”Once, when I was nine years old, I…” But her words trailed off as Kes’s eyes flew open and she sat up.

”Nine years?” She asked softly.

”Yes… why is that important?” Anara asked confused.

”Um, may I ask, what age are you now?” She asked her.

”Nineteen years, and some months, I think it would be. Why?” Anara asked.

Kes shook her head in wonder a little. ”My people don’t live so long, usually only seven or eight years at most.” Kes told her. ”How… how long do your people live for?” She asked.

Anara regarded her with undisguised surprise. ”I… most don’t live past forty years. Some to forty-five or so.” She told her. ”Kes… how old are you?”

”One and a half years.” Kes told her. ”I thought… I thought you were perhaps a month or two older, four of five at most, I never thought…” She looked at Anara in wonder. ”And, Lanam, Tresit?” She asked.

”Lanam is four years, Tresit six years…” Anara told her quietly. ”…how could it be…?”

”That I am younger than Lanam?” Kes shook her head. ”How… how do you count years?” She asked, but then realized that she already knew, and that, though there was a difference, it only meant that an Ocampan year was a little less than a month longer. ”No, wait, I already know that. It’s not that, your people really do age that much slower than mine.” She looked over to Anara, not quite sure what to make of this news, if it was important or not. It certainly felt like it was.

”Oh, Kes…” Anara caressed her cheek and Kes smiled at the contact, feeling comforted. ”That’s why you seemed so… innocent, isn’t it?” She asked. ”It’s strange though, you seem just as old as I am, in other ways. We certainly look…”

”We look the same age.” Kes finished for her.

”We do…” Anara told her gently, caressing her face again a little. ”And you seem… don’t worry about it, though. Come, let me tell you more of my story.”

Kes brought her hand up to touch the hand that was caressing her. She closed her eyes and smiled. ”Alright.” She agreed, laying her head back down in Anara’s lap and closing her eyes again as Anara began again to tell her stories from her childhood, of the small adventures she’d had with her brother, Ralka, and how he would fight for her against Tulk and his gang of beastlings.