Maternal Instinct

Eek had a very good memory for faces, at least for the faces of people who were nice to him. He remembered that the pretty brown-haired lady was his friend Blight's mommy and that she was a nice mommy who called him cute and did not abandon Blight or be mean to her kid. So, he didn't bolt up a tree when he saw her picking up a shoe and instead meandered over to the woman curiously.

"Mommy Blight? Why you have shoes on feet and more shoes?" Then he nodded at the question she had asked, forgetting whether she knew he had to speak in opposites or not, and said, "Yes, am not okay!". He yawned and stretched, it was early enough in the evening that he had just woken up. He had only really been down on the ground because he was hungry for his breakfast and the tree he had fallen asleep in that morning hadn't had many bugs.

The baby-fae probably looked a little mussed up from sleeping in a tree. And his t-shirt was noticeably dirty even at night, but he was so used to being a little messy and sleeping outside that he didn't even notice. He didn't want to be rude and stop talking to the lady, but he did need to eat and thought she might too, so he asked her, "You need bweakfast?"

Eek was really happy Mommy Blight remembered his name. Even though it was a short name, people often got confused by his contradictions and forgot it. Some people said it was a silly name, but it was the only one he had. The baby-fae wasn't quite sure what work was. The fae he had lived with pretty much lived off the land. But he had heard adults who lived here talking about going there. He still didn't know why she needed extra shoes, though. And he had a habit of not letting a question go until it was answered. "Where is work? Do they give extra shoes? Do you live in park?"

Since he mostly ate bugs and fruit, Eek had been a fairly self-sufficient forager since he taught himself to walk. Of course the amount of food he could scavenge this way was fairly limited, especially in the winter, but he would have gladly given Mrs. Blight some of any bugs he managed to find. That being said, he was glad he wouldn't have to share. She must've eaten her breakfast at the mysterious work place. "No not just woke up. Not gonna find bugs. Not want to say hi first."

Eek was surprised that someone would offer to get him breakfast. Even other fae hadn't helped him much after he could climb trees for himself. "Not need help! I am not big! Can not climb the trees!"

Eek nodded politely at the woman's answers, even though he had a little trouble understanding them since he didn't have the proper frame of reference. The wearing different clothes sounded like a uniform, and he knew what a uniform was because police wore them. "Oh! Work like police work?" He gasped in amazement, "Are you a police and a nice mommy?" The idea that a person could be two of his favourite things at once was just astounding to the little fae.

He didn't really know what money was, even though he was sure Arjean had tried to explain it to him. He knew that adults who were gangsters would give people money for drugs and alcohol and that drugs and alcohol made people happy but were for adults. He had seen alcohol at the party they had snuck into, but it had just seemed like a smelly drink to him. He hadn't gotten close enough to actually try any of that stuff even if he had wanted to, though. All Eek understood was that she wanted money because she loved Joseph, and Eek thought that was really nice.

"Oh! Not houses! Those are not weird people things and they not all look the same, but not more interesting than caves. I not not know you can go in them!" The weather was warm enough where he lived, and the fae were close enough to nature, that most of them lived in caves or trees or burrows. He hadn't really been in many buildings other than the police station and the cottage.

When he had said that he was a big boy, Eek hadn't really been protesting that he could do everything himself, he had just been shocked that someone would offer to help him eat. Even after people giving him fruit and clothes at the cottage, the baby-fae was still wary of most offers. He had been trying to reassure the nice lady that he wasn't starving and was able to feed himself. In fact, he still didn't know why Mommy Blight wanted to know what he ate. She didn't need to trouble herself when he could get stuff out of trees. But he thought he should answer her anyways. "I not like fruits but they not hard to find in winter. And I not like the bugs that go crisp, cause they not sound funny!"

"You not not a police. But you wear un-i-form for the work? What is you?" This whole work was still very puzzling to the boy, but it was like a fun little mystery for him to solve. He liked that she was answering all his questions and not getting annoyed with him for not understanding adult things and human things. When Mommy Blight said Jojo, for a moment Eek thought she was talking about someone other than Joseph just because he wasn't used to nicknames, probably because his own name was so short. But he figured it out before actually asking anything out loud.

Another thing that Eek didn't really understand was doors. Both times he'd gone into the cottage had been through open windows and he'd pretty much stayed in one place. And someone had opened the doors for him when he'd snuck into that Christmas party. He knew what they were, roughly, at least he knew they were for entrances, but caves didn't really have doors. And he also had no idea how to open them. "People caves? Like at cottage?" He thought for a moment then added, "Just you and Joseph? Not lots of people in a house?" The baby-fae liked them, but he didn't think he'd like living with a bunch of people. He was still scared of most humans. That was one of the reasons, other than being nocturnal, that he had been staying out in the park instead of sleeping in the school dorms like he was technically supposed to.

The weather had not actually been warm at all, especially at night. It was the middle of the winter when he arrived, and it did snow. Staying curled up in the trees was warmer than being on the ground, but in the winter the lack of leaves meant he had no real shelter from the weather. Plus there was the fact he only had a t-shirt to wear.

Eek was more surprised than confused at Mommy Blight being nice to him. He thought it was cool that she was a good mommy to Joseph, and even that still shocked him a little, but most other kids he had met said they had parents that didn't abandon them. But she was not his mommy, so why was she being so nice to him? "Why you help Eek?"