As soon as he saw her, he smiled, though it looked strained to Aise. “Come here, hon,” he said softly, patting his knee for the girl to settle on. Which she did, half happy, half apprehensive. Father seemed... upset tonight. Had something happened? He wasn’t angry with her for some reason, was he? No, she thought it was something else, not anger, more like worry.

     He both put her qualms to rest and stirred up new ones. “I saw you sailing today,” he began, and Aislin could tell he was having a hard time phrasing what he wanted to say. “Have you made a crow’s nest for your little skiff?” father changed his tack slightly, some half-hearted amusement, along with a bit of curious hope tinting his voice.

     When Aise shook her head he went on, more hesitant “I just thought I saw something at the top of your mast this morning when you sailed close to my ship.”

     And there it was. Aislin hadn’t thought about this flaw in her plan. Hiding the egg was easy, since she didn’t have to worry about it wandering off. Oku as a wyrm, however, was an entirely different matter. She’d brought the little dragon fly home often, of course, and though her parents were a little leery of it, something about bad luck, they seemed to have accepted it as a cute pet and companion for their little girl.

     This time, however, father seemed almost afraid. Why? Oku hadn’t hurt her, except for the moment he’d hatched and scratched up her arms a bit. Aise had had to do quite a lot of explaining to get her parents to let her back on the skiff after that. She’d finally ended up telling them that it was an accident, and had nothing at all to do with the ship, which was, of course, the truth. So she wasn’t quite sure why he was suddenly so worried.

     Now was the moment of truth. She could pretend like she didn’t know what he was talking about and hope that the wyrm remained a secret for just a little longer, or tell him about Oku and hope he and mother wouldn’t try to take him away from her.

     “I...” she began, then decided “I know what you’re talking about,” she smiled sheepishly at father’s relief. “That was Okushiyovi that you saw. He likes it up there. He likes to watch the fish...” When father’s face clouded, Aislin stopped. Uh oh, had she said something wrong? This reminded her too much of the time she’d told mother and father about uncle J, and he’d left soon after that. She began to worry.

     “It’s okay though, he’s a good little dragon, he wouldn’t-” she stopped there, suddenly, startled by the look of alarm in father’s face. Just then mother came in from the kitchen, where she’d been listening. Father and mother’s eyes met above Aislin’s head again, and the girl remained silent. This really was too much like last time. But he was hatched now! They wouldn’t try to take Oku away, would they?

     “I think,” came mother’s voice “I think that I’d like to meet your little Okushiyovi. How about tomorrow, when you come in for lunch?” she suggested. Aislin could tell that mother was just as scared as father, maybe even more so, though she hid it better. It was only the practice she’d had with reading Oku’s mental messages that she caught it at all.

     The little girl could only nod. She could feel it; another sleepless night was forecast.

     Aislin hauled away on a line, tied that off and quickly shifted her weight to reach another line and tie it off too, turning the sail into the wind. She was worried about how father and mother had acted and what they’d said last night. She’d been thinking about it all day, even through the distraction of Oku’s play.

     She heard a shrill squeak and turned to watch Oku fling himself from the top of the mast into the water, making as little splash as possible and coming up a moment later, giggling and climbing into the boat again. That was his very favorite past time, Aise thought, giggling. That, and curling around the top of the mast to watch the fish below, a spot he’d claimed as his own as soon as he was strong enough to climb that high up it’s smooth surface. It made Aise think of a crows nest. He’d grown a bit since hatching, though she wondered if he’d ever get legs or wings, like the dragons her parents had told her about in bed-time stories.

     *Why don’t I ever get to see your parents?* Oku asked, settling aloft in the ‘crows nest.’ Aise had taught him how to better put his thoughts into words... okay, so she’d tried to teach him, given up after an hour or so, and decided on reading to him from the books in the cabin. But that was as good a way to teach language skills as any, right?

     The question surprised her, though it shouldn’t have; he must’ve been picking up some of her thoughts about her parents.

     “What?” she asked as she sat down, turning the rudder so that they’d keep the sail in the wind and peering up at the little sea-colored wyrm. He repeated himself, and Aise blinked. “Well,” she said slowly “When you were a little egg, I was afraid they’d take you away from me and give you to someone else.”

     Oku nodded; he remembered that. Apparently, the little guy remembered a lot from when he was an egg. *Yes, then. But why now?* he persisted curiously. Aislin herself was curious most of the time, so it didn’t really seem unusual to her that Oku was as well.

     “I guess it’s just a habit now,” she admitted sheepishly, then shrugged. “Do you want to meet them?”

     Oku nodded, a gesture he’d picked up from Aise *Very much,* he added, just in case she hadn’t seen the nod. *I want to see if they’re anything like mine.* he continued thoughtfully, watching a fish jump a few yards away, sparkling in the light of the westward-bound sun.

     “Oh?” Aislin inquired, curious herself, “What are yours like?”

     *Well,* he began, harking back to his egghood, *One was nice. He was very calm and quiet.*

     Aislin nodded. Her father was similar. Oku continued *But the other was sort of angry a lot. And very protective. He didn’t want me to come here.*

     At that, the girl blinked, wondering if she’d misheard “He?”

     Oku nodded *Yup, he wanted to take care of all of us, but others came and talked him out of it,*

     Aise thought for a moment. Two fathers? After a very short pause she shrugged. At least it wasn’t three of unknown gender, like the nerryclanaarsa uncle J had told her about. Maybe that was normal where Oku came from; maybe they were an all-boy race of dragons? Or something.

     “So you really want to meet them, huh? I suppose I could get them to come out to the skiff, or do you want to chance a trek inland?” she asked, getting up to let go the lines and lower the sails as they moved into dock.

     *Bring them here,* Oku decided, giving a little shudder at the thought of moving inland, even for a little while. The ground just didn’t move right at all.

     She smiled and nodded, watching him spiral down the mast as soon as the sails were stowed, just as he always did. She was glad he wanted to meet them, it’d make tonight that much easier. “How about I bring them down today, after lunch?” she asked, and Oku nodded happily.