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When Efios leaned out the window in the morning to water the ferns in the windowbox, he found, much to his surprise, a small wooden flute with a card attached.

"What?" He held the card up to the light. "Changeling? Jaden who? What in the world?" There was an address on the card. ... Efi tried blowing a note on the flute. It remained stubbornly silent. Well. Fine. He'd go and find out what was going on. This afternoon.

Efi frowned at the footprints. They didn't look like they were from any animal he knew to be that size ... more like a largish predator's but in miniature. A faint shiver went up his spine, and he left the prints as they were.

A soft, howling cry can be heard in the night, followed by another and yet another... They seem to have an almost haunting melody to them, or perhaps a mischievous one, calling out the listener to come and see them. Still, they fade with the dawn...

All except one.

Efi trotted up the path to the door, looking anxious and excited and a bit uncertain all at once. For once, his staff had been left at home, and his mane, instead of falling spectacularly loose around him, was loosely braided back; and in his arms was a wiggling bundle of Changeling child, small hands closed firmly around his adoptive parent's fur, tail wagging, eyes bright.

Efi maneuvered one hand loose long enough to knock on the door, and waited.

"IGEDDIT!" shrieked a little ball of sylph as it came flying down the hallway and into the genkan. Shiromaru was close behind her, looking a bit frazzled -- the reason was apparent as Etain opened the door. Her hair was half-braided, and Shiromaru was holding the brush in one hand.

Etain, upon spotting Efios, beamed brilliantly up at the yuniko. "I smelled you coming," she announced, then hopped up into the air, trying to get a better view of Efios and the new changeling.

"Who is this?" Shiro asked, behind her, as he held the door open more for Efios to come inside. "Your new little one?"

Efi nodded. "He was there when I woke up this morning," he said, proud and bewildered. He wiped his hooves on the mat and stepped in, his little gesture of doorway blessing slightly hampered by the fact that he had his hands full.

"His name is Tosamah," he told them both. From the expression on his face, he was quite smitten with the baby, though still a little in shock.

Tosa twisted to look at the sylph trying to look at him, and freed one hand to make a grab at the hovering moving fascinating person. He giggled.

Beaming and openly thrilled, Etain offered her hand to Tosamah, floating along beside Efios as the yuniko walked. Moments later, she looked up at her father and grinned, pointing to the other changeling. "Puppy!" she announced, proudly.

Laughing, Shiro reached out to pluck Etain from the air and set her at his hip. "That's not a puppy, sweedling, that's a changeling like you. Efios?" he added, smiling up at the other man. "Do you want to come have a seat? And then you can tell me everything!" How well he recognized that look...!

Tosa grabbed at the offered hand, small fingers curling tightly around it. He yipped happily, and followed that with a statement in serious baby babble.

Efi nodded and took the offered place to sit, settling Tosa on his lap carefully, as though he were handling the most fragile of objects. He had managed to dress the little coyote in one of the white onesies he'd been given. "He was just there, where the flute was," he said. "I dreamed about the desert and flute music, and I woke up and heard a howl, and I went outside, and there he was." He laughed a little. "He's so small ... "

Tosa wiggled determinedly, trying to get closer to the other people in the room, his eyes bright with curiosity.

Etain, once Shiro sat down next to Efios, wriggled closer to Tosa and let him hold her hand. "Desert puppy?" she asked, looking up at Efios with wide eyes. "There's lots of water around here and deserts are really dry. Is s'at okay?"

"They get bigger really fast," Shiromaru said with no little wistfulness as he reached down to smooth Etain's half-braided hair. "Get as much out of this age as you possibly can. I'm glad to see the onesies fit him, though!"

"I think so," Efi said to Etain. "He doesn't seem to be uncomfortable. Do you?" He patted Tosa's back gently, and for a moment was distracted by marveling at how large his hand seemed in comparison to Tosa's small ones. He smiled bemusedly at Shiro. "They fit well," he said, "even if it was a little difficult getting him to stay still long enough to find that out."

Tosa leeeeeeeaned over, grabbing at Etain's hand with both of his own hands and trying to pull himelf towards her lap. Locomotion! An admirable goal.

"Papa," Etain said softly, looking up at her father. "C'n I hold him?"

"I don't think anybody can really hold this wriggly boy for long, but it's not me you're supposed to ask," Shiro chided, gently, and Etain blushed and looked up to Efios.

"Can I hold him, Mister Efios?" He seemed to want into her lap, and who was Etain to say no to a fellow changeling?

Nevermind that she wasn't, really, that much bigger than he was.

"Okay," Efi nodded, and carefully transferred Tosamah into Etain's lap, supporting the baby until he was sure Etain's hold was secure. Even so, he watched closely. Tosa was a wiggly little creature, he had discovered, and he had a hand nearby to help if the baby lost his balance.

Tosa squirmed gleefully, clinging tightly to Etain's hand, tiny blunt claws pressing lightly against her skin. His tail thumped wildly, balancing him as well as expressing his delight at - well, everything. He let out a squeal as he balanced on Etain's lap, looking around alertly.

Shiromaru watched the young pair with blatant amusement. "He is way more energetic and active than Etain ever was at that age," he noted, shifting about so Etain could lean against his side and brace carefully that way.

Etain was... well, 'enchanted' was a good way to describe the look in her eyes. She was much the same way around Makana. "Tosa," she said, very seriously, "I'm Etain." She pronounced it oh-so-carefully, drawing it out into three syllables: 'Eh-tay-in'.

"I don't think he's stopped moving since I found him," Efi observed, considering the thought. He brushed his hand lightly over Tosa's hair, watching the baby flick his ears in response to the touch.

Tosa's ears swiveled to focus on Etain, and he stared at her seriously. "Teh," he responded; whether it was an attempt to mimic her or simply a coincidence was unclear.

The sylph lit up, beaming. "Say it again," she said to the infant, very gently taking his hands and waving them about a bit. "'Eh-tay-in.'"

"Oh, you're going to have to pry her away from him with a crowbar now," Shiro noted softly over the childrens' heads, smirking up at Efios.

"Teh!" Tosa said, and bounced on Etain's knees, wobbling and wagging his small tail furiously. He waved his hands about agreeably within Etain's grasp.

Efi laughed softly. "Not such a bad, thing," he replied. "She will be, I think, a good influence." He smiled angelically.

"She is a sweetheart," Shiro agreed, quietly, his gaze softening. "Now I can just pray she stays this way."

Etain, not even paying attention to the two adults speaking, reached out and tickled behind one of Tosa's ears, giggling helplessly.

"I hope so, too," Efi nodded. "She's such a lovely child."

Tosa squirmed even more and squalled with surprise, eyes going very wide. That felt funny! His ears flicked uncontrollably in response to the sensation.

Shiromaru beamed up at Efios, naturally inclined to favor even more anyone who had the good sense to compliment his daughter. Efios was a man of fine taste. "So's Tosa. Though he's going to be quite the handful."

Etain hesitated, the squalling noise leaving her rather worried. "S'called 'tickling,'" she explained somberly.

"I can tell already," Efi said, managing to look delighted and worried all at once. He reached over to ruffle Tosa's shoulderfur. "Tickle tickle," he told the baby.

Tosa reached up to fasten both hands around Etain's arm and said "Teh," again. He squirmed at the further tickly sensations, almost overbalancing before he swayed back into equilibrium.

"Careful!" Etain squeaked, reaching out with her free arm to try and make sure Tosa wouldn't fall over. Shiromaru, too, had a hand hovering nearby, just in case the infant overbalanced completely.

Efi put a careful hand between Tosa's shoulderblades, just lightly, just in case, holding his breath. Yie.

Tosa regained his balance and regarded the two adults and one child looking at him. Ooooh, all that attention, and totally focused on him. He giggled, delighted.

Etain looked up rather anxiously at Efios, her eyes wide. "We should sit on the floor," she said carefully, tugging absently on a lock of her hair.

"Yes, I think that's a good idea," Efi agreed, and lifted Tosa carefully off Etain's lap so she could slide down to sit on the floor.

Tosa wriggled and pouted. So far, this whole lap thing had been very entertaining, and its removal was something he protested.

Floors weren't something Etain particularly enjoyed -- she much preferred to be up as high as she could get, especially in a stiff breeze -- but Tosa could fall and hurt himself! So Etain settled down on the floor, smoothed out her skirt primly, patted her opaque tights, then reached up for Tosamah again.

Shiromaru was forced to cover his grin with his hand.

Efi smiled at Etain's prim and careful settling, and leaned down to set Tosa in her lap again. "He likes you," he said.

Tosa grabbed at Etain's hands again, proving the statement correct by smiling an infectious baby smile and thumping his tail wildly.

"He does?" Giggling happily, Etain let Tosa take her hands, and started babbling away in the way only children truly could, starting to tell him in elaborate detail just what happened that day before her dear Mister Efios showed up with Tosa.

Tosa paid close attention, understanding little of words but fascinated by the flow of sounds and the lilting tones. Listening, he held really still for the first time since Efios had arrived at the door. His ears pointed at Etain, and his eyes fixed solemnly on her face.

Efi leaned back, watching and listening quietly, a smitten little smile on his face. He took the opportunity to flip his mane over his shoulder and start rebraiding it more neatly, now that his hands weren't occupied by a wiggly child.

While Etain continued to babble away at Tosa, gleefully, Shiro immediately fixated on Efios. More accurately, on Efios' hair. "Need help with that?" he sked, hopefully, and held up his brush.

Efi blinked, startled. "I wouldn't mind," he admitted. "I didn't exactly have time to do the usual brushing-out this morning." He pulled the tie at the end back out and shook his mane forward, grimacing at the knots that showed themselves with the maneuver.

Tosa injected syllables into the narrative here and there; and now it was clear that he was mimicking sounds he heard.

"Shoo. Sit on the floor in front of me," Shiro directed, and reached out for the hair tie, palm up.

When she heard Tosa starting to offer sounds, Etain slowed her babbling down, becoming more and more careful to pronounce words as carefully and correctly as her still-clumsy tongue would allow her to.

Efi handed over the tie and settled comfortably crosslegged on the floor, bowing his head slightly. "Thank you," he said, keeping a careful eye on the two children.

Tosa answered Etain's speech with sounds, clearly trying to form words, even if he did not yet understand. Speech! It was important, obviously. His bright eyes watched Etain keenly.

With a quick, deft, practiced touch, Shiromaru brushed out and braided Efios' hair, tying it off with the hair tie when he was done. He couldn't help but smile as he watched Tosa and Etain, listening to them as Etain slowed down her ongoing narration even further.

Even if she was throwing in Japanese without realizing it, half the time. Sometimes, being in a bilingual household was a bit confusing.

"Ah, thank you," Efi said, giving the braid a quick inspection and sighing happily. It felt and looked much better for the attention. He leaned against the seat, really relaxing for the first time since he'd woken up to find a baby in his care. He'd been expecting it, but not really certain what to expect.

Tosa parroted back sound from both languages with equal ease; he was not yet old enough to have lost the flexibility of palate required to learn more than one language.

Efi, on the other hand, blinked at the switching, angling his ears to try to catch the unfamiliar words.

"We speak both Japanese and English in this house," Shiromaru explained when he saw Efi trying to hear the words. "If you want, we could help teach Tosa how to speak Japanese, too."

"I'm sure he'll pick some up, so he may as well learn it," Efi replied, faintly bemused. "I'm not bilingual," he admitted.

Leaning forward, Shiro draped his arms loosely over Efios' shoulders in a friendly, familiar fashion, grinning as he watched the children. Etain was very patiently trying to teach Tosa how to say 'neechan.' "I could teach you as well, if you like," he offered quietly.

Efi jumped slightly, ears flicking back with surprise then returning to their usual position. "I wouldn't mind, if you could be patient with my slow self," he answered, nodding thoughtfully. "I've never been as good with languages."

"Of course! It's easier if you're right-brained... If this bothers you, Efi, just tell me. I'm like this with all my friends," Shiro added, his tone almost worried.

"Rather than light on brains?" Efi quipped back. He shook his head, careful of the point of his horn. "No, you only startled me," he answered.

Plunking his chin down atop Efi's head, Shiro just grinned. "You're not light on brains," he informed the yuniko.

"Solid stone's fairly heavy, you're right," Efi snorted, watching Tosa waving his hands around and doing his best to produce syllables like Etain's. The baby's lack of proper teeth was hampering him to a certain extent, but he was certainly trying.

Knuckles lightly rapped on Efios' head, and the water demon snorted. "That word she's trying to teach him, 'neechan,' is 'big sister,' by the way." If Shiromaru was going to teach, then he could start immediately!

Etain, enthralled, beamed at Tosa, then cast about and picked up a pencil. "Enpitsu," she announced. "Pencil."

"Nee-chan." Efios sounded out the unfamiliar word, testing it clumsily. "What would 'brother' be?" he asked curiously.

"Pppppppp," Tosa said. Pleased with the sound, he did it again, then aded, "Ts!"

Etain giggled, repeating the word more slowly. "En... pi... tsu. Almost there!"

"Well, 'onee' is big sister, and 'onii' is big brother. 'Imouto' is little sister, and 'otouto' is little brother. The 'chan' is a diminutive," Shiro explained. "Mother is 'okaa' and father is 'otou'. So, instead of Papa, Etain might call me 'tousan'. The 'o' is a sort of honorific as well."

"Ppp-tsss-blblblblblb," Tosa said, the last part coming out with extra spit.

"Too much at once," Efios protested. "I think I need to be taking notes here. Is there going to be a quiz, teacher?" He grinned impishly.

Grabbing a hanky out of her pocket, Etain dutifully cleaned Tosa's mouth up. Slobbery baby!

Laughing, Shiro hugged Efios' shoulders. "Call me 'sensei'. And no, no quizzes, don't worry."

Tosa tried to grab the hanky. He could bite that!

"Thank you, Etain," Efi smiled, before chuckling at Shiro. "Yes, sensei," he answered. "Good thing. I was always terrible at quizzes. Stare at the page, and my mind goes blank."

"You don't wanna bite that," Etain scolded gently, then reached over to one of her old teething rings, left in a pile in a bucket over in one corner. She presented the brightly-colored ring to Tosa. "You wanna bite this."

Shiro rolled his eyes at Etain's antics, then sat back and grinned down at Efios. "I'll just teach you a little bit as we go. I hid out in Japan for a couple years and that's how I picked it up -- immersion learning, so to speak -- but I don't think that's going to work here."

That actually looked like a good idea. Tosa gummed the ring ferociously. The nubby plastic felt good on his gums, and he let out a bubbly chortle around the toy.

"Probably not, no," Efi said dryly. "I had a hard enough time with English." He watched the children thoughtfully. "Everything goes into his mouth. That's normal, right?"

Shiromaru snorted, his eyes warming with amusement. "Welcome to life as a parent, where you have to be terrified of everything small enough to fit into a baby's mouth. Yes, it's perfectly normal. It's how they learn things. Mouths and lips are really sensitive, after all, and when you don't have a whole lot of control over your hands yet..."

"Makes sense. I did put away everything small and everything breakable," Efi nodded. " ... though I keep finding things and having to put them somewhere. I didn't know I had that many little things," he said ruefully.

"Have you put plastic plugs in all the wall sockets?" Shiro asked curiously, as Etain started trying to braid a tiny little braid into Tosa's hair.

Efi nodded. "I bought a couple of baby books and did what they suggested to get ready." He shuffled his hooves on the floor. "My apartmentlooks strange."

Tosa reached up to grab at Etain's hands. The teething ring dropped onto the floor, and he shifted his focus again, making small unhappy noises and reaching after it.

Reaching down, Etain quickly got the teething ring again, offering it once more to Tosamah. "Here you go!"

"You should have seen Kailas after I brought Etain home. I had to put everything away, because she's been flying almost since before she could walk," Shiro offered, grinning helplessly at the memory.

Tosa burbled. He bit the ring. Then he paused, looked at Etain calculatingly, and dropped the ring again.

"I think I should be glad Tosa doesn't have wings," Efi said, ears flicking down at the thought.

"...Very glad," Shiro agreed, watching as Etain picked up the ring again and handed it back to the pooka changeling. "And from the looks of things, Tosa just figured out a new game."

Efi snickered very quietly as Tosa dropped the ring again, a sly expression on his face. "I think you're right." Then the amusement slid off his face as he realized that he was likely to be playing the new game himself at some point in the near future.

Etain blinked at the ring, then considered for a long moment before tugging out a long piece of ribbon from the bucket. Grabbing the ring, she threaded the ribbon through it, knotted the end, and draped the ribbon over Tosa's neck. "There!"

Tosa eyed Etain. Clearly, she had not gotten the point. He stuffed the ribbon into his mouth, and scowled as he realized it wasn't coming off that easily.

Efi folded over in silent laughter. "Clever," he chuckled.

"That's my girl," Shiro announced proudly. "Smart and resourceful."

Etain, oblivious, just beamed at Tosa. "Now you can't lose it."

"Plbbrrt," Tosa said crossly, and drooled on the ribbon.

"How can he be still cute even when he's full of drool?" Efi said bemusedly, watching his child. His child. That Tosa definitely was, though it hadn't even been a full day.

"Watch yourself. You'll soon start asking 'how can he still be cute even when he's full of poo?'" Shiro warned mischievously.

Efi made a face and sighed. "I'm sure you're right," he said mournfully. "I'd better get used to it."

Shiro patted Efios gently on the shoulder. "Indeed you should. But they're worth it. However, Etain is due for a nap fairly soon -- "

"Papaaa!"

" -- so if you'll excuse me, I need to go get her settled in."

"I believe it," Efi said softly. He rose slowly and went over to pick Tosa up from Etain's lap. "Thank you for playing with him, and teaching him," he said to the little girl, smiling at her.

Tosa pouted, and consoled himself by yanking on Efi's fur.

Grumpily, Etain flew up into Shiro's arms, though Efios' words charmed her and she smiled up at the yuniko. "I c'n teach him whenever," she offered happily.

Shiromaru rolled his eyes, then winked up at Efios. "Pardon me a second," he noted quietly, then made his way down the hall.

Efi bounced Tosa in his arms, humming to the baby; after a few moments, Tosa's scowl softened and his grip loosened, and his ears came back up. He still had the teething ring, and he stuffed it back into his mouth.

Shiromaru returned after a few minutes, smiling apologetically up at Efios. "Sorry about that. Either of you hungry? I think I still have some baby food around, and I could make us something to eat..."

"I think I ate this morning," Efi said, frowning as he thought about it. "He ate half a jar of cereal. The rest went onto the table, the floor, and me."

"Welcome to fatherhood," Shiro caroled cheerfully, patting Efios on the shoulder. "Food stains are a fashion statement."

Efi snorted and laughed. "You sound so cheerful," he said. "We should probably get going. I need to go pick something up." His ear flicked back and then forward. Tosa attempted to haul himself up along his parent's shoulder by pulling hard on the handfuls of fur he had. Efi winced again, expression stoic.

Grinning, Shiromaru padded over to the genkan, opening the door so Efios wouldn't have to and could focus on Tosamah instead. "Okay. Come by any time, our doors are always open to you both."

"Thank you," Efi said, pausing before he stepped out to give Shiro a wide, genuine smile. "I really do appreciate it."

"You're very welcome," Shiro returned, warmly. "Take care of yourself." He waved to Efi, then closed the door, smiling to himself. It was fun, having friends...

...Now if only Abishai would stop teasing him about being a 'born father'.