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Fayth winced, cheeks dusted with pink, and answered before her niece could. "It means to use bad words that you shouldn't say until you're much much older." She commented hastily. "Adult words."

Jewel sighed. "That's what Aunt Morgan said, too." She informed her new friend with a roll of emerald eyes. "She said once I get bigger I'll know what it means."

"Well, usually we get the babies from the Academy or the Guild, because they track down the kids." Rune led the way into what was obviously a nursery. "But the last group happened to show up ahead of schedule. I'm not sure how they got your name, though. Dragain and Astraea were both there too, but that wasn't a surprise, they both have children from here already."

Fayth sighed. "Because adults have different rules than kids." She explained, wondering how in all Hades she'd gotten herself into this mess. And into explaining the use of curse words to what amounted to a pair of five year olds. "And sometimes, they can break the rules, if they're not really bad things to do, like killing somebody."

That should help a bit, right?

"Sides, ya gotta learn the right times to say them." Jewel added. "Like when you drop something and make a big big mess, or hit your thumb with a hammer, or blow up the ceiling with a rocket launcher and drop the bathroom into the basement."

Fayth groaned. "Your brother told you that last one, didn't he?"

The little fish-child nodded innocently. "He said Mirelle used lots of those bad words at him when he did it."

"I bet she did." Now the redhead burst into quiet giggles. Jewel glanced at Alora and shook her head, rolling her eyes. Adults could be so WEIRD.

===========================

"I'm thinking so, though I only met Fauste once." Rune grinned, motioning toward a trio of rather normal-looking wooden cribs lined up on one side of the room. "And it looks like we have good timing - they just finished their naps."

Three small bodies in said cribs all sat up and stared at the visitors with varying degrees of curiosity and happiness, each fairly different than the other two. Directly in the middle was the only girl, a curly blonde little infant with wide, crystal blue eyes and a pair of soft-looking feathered wings arching gracefully from her shoulderblades. Dressed in matching sapphire footie jammies, she seemed absolutely gleeful to see them, stretching her little arms out immediately with a soft, squealing coo sound. Each small wrist had thin, metallic-looking band around it, almost a part of the skin itself. A blue takrai was clutched in one fist, a lightning bolt symbol etched proudly in the center. "Eeee, eee!"

To the left was a little boy with rather messy dark hair and deep scarlet jammies, a happy smile on his face. Emerald eyes blinked sleepily for a moment before he squinted, just a bit; the small head tilted to one side, showing off a lightning-shaped scar on his left temple. His ruby red takrai, with a swirling Air rune etched into the plate, was settled on his lap.

The final child, on the far right, was also a little boy with dark hair, though that was where the resemblance ended. His locks were spiky rather than tousled, his watchful eyes brown as chocolate, and there seemed to be an odd dark shadow sliding around his face, like a miniature mask that couldn't quite be seen. A green takrai with the hourglass sigil of Mind was wrapped around one small wrist, while the other held a black-and-yellow double-sided blanket. His jammies were a deep green.

Rune nodded, giving Fayth a discreet elbow to the ribs as the redhead rolled her eyes at the cuteness-oogling. "Whaaat?" Fayth protested indignantly, rubbing at her side. "Come on, you do it too."

"Oh, hush." Giving her friend an indulgent look, Rune turned back to Melody and Alora with a shrug. "I honestly don't know. The scar was with him when he arrived." She grinned briefly. "The kids have taken to calling him Harry over it."

Jewel nodded, giggling as she pointed to the other little boy. "He can ma-n**-u-late shadows." She explained. "He's not too good at it yet, but he likes making a mask around his eyes. And when he sneezes, it gets really dark for a second. It's CUTE!"

Fayth grinned. "That, we can handle." With a happy flourish, she revealed a three-seater stroller set up beside the door. "With all the kids this one," a thumb jerked at Rune, "ends up with, we invested in like eighty of 'em. Now we're not quite so evil when the Guardians show up."

Jewel giggled at Alora. "See, aren't they the cutest EVER? Just as cute as my little brothers and sisters. Ever'body but Domino just grew, though, so they're not the same age anymore."