine. Well, better get home," she said, switching gears in the conversation. "I promised Fin I'd help him beat Keaton in a game of slick ball this afternoon and I probably shouldn't be late." Ellen's voice held as much enthusiasm as it would have had she said she was going to go boil her hair.

"Who's Keaton?" Evalon vaguely recalled Elen mentioning the name on her tour.

"Keaton Williams. He's pretty much Mr. Perfect around here. Nearly every girl is absolutely head-over-heels in love with him, and Fin has a bit of a rivalry with him."

"A rivalry? Why?"

Elen shrugged. "I think it has something to do with their futures as Dragonknights and who would be the best and all that. I don't know. I stopped trying to understand my cousin a long time ago."

Evalon chuckled. "You don't seem to like him very much."

Elen sighed. "I do like him, don't get me wrong. It's just that sometimes he can be a bit..."

"Annoying?" Evalon often heard students grumbling about annoying family members at her old school.

"No, it's not that. It's just..." She groaned. "I'm not even sure. He just tends to rub me the wrong way."

The only family Evalon had ever known was her aunt, uncle, and father. She wondered if, had she ever had a sibling or a cousin, if he or she would get on her nerves.

"Anyway, better go," Elen said, walking for the door. "Fin might irritate me to pieces, but he's still family. See you!"