Finished Strengthening Family Ties and Other Bonds

"We all could have done better, Jeremiah, hijo..." he sighed as he paced slowly as he spoke. Rafael was not used to just sitting and not doing anything. "You are not to blame. You are also quite new to the family... And unfortunately, things just take time. Trust and respect are not earned overnight, neither are love or affection," he added as he looked at his grandson, his gaze understanding and patient.

"I'd be grateful if you could talk to Tasashi. I know they are feeling left out, especially since there is something always going on with his sister," Rafael admitted, his tone somewhat exasperated by this.

Stopping his pacing, Rafael looked at Jeremiah and then crouched down to be eye level with him.

"Of course I will help. I will always be here to help you with whatever you need," Rafael declared when Jeremiah asked him to show him how to use glamour.

"You are my grandson, and I love you," the witch said with the gruff warmness of a man who was not used to expressing his feelings.

Rafael slowly looked around himself before answering Jeremiah's question. "This place no longers exists in the real world," he said with a tiny and almost sad sigh.

"It was a grove outside our forest village in Spain. It was where I used to practice magic as a young boy. My father, bless his very patient soul, taught me all the magic he knew here," Rafael explained.

Rafael smiled at his grandson's story as he stood up to watch Jeremiah explore the magical grove.

"It is indeed," he said as he touched a vine on the tree. "My grandfather and his father before him were the first druids in the family to worship and draw their power from nature. They used to tell me stories about when they lived in the forest, bathed in the rivers, gathered food from the land around them, and communed with nature daily," he said.

"Supposedly my grandfather could take the form of an owl during the days leading up to a full moon," he said with a smile.