Page 37 of Celestia, Year Four

If only my body was a cheerleading squad. They would be doing flips and tricks to show their immense joy at the unspoken confirmation of him staying.

"Okay..." He slowly swam to where I was relaxing against the wall of the bath fountain. After settling next to me, we sat there in an awkward silence at first.

Deciding to distract myself, I stared at Momo who was still asleep. Her little white unicorn float was now drifting towards us.

I reached out to stop her float from going too far, bringing it to stay in front of us.

Odion reached out to stroke Momo's head, but she remained asleep. "Did she use another spell?"

"She summoned Arielle," I replied.

"Huh?" Odion glanced around looking for my familiar. "Where?"

"She's with Esme at the moment. I said I was worried about Arielle and she did that whole teleporting thing and completely vanished. When she came back, Arielle fell through the ceiling. Well… a portal in the ceiling. We made up and she gave me a bit of intel on what's happening on the surface. She's staying the night with us before going back."

"Interesting..." Odion looked deep in thought.

"Is that weird?" I asked, noticing a small smile form on his lips.

"No. It's just Momo doesn't usually bond very quickly with people. She's very apprehensive about everything. It took her months to get used to me, and a good year before she'd stopped purposely scaring Aaron. She bonded really fast with you. That's why I'm intrigued that she was able to locate your familiar and bring her here."

"What's a Null familiar?" I asked. "Arielle was able to talk to Momo with no issues, but I assumed that was impossible."

"A Null familiar is one who can shift into any creature. She has no original form. When they're born, they're a little circular ball and whatever familiar that is around at the time, they take on that shape temporarily. It would make sense why Momo was able to teleport Arielle easily since her birth family was phoenix familiars," Odion explained.

"I was meaning to ask, but why is Momo… how do I say it?" I pondered, trying not to sound insulting.

"Why is Momo still a child?" Odion clarified.

I nodded."It doesn't make sense to me. You and Orion are older than me by a year. If Momo came to the Dark World before you, even by a year, she'd be 27, which is older than Arielle, but she acts like she's two to four familiar years."

"Momo’s growth is stuck," Odion mumbled.

"Stuck?" I questioned.

"In order for Null familiars to grow, it's different from the regular age way," Odion revealed.

"What happens?" I asked.

"Null familiars grow by receiving love from other familiars. Even if I take care of her as her Master, and give her as much love as I can, it won't contribute to her growth."

"But… why didn't she grow to begin with when she was with her family? Or did she stumble upon this place before that?"

"Momo… hmm. I'm only assuming some of this from the memories I've seen in her mind after we bonded, but when Momo was born, the familiars of her family didn't like her. They thought something was wrong with her. Null familiars are super rare, as in less than 0.5% chance. It took a long time before we even knew what she was."

"0.5%? I never heard about Null familiars or read about them in books."

"The percentile is so small, they aren't worth mentioning unless you really go back into the history books. Esme knewabout it because of her previous position on the High Council, but it's impossible to really find them when they adapt to whatever familiar they're around."

"So, her family didn't like her," I concluded.

"Yes. They thought she was weird and familiars are rather judging creatures. They don't like different. They like everything to be the same as their peers, or the family is looked down upon. Even a difference in say feathers or power level can invite hate."

"I know a bit of that from Arielle's memories. I just didn't think familiars would be picky to their family," I whispered.

"I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn’t seen it through Momo's memories," Odion admitted, looking deep in thought.

"I guess that means she stopped growing?"

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