...She stops and looks around.

Eventually, hesitantly, she nods.

"Such things happen to many humans a few times, but never so often. You are special in some way, then? And it's normal for you?"

"They're not my real parents."

"Genies do not have parents."

"Humans do but sometimes parents die and they give you to new ones and sometimes the new ones are bad."

A breeze kicks up some outdoor dust and dirt into a vaguely humanoid figure held up by shifting air currents.

"Why do humans need to have parents?"

"Um, 'cause we start out tiny and unable to take care of ourselves, so we need other people to do it for us until we're old enough, except sometimes they're--really bad at it."

"Humans are bad at things sometimes, yes. But you are not tiny anymore. I have seen humans your size earning 'money'. Money is used to acquire food and shelter, I believe."

"My body's most of the way to grown but my brain isn't."

"Ah, organs. Such a burden, aren't they?"

"I guess. Humans need them to not die though."

"I don't understand humans. They seem strange and disrespectful and suicidal and greedy and destructive and yet also oddly optimistic and determined and caring and cooperative. Even spirit-bearers are the same, though their substance is more like my own."

"Well, there's a lot of us. Lots of people are at least one of the things on that list but most people aren't all of 'em."

"All nature spirits want to protect their domain. All genies want to explore the world. I thought all humans wanted to have family and friends."

"Almost all, yeah. But--no family is worse than a good family, but a bad family can be worse than no family."

"Do you want no family?"

"Yeah."

"Then why don't you run away or kill them?"

"Because if I run away they'll find me because I don't know as much about here as they do and they have money to hire people who are good at looking and they'll hurt me worse when they get me back and if I kill them then I either go to jail or have to try again with another set who might be worse."

"I could turn you into a hawk."

"That would be worse."

"Hawks don't stay with their parents when they are large, though. The parents would kill them if they tried to do that."

"Yes but hawks can't read books or talk to people or eat anything that isn't raw meat and I think they live a lot less time than humans."

"Spirit bearers don't have those problems, do they?"

"No..."