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"No bath," Merlyn said firmly. Baths were no fun. Unless you had a duckie. And a submarine. And plenty of bubbles. But then it wasn't really a bath, because it counted as playing, instead.

Soap crayons? What was that? Crayons were for making messes, though. And drawing on walls, but that had made Daddy angry enough that it had been uncomfortable. Lapis-did-it didn't work! Because Lapis didn't have hands to put crayons in.

Merlyn paused with a pawful of dirt, fascinated by this concept. Things you were supposed to color on walls and people with? Now that was an idea he could agree with. He scrambled up and dashed over to tug on the leg of his father's jeans. "Want soap crayons, Daddy!"

Then he dashed back to resume digging, leaving his parent blinking after him in some confusion. Now where in the world had that come from?

"Nuh uh," Merlyn corrected. He only didn't like water when he didn't WANT to get in the water. If it rained on him, it wasn't fun, but if he went out in the rain to jump in a puddle, it was fun, anf if he went swimming, that was great, but baths that weren't for playing in weren't fun! It made sense to HIM, anyway.

See, she did understand! Sprinklers were fun when you wanted to jump in them, but if you were having a walk with Daddy and suddenly they turned on and got you all wet your tail went PUFF. Merlyn demonstrated, puffing his tail up to about twice its usual size. "Like dat."

Merlyn thought about that carefully. He hadn't ever really considered it. His tail was just there, like his hands or his nose. If he got mad or scared or startled it went puff, if he was hunting it lashed, if he was relaxed it just kind of flicked around by itself. Daddy used his tail to lift small things or to keep Merlyn from sneaking off sometimes, but Merlyn still dropped things if he tried to pick them up. Not big enough yet.

He shrugged. It was his tail, and it was there, and that was all. He coiled the appendage in question into a neat loop, just because he could.

Like that, uh huh! Blue's wings did things kinda like that too. His feathers got all puffy and ruffled if you tickled him, Merlyn informed Luna gravely, and shared a mischievous sense-picture of Blue's flailing and dismay when the Tall Tale couldn't avoid being tickled.

If you snuck up on Blue just right, you could actually make him shed feathers when he jumped! Merlyn giggled at the thought.

Oooh. Was Ying nice? She felt like she was nice. Was she like Blue? Merlyn's ear tilted curiously, and he peered at Luna. He had come from Daddy, but Blue came out of a book.