The Story for Begug, his part-sister Versicoli, and his nephew, Yadtime

"Gods, not again," Begug sighed, looking into the mirror he'd made the air into with a resigned expression.

"Not again?" Yadtime repeated, peering up from the kitchen. Since, of the three of them, only he actually liked to cook, he had fallen into the habit of actually doing all the cooking. Then he caught sight of what his uncle was looking at and grinned. "Oh, that." Every month or two, Begug snared some stray magic in order to look up what his errant father-- Yadtime's errant grandfather-- might have spawned recently. Apparently he'd found something, this time.

"That," Begug grumbled agreement. "Father has far too much time on his hands, I swear he does...."

"Where is it this time?" Yadtime asked, a little amused at his uncle's constant annoyance at October Bonder's prolific tendencies.

"Somewhere called the Valley of the Sky...."

"Oh, oh, I've heard of that!" Versicoli exclaimed, bounding into the room to join the conversation. "It's really cool there! Are we going to go? Huh?"

Begug actually winced as she entered-- probably more at the way she looked than her loud, excited voice: today she was experimenting with a clashing combination of neon green, vibrant blue, and shocking pink. He simply couldn't understand why she continued playing around with bright colors and awful color combinations, but she just beamed at him whenever he commented and shifted obediently whenever he asked. Then the next day, she'd be toting something even more outrageous. Yadtime was certain that she did it in part just to bother him. Whenever it was just her and Yadtime in the apartment, she wasn't nearly so blatant about her coloration. Nothing seemed to staunch her energy, though.

"Uncle always goes to visit new siblings," Yadtime chuckled. "Whether or not we go is something else entirely."

"But I want to! Pleeeeeeeease?" Versicoli begged. She was still young, perhaps just pre-pubescent, and had no shame when it came to trying to get something she wanted. Begug really didn't know how to handle it. Sometimes Yadtime stepped in to handle things, but this time he didn't, just contenting himself with chopping vegetables and listening. After all, he had no qualms with visiting new relatives....

Begug first tried, "Versi, it won't be particularly exciting."

"It'll be somewhere different, though!" she whined at him. "And pretty! With pretty dragon-people!"

His next tactic: "I'm not planning on staying there very long-- a few hours at most."

"So? I'll still get to see it!"

Foundering, Begug tried, "I don't want to have to teleport you-- you're getting to large to carry."

As Versicoli wasn't even three feet high yet, that was a bit much.

"Now you're just grasping at straws, Uncle," Yadtime chuckled. "I could carry her, easily, and if you really wanted to, you should shift larger to teleport her, yourself."

Begug shot him a mildly annoyed look. "I assume you will want to go, as well?"

"We could make a day of it," Yadtime pointed out mildly. "I like meeting new relations."

"And bringing them home with us," Versicoli added innocently, though Yadtime had not voiced that particular thought. It was his turn to shoot a glare. Had she been snooping in his thoughts again?

::I wasn't,:: she sniffed at him silently-- proving that, at least right then, she was. ::But it was obvious you wanted to. You went to get me, didn't you?:: He wrinkled his nose at her, but didn't reply, because she probably had a point, whether or not she'd mind-snooped to find it.

"Absolutely not," Begug said firmly, closing the vision-window he'd created with nothing more than a thought. "This place is crowded enough with the three of you."

Now it was Yadtime's turn to argue amiably, though he, at least, didn't whine. "The apartment next door is open, and I'm old enough now to join an Ala to help pay for it."

Begug didn't bother trying to debate the matter, which was a good sign. With the part-time jobs Yadtime had been taking now and then-- usually cooking and washing dishes, but he'd also had the odd experience of completely reorganizing Begug's favorite on-world Guard station's physical record system last summer-- plus his work on an Ala, once he got accepted, money wouldn't be a problem. It wasn't as if they led an expensive lifestyle, and the money Begug brought in from his off-world positions exchanged well, anyway.

"Why do you have this fascination with adopting that daemon's get, anyway?" Begug sighed.

"I like family," Yadtime shrugged, scooping the vegetables he'd finally finished with into a pot full of water. "They stay with you, at least for a while. And isn't it a good deed, anyway, to take in those who Grandfather October just abandons?"

Unable to counter either of those arguments-- Begug knew only too well how few real friends Yadtime had, and if he didn't feel bad for those abandoned by his father, he wouldn't bother finding them, to begin with-- Begug didn't answer. Yadtime didn't push him, now busy adding other ingredients to the beginnings of his soup, but Versicoli was obviously having more trouble waiting. She sat directly in front of her part-brother and stared at him with that one big, moist, sad-looking eye. Her feathered tail wriggled behind her like a cat's, impatiently.

Finally Begug gave the only admission his pride, at that moment, would let him: "If one of October's get at this Valley of the Sky wants to come home with us, we'll talk about it then, all right?"

That was good enough for Yadtime, for now. Versicoli seemed to count this as a good sign, for she let out a whoop and leapt up into a kind of victory dance. Begug's glare didn't do any more than send her dancing into her own room, instead. Yadtime, chuckling, just made sure to add extra mushrooms to the soup. Begug, after all, loved mushrooms.