Gabrio giggled as Gran Tio Agustin lifted him up in the air, allowing him a better chance to see the impromptu football game that had started up. His Tio Camilo was taking on some dwarves, who had the unusual method of leaping on each other's shoulders and catching the ball with their feet, hurrying towards the goal.

"That isn't fair!" Camilo complained as one dwarf tossed his rider at the goal.

"The rules say that you only have to not touch the ball with your hands!" one dwarf, Billious Blackthumb, called out with a laugh. "Last I checked Tino's feet aren't his hands!"

"Oh, is that how we're playing it?" Camilo said before turning his own hands into bare feet, grabbing the ball and running with it.

"Camilo!" Senor Cruz complained, rushing after him. "Come on!"

"You want to win or what?"

"They are very silly, you know," Agustin said to the boy on his shoulders.

"So silly."

The two shared a look before Agustin rushed onto the field, Gabrio kicking the ball out of Camilo's hands. Agustin easily bopped it with his knees before darting towards a goal, the dwarves cheering loudly.

"We have the birthday boy! We have the birthday boy!"

"no you do not!" Agustin called out. "We're a third team!"

"…there aren't three teams in football!" Tino the dwarf complained.

Gabrio laughed, throwing his hands in the air as his Gran Tio did a zigzag that nearly knocked Senorita Lopez out of her shoes. She was one of the best football players in the village and his Gran Tio had just completely slipped around her!

"Show me in the rules where they say there isn't one!" Agustin cried out.

Camilo and the dwarves shared a look before shrugging and going after them.

~MC~MC~MC~

Ernesto stuck his tongue out, Gabrio giggling at the sight, as he carefully scribbled with the crayon on one of the many coloring pages that had been left for Gabrio and his friends to play with. It was funny seeing the paladin hunched over the tiny table, sitting in a chair far too small for him, focused on coloring the elephant drawing he'd selected a bright green.

"Have you ever seen an elephant?" Queenie, a little gargoyle girl, asked Ernesto.

"Oh yes," the paladin replied, looking up from his work.

"You've seen Elephantaurs," Brutus commented.

"That's not the same," Queenie declared. "That's like saying Mr. Ropper is the same as a dog!"

"He likes having his head scratched," Gabrio commented. "He asks me to do that while he fixes the flower beds sometimes. His tail wags!"

"But he isn't a dog!" Queen said, getting upset.

"It's okay," Ernesto said before the little girl could begin really throwing a fit. Queenie, Gabrio had heard, had gotten her grandmother's temper, which was odd because Ms. Elisa was always so nice! Still, they all knew that when she got upset she would get really loud and passionate, like his Abuela Pepa, so it was good that Ernesto had stopped her before she could get too mad. "You are right, there is a different between an elephant and an Elephantaur. And other Elephant-like beings. And I have seen elephants before… would you like to hear about it?"

"Yes!" Queenie said, eyes wide and sparkling with the thought.

Brutus nodded too and Gabrio grinned; he loved Ernesto's stories!

"So, years ago I encountered a herd of FLYING elephants. Not because they had wings, mind you, but because they had huge ears, even bigger than a normal elephant. They were trying to help out a herd of small-earred elephants and-"

~MC~MC~MC~

"Ready?"

Gabrio braced himself, curling into a tight little ball, arms wrapped around his knees as he pressed them into his chest. "Ready!"

Tia Isabella let out a war cry before flinging herself from one of the towers, hurtling down.

BOING!

The birthday boy squealed and laughed as he and several of his friends were sent flying in the air as Tia Isabella slammed down into the floor of the bouncy house, causing them to be rocketed up. Gabrio watched the world spin around him before he landed, bouncing a few times before finally coming to a stop.

"You got a lot of air on that one!" Isabella said, crawling over to him and pulling him into her lap. Gabrio giggled and reached up to play with her shark-tooth necklace, a gift from Tia Olika for her last birthday. He was always careful not to press too hard against the bones as while the teeth had been blunted they could still scratch if he wasn't careful. "Want to go again or are you getting hungry?" She leaned in and whispered, "I hear Tia Julieta and Gahoole made a cake for a certain little boy…"

"Cake! Cake!" Gabrio chanted happily and Isabella lifted him up, the other kids scrambling to join them as they went in search of one of the multiple birthday cakes that had been made for the celebration.

~MC~MC~MC~

"She wanted to say hello to you!" Gabrio's papa said, holding out the boy's baby sister. Celeste was a small thing… with VERY big lungs… but at the moment she was rather content, smacking her little lips together before reaching out and squeezing Gabrio's finger with her chubby hand.

He couldn't wait for her to be big enough to play!

~MC~MC~MC~

"What do you think?" Dryft asked Abuela Pepa, gesturing at his handiwork.

"I think your Abuelo better be careful or everyone is going to think you're him!" Pepa said, looking at the tiny little dreadlocks that Dryft had put Gabrio's hair into. When he'd run into his Abuela and she'd asked what else he'd wanted to do he'd admitted that he really wanted to try out having his hair done up like his Tio Antonio and Abuelo Felix. He had seen at once her face fall at that and he'd touched his rather short hair in disappointment, but then Dryft (Just Dryft; not Mister Dryft or Lord Dryft or Prince Dryft or anything like that, per his own insistence) had told him that he could help. He had used some kind of potion that made his hair grow out a little and then set to work. Gabrio had watched in a mirror, amazed at how the capricorn's huge fingers were able to make such tiny little braids. And so quickly too! His hands flew over his scalp and in ten minutes he'd gotten it all done!

"What's that I hear?" Abuelo Felix asked, walking over before gasping dramatically. "Look at this!" He darted around Gabrio, making the boy laugh, before lifting him up into the air. "Such a lady killer!"

Dryft's eyes went wide at that.

"It's an expression, it's an expression!" Pepa said hastily.

~MC~MC~MC~

"Where did you learn to move like that?" Mirabel asked as she and Antonio danced with Gabrio. The little boy was wiggling and shaking with no real plan, just following the rhythm of the music. This would have been childishly cute but went straight to adorable when Mirabel and Antonio began to match their moves to his own; as a result rather than the wild and joyful flailings of a little boy the three appeared to be in perfect sync, creating new dance moves right there on the spot.

Gabrio giggled even as Saharah and Luisa sped up their song.

~MC~MC~MC~

"I… am… eternal…" the purple puppet Bruno was manipulating declared.

"And I… am Gabrio!" a little puppet that looked just like the birthday boy declared, the children giggling as it and several others (manipulated by Elsa and Anna and Barley) began to attack the bad guy, the rest of the adventuring party puppets backing away so the children puppets could defeat him.

~MC~MC~MC~

Anton and Nocci flashed grins at each other as Gabrio played with the toy staff they had worked together to create. It could only do the most minor of spells (a light spell, a music spell) but it was a delight to the half tiefling who joyously lifted it up into the air.

"It's time," Pepa said and Gabrio slowly lowered the staff, looking at his entire family as they gathered around him, looking towards Casita.

"I love you very much," his papa told him, kneeling down and giving him a kiss.

"Good gift or bad," his mama said.

"Or no gift at all," his abuela stated.

"None of us will care," his abuelo chimed.

But Gabrio shifted nervously until Gahoole and Gran Abuela walked up, each offering him a hand (or a feather) to hold. Gabrio smiled at that before taking a deep breath and allowing the two to guide him up to casita. As they did so everyone told him what would happen next: the fun they would have, the lessons they would teach him. If Gran Abuelo Pedro couldn't give him a gift then they would find what his gift was.

"Gabrio?" Gran Abuela said softly as they reached the door. "We love you no matter what. And we always will."

He nodded at that before reaching out…

THE END