{-Sharena-}

"I think the three of you would get along well," Freyr remarked. He'd introduced himself to her a while ago, since he was the one she always played with. And now, he was introducing her to two other girls; the fact she was hiding behind him didn't matter.

He told her before that "It would do you some good to be around other girls your age." He also said to another person, "Back home, she only has her mother to talk to, since her brother's getting busier. It can't hurt to give her some connections here." She didn't really understand any of it. But honestly, she was a three-year-old, who was standing right next to the dude who could turn into a goat-like creature, surrounded by giant plants, so was she even supposed to know what was going on?

Freyr tried to gently get her to come closer, even to the point of stepping back so then he wasn't between them. "Go on and introduce yourself."

"Sharena," she mumbled. After a pause, just to make herself a little clearer, rephrased and said, "I'm Sharena."

Every day since then, she played with them each night. The details were always blurry when she woke up, but she knew that she'd had fun and remembered what she'd learned about them. There wasn't much she'd learned yet; they'd only known each other for a couple of weeks. She knew their names, and how old they were. Then they knew how old she was, and the role she played in the kingdom of Askr. Of course, the amount of time she spent with Freyr seemed to be a much more impressive topic of conversation.

"It's like… a goat. But a really big goat." Sharena found it hard to put it into words—then again, a lot of things were still hard for her to put into words. She wondered if Freyr mentioned it to them before; Peony was the youngest (by a few months, but still), yet didn't seem to have any problems at all, and they both had patience with it.

"I didn't think anyone ever got that close to Freyr…" Triandra muttered, confused. "I heard stories. No one ever gets in that throne room."

"You mean it's not normal..?"

"Definitely not normal."

She wasn't really paying any attention to the adults, instead spending her time trying to catch the grasshoppers and chase the butterflies around the garden. Did it really matter if she listened to them or not? All they did was say a bunch of big words that she never understood anyway.

"I'm conflicted. On one hand, it's getting her talking so I can't really discourage that. But on the other, I feel like there's a specific point where it can get a little out of hand, and it's getting close to it. I don't want to fault her for using her imagination, but I feel like this might be bordering on something else entirely…"

"You can't base what she should be from what Alfonse was, and you shouldn't weigh your own skill as a parent on this, either. She's still young. I wouldn't worry about it just yet."

"How will I know when it's worth worrying over? By now, she knows stories that I've never told her about. They might as well be right out of the book, but I know no one reads to her and she definitely can't read it that well on her own."

"Maybe you could get somewhere if you talk to the king. Communication is key; it shouldn't be my place to tell you these kinds of things."

"You say that like anything's going to come of it. He won't even admit that everything that happened was real, or acknowledge what caused me to get sick a couple months ago. All he's going to tell me about this is that it'll all just blow over soon. That's all he ever says."

Sharena had been watching the butterfly that landed on her hand when their conversation finally seemed to matter to her. She could hear the distress in her mother's voice; and her little kid instincts told her that she had to make her mother happy again. So she wandered over there, which meant the end of the conversation, and tried her best to help.

Wandering around the halls of the light elves' palace was something of a pastime for her before Triandra and Peony showed up. It gave her something to do, plus got her more familiar with her surroundings. She was still trying to figure out all of the exits in the royal castle and the patrolling routes, but she was just barely five—there was still a long time to go until she actually used any of that knowledge.

It was the sound of a supposed argument that drew her attention and led her to the throne room. She could only hear three people: Freyr, and two others.

"Lady Freyja sent me, I swear! I wouldn't even be in this place if she hadn't commanded it!" That was an unfamiliar voice, and a pretty annoyed one at that.

"That's no excuse! You aren't supposed to be here. If Freyja wanted you to come over, then Freyr would've known. We can't have dökkálfar strolling around Ljósálfheimer as they please! Bad things happen when that stuff gets out of hand!" For someone who sounded like she just woke up, she sounded like she was making a good point. Sharena, personally, had no clue what they were talking about so couldn't judge if it was actually good or not.

"Mirabilis, please calm down. I understand how you feel about this, but we need to hear her out. Freyja isn't one to send messengers without reason, you know that. I'll pardon her this once." Then that was Freyr, as calm as ever.

"Thank you, Dream-King Freyr. I came to tell you about some news about… her."

Sharena, letting curiosity get the better of her, opened the door a little in order to see them. It was risky, since the doors were directly in front of Freyr's throne, but she wasn't afraid of getting caught, either. She was able to catch a bit of confusion (and maybe even worry?) from Freyr and the second unfamiliar person before the conversation moved on.

"You're going to need to be a little bit more descriptive then 'she,'" Freyr remarked dully. "There's countless girls here, both mortals and álfar. For all I know, you could be referring to any one of them."

"I'm talking about… the dreamer. That girl you like keeping around you. Lady Freyja wanted to tell you something about her personally, but some things arose and she was not able to make it here herself. You see, this child… this dreamer—"

The door creaked as it opened up more, revealing the girl who'd been hiding behind it. All three of them looked a her with the same expression, which showed their confusion and their wondering of how long she'd been standing there.

Freyr was the first one to address her. "Sharena, I didn't realize you were here yet." To cover up the awkwardness and the general silence, he gestured to the two other people (both clearly álfar) in the room. "I don't think you've me these two yet. They're Mirabilis and Plumeria.

"You wouldn't know me," Plumeria quickly stated. "Children like you never get to see true nightmares." She turned to Freyr and bowed. "Now, if you'd excuse me, I must return to Lady Freyja. She'll likely send someone back to discuss the matter when there is no unwanted visitors…" Then she turned around and walked away, passing Sharena as if she wasn't there at all.

Mirabilis waited a moment before giving her a sleepy smile. "You're one of the new kids, right? Freyr's got stuff he needs to do, so I'll be happy to play with you until your friends come."

((A/N: Time for several different thought processes at once!

1) Pretty much any instance in anyone's brain where Triandra and Peony's real names were said or thought, it's replaced with their names as álfar. Why? Because, A, ~magic~, and, B, Puppy doesn't know their real names. 2) No day of Henriette's life is complete without crying to some degree—whether because of a sappy romance novel or reminiscing—and questioning her parenting abilities. I'd say she's doing pretty good, because Alfonse and Sharena are the only main characters who still pay attention to their birth mom. 3) A thing I decided for this story was that Sharena was a late talker. Alfonse, on the other hand, could tell Henriette to stop crying ("No sad!") before he even turned one. I did this to mirror their smarts. 4) Why yes, "dreamer" is a term used for a particularly special type of kid, and there's more of them than just Sharena and Natheniel.))