By the time Kes and Tresit got back, the sun was starting to really get hot and Kes was grateful to get inside under the shade of the make-shift house that was already becoming familiar to her.

They heard soft singing from inside as they came in. Kes paused by the door to listen while Tresit went in and sat down by his mother and sister without saying a word. Kes watched on as Anara looked in her direction smiled just a little shyly to her. Kes couldn’t help but smile a little back too, even though she knew Anara wouldn’t be able to see it, but she was mostly more than a little lost in the soft melody she was hearing. Anara was singing to her sleeping daughter, a song about how the wind blew over everything and saw so many things on it’s never-ending journey.

Kes had never felt the wind until she’d come to the surface. Not really. There were breezes, drafts in the caves, but no wind – listening to Anara’s song, she made it sound like one of the most beautiful, special things in all the world.

When the song was over, Kes went in and sat on the floor before the other woman, smiling softly up to her. ”That was beautiful.” Kes told her softly, moving to hold her hand.

”Thank you…” Anara spoke, squeezing her hand. ”I’m glad you’re back.” She said, reaching over with her other hand and ran it through his hair a little to show that she, of course, meant him also.

The three of them stayed in and talked after that, waiting out the sun. Before long though, Tresit yawned and went to lay down and rest. He and his sister, very understandably, still hadn’t gotten all their strength back. Kes and Anara ended up sitting facing one another on the cot the two had shared last night and talking.

”What’s it like, down in your city below the ground?” Anara was asking, after they’d moved on from talking about Lanam growing up. They’d both stayed away from the more unpleasant topics so far, and Kes was glad of that. Not that she wanted not to know, or to hide those things about herself; it was more that, after her talks with Tresit, she’d had enough of those topics for one day. That, and she was having such a nice time with Anara, just talking like this, she wanted it to stay that way for a while. She’d never been able to talk like this with anyone else but Tae, or sometimes Lona, and she’d very much missed it.