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Jair giggled and flicked his tail, flapping his wings for a quick burst of speed as he shot behind a rock to hide.

"Nope," he grinned, tucking his tail away and folding his wings to make himself as invisible as possible. "Guess again!"

He peeked one bright green eye around the corner of his hiding place to see what the much bigger mer was doing.

Curiosity won out over disappointment that it wasn't who he thought it was. Getting off of the fountain floor, Ryu made his way slowly over to the small... very small (was he ever that small?) mer. He peeked around the rock so he could get a full view of the little guy. The colouring of his tail kind of gave it away, and that and the sparkling his tail had... well that and the marking on his arm.

"Jair?"

"Yeah, I fell a long way," Jair frowned, moving to follow Ryu, his wings folding against his back as he swam. "But I was trying to get in the water ... but I just kept falling."

He swam in circles around Ryu as they went towards the surface. "Mother ... Mama ... Mom ... Nana ... Kaa-san ... Mommy ... hmm ... what to use, what to use ..."

He sped up to swim next to Ryu's head (which was just about the same size as him) and looked into his eyes. "So you're my uncle, huh," he grinned. "How's that work?"

It was a official, a vase raised around a family that spoke a lot of languages would in turn pick them up. Ryu decided to share that with Yukito later, the angel would find it amusing. It wasn't a long way up, at least not for Ryu when he broke through the surface.

He waited for his nephew to surface as well before asking.

"Your mother is my sister, so to speak, and since you're her son, that makes you my nephew and me your uncle," he replied.

"Celebor," Jair murmured softly. "Yeah ... that sounds familiar ... I wonder where he went ..."

He wiggled on the edge of the fountain, flapping his wings a bit to test them out before folding them once more. "Aunt Feng," he repeated after Ryu. "She the one you thought I was when I woke you up? Guess if she's my aunt that means she's your sister too, huh? She like us, too? Live in the water and everything?"

He paused and looked over the edge of the fountain at the hard, dry floor. "Hey Uncle Ryu how are we going to go anywhere? We can't swim if there's no water, I found that out when it was still dark, that's why I fell out of my vase." And he nodded at the vase that was next to him on the fountain's edge.

"I'm going to walk, and you'll have to be carried," Ryu explained.

With his spell muttered under his breath he set down his newly formed feet onto the ground before turning to pick Jair up. There was a chance that Elnara was upstairs somewhere. At least he hoped that would be the case.

"And Feng is my twin, so yes, she is like us."

Jair nodded and was quiet for a moment as he processed all of the answers to his questions, then fidgeted in Ryu's arms until he was very comfortable indeed.

"So where's Mommy?" he asked, looking up at Ryu curiously. "I want to meet her, is she close?"

"I'm hoping she's in her room," Ryu answered as he went up the last flight of steps, "So she should be close, that is unless she's at work today."

Which he hoped not, after all he was sure this couldn't wait.

Elnara looked down at Jair's shoulder and her brow furrowed gently with worry. "Oh dear, that looks painful," she murmured, blowing softly on it. "Yes, let's get that looked at right away, shall we?"

She started back towards her bedroom, where she had a pitcher of water and small washbasin - a habit she had carried over from her previous lifestyle. As she headed there, she looked over her shoulder at Ryu. "Ryu, why don't you come with me for a minute? I have to go to school, I wasn't prepared for Jair yet today ... maybe you could take him to the Seconds world, show him where he's from, maybe keep an eye out for Feng and Celebor?"

She smiled at Jair. "What do you think, would you like to see the world where I adopted you from?"

Jair didn't think twice about the fact that he wasn't going to spend his first day with his mother. He had spent quite a bit of time in that vase of his before he'd been born (his consciousness at least, if not his body) and he was ready for some adventure!

"Yeah!" he said enthusiastically, wiggling his tail in her arms. "Will you take me, Uncle Ryu? Will you? I want to see it! I want to see where I came from and I want to see Celebor and Aunt Feng and I want to learn new things and I want to have fun!"

Ryu smiled at that, "I don't see why not, we can take a look around and introduce you to the river. It's the second home we stay in when we're not here."

He agreed this would be a fine idea and who knew maybe, just maybe he would spot those two. At this point he didn't know how to be more worried for.

Elnara's eyes grew soft as she looked at her foster brother. "Thank you, Ryu," she murmured. "And if you do see Celebor ... ask him to come home ... and let him know that he's not in trouble, but I am worried about him. He's never been gone this long."

Though if Lore didn't cave and tell her something soon, he might be in trouble.

"We'll tell him, Mommy!" Jair giggled, waving enthusiastically from Ryu's arms. "We'll be good! Come on, Uncle Ryu! Let's go exploring! Maybe you can take me to the goddess too to learn the magic like you said! Let's go!"

And he spread his leathery wings as if trying to take flight, his arms outstretched towards the doorway.