On the banks of the Great River, Yume and Sakura hopped out of a boat and offered thanks and farewell to the four fit young men and one equally healthy woman who'd seen them across from the Earth and Sky temple on the far shore.   A giantess with round hips and truly phenomenal cleavage, Yume felt her head spin for a moment when she realized that—in offering Rowan a good bye hug—she was pressing her senior student’s face into her Savage.  Nut brown cheeks flushed and she stepped back, stammering.  Rowan looked up, his own cheeks pleasantly rosy, reached up to clasp his younger friend on the shoulder.  “We've always said you were a giant, Yume-<em>chan</em>, who would do great and wondrous things.  I didn't quite realize how literal we were about the giant part.”<br/><br/>The giantess blushed a little more, and tried to make a dismissive gesture, but the girl who'd steered the boat—a buxom beauty with cornsilk hair—pressed Yume's ironwood spear into her hand.  “You're the future leader of our order, Yume,” she said with a dimpling smile.  “You have our loyalty.  If you call us, it will be an honor to come.”<br/><br/>“Th...  Thank you, Spiral.  I...” she gave a nervous swallow, then let her cheeks brighten.  “I don't know if I see that in me yet, but thank you all,<em>senpai.</em>I can't imagine anyone I'd turn to before you.”<br/><br/>The giantess hefted her pack—a huge wicker frame holding over a hundred pounds of traveling gear, medical supplies, and medicine.  With a casual hop, she crossed two yards of river and wound up three yards onto the bank.  As she turned to wave to her friends, a gust of chill breeze whipped her six foot long autumn leaf red top knot off to the sky.<br/><br/>Sakura's raven tresses danced on the wind as well as the petite and beautiful fire elemental lithely cleared the same distance in a simple leap.  She turned and waved too the boat as well.  “Thank you all,” she called.  Creamy skinned with hearth fire blue eyes, she was currently wearing an indigo silk mini-kimono and bloomers.  She caught Rowan's eyes and gave him a private, intimate wink.  The Pentacle's leader's cheeks heated again.  Then the two girls started down the road towards Yi Lamu while the five monks returned in the boat.<br/><br/><div align="center">*   *   *</div><br/>The breeze didn't bother Yume and Sakura too much, not in this temperate clime with the river keeping the tempurtaure moderate.  Neither of them had yet bothered to draw their claoks from their packs.  Fully, rosewood lips frowned slightly as she noted the aparent absence of the adult male population.  She paused at the gate to exchange a few words with the shieldmaidens there, introducing herself, “I'm Yume, an Earth and Sky disciple.”  She glanced around again, “I hope everyone's in good health?”<br/><br/>After a brief chat, the redhead and her companion continued to the appointed meeting place.  Pine green eyes went wide in glee as she spotted the blond beauty in the window.  She waved and bounced a little, then darted through the door of the inn.  Long, powerful legs carried her at a respectable pace.  Dense muscle rippled softly in them.  She wore calf high boots and a miniskirt of rosewood-colored leather with a few rectangular golden studs.  A square neck-lined blouse of fine linen was worn above this—long sleeved. Her truly phenomenal cleavage was held high and proud by a fitted corset beneath it.<br/><br/>“Ellera!” Yume sing songed happily as she danced into the older girl's room.  “How long has it been?”  She paused for a moment, emerald eyes narrowing as the fuzziness of her recollections of her one time friend were.  A moment later, she dismissed the thought and pulled the shorter girl up into her arms for a hug, then a kiss on the corner of the lips, “How have you been?  What have you been doing?  Were you called here too?”<br/><br/>Sakura shook her head, a little bit amused.  She slipped through the door and closed it behind them, then leaned easily on the doorframe.  The elemental had changed since Elara last saw her.  Where once the elfin girl's hair had been wild and streaked with all the colors of flame, now it was black as coal and flowed straight and elegant down to her calves.