As I looked at Leonardo, he frowned. I asked him what was wrong. "Will your wife like that!?" he asked me. I had to think about it. "I honestly don't know. I haven't asked her because it isn't something that matters to me. Grissell is my wife. What she believes is up to her. I believe what I believe." "She thinks our mother is evil." he said matter of factly. That was probably still true. I knew that she extremely upset that I had children with a dryad. She had called it demonic. "I do not believe that. I swear that to you." I told all of them. Leonardo did not look convinced. "Do you want to be part of her religion? I won't stop you if that is what you want." I said. He made a grimace. I blinked at him. This was not going where I thought. "I do not want to go to church alone with her." he said with a little bit of scorn in his tone. "Do you just not believe in anything, Leonardo? That is fine too." I asked. He just looked off to the side. "Cody and Brody speak to their mother sometimes. Why can't we speak to our mother!?" he demanded. "Nothing really. I met her in the free folk village. Go out and seek her now!!"
Doing that could be a really great experience for him. Cody, Brody and Leonardo being part of the druidic religion would totally seal their "demon child" schema people in town had of them. Sometimes being cold and unloving drives people into being the very monsters that they saw in them. Since this was much more pressing than static arches, we stayed in the town to give Leonardo the time to find his mother. I wanted him to be able to figure this out on his own. I also wanted to make sure that he was safe. With that in mind, I trailed him from a distance. He was a 7 year old boy. Even though he was part dryad, he was just a child. Leonardo was too busy looking around for his mother at the moment. Celosia did not show herself to him for the first couple of days. Leonardo was getting in a bad mood. So much so, I had to separate the other boys from him. I did not want this to spiral into an abusive relationship. I knew this was immensely stressful for him. It took a week before they finally met. He was really happy. It was rare to see him blush. He only did so when on a huge sadistic tear.
Eventually, they finished talking. "Can I... speak to you again.... Mother!?" Leonardo asked. Celosia simply gave him a small smile. "Of course, my child." she said. That made him pretty happy. For the next week, Leonardo just kept making the trek to the village. They talked about all sorts of things. Leonardo wanted to learn more and more about her. She did not keep anything that he wanted to know from him during their conversations. It was a pretty comprehensive telling of their religion. When back in town, he would compare notes with Cody and Brody. They were also in contact with a dryad. They got to piece together what the druidic religion was all about. It did not take too long for them to commit to a decision. They wanted to be a part of the religion that their mothers were leaders in. That was something that I was fine with. If I tried to stop them now, I would be a hypocrite. What I was not fine with was Leonardo trying to pressure the others into also joining. I shut that down right away. "Lenard and Lennox made their choice. We are going to the holy arch in a couple of days now."
