She had accepted him as her uncle in the same way as Reagan had become her aunt. They weren’t as close as she was with the gray mare, but he wasn’t a stranger like the other Taiga residents. So if Jinju would have to pick someone to comfort and calm her, it would definitely been him. Reagan would’ve been her first pick, but her current state was due to the missing of the emerald and gray mare.

Holding her breath after just another call for her aunt, the black filly tried to be as silent as possible. Maybe, maybe if she kept real quiet, she could hear Reagan’s answer. It was then that she heard footsteps in the snow, a light crackling sound. ”Aunt Reagan?” voice merely more than a whisper. With a hopeful glint in her ruby eyes she looks up, only to find her uncle standing there.

Tears are running down her cheeks, as she is finally able to let her emotions, the fear, get the better of her. Ignoring his hesitance she crossed the distance that is left between them, pressing herself closely against his side. Jinju is shaking, not due to the cold, but due to the fear and panic that has taken her over. ”Un-uncle Ruan” she murmurs as she rubs her cheek against his shoulder. ”Aunt Reagan.. She.. She is gone, right?”

No, aunt Reagan wouldn’t leave her. In the same way as her mother wouldn’t have left her. But Lexa was gone now, taken away from her, so who said Reagan wouldn’t been taken from her? What had she ever done to deserve it to be punished in such way? She truly must be a horrible and worthless creature. That must probably be it, the reason why she didn’t deserve anything good in this world. The reason why Reagan had disappeared.

Nonetheless she snuggles herself closer against Ruan, hiding underneath his big wings, feeling safe and sheltered. At least he hadn’t disappeared too. Uncle still sounded strange on her tongue, as she never had a father figure before, but calling him dad would mean calling Reagan mom. And right now, in her heart Lexa was still her mother. Jinju just needed a little bit more time.

Teary ruby eyes met blue ones and she could only stare at him. Did she hear that right? Was aunt Reagan really still around and doing okay? Taking a shaky breath she casts her gaze down again, almost afraid to voice out her thoughts, afraid that they suddenly would become reality after all. ”Momma didn’t leave me either.. She was taken from me.” In her heart Jinju knew that the gray and emerald mare wouldn’t leave her, not as long as she had a say in that matter. However, it is her uncle’s reply that gets to her the most. Blinking slowly she carefully dares to look up again. ”I.. I don’t want to leave..”

Home. She was home now. The Taiga was home, and the Jungle no longer.

This time she doesn’t cry out of agony or pain or fear. Her tears are those of relief and joy, touched deeply and genuinely happy with the thing Reagan and Ruan offered her. A family, a home, a place to belong and stay. She bites down on her lower lip as she looks up to him again, slowly reaching out to touch his nose with hers softly. ”Always?” In her red eyes twinkles a hopeful glint, desperately wanting it to be true. But, he had already promised it to her, so it had to be true, right? He couldn’t go back on his words.

The sudden change of subject surprises her, but effectively pulls her out of her previous dark thoughts. A small smile pulls on the corners of her lips and she nods, suddenly all shy and hesitant again. ”I am. Aunt Reagan’s fire fairies are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen” she answers, not able to not smile at the thought of the time when she had first come to the Taiga. Her aunt had given her her scarf then, and had enjoyed her with the small fire play. ”I’m just.. afraid to disappoint her.” Jinju wasn’t troubled to share her fears with Ruan. Even though she was afraid to let him down, just as she felt towards Reagan, but she had never been abandoned by a male figure before.

Her eyes close the moment he gently brushes her cheek, effectively wiping her tears away. A small smile pulls on the corners of her lips and she enjoys it to bask herself in his presence. Even though they were still somewhat strangers, she already knows that they soon would be as close as she was with Reagan. After all, a family bounded in such easy way, right? Or at least, a true family would. His confirming nod was enough to tell her it was like that, that they would be a true family.

Before she would’ve happily ventured out herself, to explore the world and everything that lied across her home’s borders. So many times already had Jinju gotten lost in the Jungle, but it had never scared her. Somehow the Jungle, her mother or her mom’s sisters had always brought her back home. Things were different now. Every time she left to do something on her own, someone dear could be taken out of her life again. She couldn’t have that happening again.

Her gaze had been cast down when she had spoken her honest feelings to Ruan, but it are his wings and the touch of his nose that make her carefully look up again. Red meets blue – quite an odd eyed family they have – and hers twinkle as he reassures her. The insecurity gets somewhat banned to the back of her mind, not entirely though. The fear of getting abandoned when turning out to be a failure isn’t that easy taken away. However, uncle Ruan’s are comforting and she nestles herself closer against his winged side like a purring kitty cat.

”Uncle Ruan?” she silently asks for his attention, before asking the question that lied upon her lips. ”Are you like us? Aunt Reagan says I’m special, and that she is special too. Are you also special?” It is curiosity that makes her ask it, eager to learn more about him. And maybe, maybe he could help her understand what it meant to be special. Because Jinju had never felt special at all.

It is almost like he somewhat hesitates, like she had asked the wrong thing, before he answers. His answer is simple though, and so unlike Reagan’s way of telling about her magic and about Jinju’s own. He also confuses her, by telling her that he would have to give up his wings. ”Why..?” she therefor asks, her head tilting somewhat to the side. The little rhombus shaped star on her forehead is shown as she does so, the dark poll of hair falling to the side.

Reagan had sort of told her about the fact that she had to earn her magic back, that their magic was taken away now and that they had to earn it. Jinju was too young to understand though. She hadn’t even known she had fire within her before the gray and emerald mare told her, Jinju had honestly thought that the fire on the mountain – that she accidentally created in her panic – had been by the hands of the gods, just like the change. So when Ruan speaks about having to get his fire back and give up his wings, he confuses her even more.

She doesn’t know how to get her fire back, she only knows that her aunt told her she had to earn it. But Jinju assumed that Reagan would know it when time was there, just as how she promised she would help her to master it.

Jinju cannot help it but to smile when he once again shows her affection, her heart beating loudly in her chest and her stomach somewhat fluttering. It felt good to be wanted, loved and accepted. For now it was like that at least. And she would cherish it for as long as it would last. Hearing him speak about staying for the night, she suddenly realises how late it had already gotten. When she had lost Reagan it had already started to get dark, but now it really was. She nods while trying to fight a yawn, feeling all tired at that instant. ”I’d like that. Just.. don’t leave me there..” Not that she expected him to dump her there, but the thought of being somewhere alone frightened her. ”Will aunt Reagan come too?” Yes, she would like it for the three of them to do something together.