Page 6 of A Minotaur Tale

"The mistletoe, as well as the boats, but there's an array, really. I tried to represent as many cultures as I could."

"You tried? Did you do all this?" she asked.

"Oh no, no!" Asterion chuckled. "I couldn’t possibly, I had a team to help me. I just told them where to put things."

"But you picked it all out? Designed it all?" It was a massive feat, Berggeheimnis was said to be the second biggest city in the world after Pentweagh. "Is that what all of those books were about? The ones on holidays?"

Asterion smiled wide, though he only took his eyes off the road for a brief second. "Exactly! I didn’t know much about all of these newcultures, let alone how they celebrate during Yule, so I had to do research."

"Well, you certainly seemed to do a lot. What did you find?"

"There's a lot of variation, to be sure, but there's a lot of similarity too. Celebrations from across the continent will at times have shockingly similar traditions."

"Really?" Cora asked, her interest truly piqued. "That's fascinating!"

"I thought so! For example, for reasons I can’t quite understand, we minotaurs seem to share a great deal of traditions with cyclopes and strangely, a few types of sea monsters. Whereas you and the dwarves here in Berggeheimnis actually share more with several colonies of werewolves."

Asterion's chest was puffed out now, as if her interest had inflated him. At first, he hadn't struck her as being particularly bright, and frankly he'd seemed entirely unprepared for... well the entirety of his task in the city.

"I'd never have thought that!"

They wound through the streets of the city, the glow of crystal street lamps had been dimmed hours before, but over the past few weeks, the eternally mesmerizing city of Berggeheimnis transformed into a riotous celebration of winter even without the citizens.As an oread, Cora was tied to the mountain, ever aware of it around her.1 The silence of the sleeping city let her connect even closer, in ways she'd normally have to delve deeper into its stone to do. Without the hustle of daily life shifting around, the mountain pulsed through her, its contentment with itself a steady beat that matched the heart in her chest.

Within the confines of the library, she never had trouble dealing with groups of people. The library was structured, her interactions largely followed a similar set of scripts, the rules definite and easy to enforce. Outside though? Things were often...unpredictable. Crowd and noise levels varied, at times in unpredictable ways, and Cora found she needed to be in the right frame of mind for such excursions.

Asterion didn't press the conversation, letting her enjoy the ride through the city.

They left the main cavern and turned off into a side cavern "We’re leaving the city?" Cora asked, her voice tight. "I can’t leave the mountain."

"We won't, I did my research." Asterion’s voice was low and rumbly, it reminded her of the voice of the mountain she heard sometimes. Less of an actualsound, but more of a feeling that she innately understood.

"You did, didn’t you? You seem to do a lot of that..."

Asterion chuckled, rubbing his horn in a way she'd seen him do frequently when reading. "I have to. I'm interested in learning, but we minotaurs aren't exactly known for being scholars."

He blushed and Cora thought it was one of the most adorable things she'd ever seen. Not to mention that while they'd spoken a great deal in the library, it had almost entirely consisted of him inquiring about books on different subjects–save her verbal dissertation on shells which she'd subjected him to.

"So, it's something you were excited to be able to do, when you arrived? Study?" Cora perked up at the notion. She loved learning and was always chagrined at how few people seemed inclined to agree. Those that did congregated in her library, of course, but for so many, it was a chore.

"Not at all, at first, I had to. I haven’t had much book learning' ye see and needed to catch up. I'm not stupid, mind, it's just not something we ever needed to do, really. Needing that sort of education was something that we didn’t foresee, so my parents raised methe best they knew."

Cora tried to keep the disappointment from her face when he mentioned necessity.

"But now," he blew air between his lips. " It's like I'm thirsty and can't get enough water. There's just so much I don’t know? How am I supposed to get to all of it? I think I could live my whole life and not even read all of the books in your library."

Nowthatwas what she'd been hoping to hear! It truly didn't matter if Asterion hadalwaysloved learning, that he did so now was more than enough to give her hope that he might not find her so... odd.

"If you didn't do much schooling, what did you spend your time on?" she asked.

"Practical things, carpentry, gardening, practical engineering, that sort of thing."

"Oh?" Cora knew little of practical application, aside from how one should organize a library. Certainly nothing on the subjects or gardening or carpentry.

"We're a bit mad for traps and mazes back home. So many of our exports are security measures, many of which are sold to the Empire. Everyone on the council tries to pretend that they value our input, but really, they mostlycare about our defenses. Especially those we sell to the Empire."

Cora scrunched her nose. "That can't feel good."

"No, and I didn’t help my case much when I showed up, still wet behind the ears. I'm out of my depth, but I'll make them respect me, yet." He set his jaw in a way that made Cora believe he'd do it. But why would he say such a thing to her, wasn't the point of the whole evening to impress her? To convince her that he'd be a worthy mate? It seemed counterintuitive to show such vulnerability.