Flight is pretty great! Aaron shows how to move around the tree bunches with reduced danger of a broken arm.

With no danger of a broken arm.

Yeah, that. The point being that they can play tag or race near the canopy.

"Oh, can we not fix a broken arm?"

But he will absolutely do all of those things, without risking his bones.

"We can, but that spends health, which you could instead spend in things like flying."

"Ah, of course." Swoop, swoop. Tintin tags Adam.

Ah, okay. How about if Adam tries to tag Tintin back? He chases.

Tintin is fast and clever and perhaps less worried about breaking his arms than he should be. He darts around out of Adam's reach, slipping between branches and generally taking advantage of his smallness.

Adam is technically more worried about breaking limbs, but also more informed in how his wards work. He tries his best to intercept Tintin by flanking him through the branches.

Tintin is fast and clever, but not actually very strategic. He is thus tagged back.

"You are good at this, Adam!"

"Heeee!" He flies away, but still to a reach distance.

"Hey, Tintin. Tag me. I promise I won't dodge away." Temple raises his hand almost within reach. His other hand is conspicuously behind his back.

"There are more suspicious ways you could have said that but not many."

Tintin will tag him anyway, though.

Temple does not move a muscle. Or fly away.

"I will save you Temple!" Franklyn says, pushing Temple (and himself out of the way).

"They try that every time!" Adam shouts from a distance.

"It is very cute!"

They can pass a very enjoyable afternoon this way. Eventually it's time to turn in, though.

Tintin adjusts admirably to family life. He's enthusiastic about... well, just about everything, but especially magic.

The family is definitely charmed. It's easy when an adorable child is delightful as Tintin is. They teach him magic, how to fight, English, and a couple of other languages. And many other things. Adam opens up as soon as he gets used to having Tintin around.

Oh good. Tintin seems to like Adam the best out of all his new brothers, being the closest in age. It's a close thing, though; he gets along with each of them on a different level.

Tintin takes remarkably well to fighting! He's ever been in a fight before, and he has good instincts, which is important. It's interesting working around his breath-gift, which seems to be used on a mostly instinctual level.

Aaron does appreciate that, he is the one new brother to actually enjoy sparring for its own sake (Temple being the second closest, and more easily distracted by magic). He is also highly competitive, which means he will take any opportunity to help Tintin put those instincts to a test. But he also gives valid criticism and tips for Tintin to improve on form.

It turns out that Tintin is also very competitive. And does not particularly have the concept that he should go easy on himself because he's half Aaron's size. He will accept critique and tips,  though.

They rarely get really hurt, but any fight with someone half your size getting hurt does not feel as accomplished.

Clearly, the answer to this is to make sure Tintin gets better so being small is not an excuse for losing.

Time passes like this, with people settling in on the routine with the added family member.

The unseen countdown for the next monster comes ever closer.

One day Stephen announces to Tintin that they got permission to take him to get shapeshifted. It's too close of a potential monster manifestation for anyone but Sovie to take him there.

Tintin does not mention that he had hoped to be escorted by a male family member, because this is a boy thing. It would seem impolitic.

It would probably would be, yes. Stephen definitely wanted to go.