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“It will not be long before I leave.” If it wasn’t for her, he would have been scouring the bottom of the ocean by now.

She opened her mouth to say something, only to shut it. Her sweet tears, all for his sake, doubled in their strength. “But what if I change my mind?”

His head tilted. “It will be too late.”

He just hoped it wouldn’t be. That, once again, he was wrong, and she came to love him so deeply that nothing else mattered.

“Let’s not speak about this anymore,”he signed, before leaning forward to cup both sides of her head.

He nuzzled one of her wet cheeks with the blunted tip of his bony snout, then licked across it. Linh gripped his horns to anchor herself and bumped against him as if to return his affection.

“Thank you for answering my questions, even though it upset me,” she whispered, burying her face against his skull. She wrapped her arms around his neck to hold him tightly, and he slipped his hands around her back to do the same. “In retaliation... here, have all my tears.”

She rubbed her puffy and wet face all over his. Nathair chuckled, accepting each drop with fondness. He was just pleased she’d decided to be cute with him, rather than be a sulking mess on her own.

When they pulled back, she had the saddest smile curling her lips. He did want to make it up to her.

Perhaps I can take her to the forest again.

“I wish we could stay a little longer,” Linh stated with a sigh, noting how the shade of the cliff side was about to touch the water.

Apparently sea Demons would shift beneath the sand of the beach, creeping ever closer for when they could emerge in the shade of the afternoon. As the tide rose, they chased the night along with it.

“I’d love to see dusk,” she continued, picking up a shell to see if she wanted to add it to her ever-growing collection. “It’s one of my favourite times of day.”

She turned to Nathair to show him her new piece. He cupped underneath her hand to inspect it, pretending to care when she’d already figured out he didn’t like her shells. This big Duskwalker was sweet enough to lie about it.

She pushed one of her loose pigtails over her shoulder – since she’d restyled her hair again this morning. She had a feeling Nathair liked seeing the change whenever she washed it.

“I am feeling well today,” he signed, before looking back at the cave entrance some metres away. “Would you like to see whatthe night sky looks like over the sea? If I do slip into a fragment, you can just hum for me.”

After testing it a few times, they had come to learn that if Linh hummed softly while Nathair was in a trance, she could ease him out of it. Singing, apparently, was too abrupt, and he’d slip back into the trance like the voices were angered she’d interfered. Humming brought him out gently, and only quietened them to a point to where he could push them back on his own.

They battled them together.

Her lips curled with fondness, and her eyes flicked side to side between his orange orbs. “I would say ‘What about the Demons?’ but I already know that answer.”

Nathair chuckled, and with a satisfying purr that had her tingling, signed, “Good, little nightingale.” Then he turned to head back to the cave entrance. “Dusk will not be here for quite some time. We can put your shells away and feed you before then, and return when it is closer.”

She eyed the fish dangling from his tail tip. Now that she had some herbs, wine, and even ginger root, she thought she may enjoy the taste a little better.

The return to his main cave was uneventful, as it always was, but she’d begun to notice the distinct difference in the quiet darkness. Rather than Linh holding his wrist for guidance, Nathair would place his arm across her back and hold her shoulder.

She thought if he was able to sink lower on his tail without falling due to his heavy torso, he may have held her side.I would have liked that.But she didn’t mind this.

It felt like he wanted to hold her intimately without having to cart her up the tunnel like a weak-hearted, frail maiden. She wasn’t one, and she appreciated not being treated as thus.

She also took him preparing her food as a gesture to take care of her, rather than that she was incompetent. Nothing he didmade her feel less, and sometimes she forgot that she was so much smaller than him. He treated her as his equal in heart and in mind.

Humour crinkled the corners of her eyes as she took in his serpent skull staring upon her while she ate.I kind of enjoy how he treats me like a princess.

He even had a crown in his nest of riches, which he liked to place on her head.I should try to make him dance with me, like in those fairytales and history books.The idea of dancing with Nathair, who bore a tail instead of legs, was rather humorous.

I bet he would try for me, anyway.

Finishing her food, Linh moved to clean up, the patter of her bare feet echoing against the stone. Nathair just tossed the bones in his lake, apparently not caring where they lay. She turned to him, brushing her pants and dress of any potential dirt and herbs, and gave him a smile.

“Alright. Is it time to go back now?” She couldn’t contain her excitement.