Lunchtime Discussions...

Chiana

"Hey Inquirer!" I shout, a little bit worried. "Come over hear a second with those blocks, please?"

Later...

Well, I guess I should say I'm happy to see that Jake and Aeryn-Pip hadn't done anything that Roland might make them regret.

....

Guy's kind of . . . creepy. Has an air of being a lot . . . older than he looks. He's in his teens, but something in his eyes says he's seen things.

That also means, that air of age, he's kind of set in his ways on certain things....

Why borrow trouble?

Inquirer, seeing our point, has decided to split up the blocks. I'm carrying my sister in a pouch. The Doctor is carrying the demifoxes in another (after we're done talking with them) on his person while Inquier is carrying Jake in one of her pouches.

That should work. Close proximity might not have allowed what had happened with the demifoxes, but still...

....

"And now you wanted to talk with us?" Fred asks us, sipping at his tea while holding the hand of Astra.

The demifox female, meanwhile, is smiling at Fred.

....

Oh yeah, they got it bad for each other!

Fred

Okay, by now I have come to grips on what has happened between me, Astra, and the unborn. Really, I have. It had been as much of a surprise to them as it had been to us! In other words, no nefarious dark plots to somehow magically manipulate us demifoxes into falling in love with each other. I mean . . . I probably would have been supsicious in another setting, but I just fail to grasp how. They've already paid us in ADVANCE. They have done everything they said they'd do, and more...

...

Besides all that there is just something about them (especially from that one man named the Doctor) . . . . that just begs trust.

Then there is the practical matter that we and Astra just don't have much bloody much in the way of other choices here....

And . . . then there is the elf named . . . Fertal. I . . . really LIKE him. Almost like . . . he's a long lost brother . . .

I'm very much still confused about it all, but at the bottom of it all I and Astra have thrown in with these strangers. Some of it out of practicality and some . . . because our hearts WANT to trust them.

Besides, accident or not the Dream I and my love, Astra had was . . . wonderful. So many thing are clear. . . now. Who I want to share the rest of my life. Who I want as my partner in life. . . . and I saw and felt my children (wonderful scamps!). She felt it as well.

I feel no shame, now. I'm . . . I've had a burden lifted from my spirit. . . . Aye, I want to do the right thing with my love and my unborn. She shall not give birth to bastards. Yes, they were conceive out of wedlock . . . . but . . . . I shall rectify that. The path is clear and before they put us back into our crystalline state I shall BE wed to my dear, lovely Astra.

Lovely . . . I don't . . . see her or myself as monsters anymore. I am now what I should be. It's . . . it's hard to say, but . . . I have no desire at ALL at being human again.

That comes up within the conversation over lunch (another picnic, this time within Aqualaria! God, these are mages with magic indeed! Flying carpet they demonstrated was . . . a marvel!). Say that it is actually a good thing, shows I and my love have adjusted to our new lives. Our new and rightful forms...

Fertal wouldn't go into details, but hinted that he and his wife had something similar happen to them. Promise that after this Quest of theirs is over, all shall be revealed.

Well, they still hold secrets but what can one expect. If you're not a member of their sect, cannot fault them from keeping secrets of the sect from outsiders (which I and Astra wish to soon remedy. We want to join!). Do not know where they hale from, but if their manner is any indication I and Astra would be fool not to want to join and live there! At least there we'd not only be tolerated, but.... treated as people.

....

I feel I could learn much from these strangers and grow wise indeed...

As for the advice they ask . . . Good questions. Well, don't believe that they shall have much difficulty in warding off any Allarian mage spells as they cross the border (in my nation's dealings with regulating magick through the White Hand I . . . such isn't possible. The Hand would clamp down on such gatherings of the mages needed to set up such a "border perimeter alert system" as the one named Inquirer put it).

....

Hm, she of all these strangers is the oddest scented one of the lot. More on that in a bit.

No, the problems for them will be when they try to get into the confines of Collins. While mages are not trusted, regulated and controlled by the White Hand, there would be mages who'll probably detect all the magical equipment and spell components on them. Probably would detect me and my love in our block state, a magical state indeed, and that'll be a big problem.

"So we avoid the city and camp out in nature," Sigin sighs, rolling his arm as if his back was stiff for some reason. "Well, there is nothing for it, I guess."

"Not like the inns of Collins are particularly comfortable," I mutter, remembering the few times I had visited. "Even the best, which I'd visited due to being Lord Fred, the beds were . . . .uncomfortable."

Collin had been the butt of many jokes, really, in it's substandard travel facilities.

"Well, not like we'd miss out," Chiana sighs, sidling up to Sigin. "We can count stars and . . . stuff."

Hm, and she said we demifoxes needed a room? Don't need to be a mindreader in where that one's going!

Strange group.

Okay, here's what I mean. Had been denying my form, ignoring the talents I'd gained in becoming a demifox. One of them was my increased sense of smell. With it, now that I accept it and am USING it, I smell that . . . a lot less of this group is human, despite appearances.

Okay, of all the strangers here, the only humans in this group who LOOK human (the elves look like elves so aren't in question) are the ones named Betty and Ragan. The gray skinned woman and the man named Sigin (who are so . . . into each other that it is almost frightening) smell . . . well. Most of the time they smell human, but there is a sublte hint of something else . . . it's almost maidenly familiar. Like I'd smelled it before, in one way or another. Then there is the Doctor. Kinda smells human, but it's almost as if he's a . . . blend of human and some other species. Never heard of anything like that, despite ME and Astra looking like a blend of fox and human. Our scent is pure demifox, if you catch my meaning. Inquirer . . . . has a scent I just....

It's weird. Almost would say she smells faintly of alchemy, really. Then again, she's a mage so...

Well, so be it. They say they'll explain later and I believe they'll keep their word.

Not exactly thrilled on where they say they're going (the ruins of Atlantis?!), but then again . . . I know that these are mighty magic users. Should be a cakewalk for them, surely....

No worries in my heart, but still . . . Atlantis? Maybe they're out to liberate some ancient relic for their order...

Now, that that's settled, one last thing.

Elrondir

"Of course we can do that for you," I say, smiling a small, satisfied smile.

After all, we ALL (Doctor especially) have grants of aristacricy. That means we have obligations due to social ranking, but also have privileges and powers.

Which includes being able to do secular weddings. We're sorta the police, justice of the peace, and many other things all rolled into one, being knights and such for our various courts.

Myself, I'm a knight in the Ke'lanRoyal Court, back on Terra Prime.... I can do things like this. Besides, those little furry faces are just so EAGER to be wed.....

1. And so, in this forest somewhere within Aqualaria, we have a wedding! Do the vows in elfin, only leaving their parts in their tongue, but it's impressive enough for their tastes, do believe....

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