Nod. Yawn. "Maybe should've taken more breaks. Going to sleep. ...stay?"

Snuggle. "Of course."

And Timothy curls up in his arms and sleeps.

Cam drapes a wing over him and dozes off too.

Bella goes out back looking for Matirin. Miranda is following discreetly, ready to whisk her away if anything stressful happens.

"This place is weird, I could've sworn I saw Andi's old friend Mike."

Matirin has a big field of some kind of sharp blueish Andalite grass. He is grazing. <Bella.>

"How are you holding up?"

<This is an interesting place.> He lopes towards them.

"I'm sorry. I thought my filters were good enough."

<I should have dedicated thought to how I would subvert them before it came up.>

"I should have told A- I should have told Kestil 'sucks to be you, guess you're gonna be stuck a seagull, no way do I open this window' -"

<Even warriors with decades of training sometimes make that mistake.>

"She hasn't told me how your Yeerk got her which makes me think it must have been embarrassing."

<We've all had so little of privacy that I am inclined not to share it unless she chooses. We were captured on the ship. They had a scentless fast-acting gas, they had not possessed that six months earlier and its development was not known to Andalite intelligence.>

"Well that's terrifying."

<Yes. It should not affect the, ah, entities that seem inclined to handle the war from here for us, but it meant we would probably not have succeeded even had we committed fewer strategic errors.>

Sigh.

He reaches her side. <How are you doing?>

"I think I have heard more singing in the last few days than in the entire year before that. My alts are nice. Well, I haven't met Kib, but I assume under what I am told is a lot of unfiltered sarcasm he is also nice."

<The existence of alts is bewildering. Is it less so if they are mostly the same species as you?>

"It's still pretty weird but in a good way."

<I am glad there are worlds where my family is alive, even if only in a very strange fashion.>

"Little Bella's mom is actually here, they grabbed her because Elves have a thing about parents missing their kids' childhoods. They left her alone because nobody wanted to infest a six-year-old or have to deal with their combat critters if they could avoid it. I haven't gone to see her."

Tail-nod. <I have not spoken to the alternates of my siblings or my parents either, except to request of Minor the field of grass. ...you seemed busy at the time, I did not want to interrupt you.>

"Busy's not really the word. Sung to, maybe."