Only a hundred and three. Most humans never lived that long. Yet Darin was saying it with almost the same tone the elders used when they complained about her. “She’s only sixteen. She’ll settle down in a year or two.” “She’s only seventeen. She still has time to be young.” “She just turned eighteen. Let her make a few more youthful mistakes.” Of course, she was nineteen now. The elders had been starting to worry about her. Not for the first time she wondered how aging worked for Elves. Ridahne was almost five times her age yet seemed to be about the same maturity level. Were Elves children longer than humans being or did their aging slow down when they reached adulthood? Darin could see the positives of living for hundreds of years, but wasn’t sure she could stand being a child for any longer than she had been a child.

Though that did raise an interesting question. How had her aging been affected? The Gardener was the oldest person in Astra. He had been here before Astra was, well, Astra. Did he stop aging when he got his Seed or when he planted it? She didn’t know. It wasn’t something The Tree had decided to tell her. He may not have looked like a Child of Astra, but Darin would say that he looked middle-aged. Did he look middle-aged to Elves or Sirens? She couldn’t ask Ridahne. She hadn’t seen The Gardener. She had said Anojan had seen him. Maybe she could ask the Taja when they got to Azurei. That wouldn’t be bad. Well they weren’t going to get there by standing around.

Taja hopped off of Darin’s shoulder into his travel basket as she said, “Well it will take even longer if we just stand a round. We should get going.”

Talbot took that as the invitation that it was and turned to exit the village. They had to go by the fields and Darin waved at the people going about the harvest with a smile on her face. They paused for a moment to wave back at her before turning back to their work. The ones that had been there when she stopped the rain paused for a moment longer to watch as they actually left. It was a clearly a sign of respect. Right before they officially left Darin turned in her seat to wave at them one last time. She had made some friends here. As a result, she felt a little bit better about her mission. Maybe she could make friends. Maybe this quest wouldn’t be a disaster after all. She had survived the Red Hand at least once; twice if Mark was Red Hand. She had proven she could make friends. She didn’t think the journey would ever be easy, but for the first time she felt cautiously optimistic.

Talbot kept a good pace. He wasn’t pushing himself, but he certainly wasn’t taking things slowly. That was good. They wanted to cover a fair distance today without exhausting themselves. From time to time Taja would take flight and disappear into the trees. He was still too weak to fly as far as he was used to. Still Darin was glad the hawk was making these short little flights. They would safely strengthen the bird’s wings, so soon the Taja would be ready to go back home. There was a part of Darin that wasn’t looking forward to that. She had grown used to the bird’s company. Of course, she would have to return Talbot at some point as well and when all was said and done Ridahne would go home. In the end, if all went well, Darin would be left alone with just her Seed and The Tree it would become. Suddenly she wanted to age and die like a human. She also felt an overwhelming sense of sympathy for The Gardener who had to watch time move without touching him. Darin’s optimism slowly leached out of her as she considered that. She was in for a long lonely life. She didn’t mind being alone, but she didn’t fancy being lonely. She slowly slumped on Talbot’s back. How had she gotten on to this depressing train of thought.