Volution

VOLUTION / THE BABY / HE/HIM

---

A shimmery copper band of happiness, Volution whiles his days away bringing joy to the Court.

---

"Usually I have something smooth to say in these situations, but I'm blanking right now." Ravi poked at the tiny, coppery baby, watching as it somehow managed to still look mystifying even as it tripped over its own tail and flopped around. "Where'd you find this kid?"

"I-- I don't know..." Eros snatched up little Mirkon from the floor. He had grown big enough to hold onto his stolen pearl without too much difficulty, but he was still a clumsy fellow anywhere but the water.

"You don't know? How do you not know the place where you suddenly grabbed somebody else's kid?!" Ravi half-squawked. His Pomeranian yipped, joining in the sudden cacophony, and the Spiral child uncurled itself before beginning to cry. Eros scooped it up in his other hand, and it reflexively curled around his arm like a tiny copper bracelet.

"My goodness!" Eros cradled the children, giving Ravi a disapproving look. "You really don't know the slightest thing about hatchling care, do you?"

"Of course I don't, it's not my job."

"Now it is." Eros calmly set Mirkon and the little Spiral right in front of Ravi. They blinked at him. Ravi blinked at them.

"Wait. What?" Ravi got up carefully, trying to avoid stepping on the babies.

"Listen, you." Eros, pausing in his lumberings, turned back and fixed Ravi with a stern look. "You've been relying on your dog and your handsome colors to keep a place in this clan." He paused, briefly losing his train of thought. Eros shook his head. "We don't ask much of you. Please help me with this, if nothing else."

The coppery child had already begun to snake up Ravi's leg. Ravi made a conscious effort to avoid kicking it off.

"Uh," he said, with incredible eloquence. "Sure?"

Eros turned to leave, but Ravi stopped him. "Wait! How do I take care of hatchlings?" He tried as hard as he could to feel his fatherly instincts kicking in. Nothing happened, except that his teeth stuck into his lip a bit as he grimaced.

"You'll figure it out," chided Eros, lumbering out of the room and leaving Ravi with one kid in his hands and another coiling tighter and tighter around his leg.

"Oh boy," Ravi grumbled. The pomeranian on top of his head yipped in agreement. "Hey, kid, you gonna cut that out?"

The coppery Spiral coiled tighter. Ravi was abruptly reminded of a word he'd seen in a dictionary before.

"Alright, Volution, up you go..."

---

Ravi expertly swung Mirkon over his shoulders. Mirkon had gotten bigger-- and was threatening to get even bigger than Ravi-- but for now they could still have their piggyback rides around the meadows. Volition barely got any larger, staying small enough to curl around Ravi's arms and legs as a slightly heavier bracelet.

"Hey, Volley!" Ravi called back as he trotted along, his dog yipping happily into the wind. "Have your horns grown in yet?"

"No!" Volution's voice was still just as squeaky as when he was a baby. "When am I gonna get them? I wanna have big horns like Miss Kelluke!"

"When you're older, kiddo!" Ravi chuckled, not even entirely sure if he was right. Some dragons just grew differently, and that was that.

A feather-winged shadow flitted over them, and Eros landed heavily some distance away. Mirkon and Volution hopped off Ravi's back, running over to their other father.

"Hello, little ones!" Eros sat back on his haunches, hoisting them up in the best approximation of a hug he could achieve without crushing them. "My, my, you've gotten so big! ...Sort of. And you, Ravi!" He set the children down, watching as they tumbled off through the brush. "How are you, my friend?"

"Good, good." He stretched his back and wings out. "These kids sure are running me ragged."

"Really, now." Eros laid down, leaning forwards. He looked and sounded profoundly amused. "Were these the same hatchlings that you, not less than a moon ago, claimed to be 'just as precious as if they were mine'?"

"Well, that's just a lie!" Ravi folded his arms and huffed. "We both know they're not as precious as if they were mine-- they're real precious cause they are mine! Or, well, ours is a better term for it." He waved his hand.

"Hmmmm." Eros hummed to himself, watching Volution wrap himself around Mirkon's pearl again. His gaze turned back to Ravi.

"Oh, hey, that reminds me." Ravi shuffled down into a sitting position. "Did you ever investigate what was up with that kid? You know... why he looks like that, and doesn't get any bigger?"

"No," said Eros succinctly. "Not yet." He sighed. "When I found Mirkon, I took him to Maxwell because I suspected something was... suspicious? Off?"

"Yeah, you told me. He's got somebody else's pearl, right?"

"I believe so. No newly-born hatchling could hurl up a pearl that big."

Ravi paused contemplatively. "Well, if it's a mystery we've got, then we'll have Detective Ravi on the case!" He gave Eros a confident look.

Eros chuckled. "Since when did you get any sort of detective skills?"

"Yesterday, duh, when the kids had me be a detective and solve a mystery!"

"The mystery was who had eaten the strawberry jam, and it was solved when you pointed out the jam on Proioxis's upper lip."

"Yeah," Ravi sighed. "And then she beat me up."

"And then she beat you up."

"Still," Ravi confided. "You've gotta know I'm good for something, yeah?"

Eros smiled. "I already do."

((Lore by me!!))