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Tianara opened her mouth to answer, but then registered the motion of one of the tiny shadows. "Time," she whispered and pulled away from Joshua. She had to stand on her own feet for this - they respected strength. And she was the ambassador - she was one of the ocean children requesting shelter. Joshua was just...with her. An ambassador of his own, perhaps.

The gnome waited until she approached him, then bowed. Tianara inclined her head in return, trying to hold her head in such a way that she could meet the creature's eyes without seeming like she was looking down her nose at him. It was a difficult balancing act, considering that it was about a third of her height.

"We have come to a decision," stated the gnome.

Tianara waited. To ask, to plead her case again now would be absolutely disastrous. It would tell her in its own good time.

"You will keep them out of our tunnels," it said.

For a moment, she forgot how to breathe.

"Barricades will be set up. They must not be breached. There will be enough area in the tunnels for your kin, ocean child, and there they may stay. But if a barricade is breached, the agreement is breached as well, and they all must leave. This is the best offer you will get. Do you agree?"

Tianara released a breath held for much too long, and nodded. "I do."

"Good. The barricades will be in place by this time tomorrow. Move your supplies in tonight."

With these words, the tiny shadows seemed to disappear into the larger shadows of the boulders, and Tianara and Joshua were alone again.

She let out a long, shuddering sigh. "That could have been better," she whispered.

Tianara continued walking until they had crossed that part of the tunnel. Only once she was out of the gnomes' sight did she begin to breathe easier. Once they were through, she continued the conversation that she had ignored for the few minutes it had taken to get there.

"Why didn't anyone tell us?" she asked softly, and there was real pain in the words. She was hurt and confused that their efforts had had this spoke thrown into the wheels without warning. "The treaty isn't so old that no one would have known they were here. But...no one said anything. I don't understand."

She shook her head once and turned to Joshua. Her eyes lingered on his face for a second as though she would have said something more, but she remained silent. There was a question in her face somewhere, though it went unvoiced.

Then she turned away again and said, "It's just up this way. We should be in our storage area in just a minute."

Tianara jumped when Joshua took her arms, and there was the beginning of a flinch when she turned to face him. After a second, she looked down at where his hands encircled her forearms. Not meeting his eyes, she said softly, "The merfolk have treaties, Joshua. Like I suppose humans do. With other creatures, like the rock gnomes. About...about space, and the use of the underwater caverns and the pools under caves, and the things there that both species need. They're expected to respect one another's spaces. This belongs to the rock gnomes. I--" her eyes flicked up as though desperate for understanding, "I didn't know. I would have tried to find somewhere else if I'd known. I..." She trailed off.

Now the problem came clearer. She was expecting that they were going to be upset with her for not knowing, for not mentioning it. There was really no reason why she would have known - the treaty was old, and Tianara would have been taught very little about it in her sixteen years. But she thought she was in the wrong. And she expected Joshua to think so too.

Her eyes had dropped back to where he held onto her. A little shudder went through her as she waited for what he had to say in reply.

And then she'd have to go back and find out why none of the merfolk had told them - if, in fact, they knew.

Tianara looked away. "You could have been," she replied, her arms dropping lifelessly to her sides once Joshua let go of them. "They wouldn't have had a problem with you. I think they let hikers through all the time because they don't want to be seen. It's me. I was the one who...wasn't supposed to be here." She trailed off and looked thoughtfully at the far wall.

After a second, she went on. "We'll have to figure out...something. There must be a way. I just..." she stared very hard indeed at that far wall, "I just don't know what it is. We have a lot of people coming, Joshua. I don't know if they really understood that - they might have thought it was just us, or just a few. Then what will we do? Space for two isn't space enough for two hundred, not even in caverns like these."

Thoughtfully, she added, "I suppose the actual ocean children could stay with their clans awhile if they have to. We can breathe underwater, after all. And we eat what they do. But their children, their families...there still won't be enough room."

She was borrowing trouble, though she didn't realize it - it was equally possible that the rock gnomes understood perfectly well how many people they needed to have here.

Tianara let out a short, explosive breath. "I...don't know what that means. But it doesn't sound very good," she said with a frown. "What's pessimistic?" Every now and then, despite her rapidly expanding vocabulary, she still ran across a word she didn't know.

Then she tucked her hands into the pockets of her - Joshua's - jeans. "We should get the rest of the things once we find our way to the storeroom, quickly," she said quietly. "They probably won't want us in here when they begin to set up barriers. They're sensitive."

To being seen. They knew that most other creatures regarded them as ugly, and they didn't like it.

Kneading the cloth at the bottom of the pockets with her knuckles, she walked away from him and back towards the storerooms. She wanted to get this over with, get out of here. More, she wished that she had the power to turn back time. They could have found a way to prevent all this. If only they - she - had been smarter, quicker, more observant...

With a shudder, she sped up a little.

Tianara looked quiet and tired as she glanced back. There was something weary and lost in her face. "Oh. Okay." She managed a sleepy smile. "Well, here we are," she added at last, as they stepped out into the cavern. "It's..."

She trailed off. The room was cool, colder than she remembered. Was it just the warmth of the tunnels before, she wondered, that left her so cold in the storeroom?

Looking back, she located their space heaters. Yes, this was definitely it. So what was the matter?

She looked over at Joshua, her dark blue eyes suddenly confused. "Do you feel that?" she asked, frowning. "It feels...colder. I don't know why."

Rubbing her hands lightly over her arms in an attempt to warm herself, she looked around. It would be easy enough to get everything in tonight, but what about future supplies? What would they do if the gnomes blocked off this route?

And why was it so cold?

Tianara nodded quickly, and led him back. She didn't go to the original tunnel they'd come through, though - it was obvious she was searching for another route. Her choice of the next one over led them through a lot of smaller side tunnels, but she chose quickly and without issue.

Before too long, they were back down at the pond, and Tianara breathed a sigh of relief. "At least there's another way down. We'll probably learn them all in time, Joshua."

Walking to the edge of the water, she looked at the bags and then back to Joshua. "Let's get this back up. I want to see if I can find the way through that route again. If I can, I think we should go that way from now on."

Unless it was locked away as well. But she couldn't afford to think about it.

Tianara nodded briefly. "Okay," she replied, picking up what Joshua had left for her to carry. "It won't take long. I think it works well from there. We can use it from now on."

Unless, of course, it was blocked off. In that case, she didn't know what they were going to do.

((OOC: Timeskip to when they're finished dealing with the storage? razz ))