The Australia Day carnival started out as it usually did. Everyone went to the carnival, including me to meet Dinah. When I arrived Elijah was on the phone to someone, he was talking to them about Terra. I think he was trying to find out if anyone was looking for her.

Elijah ended the call when he heard me coming. “Look who finally showed up,” he teased.

I scoffed and shook my head. “Your daughter was getting angry with me, so I thought the sooner I got here the less violent her wrath will be.”

Elijah chuckled and stared back at the carnival. “They went to show Terra around the carnival, good luck.”

“Thanks,” I laughed lightly, “I’m gonna need it.”

“Claude, when this summer ends, so does this thing with my daughter. Understand?” Elijah squinted up at me against the sun filtering through the tree canopy. “Come March, I want her to go to university, get away from all this…monsters and murder.”

I nod solemnly in agreement. I owed Elijah my life, I’d never do anything that would upset him. I knew that he wanted to keep anything not normal, not human, away from his daughters.

“It’s not that I don’t like you, it’s just that Dinah is seventeen and you’re like, two-hundred years old or whatever.” I snickered in agreement as Elijah gave a light laugh.

“Yea, it’s been about that long,” I admitted with a shrug.

“I want Dinah to have a life before her grandfather cements her in the family business for good. Honestly, I’d prefer her to have a normal life in general, but good old dad would never allow that.”

“I get it, I will try my best to make her think it was her decision and not mine.”

Elijah touched his temple and then points to me, “good thinking kid, good thinking.”

I left Elijah on the picnic mats and headed to the carnival. The Gravitron was usually set up on the Eastern side of the field where there were less trees. As I passed through the crowd a strange sensation washed over me. I stood in place and tried to feel it out, the source of this feeling. Someone slapped my arm and I spun to face them.

“Hello, brother dearest.”

“Atticus,” I breathed as he stepped back. I hadn’t seen Atticus since 1996 in England. We hadn’t exactly got along for the past century, so I was a little surprised to see him at the carnival looking for me.

“Oh good, you recognise me.” Atticus sneered as he tucked his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket.

“Nice hair,” I mocked and flicked a strand again Atticus’s face. “You wouldn’t have happened to save a young girl from drowning a few nights ago?”

“Ooo! I don’t know, that depends. Does it have anything to do with a duck?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Adorable little thing, about yay high, possibly brown and black,” Atticus held his hand up in the shape of a duck mouth. “Also, who’s the little blond girl that looks eerily similar to our dear sister?”

I leaned towards Atticus. “She’s human, and she just looks similar, that’s all. It’s not like it’s an exact copy of her.” It was true that Terra looked similar to our older sister. But our sister died two centuries ago, and me and Atticus, we’re the last of our family. There was no way we had any relation to her.

“Huh,” Atticus replied as he took a step away from me, “so you’re not like, dating her or anything, because that would be weird, even by my standards.”

“What? God no, she’s probably only fifteen. What is wrong with you?”

“A lot of things brother,” Atticus teased and gave me a wink. “Well, if you’re not dating her, does that mean we’re adopting her?” Atticus feigned a surprise and grinned at my annoyance.

“No, we are not adopting her, you idiot. I am just here to spend some quality time with my girlfriend, that’s it.”

“Your girlfriend who just so happens to be hanging around with our not-sister. So this has nothing to do with the girl you mysterious found unconscious in the woods, or a duck by chance?” Atticus pressed on.

“A duck? Look, I don’t have time for this. Every second I waste talking to you is another second I’m not spending with Dinah, my girlfriend.”

“Ooo, Dinah,” Atticus said her name with a flare. “I like it! Does she have a hot sister? Maybe a cousin?”

“Atticus, what are you doing here?” I growled in frustration.

“Apparently, saving drowning girls in the middle of the night. Why, what do you care?” Atticus narrowed his eyes at me as people milled past us, a few giving us dirty or questioning looks.

“So, it was you who killed the fairy.” I nodded my head and stifled a smile.

“What fairy?” Atticus snapped.

“Ah, so you didn’t kill that fairy.”

Atticus groaned and dropped his shoulders. “I am done playing this gam, Claude.”

“Good, because so am I.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Why are you here, Atticus?”

“Because I got invited to teach at the little old christian school down the road.” Atticus replied as he pointed in the general direction of the school. “You know, actually doing something useful with my life.”

“You’re kidding,” I scoffed.

“No, I’m not. What’s so funny brother?”

“Nothing, nothing at all. You just don’t seem like the teacher type is all. I mean, if you’re a teacher then I guess Dinah’s cousin is off limits for you.”

Atticus frowned. “You’re dating a school girl? Oh come on, Claude. You can’t be serious?”

I tried to stifle a smile as he watched his brother realisation. Atticus groaned and then ran a hand through his hair as he turned away.

“Technically she’s a college girl now. So did you save a girl from drowning and then kill the fairy that was drowning her, or are we now triplets instead of twins?”

Atticus sighed, “we,” Atticus placed a hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eye, “have a shapeshifter problem.”

I frowned in confusion as I asked, “what does this have to do with a duck?”