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Kiri was a bit concerned about Alvar, he had started to learn how to read and was showing an alarming tendency to find lock picking how to books in Simon's library. A little con man and mischief maker like Alvar didn't need to know lock picking. So she had brought him to the library hoping that he would find something more suited to his age and her stress level.

This library was a good one for most people, with a wide selection of books and a section just for kids, with seating, toys, story time etc and a single entry point from the rest of the library so she could make sure he didn't sneak into the adult section.

Alvar had taken it fairly well, he liked going out and was enjoying books since he liked knowledge (it gave him more to work with when causing trouble). He had made a bit of trouble when leaving just to remind his mum that this was her idea not his but had quietened down once in the kids section. He was now systematically looking at the non-fiction seeing if there was anything of use, presently the books on magic tricks were looking promising, although he wasn't completely sure what magic tricks were.

After finding a couple books on magic tricks with clear photo based directions (he still couldn't read that much of them) Alvar looked around to see if there was anything else interesting in this section of the library.

His mother was sitting with her sketch book in some seats for parents near the exit but he knew she probably wouldn't stop him going to the adult section, she'd just change seats so he couldn't rebel and he liked children better than adults so he didn't feel like going to the adult section. That left for interesting things in the children section.

He was just contemplating teasing the library assistants he could see when he saw some blue fins he thought he recognised. Nero was fairly recognisable and Alvar remembered him from the park. Alvar was thoughtful for a moment, not sure how Nero would react to his presence but in the end he decided to head over anyway, maybe Nero would have something interesting for them to do.

Alvar was a bit cautious of the tail wave but the boy seemed friendly so the tail must have being a friendly gesture, like his sister wagging her tail. It was a bit disappointing to find out Nero didn't remember his name but he took comfort that at least he was remembered. Besides his mum was always forgeting the names of people she met so maybe it was normal.

"That's fine, it's a bit odd anyway. It's Alvar" Alvar replied with his friendly smile. It hadn't taken him long to find out Alvar was an uncommon name but he liked being uncommon so he didn't mind. "Trying to find a book?" Alvar ventured not sure what to do next. Before he had found the non-fiction he'd pretty much noted where most things were in the kid's section so was confident of being able to help.

Alvar gave this some consideration, just what was he looking for? He knew that he had found some magic books but as for what he had being looking for when he found them he wasn't so sure. "Something to read?" he guessed. "Having a new sister is interesting, I've only got an older one." he added since the new sister sounded more interesting than finding him something else to read.

Alvar considered this, a younger sister sounded like someone you could drag into your schemes but he wasn't sure about an older brother, probably like older sisters they knew more than you and so couldn't be dragged. Still Nero seemed proud about having an older brother as well as a younger sister so maybe there was something there and even if not being nice never hurt.

"Sounds neat." Alvar replied cheerfully, "Does he read to you like you're going to read to Maion?"

Alvar thought about this, he and his sister had different interests, she was still there to help him if he needed her and still taught and played with him occassionally but really about the only thing they had in common was a like of learning. It must be nice to have a sibling that you wanted to do a lot of stuff with. He liked Alice and wouldn't want to swap her but an extra that he could play with more sounded good.

Noticing that Nero was looking at the books he started looking too, seeing if there was any that his sister had helped him read, he just assumed that Nero was about the same reading level that he was. "What kind of books did he read to you?" Alvar asked curious.

Alvar started looking through the picture books to see if any were about birds or flying. About the only story he could really think of reading himself about flying was Icarus and he didn't really think Nero would appreciate a book about falling, he read that one in a picture book of greek myths.

He had heard some other flying type stories, like about battle planes or the first aviators but they had being read to him by Alice and she tended to read to him books beyond his or Nero's probable reading level so looking for familiar books wouldn't really help. "There are lots of different things that fly", Alvar observed "Like birds and bats or paper airplanes." His mum had taught him how to make them in hope of distracting him from causing trouble.

Alvar glanced at the book Nero had found. He wasn't sure what a girl would think of something scary like a bat but it did fly and it looked about the right reading level for a bedtime story book. Then thought about the question, it was true that his mum had taught him how to make paper airplanes but he wasn't very good yet. His mum's always flew straight or curved in the direction she said they would. His were more wobbly.

"Kinda" He concluded. "They don't fly as well as mum's or Alice's." Alice had once explained it all came down to how you folded them but Alvar was still too clumsy to fold them well.