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There were nice things about having extended family visit: Hauke hadn't heard the sounds of little paws scampering around the badger sett tunnels for quite some time. It warmed his heart, just a little bit.

There were some nerve-wracking things about having extended family visit: the sounds of curious badgers making their own tunnels or discovering they'd gone deeper than intended was making him grind his beak.

"I think they've found a bunch of Uncle Bruce's books," said their mother. Hauke couldn't keep himself from thinking of her as "that youngster Katie". Thinking too much about her actual age would be depressing.

He sipped some coffee. "Good, maybe they'll rip some of them up. He's collected way too many of those over the years. Or maybe take some with you when you go, I'm sure he won't miss them."

Bruce would be asleep for quite a while longer; my badger had always liked sleeping in, but most of the rest of his family did not. Having folks to talk to in the morning was another of those things that simultaneously did things to his heart and his beak, depending.

"Mom! MOM!" Three little badgers tumbled into the kitchen carrying some dusty prize, recovered from the ground. "Let ME show her," said the smallest, who socked his older sister in the stomach. Ah, siblings...

"It's a fossil," said the tallest. His name escaped the basilisk at the moment. "A fossilized shark tooth. I almost stepped on it, and we dug it out."

"Is that so," asked Hauke. He leaned forward to peer at the pointy triangular rock. "A petrified tooth...it very well may be."

"Wouldn't that mean that there used to be an ocean here? That's what I learned in school," the tallest one continued while the two other youngsters traded more blows to even the score between them.

"There was never an ocean here," yawned Bruce as he arrived in the kitchen. "Not even in prehistoric times."

"Then how did it get here?" The young badger shook his head and scowled. "It just doesn't make sense."

"Tell you what," said Bruce. "Let me hang onto that one and I'll try looking it up in an almanac I know about; you go look for more! One might just be a coincidence. I'd suggest looking off to the west tunnels, since they're the least disturbed."

The small band of young badgers rushed off. "They came from the other way," said Katie.

"Yup," said Bruce. He held up the tooth to Hauke. "Is this your handiwork? I caught you saying 'petrified' instead of 'fossilized'."

Katie was taken aback. "You keep them in....my kids stumbled across...." She avoided looking at the basilisk. "Uncle Bruce, does he really still...."

"No, not in years," Hauke cut in. "And if I had, so what? A fine thing...whatever happened to that indomitable badger attitude? Don't tell me it dilutes itself generation after generation, my dear Katie."

She smiled and edged a groove in the tabletop with a long claw. "It doesn't. No, it absolutely doesn't. I was just thinking, I didn't want to explain...certain realities to the kids, just yet. Their father has no idea about you, that's a conversation I'd like to save for a future date." She gazed at the stone tooth in Bruce's hands. "So, you got a shark? I don't imagine that's something you'd stare at every day."

"No, it was something called a Sergal. Darn thing popped up one day when one of those interplanetary conventions was going on." The basilisk shook his head. "It's a shame he was always top-heavy, he fell down a couple weeks ago. Broke apart; bottom jaw cracked off and went into pieces. That must have come off when we were taking the remains outside."

"They talk to him," Bruce told his niece. "The statues. Even the pieces. He couldn't stand having the guy around after he'd fractured." He held up the tooth and pointed it at his mate. "Is it still talking?"

"Yes, it's providing quite biting commentary on our conversation." He looked back and forth between the two badgers. "No? Nothing? Well, I thought it was funny...."