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Aurin holds his mother's hand as she leads him from the street to his aunt and uncle's house. He's been here only a couple of times, and can't remember most of them distinctly; they're sort of awkwardly related, his dead father's half-brother and the wife thereof. But now they have a baby parunia, and that means there is a dragon related to Aurin who is not too far from his age, only thirty-one years younger. This is apparently the sort of relation that it will be particularly enriching for Aurin to meet. They can do this now instead of waiting a month, because parunias don't die when they're babies; this one is safe, unlike the miscellaneous cousins on his mother's side he's never met because they are all in too much danger to get attached to (and have all succumbed to that danger). So here they are. Even though it was a very long flight and he couldn't ride his mother for takeoff and landing when she had to be a heron, only for the middle part.
Alys knocks on the door.
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"Um, hi," he says tentatively.
"Rrr," is all he gets in reply.
Okay then. He'll just... stay where he is. Yeah.
Eventually Finnah opens her eyes and looks beadily at him.
"What."
"I dunno," he says. "I came up here to see if you needed anything but then it was really hard to tell. You look kind of like you're being a sad lump but I bet throwing you out a window wouldn't help at all and I dunno what else to do about sad lumps, I only know how to be one, not how to fix one."
"Do you know I live here now?"
"Yeah. Mom said. She said your mom sent you here because of the baby, in case you forget and shift natural. Which I think is kind of dumb," he adds, "she's had babies six times now and we never forgot around any of them, not either of us, you lived with them the whole time even, it doesn't make sense to start worrying now."
"I'm not dangerous," mutters Finnah.
"I know," says Mial. "I'm kind of mad at your mom. Even though it'll be cool to have you living here."
"The last time somebody didn't want me around she left with me."
"...Who doesn't want you around this time? Seru?"
"Probably."
Mial shifts on his perch. If merlins were equipped to scowl, he would be scowling.
"What a jerk! You were there first, he doesn't get to, to, to steal your mom."
"What a jerk! You were there first, he doesn't get to, to, to steal your mom."
Finnah huddles in fluffed-up feathers.
"Seru is a lizard," Mial declares firmly, and he shuffles closer and tries to administer small feathery snuggles. "A nasty mom-stealing lizard."
Finnah doesn't move either toward or away from the snuggles.
Well, she can keep having them, then.
Birds can't really cry.
Finnah turns human and sobs.
Finnah turns human and sobs.
A teeny merlin is not, Mial feels, big enough to properly snuggle human Finnah. He turns human too, and hugs her.
That will get him cried on.
That is okay.
For a long time.
That is okay too.
Eventually she runs out of crying to do, for now.
Mial has not yet run out of hugs.