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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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"I don't know," he says. "It started about the stupid dragon."
"Well, what else would it be about?"
"Maybe I'm just stupid and awful and that's why I'm sad all the time."
This is such a transparently stupid and awful thing to say that Finnah briefly wrestles with a contradiction, then says: "But you're a wizard so you definitely aren't stupid and also you're usually not sad, sometimes you're just sad for a long time."
"Well, I'm sad now and I don't know how to stop and I don't know if I'll be done by your flag dance performance but if I am I'll come."
"I don't only want you to stop because of the flag dance," Finnah hastens to mention.
This actually produces a tiny smile.
But then he starts crying.
"See?" he sniffles. "It just happens whenever I have feelings or do stuff!"
Finnah pats him again.
Sniffle-hug.
"Aurin's coming over tomorrow," Finnah says. "Are you going to be a lump the whole time?"
"Probably."
"Then what's the point of him, he's not my cousin."
"I dunno."
"Should he not come?"
"I dunno," Mial repeats. "Maybe he'll throw me out a window again. It wouldn't work though probably."
"You'd just splat?"
He nods.
"Why?"
"I dunno. I just feel stupid and awful and sad and I don't wanna do anything and I don't care if I splat. Except I don't really wanna lose a form but I probably wouldn't, the window's not that high."
"You might feel better if you flew," Finnah points out.
"It hasn't even been that long, has it? I don't really remember," he says.
"Well, I dunno exactly how long is that long, I don't let it get there, but maybe? You seem like even a little more tired is too much more tired."
"Then maybe I'm all the tired already and it'll hurt next and I'll be less tired."
"That'd be dumb."
"At least I'd be less tired," he points out.