Nodnodnod! She runs off to get her things.

     "Zana, stop," says her mother. Karen shakes her head and Zana continues bounding off. "Karen, will you tell me what is going on?"

" - it's complicated. I - worked for a Satanic law firm until last week, and then I interrupted some trafficking of - honestly picture Vulcans, they're not but they're close enough - and I opened up a portal to another dimension, and I think descended into hell and rescued some of the damned, that part's kind of fuzzy. Anyway, the Satanic law firm wants me dead, and as far as I can tell nobody in the other dimension does, so - I'm gonna take them over there so we can all not die."

     Her mother stares at her like she has gone completely insane. Which is, you know, valid.

     "Karen, are you feeling all right?"

"No," she says, after a moment. "No, I'm not, but I'm - I need to do this, OK? And - I would argue with you about who gets the kids, but y'know, they're gonna come running out the door as soon as their suitcases are packed, and I have a teleporting giant behind me, so I don't really think this is an argument that you're going to win."

       Her mother swallows. "Well - where are you taking them - "

"To Vulcan, mom. To, uh, this planet called Valinor full of forests and farms and nice long-lived alien people. It's all right, they'll like it there."

      Her mother is trembling. It's really convenient Aulë is right here. She has the sense that she'd be spending a lot more of this argument on defending her sanity if he wasn't.

      "When. When will we see you again," asks her mother.

- she doesn't know the answer to that, actually. She looks back at Aulë again.

We will not assist in regular transit between these worlds without reason to believe we were intended to serve that role. One assumes that other methods of transit will eventually be invented.

Nodnod. 

"Can't say."

Her mother does not seem super able to process this. Zana runs out pulling a rolling suitcase that's about as big as her. Connor walks out a moment later, eyeing Aulë warily but following his sister. Karen follows, too, away from her parents.

- no, sorry, just a second.

She runs back to her mother and hugs her. She hugs her mother every Christmas, just about, but she hasn't hugged her and wanted to since she was fifteen. 

     Her mother hugs her back. "Harold, for Heaven's sake, stop calling people." And now both her parents are hugging her. 

"I love you guys," she says, and in that moment she means it. 

She lets go.

     "Well," says her mother, pointedly, to her father. "Say something to her."

     Her father regards the giant behind her evenly, like he just about expected to run into a giant standing in the middle of the street someday, though maybe he didn't expect it to be carrying of his daughter and is grandkids to another planet. 

     "You'll find your own way out there," says her father.

"Yeah," she says. "I will."

     "You kids be good!" he yells. "Make good decisions!"

"We will!!"

She walks back over to the kids. "We ready?"

Wary nodding.

Enthusiastic nodding!

"OK. I think we're good."

Aulë scoops them up in his hand and now they're back in the cavern. Nerdanel is patiently kneeling there, waiting.

"Wooooaaaaaah."

She helps them down and then kneels again. 

Thank you.

Of course. You'll need something so you can find your way out. 

And he reaches down and pries an enormous glowing gem out of the floor and hits it with his hammer so it turns into forty brightly-glowing perfectly-cut gemstones which roll across the ground to all around them.

"Wooooooaaaah."

She picks up a glowing gem and waves it around.

Karen takes a gem, grabs Zana's suitcase for her, and heads out.

"Bye Mr. Giant person!"

"His name is Aulë."

"Bye Aulë!"

Then they can walk out through the caverns! Now that the humans can see them, they're very pretty.

Zana thinks this is probably the coolest thing that has ever happened to anyone in the history of any world that has ever existed anywhere.

Oh cool, pretty caverns. 

She doesn't say anything on the way out. 

I think we just want to head back to hang out with the humans in Lorien. If that works.

Of course.

Then they'll just follow her back to Lorien.

She explains to her kids that they're going to live out here in the woods for a bit. There's not a boxcar but the forest is friendly and nothing rots and that's honestly better than a boxcar anyway. Everyone else here is from hell so they might all be really fragile.

They're gonna be CAMPING in a MAGICAL FOREST right next to ALIENS. 

Also hey Maitimo is here!

"Hi Maitimo!!"

Maitimo is showing people how to make Lórien make fruits they like. "Zana!!!"