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Linh let out a quiet giggle when the big Duskwalker signed, “I don’t want to do this.”

He’s been saying that since yesterday,she thought with humour.

“Too bad,” she answered, kicking her feet with a squeal when he gave her a grouchy snarl. He tackled her, kind of, since she was already lying on the wraps of his tail. “You promised!”

Nathair gave a deep huff and blew it over her ear purposefully. “I am a Mavka, not a human. This entire thing is r-i-d-i-c-u-l-o-u-s.” He’d picked a word he hadn’t taught her just to emphasise it by spelling it out.

“But it’s customary, and it’s something I really would like to do,” Linh answered as she lowered her head and looked up at him through her lashes. She batted them, while giving her most adorable, puppy-dog eyes she could muster.

She knew it’d worked when he cupped the left side of her head and groaned as he licked across her lips.

A smile lifted into her features while she looked around Nathair’s cave. His magic light symbol brightened his nest, sinceit was too early for the sun to give its pinstripes of light.

I’m kind of sad we’re leaving.She hoped it wasn’t forever, as she’d love to visit the beach and the quartz cave in the future. This place held a lot of memories for her, and was witness to much of her healing. It was the place she’d fallen in love with him.

Nathair shifted his body in a way that he slipped out from underneath her, and she fell onto the remaining coins and jewels. A few Demons had come to take some ‘shinies,’ as he put it. Linh was just thankful the tiara had managed to slip under her bedding and hadn’t been taken.

She picked it up and marvelled at the silver metal.I was really hoping to wear this today.

“Hurry up then,” Nathair signed as he crawled his way out of the nest. “We must pack my treasures and your shells.”

Cranky pants.She stuck her tongue out at his back.Well, if he could wear pants, that is.Tenderness did pang her heart when he took her shells into consideration.

Linh finally rose to her feet and helped pack in their comfortable silence.

Nathair had wanted to return home and be in a place that was familiar in order to heal and be unwell.

His human memories were quieter, and he didn’t seem to be slipping into any long or lasting trances, but he still couldn’t speak. He thought over time his mind might settle, but he didn’t hold out any hope that it would be soon. Linh was fine with that, as she loved him how he was.

They set off to return to her village before the sun had finished rising. With him carrying her, they made it by mid-morning.

Linh raised her hand above her brow to shield her eyes as she took it in from a distance. His orange protection dome spanned it entirely, with a little wiggle room on the southern side for asmall amount of expansion. On the right, there was a large gap between the village walls and the edge of the dome.

Nathair had made her father promise the village would never expand in the direction that would be their home. Her father had agreed in exchange for a bargain of sorts. One that Nathair had hesitated on, and was the reason he was being a sour danger-noodle this day.

As soon as they arrived, her little sister was one of the first to greet them.

“Come on!” May exclaimed. She pulled Linh’s arm excitedly, as if she wished to drag her away – or dislocate the limb – which forced him to put her down. “You’re both late. We were supposed to start getting ready an hour ago.”

Her father approached Nathair and led him away. His skull and orange orbs never left her direction until buildings separated their view of each other.

Linh was taken home, and immediately shoved into a pre-made perfumed bath. She washed on her own, getting days, if not months, worth of grime off her body.

She barely had any time to soak before May bashed at the door. “I swear, you’re so slow!”

The laugh that fell from Linh was accompanied by butterflies in her stomach and puffy dandelion seeds in her chest.She’s more excited than I am.

In her own defence, knowing this entire event made Nathair frantic and uncomfortable kind of dampened it for her. She would make the most of it, as Linh wasn’t only doing this for herself. It was both her parents’ wishes to have this day, and considering she was choosing to live her life distantly with a Duskwalker, she wanted to appease them.

Her mother was there to assist Linh in putting on a bright-red dress that had belonged to her great-grandmother on herfather’s side. Her mother had worn it once, and her sister would likely – hopefully – wear it one day as well.

The neckline was lace and modest as it dipped into her generous cleavage. The sleeves were long but light, able to be worn in any season, while the skirts of it were layered and barely brushed the ground. Linh was a little taller than the women of her family, standing at a solid five-foot-five.

She dipped her toes into black slippers, opting for no heel, as she already had balance issues.

Her thick hair was parted into multiple sections. Down the front, she had two thin braids that framed the sides of her face before looping back under her earlobes until they were pinned behind her ears. They, and the rest of her hair, were then twisted into a spiral bun that sat low on the back of her head.

A silver comb with white flowers made from pearl was pushed into the top of the bun. The family heirloom was generations old.