This is supposed to be gen, but there's hints of Tiz/Agnès being adorable dorks with each other and likely some slight Rindea at one point too. It's meant to take place in later chapter 2, so there will eventually maybe be spoilers up to that point.
Art by orchidias on tumblr.
"What… is that." Ringabel asks flatly, leaning over the bundle of blankets the Wind Vestal is holding in her arms. It is very small and loud, squishy and red. Sort of like a goblin, he supposes. A real miniature monster.
Edea kicks him. He starts, unaware he'd been speaking aloud.
"It's a baby, what does it look like?!" She rolls her eyes, and kneels down next to Agnès. "Um, what are we going to do with a baby?"
The Vestal shakes her head, her cheeks red and eyes wide. "I do not know… I've never seen a human so small." Much less held one. But the baby had been heard screaming upon their return to the Eschalot and she'd been so worried it was injured that she'd picked it up without thinking. Her presence seemed to calm it somewhat, but not enough.
"Where did it come from? It's certainly not one of mine." Ringabel hopes, at least. Loss of memory, after all.
Tiz has finished rummaging through the little straw basket the baby had been settled into, that still contains an abundance of extra blankets and clothes and hopefully baby food. He picks up a letter and opens it.
"Dear Wind Vestal," he reads slowly. "I can no longer care for my child. Please take care of him. His name is Leon. Signed, a Sad Mother."
Silence falls over the group.
"Let me see that," Ringabel takes the letter from Tiz and examines it, then shakes the paper and envelope as though expecting more to fall out. When nothing does, he sighs.
"We can't care for a baby!" Airy says, hovering just out of reach of the child's grasping hands. "We have to awaken the crystals! It's too dangerous for him."
Airy is right about that, at least.
"We'll have to go to Ancheim and drop him off there. He came from Ancheim, right?" Edea asks, poking a finger and smiling as the baby tried to catch it.
"No…" Ringabel muses out loud, rummaging through the child's meager belongings for more hints of his origin. "These appear to be from Florem." Tiz joins him, sorting out the blankets and extra clothes that the other man is tossing about. He watches Ringabel more than the articles in his hands.
"From Florem?!" Edea turns to watch them, Leon's tiny hand closing around her finger. "How on earth did his mother get him here?"
"Though the Miasma Woods, I imagine. She must have been desperate." Ringabel's voice is low, and he's moving on a sort of auto-pilot, body reacting on its own. He feels sick, and isn't certain why, his hands starting to shake. Thankful that his back is to the girls, he hunches over and clenches his jaw tight.
The baby takes that moment to begin fussing again, his loud wails causing them all to jump.
"... What do we do?" Agnès asks, trying to bounce him gently in her arms. It's not very effective.
"Here, I'll take him." Tiz offers. Reluctantly, he moves away from Ringabel to hoist the infant in his arms, tucking the baby gently against his chest and supporting his head. He swallows as he does so. He'd been a child when Til had been born, he thinks with a pang in his chest, but he'd had the opportunity to hold the newborns of his neighbors since then.
Besides, babies of all species were tiny and delicate, even if baby humans were just a little less fluffy. He smiles down at the child, hesitantly, not even minding that the baby can't smile back (he's too young, after all).
Edea and Agnès are both smiling at him when he looks up. "You're a natural at this, Tiz!" Edea praises him, clapping her hands together. He was going to be a great father when he had kids of his own one day, she figured.
Agnès nods her agreement, a flush spreading across her cheeks.
Tiz blushes. "No… it's just… I've had practice," he mumbles, and rocks a little on his feet.
Airy circles his head. "So…? What are we going to do with him now? Where do we take him?"
"We should take him back to his mother," Ringabel says, slowly packing Leon's things back into his basket. His voice is thick. "She's made a mistake, that's all there is to it. Even if she won't take him, I'm certain we can find someone in Florem who will care properly for him."
"But Ancheim is closer!" Airy argues. "It'll take days to go back to Florem and -"
"No," The older boy is firm on this, his shoulders tense as he smooths an extra blanket over the piles in the basket. "Children belong with their mothers."
There's really no good way to answer that. They stand awkwardly for a moment before Leon saves the day, crying out again. Tiz looks down at him, notices him rooting and opening his mouth and. "Oh." He says, feeling dumb. "He's hungry."
"Hungry?" Agnès clasps her hands in front of her. "But what do babies eat?" She truly has no idea.
"Milk, mostly." Tiz explains. "When they're really young like this… but any baby can eat a watered-down and mushy version of what their parents eat." Usually if a lamb was rejected by its mother, they could find a surrogate, or give the baby lots of grainy mush. Milk was best, but they didn't really have any on hand.
"You're such a farmer, Tiz!" Edea rolls her eyes, but appreciates his knowledge. All she knows is that really small babies drink milk from their mothers, and bigger babies eat disgusting mush they're not supposed to put sugar into. "Neither Agnès or I have milk." She flushes as she says that, ignoring the way that Agnès's head whips toward her, her eyes wide. "So we just make some kinda mush for him?"
"Yes… out of vegetables, I'd say. Maybe beets?" Meat might be a little too intense for Leon's system, he figures. But vegetables should be okay.
"Beets it is!" Edea decides. They should still have a stockpile of food graciously provided by Ancheim, right? "I'll go cook it up, then!" She declares.
Tiz follows her, sticking a finger into Leon's mouth to let the baby suckle on something. "Don't add any sugar to it, Edea!" He warns as the door to the hold swings shut behind them.
Ringabel is still smoothing out the child's blue baby blankets, his expression unreadable. Agnès kneels beside him. "Ringabel?" She asks.
He looks up at the sound of his name, and smiles at the Vestal, which doesn't quite reach his eyes. "Yes, Agnès."
"Are you…" She hesitates, not sure what to ask.
He cuts her off with a shake of his head. "It's nothing." He can't explain it anyway, the tightness in his chest, the throbbing behind his eyes. "But I really do feel we need to bring the child back to Florem. Even if we cannot find his mother, perhaps there's family who will take him." But he prays the child's mother made a mistake in a moment of weakness and will accept her baby back.
Agnès sighs. She desperately wants to continue awakening the Crystals, and truly does not have the time to spare for this. But she cannot bring herself to abandon a baby who has already been left behind once. What sort of Crystal Vestal refuses to guide the smallest of her followers? She nods. "I too, believe that to be for the best."
Airy protests. "Agnès…!"
The Vestal shakes her head. "I cannot in good conscience take the child elsewhere. Ringabel is right. We can find his family."
Ringabel tries to hide the little smirk that spreads across his face as the fairy pouts. "Now, now Airy. It's either this or we bring the little guy with us. I'm sure Agnès wouldn't mind getting some practice.
"Ringabel!" Even Agnès understands the implication behind his words. "That is unacceptable!" Were it not unladylike, Ringabel is sure she'd slap him.
Laughing now, he stands, offering a hand to her. "Well, let's go and make sure Edea doesn't burn down the kitchen." Tiz was with her, of course, but the Shepherd likely had his hands full with their latest charge. To his relief, she took his hand with no further comments, and he led the way to the lower deck, Airy hovering just behind.