Talulah's entire mind went blank the moment that single word left the child's lips. Mother? What kind of situation was this? How had Jeanne gone on a brief expedition only to return as a parent? Had she somehow found the time to give birth during her travels?
But that chaotic theory was instantly dismissed. It simply defied all reality. No matter how she parsed the logistics, the likelihood of such an occurrence was devastatingly small.
The primary obstacle to that theory was the youngster's appearance. Rather than believing Fafnir was Jeanne's flesh and blood, it was infinitely more believable to claim the youngster was Talulah's own daughter.
Jeanne had been away for a mere six months. No matter what kind of miracle occurred, the basic constraints of nature made the schedule completely impossible.
Furthermore, this little one was already well past infancy. There was zero chance she had been brought into the world during this single spring campaign. Yet, the structural resemblance was uncanny. Talulah refused to credit this as a bizarre fluke.
Wait. Why was her train of thought revolving entirely around the concept of Jeanne producing a child? Talulah suddenly questioned her own internal logic. Why was she automatically assuming Jeanne was the focal point of the child's origin?
"This child... she is...?" Talulah stared at the little figure, who looked like a flawless duplicate of her own childhood self, before shifting her gaze to Jeanne, who was standing there with a strained grin, seemingly at a total loss for words.
Jeanne's own mind had experienced a literal short circuit when Fafnir uttered that word. Why on earth would the child address her that way? She distinctly recalled never instructing her to use that title, and Fafnir had never once spoken it before this very second!
The sheer astonishment left Jeanne unable to offer an immediate reply to Talulah's query. She stood frozen for a few heartbeats, staring down at Fafnir before finally scooping the youngster into her arms.
Then, Talulah watched as Jeanne's features shifted into a sweet, terrifyingly gentle smile. Pinching Fafnir's soft cheek with one hand, she asked with a bright, overly cheerful expression:
"Come now, Fafnir. Tell me nicely—who exactly instructed say that word just now? I don't recall ever teaching you that..."
In truth, Jeanne already harbored a massive suspicion. If there was anyone on Terra malicious enough to orchestrate this exact brand of domestic sabotage, one prime suspect stood above the rest. Regrettably, she couldn't interrogate that individual at the moment, leaving her to seek answers from the child.
"Bwulululululu—" Fafnir's cheeks were compressed by Jeanne's fingers, causing her to unleash a sequence of muffled, nonsensical noises. Her large eyes, identical in color to Jeanne's, blinked with pure confusion, as though she found her caretaker's reaction entirely impossible to comprehend.
It was glaringly obvious that someone had thoroughly coached her to deliver that specific line. Deep down, Jeanne silently resolved that whoever committed this transgression deserved a solid hour of continuous execution to properly settle the score.
At the same time, she felt a wave of profound relief that she had arranged to meet Talulah away from the main camp. If the child had delivered that line in front of the entire movement, even a fictional rumor would have hardened into an unshakeable truth among the ranks.
"It was the Doctor!" Fafnir's innocent voice chimed as soon as her cheeks were released. "She told me that when I finally met a big sister who looked just like Fafnir, calling you 'Mother' would make you incredibly happy! Was she wrong?"
Hearing the child's pure delivery, Jeanne instantly slapped a palm against her own forehead. She knew it. The ancient, scheming fossil from Babel was entirely behind this disaster!
Just you wait until I dig you out of whatever sarcophagus you're hiding in, Jeanne vowed silently. If I let you off lightly after this, I'll happily eat the entire wooden frame of my bed tonight! Though... why do I keep threatening to eat furniture?
On the side, Talulah managed to piece together the context. Realizing that Jeanne wasn't biologically connected to Fafnir, she let out a long, slow breath.
Of course. How could this dense companion of hers possibly produce a child right beneath her nose?
Yet, Fafnir's subsequent remark instantly forced Talulah's heart right back into her throat.
"But the Doctor said a mother is simply the being responsible for bringing a child into this world. And Jeanne was the one who brought me into this world, so isn't that correct?"
Fafnir's young mind, having existed for less than a single year, had been thoroughly led astray by the Doctor's twisted philosophy. Hearing this particular detail, Talulah's dragon tail stood perfectly upright in sheer shock!
She cast a thoroughly horrified look at Jeanne, her expression screaming that she had never anticipated her companion was capable of such profound eccentricities.
"Well... phrased that way, the logic isn't entirely flawed... Wait, no! The circumstances surrounding our bond are incredibly complex, but I am definitely not your biological mother, Fafnir. You can simply understand it that way for now!"
Jeanne had nearly allowed the Doctor's convoluted rhetoric to warp her own senses, but she managed to drag her thoughts back to the realm of ordinary sanity at the final second. Lest anyone forget, she was still an unmarried young woman who had zero personal experience with those aspects of life!
Jeanne couldn't quite tell if Fafnir truly grasped the distinction, but when the youngster offered a slow, half-understanding nod, she allowed her lingering anxieties to ease slightly.
Talulah stood watching the two of them interact, completely ignored. She couldn't help but marvel inwardly that Jeanne truly carried the aura of a seasoned parent now, completely abandoning an old friend the moment a child entered the picture.
Crossing her arms, she fixed Jeanne with a heavy glare that conveyed an explicit warning: If you fail to provide a flawless explanation the moment we cross the threshold, you can abandon all hopes of sleeping tonight.
"The background regarding this little one is exceptionally detailed, and it's not something I can unfold in a few brief sentences," Jeanne said, offering a thoroughly placating smile to soothe the dragon leader's dark expression, looking very much like a spouse returning late from a journey trying to appease a furious partner. "Let us head back to the settlement first, alright? Even if the deepest winter has passed, the tundra air is still quite harsh."
Talulah cast one final glance at the duo before letting out a defeated sigh. Accepting her fate, she resolved to gather the complete details of the youngster's origin once they reached a private room. Above all, she needed to know why this child shared her exact face.
She harbored a silent hope that they could slip into the village without drawing a massive crowd. If the rank-and-file witnessed this spectacle, Talulah doubted she would ever possess the capacity to explain the situation clearly. The mere thought brought on a massive headache.
Deep down, however, she recognized that such a quiet entrance was entirely impossible. Although the grand alert had been canceled the moment Jeanne's identity was verified, the civilian population and the soldiers had already gathered at the village gates, eager to welcome their long-absent companion.
Since everyone was already assembled, why not offer a proper reception? Besides, everyone was incredibly eager to see how Jeanne fared after her travels and whether her time in foreign lands had altered her in any way.
A moment later, the heavy transport rolled past the boundary stones. The instant the villagers caught sight of the three occupants within the cabin, the entire assembly plunged into a profound, heavy silence. No one uttered a single word for a long interval.
Within the quiet crowd, FrostNova stood to the side, her features bearing a clear expression that said: Exactly as I predicted. Having been the first to discover Fafnir's presence, she possessed a fair degree of mental preparation.
The crowd stared fixedly at Jeanne in the driver's seat, Talulah in the passenger quarter, and the little figure of Fafnir nestled snugly in Talulah's arms. Fafnir's appearance was a literal, miniature duplicate of their dragon leader, save for her large eyes, which mirrored Jeanne's unique color.
The scene bore the unmistakable structure of a family of three returning home from a journey. The collective brainpower of the Reunion movement instantly experienced a total meltdown, a single question echoing simultaneously through every mind:
Did the Sarkaz of Kazdel possess some hidden, miraculous technology capable of producing a child? And could that power actually bridge two individuals of the same gender? What manner of sorcery was this?
Even Patriot froze in place upon beholding Fafnir. He didn't automatically assume the youngster belonged to Talulah or Jeanne, but he found the physical resemblance staggering. He had never encountered such an uncanny fluke in all his long years across Terra.
In the next fraction of a second, the heavy stasis shattered, and the perimeter erupted into a roaring wave of excitement! The villagers that joined before Jeanne left, swarmed forward, peppering Jeanne with a hundred enthusiastic questions, desperate to know how she had managed to encounter such an adorable little treasure. While the newer villages watched from afar, not understanding why this newcomer is getting this much attention.
The moment Jeanne and Talulah stepped down from the cabin, they were thoroughly pinned by the eager crowd before they could even utter a proper greeting. Talulah held the small child against her frame, looking completely defenseless and overwhelmed. After all, she hadn't even unlocked the root of the mystery herself!
"Jeanne, say something! Explain this, Jeanne!" Caught in the center of the passionate crowd, Talulah cast a desperate look toward her companion, silently begging her to clarify the situation and restore her innocence.
Jeanne did offer an explanation, though her delivery was thoroughly lacking in conviction. She simply claimed that she had discovered Fafnir during a brief detour through Rim Billiton, and finding the physical resemblance to Talulah too amusing to ignore, she had chosen to bring the little one along.
The likelihood of the crowd buying such a flimsy tale was remarkably low. Yet, utilizing the brief window while the villagers were attempting to digest the information, Jeanne executed a swift maneuver and vanished from the center of the gathering.
"I need to verify the status of the lesser dragons down by the timberline! I shall leave the rest of the greeting to you, Talulah~"
As her voice faded into the crisp air, Jeanne's silhouette dissolved into the darkness, leaving Talulah completely isolated in the center of the swarming crowd.
"Jeanne——!"
Staring at the empty space where her companion had just stood, and looking around at the sea of eager, questioning faces, the dragon leader unleashed a desperate, internal wail.