"Alright, are you ready?" Ro asked Brina. The five-year-old nodded firmly with a sweet smile. Ro put her thumbs under the spare floorstone behind the bath house. "Alright. You've gotta be quick. Use both hands, grab, and shove in your mouth and chew, right? The little gray ones, the narrow black ones with the bent legs, or the pink ones. Be so fast it won't have a chance to run away or bite."

The chubby-cheeked brunette nodded again, and she readied herself next to the stone.

"One. Two. Three!" Ro lifted the flat piece of slate. Brina hesitated long enough to get a target, dove forward with her hands, snatched up two crickets, and shoved them into her mouth. She chewed merrily, and Ro laughed as the leg hanging out of her mouth twitched. 

"Ro!" Brotz bellowed from the garden. Ro had been waiting for that, though, they weren't going to go unnoticed forever.

Brina hardly looked up at him, merely leaned back to see him past Ro and wave, but she checked Ro right after. "It's okay, Brina, I'll handle him." They'd had the discussion earlier about how much Brotz didn't like the idea of eating bugs. 

"Brina, don't eat that!" he yelped, but Brina was only smiling at him with closed lips as she chewed. Ro let the stone down and smoothly got between father and daughter. Brina eased close behind Ro's legs. She swallowed the insects then picked the twitching leg off her lip and ate that, too.

"It's good for her," Ro argued as he stomped up. "Even humans!" she added when he centered on her. The brown lionesque woman squared with the bronze brick wall, crossing her strong arms and setting her feet. 

He got too close, almost on top of her. He was trying to remind her that he was twice her size. He puffed his huge chest out and held his ham hands open wide. "You really wanna fight about this?" He was going to hurt her if she kept this up, she kept doing stuff she knew would upset him. Half the time, he could accept the necessity, or at least respect that she and Eupa had their ways. Eating bugs was not necessary. Even the destitute didn't eat bugs, they weren't even fed to slaves, eating bugs was for the lowest of the low and the mad and the starving.

No sooner than he started to press, so did she, repositioning a foot and pushing her chest to his, putting their faces only inches apart. She did want to fight about this. "I don't know where you lived that eating bugs wasn't a normal thing, but they're our first prey! If you don't learn to catch bugs when you're little, you'll never learn to catch anything!"

Brotz continued looming. Ro's spear teleported to her hand, and put the point into the ground, a signal she was losing her temper. "She'll need to know," Ro insisted. Her voice got firmer, louder, and Brotz remembered that she was capable of a roar equal to his own. "It's going to come up, Peck said 'prophecy' and we all know the trouble that means. We don't want her with your attitude about eating bugs when food is scarce."

His attitude was: I hate when we're this low on food, are you sure there's absolutely nothing else to find, I bet I can eat raw meat. (He couldn't.) It had only happened three times. Once they couldn't find real food at all. It took a week of his being hungry before he finally gave up and ate the scorpion Eupa caught him. The second time, they had nothing to burn and Brotz couldn't cook what Ro caught. He tried to use a candle, and it succeeded just enough to trick him into thinking he wouldn't get sick. The third time, he gave in and ate the numerous beetles the twins brought him without fighting with them about it. They weren't as bad as he expected, but he still didn't like the texture, and one of them was acrid and made him hate everything about the world for a while.

"I don't--dammit, woman," he growled. The only reason he didn't want her to was because he didn't want her to. Ro usually gave him those, unless she could think of acceptable reasons not to. Like keeping Brina from making herself sick trying to eat raw meat because she didn't want to eat bugs. He couldn't argue within reason, and Ro wasn't going to stop.

"I won't let her eat anything I am not absolutely certain she can eat, even with her weird little human digestive system," Ro vowed solemnly. 

"Weird," Brotz echoed grumpily. He put his heavy brow to her small one, pushed his hooked nose to her flat one, warm amber eyes glared into the preternaturally green ones. They pushed against each other with increasing force. He'd win, no question, but Ro held her ground to prove the point. 

She smiled, then so did he, and he stood back on his heels again. They turned together to see that Eupa had taken over watching Brina a few steps away, teaching her to do handstands and hold them. "What did you mean, weird? You normally call it weak." Brotz looked to Ro with a brow arched suspiciously. 

Ro did not hide the smug smile at all. Brina was getting remarkably good at balancing like that. Her tones were light when she explained, "I learned about how humans do food, they're not like me and Eupa where we just throw it up as soon as we notice it's bad for us, or you, who just. I have no idea what you do, you're made of something different. Anyway. Humans take in everything and adapt as much as possible to whatever they've consumed and use it as best as they can. It's very interesting. It makes them adaptable and fragile at the same time."

Brotz wasn't sure if he liked it better when she was talking about Brina needing to know how to catch and eat bugs because she needed to know how to hunt, but he never liked when she talked about Brina like a curiosity or a pet. She was bad about that, she always had been. 

Brina ran to Ro and said, "Catch me!" as she leapt off the woodcutting stump at them. Ro caught her and whirled her gracefully overhead before she began to dance away from Brotz into the forest. 

He let her hear the low rumble in his chest when he called after them, "No more bugs!"

Ro placed Brina firmly on her hip and spun to face him. "Crickets, worms, and those little gray ones with the folds. All easy to identify and find and good for her and everywhere. I'll teach the rest only if she asks." She turned on her toes and continued her stubborn march into a grove of pine trees. 

Brotz stomped hard enough that Ro felt it in her feet. She hopped onto her toes and spun to look at him to make sure he wasn't coming after her, and held one arm out indignantly. "What?!" She sounded like Eupa.

"I am her father, dammit!" he bellowed after her, and he stomped again. 

Ro's face lit up when he said it, bright white fangs showing. "I know! It fills me with joy unending! But sometimes you make silly decisions because of old thinking and I am not going to have your child entirely helpless because you think that's how they're supposed to be!" 

"She's not entirely helpless just because she doesn't know which bugs won't poison her!" Brotz cried, but Ro wasn't listening anymore, and had started back into the forest.

Brotz turned around to find Eupa standing too close, and he jumped back with a gasp. She smiled like a demon. "Oh, that warmed my dead heart!" She laughed wildly and spun to take a few steps away from him before he hit her. "It's been forever since I scared you like that!"

"I normally know you're there," he grumbled, scooting past her and going to the garden.

Eupa said it too loud specifically to get Ro's attention, and he knew it. He didn't throw his trowel at her. She'd have caught it and returned it into his neck or heart. "Speaking of dumb decisions for old thinking, did you tell her about the school thing?"

Ro's voice started in the trees and ended right next to them when she said, "School thing?" 

The teleport surprised Brina, who gasped and looked around wildly, then giggled, kicking her little legs happily. "Dat was fun!" she squealed. "Do it again!" 

"I can't, yet, it's hard to do that. Wait." Ro looked back to Brotz with a scowl. "No, he didn't tell me about any school thing. I knew he was going to, we discussed reading and some of the maths we don't know, maybe some of the magic if they have it available, I know there are a lot of magicians, natural and learned, in town."

"Most of the natural mages are dragon descent," Brotz clarified. "Been looking at this one school the retirees at the Harpy have been talking about, one's had a kid graduate and the other's got his daughter in there, she's almost grown. But that means they dealt with the place for years, so I figure I can trust 'em on it. The money's supposed to be by month, keeps adventurers ready to move." He smiled sheepishly at Ro, whose mouth was twisting in her efforts to keep her thoughts to herself. That was awfully nice of her. "We can't have her being unable to read, too. Peck says he can, but when we tried to get him to help, he started laughing real bad and we couldn't get anything done with that. I had to get a calendar made for me, you guys might need to help me with that. They do moons like you guys, so that'll be easy. The new moon is the first and last days of the month, there's fourteen. Which is weird, we had twelve."

Ro and Eupa exchanged the look they often did when Brotz told them about his home country, but they kept their remarks to themselves. 

Brina squeaked, suddenly, and kicked her legs against Ro. "Can we pway? Hide and seek?"

Brotz was not used to being nervous, anymore. He had been the first few times he was in the arena two decades ago, and his last time in the arena a decade ago. Maybe a few times since then when he was dealing with volatile nobles, monsters, and Eupa. But he wasn't used to it. He was Brotz the Immortal. Brotz the immortal sap, if you asked Eupa, but he was still immortal and if he wasn't the strongest man in the world, he wanted to meet the one who was to see how close he matched.

The stone wall around the school wasn't very high and Brotz could just see a playing yard where several kids milled about. The older ones sat on the ground or walked around in groups while the younger ones seemed to be in a massive free-for-all game of chase. He spotted the supervising adults, one of whom was fortunately right next to the cold-iron gate, so he had someone to look at and address when he stuck his head in. 

"May I help you, sir?" asked the dusky-skinned human woman kindly. Her hair was black and tied into a strict bun, and her features were sharp. "Here to enroll?"

Brotz offered what he hoped was a charming smile. "Yes, we are." He eased into the gate and let Brina through with him. She was being sweet, but Brotz hadn't thought about how feral she looked before now. Her clothes were mostly furs, wool, and leather and he had oiled her hair to tame the curls, but that was mostly worn off and it had gotten frizzy again. He took note of the other kids and wondered if she would notice or care. She was watching a couple of the younger ones, but he couldn't figure out why they caught her attention yet.

"Alright, then step this way!"

Brotz followed the lady across the school yard to the single story wood building. The woman wrote a simple blue dress and gray woolen vest, both of which seemed standard for the staff, and her shoes were sensible leather with a wood sole and flat toe. She led them up the stone stairs into the sprawling building itself. The halls were relatively small, with ceilings low enough for Brotz to touch and only twelve feet wide or so, stone floor with wood ceilings, and clay-covered walls painted with swirling patterns in varying blues. Brina trotted beside Brotz, holding his first finger in her little hand.

"I'm Miss Ponhem," the human woman said as she led them through a set of double doors, solidly built and framed. Brotz hadn't been paying attention before, but this was one of the older buildings of the city, he could almost smell it. "I'm one of the administrators. I don't have much to do with the students." She did look over her shoulder at Brina to give a kind smile and a fluttering of fingers to wave. Brina imitated the woman with a soft giggle, fluttering her fingers near her cheek. "I handle the recording of new enrollments, but the headmistress does like to meet the new students when we can. It's been a slow year."

Brotz gave a grunt to indicate he was listening, but he was only sort of following and was worried Brina was going to--

"Daddy, wook, a dwagonbouhn!"

Brotz flushed a little and breathed slow through his nose and stopped walking. "Pardon us," he said to Miss Ponhem, and he knelt to look at Brina. "Brina, that was rude. Would you like someone to say 'look, a human'?"

Brina shrugged. "Dey do say wook."

That they did, he remembered. More than a couple of times. "Do you like it?"

She frowned and shrunk quietly. The gold-scaled dragonborn in question had been courteous enough to stop, but Brotz was now unsure how to handle this. His charm was not good for individuals. He handled crowds.

He didn't like asking himself what the twins would say, but they had been his best help, even if it was just telling him what not to do. "Go say sorry and hello, if they'll have your company," he said, gesturing at the dragonborn. He was pretty sure this one was a woman, the head was narrow and there were three smaller crests of spikes on their head, but he'd heard of females being the big ones with lizards.

Brina trotted forward, folding her hands in front of her and swaying while she gave a very awkward smile. "I'm sowwy," she said first. "Hewwo. I'm Bwina! Wha's youh name?"

The dragonborn gave Brina a greeting bow of their head. "Hello, Brina," they said, and Brotz was not sure about the man or woman thing again, as the voice could be described as 'twangy' and baritone. "I am YL'ech Kchi."

Brina nodded, and Brotz watched her mouth move slightly. Brotz had worried a few times about Brina's speech, but no one in the house thought enough of it to help her correct it, and he was sorry for that now. "Can you say dat again?" 

Brotz felt the blood drain from his face, and the dragonborn smiled wryly. "YL'ech Kchi."

Brina nodded again, and her brow furrowed as it did when she was concentrating. "Youh wips are diffwent," she said to herself, first, and then she took a breath and said, where they could hear, "Y'ech. YL. YL'ech YL'ech K-chi. K-chi. K. Kch. Kch-hee. I can't do dat one, my tongue isn' wike yuhs, eiver." She looked embarrassed and swayed harder, ducking her head into her little shoulders. "I'm sowwy, I can pwactice."

Brotz was pleased with her for that, at least, and he stepped forward to take her hand. "Aw you a boy or a gull?" Brina asked, then. Brotz scowled at her, but the dragonborn looked even more pleased with this, so he desisted. It would have been an insult at home, maybe it was different for dragonborn. 

"I am a girl," she said brightly. "And you?"

"I'm a gull!" Brina declared cheerfully. "Iss nice t' meet you! Sowwy I was wude!" She started trying to hide behind Brotz, having apparently spent all the effort she could on her protocol under duress. Brotz patted her and pulled her close with his palm on her back, letting Brina ease behind his leg. Instructor Kchi bowed to them both and continued down the hall, long tail and blue robes dragging behind her.

Brina hugged Brotz's leg tight, and he patted her back and led her back to Miss Ponhem. "That was good."

Miss Ponhem was talking to a small black rock in her hand when they caught up to her. 

"Wha's dat?" Brina asked, pointing.

"It is a soundstone. We will use it to record the contract." Miss Ponhem continued down the hall, slipping the rock into a pocket of her vest. "There is also paper in the office that we use to collect data on the students, but her magic might overwhelm it. The natural mages amongst us tend to," she explained, and she gave a kind smile to Brina. "And I'm under the impression that this one is going to be quite powerful."

Brina giggled and skipped a few steps. "Dass what Uncle Peck says!"

"You have natural mages here at the school?" Brotz asked. He hadn't thought to ask.

"Indeed! We have two others here, one student and Instructor K'chi--"

"You can't do it eiver!" Brina shouted enthusiastically, jumping and pointing at Miss Ponhem. "You need to pwactice!"

Brotz flushed again and patted Brina's hand with his thumb. Miss Ponhem was still smiling, at least, even if it was that knowing, wry smile. "Sweetie, she has practiced. There's times when practice won't get you all the way there. You might not get her name right, either."

Brina pouted up at Brotz. "But you tew me to pwactice!" she objected. Which was true. Brotz and the twins told Brina to practice everything she said she wanted to do any time she wanted to do anything. They'd help her to the best of their ability. It worked out beautifully for Eupa and the acrobatics. 

"I do tell you to practice," he agreed. "But you know how Aunt Eupa says 'not for that' about people? How Ro-Ro isn't for doing flips, and I'm not for climbing trees? Sometimes, practice can get you close enough, but never there. It's always good to try, though."

Brina pouted. "I can wuhn," she objected, sticking her bottom lip out and folding an arm over her waist. Brotz pet her hand with his thumb once more, and he hoped Miss Ponhem wouldn't mind the interruption.

"As I was saying, we have two other natural mages in the school, but most of our teachers know some magical basics." Miss Ponhem guided them through a blue double door set. They opened into a room lined with bookshelves and an interesting array of the soundstones on a felt-covered table. The stones moved to create space when Miss Ponhem walked past it, but she did not put the stone down, yet.

"How much magic is in this place?" Brotz asked. "That was the table, right? The soundstones don't move by themselves?"

"Indeed!" Miss Ponhem confirmed. She went to the desk and picked up a piece of paper, frowned at it, then put it back down and picked up a kind of pen that Brotz didn't recognize, and an inkwell. "In fact, it's the table cloth that moves things. It follows simpler instructions, keeps things organized if I tell them where something belongs. I'm quite fond of it. As far as other magicians, there are a few of our older students preparing for transfer to an academy that specializes more in magic use. We can discuss those optional classes later. At ages like hers, we stick to basics." She leaned over the desk and began to write. "How do we spell Miss Brina's name? And how old is she?" 

"Five!" Brina chirped. "On da new moon!"

"Oh? Are you a foundling?" Brina blinked with wide eyes and cocked her head to a side when she shrugged. Miss Ponhem lifted her black-eyed gaze to Brotz, and it took him a moment to figure out what foundling meant. "Yeah, she's adopted. Um. Is that okay?" 

"Oh, it's fine," Miss Ponhem said, nodding and making the note on the paper. He saw her writing a lot more than he'd expect for the questions, but he figured she'd be making notes. He wasn't sure how to spell Brina's name, either, actually. "There's no requirement for blood relation, and she won't be the only one."

"It's just cliche," said a husky voice from the doors. Brotz looked to see a graceful bald orc woman in long trousers and a long blue robe with long, billowing sleeves that closed around her wrists and the same gray vest as the administrator. Without question, that was the headmistress. She was very comfortably in charge, and held herself with a confident air that Brotz liked. She leveled her red eyes on Brotz and gave a smile that started as cordial and warmed as she looked over him and Brina. Brina waved and smiled cheerfully, and the headmistress waved and smiled back. "She's the fifth one in eight years. Adventurer?" 

"Retired," Brotz said. "For now," he added, gesturing at Brina. "She says she wants to when she gets older."

"I wanna be wike my Aunt Eupa!" Brina declared proudly, and Brotz tried not to flinch at the idea. She didn't know what that really meant, but it still took Brotz's imagination in all the wrong, blood-soaked directions. Miss Ponhem was giving him a look when he glanced at her, but he couldn't figure out why nor what to say about it. 

The Headmistress swept into the room and sat at her birch desk smoothly, and she folded her hands atop it with her fingers interlaced. Brotz noticed that her pointed ears were pierced and looped with a silver chain around one while a bone and feather ornament dangled from the other, and a gold ring with red banding was on one of her tusks, a wedding band if Brotz remembered the tradition right. She was giving him a similar looking over, and Brotz resisted the urge to make sure his hair was still done right. "Our school is popular amongst adventurers. Monthly payments mean no great loss in case of sudden withdrawal, should there be need to flee from vengeful lords or any unfortunate transformations to be undone, and the magic within the building is good for developing powers and particularly rambunctious offspring."

Brotz couldn't stop the laugh as it fell from his mouth. He had never felt so understood. He even understood that 'rambunctious' was referring to the ones raised less than civilized (like Brina, he realized with a pang of concern). "That's good," he managed, when he saw that he was getting a look from Brina and from the headmistress. 

"I am Alga Lyre, headmistress for the last fifteen years years of West Jaluk Academy. I do make a point to welcome children of adventurers and young magicians like your…" She paused and gave Brina a questioning look with her brows lifted. 

"I'm Bwina!" she said cheerfully. "Awga! Alll-ga." she said, pointing then at Headmistress Lyre. "Awga. Alga."

"Brina, that's Headmistress Lyre," Brotz corrected gently. "Remember how you're supposed to do the words with new people, new grown-ups? Hers is Headmistress. And she uses her family name."

"Head. Miss. Dats big," she complained. "I can pwactice," she muttered under her breath. Brotz chuckled and plucked her up to sit her in his lap when he sat in the simple wooden chair in front of the desk. It groaned under his weight and he stood up and placed Brina in it. 

Headmistress Lyre smiled dryly. "And I hope that Miss Brina will be as welcoming as we are. "

Brotz didn't say any of the many things he thought in response to that, mostly that she was going to be too welcoming. 

Before she went to school, the adults said, each independently to one another, that they wanted a way for Brina or the school to contact them. Eupa added that she was worried about Brina getting grabbed, which simplified the answer. 

Ro had to trade a few valuable hides, hunt down some very specific parts, and wait a day and half, but she got everyone what they wanted. The five sets of twenty-five magically charged beads came in red, purple, black, yellow, and green. The wearer would not be able to use it, but if anyone besides the wearer touched all of a single color, the corresponding colors on the others would get warm. The more colors touched, the warmer they would get. If all of them were touched, they would get hot enough that it left a pink spot on Brina's skin. 

Aunt Eupa turned hers into a charm she could wear inside her clothes to feel, and Ro-Ro had hers in her hair, saying she could hear their magic, Uncle Peck strung his around his staff, and Daddy let Brina make him and her matching bracelets. She did the colors in alternating patterns for both of them so they'd match. It was nice for them, but Aunt Eupa was still pacing and talkative when she waved them out the door in the morning.

Brina was excited when Daddy dropped her off at the gates and her homeroom teacher Instructor Dendell, a mostly-human lady that was a little smaller than average with yellow hair and eyes the color of violets, led her to the classroom. The mixed group of children was not what she expected at all. For some reason, she thought everyone would be her age, or all human or something, but instead the ten children in this room ranged from Brina's age to one that looked like a teenager, and there were two dwarves, a half-orc, a halfling, two humans, three kobolds, something that looked human but kind of off, somehow, with a dream-like quality in their impossibly light gray eyes. Everyone was still milling around, waiting for class to begin, Brina guessed, so she shuffled nervously in, picked what looked like an unoccupied seat and tried to choose which ones looked friendliest.

One of the dwarves was pretty, with strawberry blond ringlet curls and cherry cheeks and bright eyes. Her round face and features were like a painted doll Brina had seen. Her dress was really pretty, being a ruffly pink and green thing with lace on the edges and done into a pattern on the back and front. She liked the underskirts, too, and wondered if she and Daddy could figure out how to make them. 

The halfling boy and the half-orc girl approached her first. "What kind of leather is that?" the boy asked, gesturing at the vest she wore. He was ruddy-skinned and a little shorter than Brina, and his hair and eyes were both dark brown. She liked the way his chin was pointed, and he had a high forehead. 

She looked at her vest and tried to remember. "I fink it's dwakehide, but I can't 'enember," Brina mumbled. She wore it for the pockets and the warmth, but it felt out of place here. Brina looked at the boy's clothes, a shirt like her daddy's and simple trousers with pockets, he had shoes that Brina had never seen before, with ties that went over the top and around the ankle. That was boy clothes, she decided. That part never really occurred to her, either. Hey guardians all wore such different things. She just picked her favorite dress, her long one with flowy skirts and short sleeves. 

"Are your shoes made out of the same animal?" asked the half-orc girl. She was a lot bigger than Brina in every way, and Brina liked the way her hair was braided. Her skin was a beautiful forest green and her eyes were dark brown. Brina tried to get a good look at her tusks but didn't want to be rude. Her sleeveless blue wool dress 
hung to her knees, and she wore striped arm warmers over her hands and up to her elbows. Her knee-high boots were made of deerhide, which Brina did recognize. She didn't look that well-dressed, Brina decided, but she liked the boots and the way the girl looked anyway.

Brina looked over herself again. She liked the arm warmers, too, maybe she could find some of those. "Wo-Wo made dem fow me when she hunted it," she explained. "I can't 'nember if dis is feywild." She felt rude for that, they said to remember your gifts.

Both of the other children's faces lit up, and the halfling boy's smile spread into a wide grin. He sounded very excited when he exclaimed, "The feywild? You know someone from the feywild? Can they come here?" 

The girl looked at him with her heavy brow creased in derisive confusion that Brina would have thought was hateful if she wasn't so used to Aunt Eupa. "Of course they can't, nothing fey can come in the city." She nudged the boy with the back of her arm. 

"Stop it!" snipped the boy, pushing the girl at the hip. They pretended to push each other a few times and ended with sticking their tongues out at each other and smiling.

"Wo-Wo can come in da city," Brina explained. "But she doesn' wike it. She says da win'chimes hurt and the bwackbewwy and the iuhn 'tink and make huh head huht, so she doesn' wike it."

"Faeries can't come in the city!" 

Brina turned to see the girl whose dress she liked. The hateful expression didn't fit on such a cute face. Her little cheeks were flushing red, and she was standing with her fists on her hips. Brina noticed her buttoned shoes and didn't like the look of them. They looked uncomfortable. Maybe that's why she looked so mad.

"Wo-Wo c'n come in da city, she jus' can't touch da douh'knobs," Brina repeated, peering at the girl and trying to understand why she'd look so angry. She was only getting angrier, too. Brina could actually see the blood rising in her face. "Wo-Wo's not a bouhn fae, she jus' caught da magic when she was dere too wong."

The frilly-dressed girl stomped her foot and fixed her hands to her hips harder. "That's not how faeries work! You can't turn faerie just by going to the faerie world!" Her golden-red ringlets bounced around her face, and her skirts bounced around her legs. At least Brina got a better look at her outfit, but she already figured out that this person was not her friend and would not be her friend. The frilly dress was still much to Brina's liking, and matched her stockings with their bows at the knees, and her buttoned shoes, and her cloth and lace bracelets. Brina could only wonder how someone so pretty could have such an ugly look on their face. 

The bigger girl got between Brina and the frilly-dressed angry one, and she crossed her arms. The other little girl backed up but not much, and she only fixed her feet. "Go on, Mierta. Leave the new one alone."

"Mind your own business, she's makin' stuff up!" cried the doll, pointing viciously at Brina with a clacking stomp of her wood-soled shoe. "She's already magic, she doesn't have to make stuff up!"

"You don't know if she's making anything up," scoffed the boy, who joined the big girl to guard Brina. Brina couldn't understand what was going on, but she didn't like it and she wanted to go home, now. 

Instructor Dendell returned to the classroom and clapped her hands. "Alright, alright!" she said, and she approached the little crowd. "What's going on? Mierta, Peony, what have I told you two about arguing?"

"The new girl is making stuff up!" cried the little dwarf girl, pointing again at Brina. 

Brina was afraid she'd be in trouble, but the teacher didn't look at her. Instead, she looked at Peony. The bigger girl uncrossed her arms and held one hand out demonstrably at the doll named Mierta. "She's doing it again." Her tones and expression were flat and she sounded annoyed. 

Instructor Dendell sighed softly, and she beckoned the girls over to the front of the room at her worktable. 

The boy patted Brina on the shoulder reassuringly, and she smiled toothlessly at him. "I'm Ferrin," the boy whispered to Brina as they watched Mierta, Peony, and Instructor Dendell. "Don't mind Mierta, she's just like that. She always gets grumpy about the adventurer kids. She tried to tell everyone Peony was lying, too."

"I weawy din' make Wo-Wo up," Brina mumbled, watching Mierta stomp a foot and point at Brina angrily. Her little cherry-cheeked face was turning red all over and she looked like nothing so much as an imp in a pink dress. Even as pretty as her dress and hair and face were. 

Ferrin nodded quickly. "I believe you. Peony's told me all kinds of weird stuff, and I can smell magic on you. I think the leather's the faerie stuff, I asked 'cos I can smell the magic on it. I didn't think you'd tell me something like a drake, though. Is your Ro-Ro magic, too?"

Brina nodded quickly, feeling a little better now that the mean one was gone. "Wo-Wo's magic. She can't use it wike we fink I'm gonna, but she c'n tawk ta spiwits an' make da wuhd do stuff."

Peony returned to Brina's side as Mierta continued to throw a fit at the teacher, and Brina tried not to hear the high squeaking sounds about how people are always making things up. "My family's got adventurers, too," Peony said, and she did her best to get into Brina's way so she couldn't see Mierta anymore. "My dad and his friends, sometimes they come over for solstices. Can you do magic?" She pointed at her own right eye to indicate Brina's. 

Brina put her hair behind her ear on that side. She forgot about it until someone started staring or asked her about it, and it was still awkward. "Not yet, but Wo-Wo said it might come in in a few yeuhs."

Ferrin bounced on his toes and grinned wide with blunt white teeth. "Ooh! Tell us when it happens! I've always wanted to see a magic breakthrough!"

Brotz was pleased that school was going well for Brina. She learned to read quickly and easily, though she did have difficulty translating the number system to the way she knew math. She loved showing off. One time, she brought home her slate to write Brotz a letter and read it to him, and another time, she was drawing words on the walls in her room. Eupa 'helped' by making more space for her to do it. 

He thought she was doing well enough in school as far as other kids went. That was part of the point, after all. Her speech got better after so much exposure to other people that spoke more on her level, and Brotz noticed the influence of the other kids. He knew she had someone she didn't like, but the other little girl only came up in passing at best, not like the one named after the flower and the other one that reminded Brotz of a boat. He didn't understand the scale of it until he took her to the city with him on a day off. 

The summer harvests were going strong, and there were some cheeses Eupa wanted, and Brina wanted to try and learn to make a new kind of dress, so Brotz decided to take her to Market with him. 

The city was fairly crowded, and the streets were full of all kinds of people milling about, lots of humans, orcs, half-orcs, and halflings. A few dwarves were scattered here and there, mostly the brown-skinned ones from the surface with their black beards woven intricately into braids. She had a perch on his shoulder, and he would hold her there with a hand over her legs. She loved to look at different people, and Tinian would get a flush of visitors from near and far, mostly upriver but also from the plains surrounding the great walled city. The cobblestone streets were older than Brotz thought anyone in the city could be, and the dark wood buildings were fairly low with slanted roofs. Water sleius ran through the city back to the river where it looped through.

The Market was more open with grass and paths intermittent and almost meaninglessly applied. Carts of produce, portable workshops, and performers set up shop and juggled or sharpened knives or sold their goods. Brotz thought it was a good day, and Brina seemed to be in good spirits by the time they started back home.

So it surprised him when he felt her tense, and her weight shifted quickly. He glanced up to see her looking down and to one side. She saw him looking and she looked away. Her cheeks were flushed. 

"Something wrong?" he asked her, already knowing the answer and hoping she'd talk to him about it.

"Gull from school." Brina's voice was soft and low and grumbling, and Brotz wondered how Brina could sound so much like Eupa and be so unalike her. His enormous finger patted Brina's legs again and he kissed her hand where she rested it on his collar. She peered back over her shoulder and quickly looked away again, little round lips drawn into a pout. 

"You don't like the girl from school?" he asked, not wanting to push too hard.

Brina slapped his hand without thinking about it, and her legs kicked. He held her up, but he did have to make sure she didn't kick anyone else. "She's mean! And she says I'm wying about Wro-Ro! An' you an' Aunt Eupa an' Uncle Peck! All the time!"

Brotz scowled again, and he saw Brina check his response. She seemed settled by his displeasure, at least. 

When Brotz was her age, he was a whipping boy to a noble family's youngest son, so something like this was completely out of his experience. He'd only sort of dealt with bullies, and that was a completely different situation. He wondered if the twins could help and decided that they were not going to be useful at all, seeing as he knew how both of them dealt with everything. He already knew they were going to tell Brina to fight, and he was going to be lucky if neither of them taught her to go for the eyes. He probably should have started teaching her how to fight a long time ago like the twins told him.

But Brina needed comfort, and he actually did have a good example of how she could handle this, now that he thought about it. "Sometimes people are like that," he finally said. "Like Aunt Eupa is, Aunt Eupa's meaner than anything. She's even mean to you, and she likes you. Just sometimes the mean ones aren't going to like you and so they're extra mean to you. Remember how Aunt Eupa says she's an asshole? And when she's being an asshole, to just call her one and ignore her? Like that. Only don't call her an asshole where anyone can hear."

Brina huffed quietly and leaned on Brotz's head with her chest, and she put her arms over it and rested her chin between his braids. "I don't wike it. It's dumb."

"I know," he chuckled. A weak smile made its way back to his lips. "It's no good. But there's people like that everywhere, and there's not much for most of them but to stay away from 'em." Hells, that was true of Eupa, too, in most instances. He was an exception.

Ferrin liked to talk about his enormous family and their antics. His family was polygamous, and there were several moms and dads as well as several siblings from all of the moms and dads. He frequently spoke of his little brother and sister that were from different parents but born on the same day. They would be joining him in school in the winter. Brina enjoyed hearing about the other family shapes, and it made her feel less odd when she talked about her family.

Peony was interested in Brina's stories about her family. Peony's family had adventurers as well, so she liked to hear about other people, and liked to tell stories about hers. Peony's family was just her mom and her dad and her, and her mom was often traveling for work as a performer. Her dad had a friend that knew about Ro-Ro, said that they'd come across the hunter lion lady with the floating ribbons on a hunting venture east. "So what does your Ro-Ro hunt?"

"Yes!" Brina said excitedly. The adults had told her the joke, and she didn't get it, but she was delighted to get to say it herself. 

Peony's heavy brow furrowed and she did this thing where she stuck her tusks out when she was grumpy. Brina giggled again and rocked in her seat. "Dat's what they tol' me when I asked," she explained. "What dey mean is that Wro-Ro has hunted everyfing."

Ferrin lunged across Brina's desk and grabbed the edge of it with his hands, swinging his legs. "You can't hunt everything," he argued. "What about the beast that carries the moon?"

"You mean a werebeast?" Brina asked. She knew that story but couldn't remember it, and she thought it still was a werebeast. It was supposed to have all the shapes or something.  

"No, no--wait, does Ro-Ro hunt werebeasts?" he asked, cocking his shaggy-haired head to a side. "Can you hunt werebeasts?"

Brina shook her head quickly. "No, Ro-Ro's got werebeast blood, she doesn't want to hunt werebeast. She might if the Hunt told her to? I'll ask?"

Brina hadn't been careful enough about where Mierta was. "Instructor Dendell! She's makin' stuff up again!"

"No, I'm not!" Brina argued, not bothering to wait for the teacher, who was outside the classroom. 

Peony gave a heavy, frustrated sigh and eased out of the way this time. Brina got off her chair and stomped her foot at Mierta, who stormed up closer. "First you said she was a faerie, and now you said she's a werebeast!" cried Mierta sharply. "You can't be both!"

Brina couldn't understand why someone would be like this, she just hated it! "She's werekin and she's faerie!" Brina cried in response, stomping her foot. "And yes you can be both! And it doesn't matter what you say because Ro-Ro is!"

"Girls!" called Instructor Dendell, clapping her hands. "Mierta, come with me." 

Mierta flounced through the door and closed it, and Brina was left breathing fire out of her lungs. Ferrin managed to cheer her up before they got back, at least, but really!

Brotz held Brina in his lap while she combed her hair. Aunt Eupa laid back on her cushion next to them, playing with a knife, whirling it so the firelight glinted off it beautifully. Brina could swear she could see black streaks in it when she looked, but only fleetingly. 

They had all been discussing how to handle Mierta for a while. The twins did indeed both suggest fighting, and Brina didn't want to fight. Brotz wanted Brina to know how to fight, but she had refused to learn more than play. It worried him. 

But Ro did eventually come up with a decent idea, even if neither Brotz nor Eupa liked the sound of it. It was a very Brina solution, however, and she might be willing to try it. 

Still, he had to talk to himself a bit before he managed to bring it up to her. "Ro told me to suggest you try talking to Mierta," Brotz suggested to his daughter. 

Brina groaned and threw herself backwards, and Brotz caught her on a hand. "I don't want to," she objected, flailing clumsily and kicking her feet. "Why?"

Brotz only sort of understood it himself. Ro knew people, she just couldn't bother trying to work with that. Brina was still learning, and he wanted to encourage that, even if he couldn't teach her himself. "Ro said that the little girl is angry 'cos you're special. She wishes she was special, so pretend she's special. Ask questions, act interested, bunch of stuff. Won't be much, but just being nice and asking can help sometimes," he explained, remembering as much as Ro told him. He thought it sounded like nonsense, himself, but Eupa promised that Ro knew why, even if she couldn't or wouldn't work with it (Eupa said couldn't, Brotz figured Eupa was underestimating Ro again.) "She's jealous that you're special and if you make her feel special, too, maybe she won't mind so much?"

"She's not special," Brina huffed. She wanted to throw the comb across the room just at the thought, Mierta was certainly not special. She didn't throw the comb, she needed to finish her hair, but Mierta was not special.

"She pisses you off enough, she should be," Eupa said from the floor. "Got yourself a little nemesis, s'what you've got. Those get to be special because you don't want them to be." 

"What's a menesis?" Brina demanded grumpily. "Mierta isn't special, she's stupid, and ugly, and mean, and I hate her."

"Yeah, that, that's a nemesis." Aunt Eupa sounded both happy and angry, somehow, and she rolled her head backwards to look at Brina with her usual vicious grin "Those feelings right there, that's what a nemesis makes you feel like." She had the knife away by the time she rolled onto her hands and knees and sat next to the chair on her feet. Brina pouted at her from Daddy's lap. Aunt Eupa's vicious grin had been swapped for a wry toothless smile, and she held her hands up as if squeezing something between them. "They make you wish you could breathe fire into their ears and melt their brains," she continued, and she blew through pursed lips and clapped her hands together as if crushing the thing between them. "Makes you wish the moon would fall out of the sky and land right on their heads, boom!" She dropped her clenched fist into her palm from overhead. "Got your stomach and your heart and your intestines all wadded up and on fire and shi…" She dropped the wriggling fingers away from her narrow belly as she stopped herself cussing and checked Daddy. "On fire," she finished. "S'a nemesis." 

Brina hadn't had that put so well to words before, and it made her feel a little better and a little worse. Aunt Eupa nudged Brina's arm with her short-furred head and put her chin on Daddy's lap next to Brina's legs. "S'alright, kid, hate away. I still say you should just go ahead and hit her, but that's me and I'm an asshole like that. Your dad's right, though, showing interest might make her calm down some."

Brina groaned even louder and threw herself sideways, tumbling dramatically to the floor where she sprawled like a corpse. "I don't want to. I hate her!"

Aunt Eupa descended, putting her weight on her hands over the girl's sides, and she put her furry head on Brina's chest before lying the rest of the way down. "Then don't." The little magician heard Aunt Eupa tapping out Brina's heartbeat with her fingertip. "You're gonna have to fight her, kid. I really wish you'd at least let Ro-Ro teach you how to hold someone down."

Brina groaned again and Eupa chuckled and pushed herself back onto her hands and toes. "Brinarini is silly," she said softly, and she kissed Brina's head. "And I got work tonight." She kicked herself into a handstand and flipped over Daddy with a preternatural grace and she vanished into her room.

Brina was only complaining about not knowing where Aunt Eupa worked. She didn't say anything about Aunt Eupa disappearing like she did, she didn't say anything about Aunt Eupa's swords or daggers, she just said Aunt Eupa's name.

"Aunt Eupa won't tell me where she works!" grumped Brina to Peony. 

Mierta was right next to her, apparently just waiting for the chance. "Don't start on that invisible aunt again!" 

"She's not invisible, she just hides really well!" Brina moaned, and she flopped forward across her desk. She remembered what Daddy said, and what Aunt Eupa said, and she finally looked to Mierta and turned to face her like she knew she should. "I'm sorry," she said then, but she wasn't sure what for. Sounding mad, she guessed. "Daddy said I should ask you where your shop is," she said, but she knew she was wrong when she said it already--Mierta was just getting puffy again. "But I saw it that day. But. Um. What do you sell there?" Gold, she thought, but she wasn't sure. 

Mierta's strong arms were crossed firmly and her pink lips were still pressed into their little pout, but no sooner than Brina finished asking the second question, her shoulders relaxed and her chin picked up a little. "You don't care." She was much quieter, too. 

That worked?! "I do care!" Brina lied, and even she was surprised at how much she sounded like she meant it. "I think I saw you one day, in a store with gold in it, but I can't really remember." 

"Yeah," huffed Mierta, and her posture relaxed further. She dropped an arm and her lips relaxed slightly, and she almost made eye contact with Brina for a moment. 

Brina didn't know what to say after that, but she guessed she could try…? "I might can come by your shop some time? I think Ro-Ro needs buckles for her armor--"

Mierta's calm was lost and she flounced, little fists shaking as she stomped her foot yet again. "Oh, there you go again with the spirit hunter!" She slammed her fists to her sides and stomped her feet over and over, bouncing the layers of ruffled skirts.

"She's not a spirits hunter," Brina objected, not sure what to do anymore and not sure what she'd done wrong. "Why do you get so mad?"

Brina didn't expect Mierta to move so fast, especially not in those shoes and that dress. She shoved violently with both hands, sending both Brina and the chair crashing to the floor. The rest of the kids formed a loose circle around them while Peony ran to the door, but Brina was stuck on the floor with one of her legs hooked over the seat while Mierta stood over her.

"I'm not mad! You're just weird!" Mierta cried, and she picked Brina's inkwell off her desk and slung it over the fallen child before throwing it at her. Brina looked over her knees, stunned  and open-mouthed with her eyes watering. She wasn't even trying to get up anymore, she wasn't sure what to do at all. Mierta stood over her, flushed face twisted into an angry snarl, and she screamed shrilly as she pounced on top of Brina.

Brina was not used to fighting with anyone that wanted to hurt her or wasn't playing. She didn't realize how easy her family was on her, and she had to really work to keep up with Mierta's hands as she reached for Brina's face. She'd never had anyone grab her hair before, she'd never had anyone go for her eyes or mouth like that, she'd never had anyone just plain trying to hurt her. She'd only seen her family do it a little, she didn't know what to do!

"I hate you! You're weird!" Mierta screamed. "You and your eye and your immortal dad and your faerie mom and invisible aunt and zombie uncle! You should go back to the forest and stay forever!"

Brina couldn't really hear the words, but the screaming still made her ears ring and made the rest of her senses go weird. She peeled Mierta's hand off her hair, clutched at it to hold it still, so hard that she worried Mierta's fingers would break but she was too scared to let go. Brina tried to watch, they always said watch your opponent¹. Mierta scratched Brina's face with the other hand before Brina could push her back. The ruffled imp grabbed a fistful of Brina's hair and shook and pulled. Brina only wanted her to stop, she didn't want to hurt Mierta, but she was afraid! She got hold of Mierta's other hand, but she couldn't pry that one off, she could only hold it closer to her head.

Headmistress Lyre plucked Mierta off Brina, but Brina didn't want to let go until the childrens' grips both dragged Brina back up. Headmistress Lyre very gently slid her thumb into Mierta's hands to loosen them as Instructor Dendell whispered to Brina to get her to let go.

Mierta was steadily spitting and screaming as Headmistress Lyre carried her out the door, and Instructor Dendell wrapped her hand around Brina's bracelet before they went to clean her up.

Coming into the school, Brotz found himself on edge again. He felt so out of his depth. Miss Ponhem took him straight to the office and led him through the double doors with no ado. She didn't say anything to him, which worried him, but she'd said already that she didn't deal much with the students, and there wasn't a rush. 

Coming into the shelf-lined office with the birch desk and the two chairs in front of it, Brotz saw the pale dwarvish couple, one with a toddler on their hip, standing behind one of the chairs. In the other chair sat Brina, who had turned to look at him over the top of the chair. Her cheek was scratched, and so was her chin, just little red lines in the warm brown skin that set a piercingly hot fire in his belly. He hadn't been that mad at anyone but Eupa in years, and only a few other people in his life. As well as the scratches, Brina's hair had come undone into a mess of poof and dark brown curl, she had ink splattered all over her, and some of the lace on her dress was coming off.

The source of the damage was sitting in the chair, backed by her parents. Brina said Mierta was pretty, which was funny for someone that Brina obviously didn't like, so he wasn't surprised to see that she looked like a little doll of a person. At the moment, she wore a twisted, hateful scowl on the precious apple-cheeked face, fit for the villain she'd revealed herself to be. She was missing a shoe, and her strawberry blond ringlets were askew but not like Brina's. She held a metal cup of ice in tiny bruised hands. 

Brotz tried to keep himself calm, but even the Headmistress fixed her posture defensively as he thumped heavily to his daughter's back. He would have been sorry, but he was busy being satisfied to see the other adults in the room lean away from him. He hardly remembered that he didn't like dealing with dwarves or officials, he was too busy trying to swallow the rage. 

It was quiet for a bit too long, and Brotz got a chance to look at the girl's parents. Both her parents were good-looking Subterranean dwarves and Mierta seemed to have gotten her pick of the looks. Her almond-shaped eyes were her mother's, her bulbous nose was her father's. The strawberry blond belonged to him, the curls to her. His beard was artfully braided and beaded and maintained, where hers was trimmed more simply with her mustache leading into two braids on either side of the twin braids on her chin. Her hands were singed black, too, she was apparently the smith of the pair. The toddler on the mother's hip smiled at Brotz and waved, and Brotz forced himself to return the gesture for the kids' sake.

"'Lo," Brotz managed to rumble to the other family, but he couldn't bring himself to be any more polite right now. It was getting easier, he was still breathing carefully and trying not to look at Brina, but he did give her his hand to hold to her chest, and she hugged it fiercely.

Mierta's dad put on his broad, painfully fake shopkeeper smile and gave a greeting bow. "Nice to meet you, sir! I'm Ferio." His bass voice was charming, and Brotz was now sure that he was the frontman for their store. He wanted to slap the beads out of his beard.

"Brotz." Brotz didn't bow in return. He was grateful that he was not good with words. If he had been able to express himself, he'd upset someone. He glanced again at the little girl in the chair and tried again to come up with new words. "We have heard about Mierta a few times at home." It was an understatement and not what he wanted to say. He was supposed to be teaching Brina how to act, he reminded himself. "Brina says that Mierta doesn't like her."

"She doesn't!" Brina interjected heatedly.

"'Cos you're always makin' stuff up!" Mierta cried in response. Brina took in another breath to keep going, but Brotz gave her a reassuring squeeze and pet her arm with his thumb and she settled for hugging his palm to her chest again. He saw her look up at him, but she still looked angry and Brotz felt another pang of rage in his heart when he saw the scratches this close. They were only scratches, Brina had done worse to herself just climbing a tree, and that didn't help him feel any better.

Brotz finally got his eyes to focus on the Headmistress, who looked very tired with the girls' argument, and she glanced up at him. The other family were exchanging looks, and Brotz could almost hear them communicating like that. He was glad that the little brat Brina hated so much at least came from a place of love. Gave her a chance to get better.

The other two looked up at Brotz, too, but rather than talk to him about it, they both moved to Mierta's sides, and the girl's mother pet her daughter's back lovingly, copied closely by the toddler. 

"Why do you say she's making things up, gemstone?" Ferio seemed to want to make this right, but Brotz could tell he was trying to defend his kid as much as Brotz was ready to fight for Brina. 

Mierta seemed determined not to be calm, and she bounced hard in the chair, pointing at Brina and nearly striking her father. "She's always talking about her weird faerie hunter werecat spirit lady mom and her invisible aunt and dead uncle!" she cried. "She's got the purple eye already, she doesn't have to make stuff up!" She threw herself into the back of the chair and crossed her arms again. "She doesn't have to make stuff up!" she repeated. Mierta was on the verge of tears, and the girl's mother straightened her curls, and she glanced up at Brotz pointedly but didn't say anything.

"I'm not making it up!" Brina cried in frustration, and she arched her spine off the chair and twisted with a groan.

The girl's parents and Headmistress Lyre exchanged looks, and finally they all redirected to Brotz as if asking if Brina was telling the truth about their family. That fire in his belly was hot, even as small as it burned. It didn't matter, no schoolyard lie was worth a vial of ink and two dresses, certainly not enough to actually fight over. That little shit hurt my daughter and you want to know what Brina did!?

Brotz held it in. Instead of arguing with them, he tried his damnedest to lead by example as the twins often told him to do (especially since their examples were horrible). Brina was looking at him imploringly, and he pet her again. "The first one's kind of off but I know who she means and it's not as far off as you think. Ro's not her mom, but she's werekin, spirit-bound, hunter, and faerie, yeah, all those are true. Not in that order. The invisible aunt isn't invisible, she just knows a trick to get out of sight, and the dead uncle is. Uh." Okay, that one defied explanation entirely. "Not really her uncle," he finished with a frown. "I can't really explain that one, he's new. But he is dead. Just. Uh. Active."

The shopkeepers maintained their smiles through the explanation, but Brotz saw Ferio's broad face light up after a few moments. The charming dwarf man leaned over the arm of the chair to hug his daughter briefly before he turned to face Brotz more completely, standing firmly between them. "Oh, I see. You were adventurers before you came to Tinian," he said with a soothing tone. He turned back to his daughter, putting his back to Brotz and trying to hide that he was nervous. "Mierta, my diamond, you can't just keep telling people they're liars just because you've never heard of the things they're talking about. Even if they sound impossible."

The plump mother turned to address Brotz, giving a low bow from the other side of Mierta's chair, and the toddler on her hip imitated again. "We're very sorry. Our shop goes back hundreds of years and she thinks it's boring. We knew she had an ongoing fight going on with the other adventurers' children, there are two that we know about, we didn't realize there was a new one. Do you need us to pay for the dress?"

Brotz didn't know what to say. He wanted to say a lot of things, and the immortal was surprised to find that he wanted to pop all of them one good time in the heads, even the Headmistress, and he had to hold it back. "It's alright, money's not a problem," he managed. He hoped he got the chance to teach Brina to fight and that Mierta gave her an excuse to show it. 

Headmistress Lyre looked to Mierta's parents, then to Brotz, then to the girls. Her stern expression stayed steady as she folded her hands on her desk and leaned forward again. "You are both suspended," she told them. Brotz heard Brina suck in a breath to argue and he thumped her chair before she got started. "Two days," she said to Brina. She pointed to Mierta. "Five days for the ink and starting the fight."

Brotz made eye contact with Alga to see if it was alright for him to go, and she gave the smallest flick of her finger to direct him to the door. "See you in a couple of days," Brotz managed breathlessly, and he lifted Brina off the chair and put her on the floor with himself between her and the others. Brina trotted in front of him as he headed to the doors, apparently happy as he was to leave. She was trying to run away from the building, it gave him an excuse to do the same, the massive boots thumping steadily along with the rapid tapping of Brina's slippers, echoes carrying down the smooth blue walls. He tried to breathe the fire from his lungs, but it was still being stoked, even as they got outside. He was going to need a fight after this, that was hard.

At the doors, Brina waited for him anxiously, bouncing on her toes and keeping her face calm with nothing short of admirable self-control. "You okay, babygirl?" He knelt next to her and held her to his chest. She barely squeaked a confirmation and he put her on his shoulder to carry her out of town.

Brina was silent and still on her perch and her eyes fixed on the ground in front of them. He'd learned lately that Brina was concerned with how she came across in public (an old attitude he'd forgotten having), and he was sure she was holding it in. She was doing well, but he wanted to get her out quickly. 

He got through town watching Brina's round features as she gulped pitifully, mismatched eyes shining with the tears she held back. She even held on past the gates, waiting until they got to their path, and she finally released them in a flood. Brotz was quick to pull her to his chest and hold her, enveloping her in a tight hug. "Oh, baby girl, I'm sorry. Are you okay?"

"I'm okay," she whimpered, burying her face into his neck and clinging tight, clutching at his back. "She's so mean, and she scared me, and it hurt, and I didn't know what to do!" 

Now Brotz was mildly annoyed with Brina, but he kept that to himself, too. "Sweetie, we said you needed to learn to fight," he said calmly, hugging her closer. He hoped she took that well, at least. She clung to his massive chest with her head over his shoulder as she sobbed pitifully. "It's not easy to do. We can teach you how to stop someone from hurting you, okay? We don't have to teach you to hurt anyone else, but we need to teach you some holds and stuff, okay?"

"But I don't wanna fight!" Brina wailed, and the tears began anew. Her voice became wild and unsteady as she continued into his chest. "I don't wanna fight, but she pushed me and she jumped on me and threw ink on me and pulled my hair!"

Ro appeared a few feet from them, having heard the tears, and Brotz turned to let the hunter hug Brina from the side, pressing the child between her guardians. Ro pet the girl's untamed hair sweetly and rested her furry head next to Brina's, pushing their cheeks together. "You don't have to fight, but we want you to know how if you decide to." Ro's voice was soft and soothing in a way that Brotz wasn't used to, it was a lot like Eupa's version of the same voice. 

They held Brina together until the weeping stopped, and Ro rocked back and gave her a good lookover. "You did good." She kissed Brina's forehead and smudged something that smelled sharp and bitter on the scratches. "First real fight, huh?" she teased with a fang-baring smile. "I wish you'd let us teach you before that happened, but you did good."

Brina sniffled and leaned to hug Ro. "You guys are so mean," she whimpered. "I don't wanna fight, you guys are so mean when you fight."

"We really are, even when it's just a game," Ro agreed, and she kissed Brina's head and nuzzled their cheeks together once more. "I understand that you don't want to fight, dear one, but you will have others that want to fight you, and we want you to be able to fight back. You did well this time, but we can teach you how to stop them, and you can choose to fight or not."

Brina had never heard them say it like that before. "Choose?" 

"Yes, dear. You need to learn how to fight so you can decide if you want to, instead of simply being unable to. You don't have to if you don't want, but we want you able to if you want to. We'll teach you. You know how me and your Aunt Eupa always play? We don't really hurt each other."

"You guys try to kill each other," Brina objected. "I've seen you both choke each other."

Ro snorted a laugh and turned to hide her face when Brotz glared sternly at her. "That's just our version of play, we're sisters. We won't teach you to choke anyone." Ro couldn't contain the smile. "Maybe a chokehold when you're older, but for now we just want to teach you how to get in control of the fight and the other person. Okay? That way, if you decide to fight, you can and if you decide not to fight, you'll know what to do. Okay?"

Brina nodded and curled up on Brotz's chest as he started back down the path to their cottage.