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Marcus McCloud curled up on one end of the couch in the reading room across from his sister, Ophelia. The sixteen-year-old adolescent fox was focused on studying for his college exams on space flight. He would never forget the first time his father had taken him up for his discovery flight just two years ago in an atmospheric flight training aircraft. It had been Fox's gift to him for graduating secondary school, two years ahead of other classmates his age.

Of course, being able to mentally commune with his parents had given him an advantage in being able to learn faster than his Cornerian classmates. But there was no envy from his friends at the West End School. So even though he ended up being a study partner with Vincent Vulpus, who was two years older than him and in the same classes, he did not hesitate to help Jock, Ruby, Oliver, and Eddie in their homework.

With his father as a flight instructor, Marcus had earned his basic pilot's license for flying under visual flight rules before he turned 15, followed by higher certifications in instrument flight rules, multi-engine certifications, complex aircraft certifications, and so on. But this year, his father was going to take him on his first training flight into space. It was for this reason that he was curled up with his tablet, reviewing his college homework assignments in orbital mechanics, Cornerian space regulations, flight operations and planning, and emergency procedures.

Passing his exams in those courses and several others were the conditions his parents had set before his father would start Marcus in his space flight training. He was not the only one studying this midweek afternoon though. He could sense Nozomi and Kushinju in the family study doing their eighth grade homework. Eight-year-old Michelle and six-year-old Lukas were there as well, rushing through their elementary school homework assignments in order to go play.

The ten-year-old fraternal twins did everything together and almost always collaborated in their homework assignments. At first, their teachers thought they were cheating. Fox and Krystal had to explain that they shared a telepathic affinity with each other which carried over to their studies. Principal Lapin was convinced of the legitimacy of their school work when they passed all their exams when tested individually, especially when Elder Hiroshi vouched for them as well.

His thoughts were drawn back to his sister Ophelia when he sensed confusion and doubt from the vixen sitting across from him as she was reading the required assigned chapter in her biology class. "What's bothering you, Sis?"

"It's this passage I'm reading on genes, heredity, and reproduction. It goes on about how chromosomes from the father's sperm combines with those in the mother's egg to produce children that resemble their parents...."

"Well, often one parent more than the other..."

"Well, yeah. You look a lot like Pa, especially since he turned his fur blue when we were little..."

"But I have Ma's blue eyes...." Marcus added

"And I have Pa's green eyes and my ears and muzzle are shaped like Ma's, but my fur is almost as dark as Grandma Onisiku's." said Ophelia while looking at her reflection in the window behind her brother. "Even Michelle and Lukas look like our parents in one way or another."

Marcus and Ophelia then looked sideways into the library from their spot in the reading room. Kushinju and Nozomi had at that moment walked in to look for a book. Ophelia fixed her gaze on the twins. "So why do they look nothing like Pa?"

Marcus pondered his sister's words. "I get what you mean. I noticed that too when I was taking biology before I graduated. But that's just the basic secondary school class. I figured there must be more to it than what they teach us."

"Maybe I should ask Aunty Florence about it?" Ophelia mused to herself.

"You know, genetically , she's not our aunt." Marcus teased his sister.

Ophelia rolled her eyes and threw one of the sofa cushions at her brother. "Of course I know that!"

"Know what, Sis?" Nozomi asked. He and his twin sister had overheard the last part of the conversation between the two oldest McCloud children.

"That everyone we call Aunty or Uncle are not really our aunts or uncles." Ophelia replied.

"They're not?" a wide-eyed Kushinju asked.

As the eldest and often a mentor to his younger siblings, Marcus took it upon himself to explain familial relationships to the twins. "If Ma or Pa had a brother, he would be our uncle and if they had a sister, she would be our aunt."

"But...but Mama and Papa don't have brothers or sisters. Who's going to be our aunty and uncle?" Nozomi asked.

Marcus ruffled his younger brother's head fur to comfort the forlorn pup. "You can still call Fara, Fay, and even Florence aunty, even if they are not our real aunts. Same goes for Kei and Bill." he reassured Nozomi. "You can still call them uncle, even if they are not Ma or Pa's brothers."

"I did hear Aunty Fara called Florence 'aunt' once." Ophelia mused.

"That's because she really is Fara's aunt, but that's because Florence is married to Fara's dad's brother." They heard from the entryway to the reading room. The children all turned to see their father stand there. "Taking a break from your homework?"

Marcus gestured to the twins. "I was just explaining that everyone we called aunt and uncle are not really our aunt and uncle because you have no sister or brother, Pa."

"What brought that on?" Fox asked with a bemused expression. He sat down next to his daughter and noticed her biology text book open to the chapter on genetics.

Ophelia looked down at her book as well. "Yeah, it all started when I told Marcus that it seems like Kushinju and Nozomi don't look like you at all, Pa." She and her older brother suddenly sensed their father become guarded.

"Papa, why do we look different?" Nozomi asked while briefly glancing to his twin sister.

"And how come we have Cornerian and Cerinian names when the twins only have Cerinian names?" Marcus asked. "I had always wondered about that."

Fox slowly exhaled and sat back. He then heard his wife. "It would seem that our children have put their heads together and noticed that Nozomi and Kushinju are different."

"We knew this day would come. We'll meet you in the ballroom." Fox then stood up and beckoned his oldest two and the twins. "Follow me."

As Fox walked with them, he asked the twins. "Do you remember the story Elder Hiroshi told you this summer on how they saved the essences of all the mothers and fathers that died when Cerinia exploded?"

"Yes, Papa." they replied solemnly in unison. "And all the mamas in New Cerinia are having the babies made with the eggs and sperm from the mamas and papas that died." Kushinju added.

"That's right." Fox affirmed, thankful that the twins were finally old enough to understand genetics and procreation in at least the simplest of terms.

"But what does the Legacy of Cerinia have to do with Nozomi and Kushinju?" Ophelia asked. Having been introduced to the concept of genetics and heredity, she and her older brother were fully aware of the significance of the 482 children ranging from 2 to 12 years of age running around in New Cerinia. Even Madam Samantha had given Elder Hiroshi a brother and sister from the Legacy.

They had just reached the ballroom and were standing in front of the mural depicting his parents, grandparents, aunt, and uncle. Marcus was thinking of the elder's flamboyant, red-furred bondmate and the ten-year-old twins that were born from the eggs and sperm of Hiroshi's parents who had died with the destruction of Cerinia.

His eyes took in the mural again and drifted over the painted likenesses of his father, who still had his reddish-brown fur at the time, and his mother. He looked at the image of his grandmothers, Vixy and Onikisu sitting behind his father, and of his grandfathers, James and Shiokaze sitting behind his mother. His eyes then fixed on the adolescent vixen sitting on the sand between his father's legs. His late aunt Shinju had been about his current age when she perished that terrible day. Then there was his uncle Sanshain. His mother's older brother sat in front of her on that sandy beach in the Nara of his parent's dream.

There was a familial resemblance between his mother and her siblings and parents in that painting that one would expect. His mother and aunt took after his grandfather. His uncle on the other hand inherited his features from his grandmother. He turned from the painting and took in Nozomi's and Kushinju's features and fur colors. They really took after his mother, but appeared to have nothing in common with his father. In fact, he could see something of his aunt and uncle in them.

It was in that moment that Marcus made the connection. He quickly looked between the mural, the twins, and his mother. "Oh Spirits!"

Krystal gave her eldest son a lopsided smile and nodded. "I sense that you have just figured it out."

"Figured out what?" Ophelia asked.

"You see, I terribly missed my family ever since they died." Krystal began to explain as she walked over to the mural. Her fingers reverently traced over the painted images of her parents and siblings. "I would have done anything to have them back, but we all know that is not possible. They are in a better place now, and I'll eventually see them again when your father and I make that final journey to the next life."

Fox wrapped his arms about his wife and embraced her from behind while nuzzling her ear. "When we learned that sperm and egg samples from your mother's parents were part of the Legacy of Cerinia, I knew she would want this final gift from them."

Ophelia gawked and turned to look at Nozomi and Kushinju. "You mean to tell us that the twins are actually Grandmother Onikisu's and Grandfather Shiokaze's pups?"

Krystal nodded to her daughter and then knelt down in front of her little brother and sister and embraced them. She could sense that they were confused. So she pointed at the mural. "Do you remember what I told you about this big painting?"

"Yes, Mama." They replied together. Like they had done for Marcus and Ophelia, Fox and Krystal had told the twins the tale of who was depicted in the mural.

"Nozomi, Kushinju, the sperm of my father and eggs of my mother were among the many that were saved. They were put in me, and I had you two." Krystal kissed her twin siblings and sent them a burst of her love into their young minds. She then pointed to the images of Onikisu and Shiokaze. "That means that my mother and father are also your mother and father." ** Her finger then moved to the paintings of Sanshain and Shinju. **"And my brother and sister are your brother and sister."

When the significance of Krystal's revelation finally sank into their young mind, they gazed in awe at the vixen that they had grown up thinking of as their mother. Nozomi then asked, "Does that mean you are our big sister?"

"Yes, and you are my little brother," Krystal replied will kissing Nozomi on the nose, followed by Kushinju, *"and you are my little sister." * Her bittersweet moment turned poignant when the twins looked up despondently at her husband.

"Does that mean you are not our papa?"

Fox knelt and embraced the two pups while pouring all his paternal love into them. "My dear pups, a papa is not only the person who gives a mama his sperm for her eggs. He is also the one who gives his children all his love, cares for and protects them, and watches over them as they grow up. In that way, I am still very much your father, and want you to continue calling me 'Papa' like you have always done so."

Krystal also projected her own maternal love as she nuzzled her genetic siblings. "And even though I'm really your big sister, I'll always be your mama too in just the same way he'll always be your papa."

Marcus and Ophelia were deeply touched and were again reminded of how wonderful their parents truly were. Fox's first-born son though could not help but find humor in the situation. He grinned to the twins and asked, "Do I get to call you Uncle Nozomi and Aunt Kushinju?"

Ophelia gaped at her older brother and shouted, "Marcus! You're weirding me out!"

Nozomi looked up at his niece and frowned. "But Marcus said that if Mama had a brother, he'd be our uncle. Doesn't that make me your uncle?"

"Gah! I'm not calling you Uncle Nozomi!" Ophelia exclaimed. She then threw up her arms and stormed out of the ballroom. "I got homework to do!"

Marcus grinned and knelt down in front of the ten-year-old pups, and ruffled Kushinju's head fur. "Love you, Aunty."

The little vixen looked down at her feet and was unable to meet her nephew's smiling gaze, suddenly feeling very bashful. "But I'm too young to be an aunt."