The children of the household grew larger by the day. Ginny blinked, and already the quads had reached childhood. As wonderful as it was to see her children grow, she could not help but worry for Haili. The inverse relationship of father and offspring brought the ghost closer to the other side every day. For obvious reasons, the children were not aware of their father's predicament.


 Haili's children were not the only ones growing. The twins and Virgo had reached their teenage years. Nix and Kolpia's ears had reached the peak of development, and could pick up so much as a whisper from across the house. Ginny silently reminded herself to not bring any men home.


Virgo's natural brown locks and fair temperament had skyrocketed her to a celebrity status at Lunar Lakes High School, much to the twin's chagrin - as solitary artist types, they did not appreciate mindless hordes of classmates trying to ease into their inner circle for so much as a glimpse of their half sister.



Inside the home, Virgo was just another one of the kids. One that burned even the simplest of foods, one that had dreams of fashion design. She enjoyed this more.


Kolpia hadn't changed much from childhood. He spoke largely in single sentences, unless it was to his father, whom he had great respect for.


Nix had turned into a rather no-nonsense type of person, on the job hunt practically a few minutes past her birthday. She settled into the position of a spa receptionist.



Despite his impending transition, Haili still found the time to be involved in his children's lives. After all, this was his dream.

He was particularly thrilled at Orion's manipulation of fairy magic.



...Even if it meant being on the receiving end of a few pranks.




The patrons of the bar were as fascinating as ever, Fawn decided as he pulled out a barstool. He used to frequent the establishment before Ginny...no, it was not the time to think about that. Now was the time for the bottle.


"Haven't seen you for a while," a voice called to him. He turned and saw the young man positioned at the head of an arcade table, a virtual captain at the ship's wheel.

"Alex," Fawn greeted. "Still into your games, I see."

"Still into your trite prophecy, I see."

Fawn inched his way over to the arcade cabinet. "You seem distressed."

"What the hell is your problem? You flake on me for months and then suddenly appear like it's no big deal?"

"I am a family man now. You knew that this day would come."


The purple haired man slammed his hands on the wooden frame. "Goddamnit, lost again. There goes another five bucks." Fawn observed his friend carefully. He too was as strange as ever.

"Perhaps if you did not spend all of your paycheck at the tables, you could afford more than consignment shop attire."

"Oh, for Goddess' sake, don't start on me with an economics lesson after what you did to me."


He slammed another fistful of dollars bills down the machine's throat, and the eight bit music started up again.

"I take it from your attitude that you have seen me with her."

"Buddy, the problem is that nobody's seen you with her. But we've seen plenty of her around. So you babysit for her while she whores it up with people in the club bathrooms?"

"Do not talk about Ginny that way."

Alex slammed down on the "fire" button with particular gusto. "So it's true."

Fawn frowned. "You know of my prophecy. It is how it must be."

"Did you tell her that thing about your ears? How they pick up heartbeats and blood pressures, and that's how you know when people are telling the truth? Fawn's fucking magical ears."


"Alex."


"Just so you know, she was here today with some other guy. Hope you know what that means, nanny boy."

Without another word, Fawn marched silently out of the establishment.



"Father," Kolpia enthused as Fawn entered the household, "I wished to ask you something."

"Please, my son," Fawn muttered, "Not now. Later, I promise you."

"It will only take a second, provided that you know the answer. Please."

He grunted. It was an ineloquent noise, one that he was not used to making. Kolpia shifted uncomfortably. "Fine. No, yes. Continue. Sorry."

"What is our last name? I am filling out forms for school, and since mother strangely has no answer and those of the forest do not have one, I was wondering what to put."