It was one of those evenings, where the little Miqo’te child couldn’t sit still. Axuma had the little rascal on her lap again, trying to brush his hair for the night now that he was finally in his pajamas. But the young boy was restless and fidgety again, constantly trying to get something between his clawed little fingers to occupy himself with. He was but a child of 6 summers and Axuma couldn’t blame him for rather liking to explore the world than being put into bed. But even though Yazka had only joined their family about a year ago, Axuma made sure that the same rules applied to him as for her own child, Yazka’s older stepsister now.

“I don’t want to go to bed yet, I’m not tired.” The blond boy complained, leaning forward on his stepmothers lap, trying to escape.

The Auri woman pulled him back and pressed him gently but firmly more to her chest, grabbing the brush with the other hand, but the Miqo’te impatiently kicked his legs, his right ear flicking downwards in an annoyed manner. Axuma hoped that his left ear would recover from the cuts and the loss of hearing it had suffered due to the proximity to the explosion. She had the feeling that his hearing was slowly coming back, but he often refused to answer questions regarding this, or if his ear still hurt him. Yazka just pretended that everything was fine. A natural state of denial, so that his very young mind would handle the loss.

“But you want to join Papa at the boat ride tomorrow, don’t you? For that you must be well rested. Be a good boy and I’ll tell you the story of the Manusya and the Mrga again when you are in bed.”

The little Miqo’te complained with a squealing sound and grabbed the lower arm around his torso tighter, his little pointy claws pressing against the pearly white scales of his stepmother there. As he moved his fingers, he got interested into the sound his claws made on the shimmering solid things.

Using this short time of Yazka keeping still, Axuma began to brush his blonde thick hair, carefully caressing his too big ears as well.

“Ma?” the boy asked while pressing his fingers along the ridges and valleys of Axuma’s scales.

“Yes, love?”

“When will I have scales, too, like you, Pa and Thareen have?”

Axuma stopped her brushing for some seconds, her eyelids hiding her lightblue eyes.

“We have scales, because we are Au Ra, love. And you are Miqo’te. That’s why you have these wonderful ears and this beautiful fluffy tail.” she spoke softly and lovingly while Yazka still traced the scales on her lower arm and back of her hand that held him onto her lap.

“But I can be an Au Ra too, right? Now that…I…uhm…”

“You will always be welcome with every Au Ra, Yazka. You’ll be as auri as you can be. But… look at me.” She placed the brush away again, turned the boy a bit on her lap and looked down on him into his darkbrown slitted pupils, a soft smile on her heart-shaped face.

“I think you are wonderful as you are. You should be proud of yourself and nobody here in Yedlihmad will ever have the right to tell you otherwise.”

“Even without scales like everyone has?”

“Oh, does Aunt Odhaa have scales? Noooo, she has a trunk!” she grinned and playfully pulled the Miqo’te child on the nose and Yazka giggled.

“We’re all different but still the same, Yazka. It doesn’t matter if you have scales like us.” ++++