A Shell of a Thing

A small, tender smile pulls across Neuvillette’s face. “We should try to put Rainier in the water,” he says. “He hasn’t changed form in months.” Indeed, two months after Rainier hatched, he and Nadine got into a “fight,” if a toddler can fight with a baby. She, jealous of the attention he received from their fathers, had pulled his rhinophores until he screamed, nearly dragging him off the couch before Wriothesley and Neuvillette had been able to separate them. Rainier immediately turned from hatchling to human baby and, since, has refused to turn back.

That’s why they’ve come to the beach: Neuvillette holds out hope that contact with the waters of Fontaine—not just what comes out of their tap—will convince him to take on his draconic form.

Neuvillette and Wriothesley take their two children to the beach in the hopes that their son will overcome his aversion to changing his form.