“LIDIA, LACY, LAURA, and Louise you had better get your arses down here!”

Lory smacked Mouse on the arm, “Watch your language, Mouse!”

“Err, sorry, I mean fannies.”

Lory met his amused eyes and dodged a sloppy kiss as their four girls came barreling into the room. The twins, Lidia and Lacy, had just turned thirteen and were consumed with make-up and clothes. Laura, age nine, loved bugs and snakes—science was her favorite subject.

And then there was Lou, or Louise as she was officially christened. Lou was seven, missing several teeth, and currently sporting a black eye. She was smart enough to try and hide half of her face behind her older sisters.

Unfortunately, her father was onto her antics, after all—it takes one to know one.

Mouse put on his sternest, father voice “Have any of you girls been out flying on your own?”

The twins answered in unison, which wasn’t unusual, “No daddy.”

Laura tipped her head to the side considering, “I don’t think so.”

Lou was quiet.

“The reason I ask is that your mother’s rose garden appears to have had a little accident.”

Laura blinked, “Wasn’t me daddy, I had Hank in my room all afternoon. He seems to have lost his slither. I think he’s depressed?”

Lory fought to keep her lips from curving up, “How about I come take a look at Hank? It looks like your father has this investigation well in hand.”

Laura shrugged and accepted her mother’s outstretched hand. They disappeared from the room and were heard for a short time as they made their way towards the grand staircase leading to the bedrooms. As their voices faded Lidia propped a hand on her slender hip.

“Daddy, we all know if there is death and destruction around—Lou’s name is written all over it.”

Lacy giggled and gave her sister an invisible high five.

“Get out of here,” Mouse told the twins with affection. They bounded forward kissing the top of his head.

As they passed Lou on the way out she hissed at them, “Expect paybacks!”

The older girls laughed and went back to painting their nails or toes or something of that nature.

“Hey Lou,” Mouse said, “Why don’t you come and tell me what happened to your face?”

Lou was small for a seven-year-old, but what she lacked in stature she more than made up for in spirit. The little girl pushed her ratty blonde hair that never stayed in the ringlets her mother put them in and approached her father.

“It’s just my face, dad,” she said deadpan. “I can’t help how I look.”

The left side of Mouse’s face tilted up, “You look like me, you little shit, and cut the crap. Tell me what happened.”

Lou grinned, “I’m telling mom, that’s a dollar for the swear jar.”

Mouse grinned back at his daughter, there was no denying the DNA with these two. They had the same streaky blonde curly hair. The same golden skin, and the same stubborn chin.

“Go ahead, Lou,” Mouse said calling her bluff, “And I will tell her that you tried flying from the roof again. Don’t even pretend that you didn’t see me. I saw the panic in your eyes right before you crash landed in the roses.”

“Shit,” Lou said underneath her breath.

Mouse reached out and yanked his daughter into his arms, “You could have broken your neck, Lou. If you want to practice you need to do it with me.”

Lou rolled her eyes, “You are a Jabberwocky, dad. I am a raven. It’s not the same thing.”

Each of their girls had inherited a spirit animal that flew. The twins were hawks and Laura was a vulture. It was little Lou that came in the smallest of the flock as a little white raven.

Her aunt Alice had told her about a large black raven that used to perch on her shoulder. It wasn’t a metamorphic bird, just a regular raven. She told Lou that ravens were birds of prophecy, it is time in your life to give serious consideration to messages coming your way. Alice had also told her that ravens were excellent teachers, guides, and partners in magic.

Lou had asked where the large black raven had disappeared to, but Alice didn’t know. She said once uncle Jay came into Alice’s life to stay the raven went away.

Lou was a rather introspective little girl. She wanted to learn everything that she could about being a raven. There had to be a reason she was a little white bird and her sisters were huge deadly predators like their father.

This included learning to fly better. With the mixture of human and animal in one’s brain, it takes practice.

“Why are you in such a hurry to grow up, Lou?” Mouse asked gently.

Picking her up and placing the little girl on his knee he waited until she was ready to answer him.

“Dad, does it ever bother you that uncle Jay is bigger than you are?”

Mouse had anticipated many different answers coming from his daughter’s lips, but not this question. He was stunned for a moment trying to think of an appropriate answer.

Lou rushed on, “Because Lidia and Lacy, they are eagles, dad. That is badass. And Laura is a vulture, they are fearless from death, dad. She plays with pythons, it’s not normal.  I just don’t get it. Why am I the littlest bird? Nobody is afraid of me.”

Mouse smoothed her hair back, “Do you know why they call me Mouse?”

Lou shook her head, “No.”

She knew that it was her dad’s nickname and that everyone called him that, but it never dawned on her to ask why.

“They call me Mouse because my Jabberwocky is so much smaller than uncle Jay’s. I used to hate it, Lou. I tried working out, eating special diets, anything that I could so that I would be bigger than uncle Jay.”

Lou’s lips parted, “Uncle Jay is like a mountain, dad.”

Mouse laughed, “No matter what I tried I could never be the same as he was. Your uncle, he said that I was the most stubborn little shit he had ever seen. He started calling me Mouse because it symbolizes hypervigilance, or never giving up. Most people think it’s because my spirit animal is small, but that’s not even close to the truth.”

“You’re still huge, dad. A lot bigger than uncle Carlos.”

“Not the point, Lou,” he smiled at his youngest daughter. “What I am trying to say is that I know what it’s like to feel you aren’t as big or as good as someone else.”

Lou sighed, her dad did understand her after all.

“I don’t want to be a raven, dad. I want to be a Jabberwocky. Are you sad that you never had a boy?”

He hugged her close, “Never, I would not trade you or your sisters for a thousand boys. Just look at your cousins? Dax has tried to burn the castle down twice this month alone.”

Lou snorted conspiratorially with her dad, “Yeah, he sucks at controlling his temper.”

Mouse pulled her back and looked into her little face, “Ravens have been in this world since the beginning of time, and I have a feeling that they will be here long after humanity is gone. You are a survivor, Lou, eternal. And that’s a hundred times more badass than being big.”

She wrinkled her brow as she thought about what her father had said and then a smile crept across her face. And she impetuously leaned in and kissed his cheek. “Thanks, Dad.”

He nodded feeling so much love for his little girl, “How about we go out after supper and get some flying time in?”

Her face lit, “Really?”

“Yeah, now run along and wash up. Your mom is going to be calling us in soon and I still need to think up a lie to tell her about the flower beds.”

Lou wrapped her thin arms around her dad’s waist, “You’re the best. I am glad that you are my dad and not uncle Jay. I don’t care if he’s bigger, my dad’s better.”

Mouse let out a bark of laughter, “Make sure to tell him that next time we see him.”

Lou darted out the door yelling, “Okay!” over her shoulder.

Lory stepped into the room wiping her hands on a towel. She was every bit as beautiful to Mouse as she had been all those years ago when they had first met. He felt the stirring of desire that came from being in her presence, and he wrapped his arms around his wife.

“How much of that did you hear?” he asked gruffly as he placed open mouth kisses on her neck.

Lory moaned, “Enough to be mad at you for teaching our seven-year-old to speak like a sailor.”

Mouse laughed softly against her skin, “There weren’t any f-words.”

As he bit down gently at the nape of her neck she dug her hands into his hair.

“Mouse?”

“Hmm?” he answered.

“You are a badass dad. Did you know that?”

He pulled back with that familiar smirk that still managed to wet her panties, “Are you coming on to me? I’m a married man who fucking loves his wife.”

Lory leaned in for a kiss, but right before their lips touched she whispered, “I know.”