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It was just another average day, which, of course, holds no promises of peace when you've got a small child or two(or three) to keep your eyes on. Mako felt like he was under siege...his house had been invaded - by children galore! Oh, the humanity! Funniest thing, though, he had the faintest impression that they were all his kids...

"Ah, hey, no fair, I've got the baby!" Mako cried out, holding Garin in his arms, although the boy was capable of crawling around himself. He had certainly grown since Mako had first brought him home. His vocabulary had grown as well, a wealth of baby words slowly evolving into English. Mako was surprised at how quick a learner he seemed to be, but not too surprised. The boy's bookwormish habits of carrying around his favorite green, skull embossed book with him everywhere he went had hinted at his blossoming intelligence. Mako often suspected that the child was pulling the phrases straight out of the book itself. Of course, he could never look, for the book never left Garin's side, and if somebody else dared to touch it, well, their ears would regret it.

Mako held Garin out as if he were a shield, but his pursuers were not swayed. Cody chased his father in a circle around the couch for what felt like the hundredth time, Benjamin hopping close behind him, while Gully sat on the couch itself, apparently fighting the urge to join in. Where did these kids get their energy from?! At least Garin couldn't walk yet, although he was on the edge of toddlerhood...

"Down..." Garin managed to squeeze out, waving his arms and legs about wildly. he didn't have to say it twice to get the message across. Down...that was one of his newly learned words, along with "up" and "eat." But ah, his first word, what a moment. Garin had been sitting on the floor, enthusiastically opening and closing the toy book Mako had bought him, his actual book sitting right next to him. His toy truck lay forgotten in the corner. Spotting the skull-embossed book laying on the floor next to him, Mako picked it up, curious to see what was inside, but before he could even thumb through the pages, Garin was wailing "booooooooooook!" at the top of his lungs. Mako dropped the book in sheer amazement...his first word? Already?? Fantastic! "Yes, book, book!" he praised, gushing with pride as his son placed the toy book in his mouth and chewed on one of the texturized pictures. Following soon after that were "dad," "yes," and "no." Baby words were still abundant, of course, but as each day passed it sounded more like he was considering a particularly profound piece of literature.

Complying with Garin's demands, Mako stopped for a moment and set him on the ground, only to get tackled by Cody. Benjamin came up behind Cody, but stopped and set on the floor with Garin. Mako game a slight oomph as Cody bounced on him, looking past the blur of yellow and green to check on Garin. Benjamin was always nice to Garin, but his mobility often separated him from the child. If a child so young could look jealous, it was definitely Garin, as Cody and Benjamin ran circles about him. Unfortunately for him, he had been developing much faster mentally than physically. But as Mako watched him now, it appeared as if he was having a revelation. Standing up slowly, he leaned against Benjamin, tugging at the boy's floppy rabbit ear.

Mako had seen this before, but now Garin was wobbling oddly, as if he might fall forward, but Benjamin caught him with a smile. Picking a foot up off the ground, he wobbled again, falling onto his bottom this time. But he was determined, using one of Benjamin's antlers to pull himself back up. Mako would laugh at Benjamin's total and utter indifference if he weren't so distracted by Garin's attempts at walking. Standing up again, Garin moved his foot forward again, bringing it down before he could fall. Gully peeked out from over the couch as Garin's other foot caught up with the first. He lurched forward again, his feet carrying him a few more paces before he fell to his knees and crawled, apparently satisfied, the rest of the way to Mako.

"First steps..." Mako said in a daze. It never ceased to amaze him. "There's one for the baby book!"

"Boooook!" Garin suddenly piped up, making grabby hands towards the green book he had left with Benjamin.

"Yes, yes, book!" Mako praised, overjoyed and leaning forward to snatch the book up for his son.

As the weeks passed, Garin became increasingly stable, his first few faltering steps growing into a waddling that would lead him to explore and cause mischief throughout the house. While keeping an eye on his escapades one evening, Mako noticed that his once drool-soaked, skull-embossed book lay forgotten near his crib(which was quickly getting too small for the poor boy). Surprised at first, Mako then reasoned that the book would probably throw the poor boy off balance - that and he no doubt wanted his hands free for activities such as pulling his brother's hair, which seemed to be a popular choice, judging by Cody's yelps echoing from the living room.

"Garin, leave your brother alone!" Mako shouted as he picked up the book, his curiosity getting the better of him. He'd been wondering for quite a while just what was inside this book, if anything at all, and before now, he hadn't seen Garin leave it out of his sight. But now it was unguarded...a silly thought, seeing as it belonged to a toddler, yet he was thankful he could at least hold the book now without being punished by that ear piercing scream. For a moment, the absurdity of the situation returned, coupled with guilt, but it subsided as another wave of curiosity crashed over his consciousness.

"What could it hurt?" he reassured himself as he turned the front color, keeping a nervous eye on the skull. The red eye seemed to glare at him...a mere trick of the light, obviously! He quickly flipped the cover over, fixing his eyes on the inside page...

Blank.

Sighing, Mako flipped through the rest of the pages, a fluttering span of white laying out before him. And here he was, expecting to find something interesting - perhaps some information on this land they called "Xanth," or a history of the boy's former self...traces of magic...anything at all! The emptiness of it was rather depressing, in its own way.

Suddenly, the book began to vibrate gently in his hands. Mako gasped and stepped back a bit, holding the book away from him, although for some reason he seemed unable to let it go. It was as if instinct was tightening his grasp on the book, instructing his body not to let go.

The book's aura seemed to be changing, almost as if it was mirroring Mako's mood. Mako felt a tingling in his fingers, as if they were falling asleep, but much more exciting. Looking closer, Mako noticed the edges of some pages...changing...color? Bringing the book closer, he could tell that each and every single page was vibrating, all of them vibrating against another. Finally, it died down, the book, save for the skull, once again giving the impression that it was indeed only an inanimate object. It was...wasn't it?

Mako sat down carefully, feeling safer than he had moments before, and brought the book closer for further inspection. The whole ordeal had only lasted a few seconds, but it had felt like quite a few minutes to Mako. Keeping his attention on the pages, he noticed that a select few had now turned blue! Quickly flipping to the nearest blue page, he was surprised to find a picture when, moments before, the entire book had been blank. Cautiously, he traced it with his fingers - nothing happened. The picture was of a broken rattle.

'Hey, wasn't that Garin's?' Mako thought. 'Yeah, Cody broke that!' Now he remembered the whole incident - Cody, smashing the rattle between two rocks to find out what was inside, and Garin, crying his eyes out over his broken toy. No wonder he liked pulling Cody's hair so much...wait, what was this?

The picture had started to move, startling Mako yet again. The scattered pieces of the rattle were flying back together, as if the real-life scene was playing in reverse. Mako simply sat amazed as each bead and every fragmented, patterned surface of the rattle flew back into place to make the rattle whole again... as if Garin had wished it.

Amazing! Was this magic? Surely it was, what else could it be? This must be his son's magic talent...but what did it mean? What potential did it hold? Whatever the implications were, it was certainly very exciting...

"MY BOOOOK!" Garin screeched from the door way, pointing accusingly at Mako, who quickly dropped the book in surprise, his free hands immediately darting to his ears. Garin wasted no time running over to the book, having a little difficulty picking it up with his only free hand. Smiling, Mako picked up both the boy and his book, sitting them in his lap. Wait a minute...

"Hey...is that your rattle?"