Hineni sits there, watching the construction of their home continue. The walls are all standing now. The rooms of the exterior house are all in place. Sure, most of them are missing a roof and functionality, apart from four walls. But it’s progress.

The tree is growing with incredible speed and strength. It’s now already, with the help of the owl-god, the size of a fully grown tree.

— But something is nagging at him.

There’s something inside of his mind that’s hissing and clicking in annoyance in order to signal its dissatisfaction at… something.

He recalls the last time that he had felt this way, shortly before the assassin’s attack in the other city. But he had felt this same sensation many times before too and had simply attributed it to being one of those quirks that just sort of happen when you spend your whole life around the magically dominating presence of the owl-god.

“What’s with that ugly face?” asks a voice from the side. Eilig.

Hineni turns to look at her and lifts a finger. “It’s inherited,” he says. “That’s why you have it too, Sis.”

Eilig snorts. “Since when did you get a sense of humor?” she asks, flying in and landing down on his shoulder.

“Dunno,” replies Hineni. “Must be all of the fresh air down here,” he says.

“— Never thought I’d see it for myself,” says Eilig.

“What, the outside world?”

“Yeah,” she replies, nodding her head, her wings buzzing.

Hineni shifts his head, trying to look toward her without pressing her off with the side of his face. “And? What do you think?”

She sits there for a moment, looking out at the world that is visible all around them from up on the hill. “It’s bigger than I thought.”

“Right?” he asks, looking back towards the forest that is alight in chaotic flames. “Anyways, I’m just brooding, as everyone always seems to like to say.”

“About what?” she asks.

“The usual stuff that everyone broods about,” he says. “There’s something that’s been bugging me,” he explains. “But I can’t put my finger on what the hell it actually is,” says Hineni. Eilig nods. “It reminds me a little of when I was kidnapped by the frogs and everything felt kind of like… a dream.” The man looks around himself. “I keep expecting to just see something to prove that it is. Like a door that doesn’t belong somewhere or an out of place face, just something… dreamy, you know?” He shakes his head. “But nothing ever shows up.”

Hineni stands there in silence for a time, listening to the wings curiously buzzing next to his ears.

“— What do you think?” he asks. “I wonder if it’s just the move.”

“How long has this been going on for?” asks Eilig.

Hineni thinks for a while. “A few months I guess? Four? Five?” He shrugs. “It’s been a little while.”

He stops, thinking about the numbers. Do they mean anything? Four would be bad, of course. But five… five is an okay number, right? Five ‘belongs’ to Obscura, doesn’t it?

“I see,” says Eilig. “Don’t worry about it, okay?” she asks. Her voice sounds a little strange, as if she were suddenly very interested in something.

Hineni raises an eyebrow, looking back her way. “You realize that you saying that is making me worry about it more, right?”

“That’s on you,” replies Eilig, lifting a hand to push his face away. “- Oh. Huh, that’s smooth.”

“I shaved this morning,” replies Hineni, rubbing his cheek. “Not that there’s much to shave, with the scars.” He looks back at the workers building the house. “I guess maybe it’s also because I was hoping to figure out something here, in this place by the forest,” he says. “About where I came from as a baby.”

“Does it matter?” asks Eilig. She points to the side, to a house in the city. “What if it’s that house there?” she asks, before turning her hand to the side to point at another one. “Or that one?” The fairy points outward towards the forest. “Or in one of the little villages in the forest itself?” She lowers her hand. “What’s the point?”

“I guess I just want to know where I came from,” he replies.

She shakes her head. “You came from the house that she lived in,” says Eilig, referring to his adoptive mother. “Same as me.”

“And before that?” he asks, knowing that she won’t tell him. Eilig is silent for a while.

“…That doesn’t matter,” says the fairy after a moment of contemplation. “Since it was before I was in your life, it’s entirely irrelevant.”

Hineni rolls his eyes. “Thanks, Eilig. Of course. How selfish of me to not see that.”

She rubs her hand over his cheek. “Don’t you worry. You’ll always have your big sister to put you back where you belong when you’re acting bigger than your boot-size.”

“…Do you think that we’re a dysfunctional family?” asks Hineni.

“Eh. I think we’re doing better than any of them,” she replies, pointing at Rhine, Sockel and the others who are standing at the bottom of the hill, starting their day.

Hineni looks at them for a time, realizing something for the first time. None of them have family left. Not Rhine, who had left his mother behind. Not Sockel, who is a loner to her core. Not Seltsam, who had been on the run her whole life as a ‘monster’ and not the owl-god, who is the last of her kind.

In a way, he’s the only one who has someone left, someone here who has always been there.

Eilig is the odd-one out, isn’t she? Hineni narrows his eyes in thought.

Her name has five letters, doesn’t it?

— But wait, so does Rhine’s. So that can’t mean anything.

“— Hey!” she snaps her fingers in his ears. “No brooding.”

“Sorry. I was just thinking about you.”

She tilts her head. “What a creepy thing to say when I’m right next to you.”

“What can I say?” asks Hineni. “I’m a suspicious person,” explains the man. “People hold their bags closer when I walk down the street.”

“More like paranoid,” replies Eilig, rising up to her feet. The fairy stands on his shoulder. “Listen. I know you want me to tell you what I know, but I can’t, okay? It was a promise, and I don’t break promises. Ever.” She plants her hands on her hips, looking at him. “Or are you trying to make your big sister a liar?”

“It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been accused of trying to morally corrupt someone,” notes Hineni.

“Cute,” replies the fairy. “Listen. I meant what I said back months ago,” she explains. “You and I are family. We’re the only ones. It’s just us two.”

“Sorry, Eilig,” replies Hineni. “I’m a package deal these days.” He nods towards the others. “It’s me and them or nothing.”

She lifts a hand. “I’m not getting into it. I’m just telling you that no matter what happens, I’ll look out for you.”

“That’s… oddly ominous,” replies Hineni. “What exactly is supposed to happen?”

She gestures to broadly everything around them. “You don’t even see it anymore, do you?”

Hineni looks around the area. “The war?”

“The war!” she yells at him. “You dummy! You dragged the people you’re telling me you care about into the middle of a war-zone!”

“We’re fine.”

She points to a man in the distance, being ripped across the landscape by an impossibly long, black, leathery arm that shoots out of the deep-forest. “I bet he was thinking that too, a minute ago.”

They watch him vanish into the forest, his screams falling silent.

Hineni turns back towards her. “Eh.”

The fairy rises up off of his shoulder, hovering in front of his eyes. “She’s really ruined you, you know?” asks the fairy. “I mean, I hate people, but this is a bit grim, even for me.”

“The war will be over soon,” says Hineni. “Or it’ll shift. This is just a temporary circumstance.”

“…A temporary circumstance?”

“- A temporary circumstance,” affirms Hineni.

Eilig sighs, rubbing her face. “You do see how callous you’ve become, right?” she asks. “It’s like when we talked about how your wife eats people.”

“— Ate,” corrects Hineni. “Past tense.”

“Really?” she asks, dryly. Hineni nods. The fairy shakes her head, closing her eyes for a moment. Looking back at him, she lifts a hand, holding it against the tip of his nose. “For everyone else, you might be a lost cause -”

“Huh?”

“— But I’m not giving up on you yet. Don’t worry. Things will get better soon,” finishes Eilig. “I promise, and I keep my promises.” She looks around herself, staring vaguely at anything and everything. He has no idea what she’s looking for.

Hineni shrugs. “That seems like a very weird thing to say and to do,” he says. “Are family conversations supposed to be this awkward and full of this much touching?”

“At least you’re not licking me anymore.”

“Fair,” replies Hineni. “Thanks, Eilig… I think?”

She nods, lowering her hand from his face. She looks at him for a moment and then, without another word, flies off.

Hineni stands there, not quite sure what exactly just happened here.

He shrugs.

Best not to worry about it.

But he still doesn’t know what the hell it is that’s bothering him. There’s something missing somewhere. It’s on the tip of his tongue, but he can’t quite nail it down. Hineni looks at the others, his eyes wandering over Obscura, Rhine, Sockel, Eilig and Seltsam as they all set about their days.

It’s right in front of him.

But he just can’t see it yet.

“Wait a minute…” says Hineni, a familiar sound, a word, whispering through his head. “I’ve heard of that before,” he says, thinking of a memory from his fake life in the frog-world.