The giant girl, dressed in her rags had to squint (Which- on a clockwork girl, really just involved closing the eyelids half way,) in order to see her. A strange little dragon fairy... but what was stranger to her... she knew her.
"...Aura?" Asked Jeff with confusion. "I... I don't understand. Weren't you 'maginary?" she had completely forgotten about her. But now that she saw her, she appeared exactly as she remembered.
The young looking dragon-fairy fluttered onto the doll-girl's hands. "Yes... it's me. I guess it's been a long time."
"Uh huh.." It was a long time ago- but to the now youthful girl, it felt like only yesterday. "but ... you ain't real, are you?"
"I'm real. I was with you in childhood, then...and now." She said with a soft sigh. "I like your transformation. It's... calming to me." Said Aura. Though she was worried that the ragged clothes were not suitable for her. They needed to find something better.
"C-calmin'? But im a giant.. doll," she said looking upset.
"You are fine Jeff.. alive and well. I've... seen a lot of our family go away. I even had to... see the death of my own mother and father... all over again," she said softly.. "I tried to comfort the boy that I was... tried to steer the man that I became... in the end he took all my eggs, and made his one wish."
"What did he wish?" Asked Jeff. "I remember.. you got magic eggs, an on a person's birthday you can make a small wish come true."
"Small wishes... I can't make the impossible happen. Just make the possible more likely," She said sadly. "Of all the wishes to make... Your father- Mr Aurelius, wished to be an 'immortal' like me, and that I would never leave him. That wish took every egg I had ever made, for a century... and he was quite disappointed that nothing seemed to happen from it."
"My.. dad's gone now," Jeff said. "Is... he with you?" He asked hopefully.
"Jeff... I am him... or... was. Years ago," she explained softly.
Jeff gasped. But.. then... she didn't know what to think. This was her father? It had to be impossible!
"Even I had forgotten my own wish, and when I grew up.. I forgot meeting a fairy... all I could remember was terrible loss, and a desire for immortality... I had to stay away from him. He would have taken every egg I made for himself."
"Then... you became my fairy," said Jeff remembering.
"Yes..."
"An'... you left," she said sadly.
Aura nodded looking down a bit, her dragon-tail curling to the left. "When unchanged grow up... people don't see me any more. At least until, the sun changed... then everyone could see me. Well- normal humans, seem to think me a little ghostly... I suppose. But otherwise, I'm quite visible to them now."
This seemed to be a lot for the giant clockwork to take, as she leaned back against the building, clutching her knees together. "I- I jus' want my dad... an' to have a family again."
"I... I know," said Aura. "I'm... not really him. I was him, two centuries ago... but I've lived a life time over...and over, in this body. Do you remember... the wish you made when I gave you my set of eggs on your birthday?"
Jeff tried to remember but shook her head.
"Well, you wanted friends to play with... I'd say, you got your wish."
The two glanced over at the lake, and the glistening water. Jeff suddenly saw the long tail of the mermaid they had been keeping before. Seeing her here, free and happy and out of his artificial pool made her incredibly happy.
