Author's Note: This is the sequel to Babe in the Woods. If you'd like to know more about how Ronin found little Nod lost in the woods and ended up taking him in, please take a look at the first story.

"I changed my mind," Nod fidgeted, hopping nervously from one foot to the other.

Ronin gave him an unimpressed look. This was the third time he had changed his mind this morning, although really, he hadn't changed his mind at all. Every time he had announced he had changed it, he was really just declaring the same misgiving.

"And why is that?" Ronin asked, going back to stirring the stew.

"I don't think I should meet him today," Nod hugged Cheep-Cheep to his chest, "I think tomorrow will be better."

"Why will tomorrow be better?" Ronin tried not to laugh; Nod was genuinely nervous, but his reasons as to why he shouldn't meet Finn's younger brother had become increasingly creative as the morning progressed.

"Because maybe I'll be taller tomorrow," Nod pressed against Ronin's leg, "then if Eben is really, really big, he won't be so much bigger than me tomorrow."

"Eben is about your size," Ronin patted Nod's head.

Nod didn't seem to quite grasp the idea of other children being like him, which made sense to Ronin. He hadn't been around any children since Ronin had found him. Now seemed like a good time to introduce him though and get him used to playing with people his own age; he was talking well, and he loved all the games Orla taught him. It would be good for him to have other children to talk and play with.

Nora had suggested she bring Eben over to play. He was about the same age as Nod, and in Nora's own words 'not a crazy loon like the rest of my horde.'

Ronin would have said she was exaggerating, but her oldest son was his second-in-command.

"But I don't know Eben," Nod protested.

"Well, you'll just have to meet him," Ronin reasoned, "then you'll know him."

"But what if he tries to eat me!"Nod wailed.

"What?" Ronin blinked.

"What if he tries to eat me?" Nod repeated miserably, burying his face against his stuffed chickadee, "I don't like it when that happens."

The strangest things came out of Nod's mouth sometimes. It would have been funny, but he was always sincere when he said them, which was sometimes frightening. Nod couldn't tell them much about his time in the forest, and it just frustrated him to try, so Ronin rarely asked, but sometimes he wished he knew more.

"Why would Eben want to eat you?" Ronin set the spoon down and picked Nod up, sitting him on the counter.

"Because you said he was almost my size, and spiders are almost my size, and sometimes they try to eat me," Nod explained, toying nervously with the yarn tuff on Cheep-Cheep's head.

"Eben isn't a spider," Ronin tweaked Nod's nose gently, "he's a jinn just like you. He's Finn's little brother, remember?"

"And that means he and Finn have the same mom and dad, and Mrs. Nora is their mom," Nod hugged Cheep-Cheep tight.

"That's right," Ronin brushed Nod's hair back from his forehead and pressed a kiss to it, "do you want to stir the stew for me?"

The boy nodded and shifted his stuffed toy so he could take the spoon and stir.

"But what if he doesn't like my toys, and I don't know any of the games he wants to play," Nod concentrated intensely on his stirring, "and he doesn't like me at all, and then he tries to eat me."

"Eben is not going to try to eat you," Ronin said firmly, "you don't taste good."

"How do you know?" Nod sulked.

"Want me to check?" Ronin grinned.

Nod's head snapped up, and Ronin leaned forward and tickled him, pretending to nip at his cheeks. The boy squealed and laughed, and Ronin managed to pluck the spoon from his hand before he could fling stew everywhere.

"You're going to make the stew burn!" Nod yelled between shrieks of laughter.

"Then I better stop, huh?" Ronin laughed and gave Nod's cheek one more kiss before going back to stirring. "It will be fine chickadee. Eben is a very nice little boy, just like you, and you'll have fun playing together. Mrs. Nora says he likes to play with blocks, just like you do."

"Does he like knocking them down too?" Nod asked, reaching for the spoon again.

"You'll have to ask him," Ronin handed it over to him, letting him resume stirring.

"You're not going to leave while he's here, are you?" Nod gave him a wary look.

"No," Ronin reassured him, "I'm not going anywhere."

Nod had decided he wasn't coming out from under the table. If Eben was small like him, then he would be able to fit under the couch and get into Nod's nest, so it was just better if Nod stayed under the table and sat on Ronin's feet, so he could tell Ronin if Eben tried to eat him, and then Ronin would stop him, because Ronin was really good at being scary to things that were bad.

Eben was sitting on Mrs. Nora's lap, and Nod could see his feet. They looked like Nod's feet, except his shoes weren't as good as Nod's shoes, because Nod's shoes had bells on them, and that made them better.

"Eben, Nod has some books," Mrs. Nora set Eben on his feet, but Nod still couldn't see all of him, "why don't you pick one, and you can practice reading."

"Ok," Eben said and headed into the living room.

Nod rested his head against Ronin's knee and stuck his thumb in his mouth. Ronin dropped his hand down to pat Nod's head, then handed him a cracker.

Eben came back, but instead of climbing onto Mrs. Nora's lap again, he crawled under the table. Nod shrank back farther against Ronin, wrapping an arm around his leg.

"Hi," Eben sat down near Mrs. Nora's feet and waved to Nod, "I'm Eben."

Nod returned the wave uncertainly. Eben had red hair and freckles like Finn, but his eyes were brown like Nod's.

"Is it okay if I read your book?" Eben asked.

Nod nodded. Reading was when Ronin or Miss Orla told him stories about the pictures in books. Nod liked to tell stories about the pictures too, and Ronin said his stories were good stories. Maybe Eben's stories would be good stories too.

Eben opened the book in his lap, turning to the first page, "there are lots of plants in the forest."

Nod knew this book. Miss Orla read it to him. It had lots of pictures of pretty plants, and she told him things about each one.

"This is a cattail," Eben held up the book so Nod could see the picture, then set it back in his lap, "they grow near water. They are good to eat."

"We eat cattail," Nod said without thinking, then pressed back against Ronin's leg and stuck his thumb in his mouth again.

"We do too," Eben said, "Mom boils the tubers sometimes, or we eat the stems pickled."

"I don't like it pickled," Nod made a face.

"Mom says it's good for us, but it tastes bad," Eben agreed.

"That's what Ronin says," Nod smiled tentatively.

Eben grinned and held up the book so Nod could see the picture, "next is a sunflower."

"Chickadees like those!" Nod scooted a little closer to him, "when the seeds come out they take them to their trees and they peck at them until there's a hole, then they eat the seed out."

"What else do chickadees eat?" Eben asked curiously.

"They like caterpillars," Nod told him.

"Eww!" Eben made a face.

"It's icky," Nod agreed, "but they like berries too and lots of different seeds, and they hide them in holes in trees and sometimes they share. They're really good at finding food, and they tell other birds when they find it, like this."

Nod made the chick-a-dee-dee sound that the birds made when they found food. Eben tried to copy him, but he added too many 'dees'.

"No, that means something bad is coming," Nod laughed, "it's like this."

He made the call again. It took Eben a few tries, but eventually he got it right.

"What else do chickadees say?" Eben asked eagerly.

"They say lots of things," Nod grinned, scooting to sit next to him.

Nora took a sip of her tea and set it back on the table, "Eben is going to teach the triplets to do that, and I'm going to have a flock of birds in my house."

"It could be worse," Ronin laughed, "at least Nod isn't teaching him to growl like a fox."

"Maybe Eben could come back tomorrow," Nod was unbuttoning his night shirt as fast as Ronin was buttoning it.

"Leave that buttoned," Ronin put Cheep-Cheep in his arms to stop him from undoing it, "it's cold."

"I want my blue pajamas. Can I have my blue pajamas?" Nod shifted his stuffed chickadee, trying to figure out how to hold him and undo buttons at the same time.

"They're in the laundry hamper," Ronin tickled him when he tried for another button, and he squirmed and giggled, "I'll drop the laundry off on my way to work tomorrow."

"But Eben can come over tomorrow," Nod insisted, "Miss Orla will like Eben because he's learning to talk like a chickadee, and he didn't try to eat me."

"I'm pretty sure Eben has school tomorrow, but I'll talk to Mrs. Nora and see when he can come over again," Ronin finished buttoning Nod's night shirt and set him on the ground, "where are your slippers?"

"What's school?" Nod crawled under the bed to retrieve his slippers; he had put them there for safe keeping before his bath.

"School is where children go to learn," Ronin waited for him to reemerge.

"Are there lots of children there?" Nod asked, sitting on the floor to put his slippers on.

"Usually," Ronin grinned down at him.

"That doesn't sound very good," Nod frowned, "Eben was nice and didn't try to eat me, but maybe other children would try to eat me. I don't want to go to school."

"No one is going to try to eat you," Ronin reached down to rumple his hair, "at least not any jinn, but you don't have to worry about school for a while."

Nod still got upset easily by strangers and large crowds, although he would at least venture into them if Ronin was with him. There was no question right now about him going to a regular school. He just wasn't ready to be around that many people yet.

"But what if they eat Eben?" Nod's brow furrowed, "I like Eben. I don't want anyone to eat him."

"No one is going to eat Eben either," Ronin picked a book up off the bed, "you can ask him about school next time you see him. Do you want to look at books in here while I'm in the shower or play with your toys in the living room?"

"I'll go play," Nod padded off down the hall, his slippers jingling, "I'll pick good books while you're in the shower and you can read to me about the pictures."

"Sounds like a plan," Ronin agreed.