Vallenncianna and Warlic had been together for a little over two and a half years now. Cysero still lived on one half of the tower and Nythera had been banished after the…incident. It was a nice night the seventh night of Frostval, and the morning of the eighth day was beautiful too. Vallenncianna had woken up feeling a little sick; she quickly disentangled herself from the sheets and grabbed a shirt on her mad dash to the bathroom. She held her hair back as her stomach emptied itself into the porcelain commode. After the first wave of nausea had passed she slipped the shirt on to hide her nakedness.

Warlic had found his pants but not his shirt when he heard Valley in the bathroom and was quickly by her side. At least now he knew where his shirt was. Once Vallenncianna had convinced both of them that she was fine and wasn't about to get sick again, she got up and brushed her teeth.

"You're sure you're okay?" Warlic asked her again.

She sighed and glared at him gently as she trotted around their room, looking for her clothes, "I'm fine Warlic. Really I am."

"It's just not usual for you," he huffed but took his shirt back when she tossed it at him. While his woman got dressed Warlic went down to the laboratory to check on the potion he had been making the night before.

"I'm going to town!" Vallenncianna hollered as she walked out the front door.

Warlic was about to say the opposite, but by the time he had gotten outside she was gone. He sighed and returned to the lab, pulling open one of the unused drawers and pulling out a small box. The mage admired the ring resting inside and hoped that she'd say yes when he proposed tonight. Hearing Cysero's heavy footfall's on the stairs Warlic quickly hid the ring in his pocket and went back to work on his potion.

She made sure to get away from the tent/tower entrance as quickly as possible, other Warlic would make her stay home. Valley went to Serenity's Inn to buy a few of the vegetables from the newly installed garden. Luckily, it still produced in the winter.

"Hello Serenity," she greeted cheerfully, "How are you today?"

The innkeeper smiled warmly, "I'm fine. Is this everything?" Vallenncianna nodded. Serenity counted the bell peppers, carrots and lettuce, "That's 45 gold."

The mage handed her the money. "Thank you."

Serenity looked her over curiously, "You seem different today. You're…glowing."

"I am?" She asked, confused. The last time she had been glowing was when Cysero made dinner and she had eaten something that was radioactive or something.

"I don't know what it is, but you're glowing – it's coming from the inside."

"Strange…" Valley shrugged. "Thanks for the vegetables, Serenity. I'll see you around!" She waved as she left the inn.

"C'mon Warlic, let me help!" the Green Mage whined.

"No Cysero, I don't want Valley getting food poisoning or becoming radioactive. I'm used to the things that you call food when you try to cook, she isn't. Besides, she's already sick to begin with." Warlic glared over his shoulder at his roommate, "Why don't you go tend your shop?"

"Oh, I see how it is…fine, I have a few weapons to test out anyway," he shrugged. "But if you ever change your mind ~"

"Out!" Warlic snapped. Cysero just laughed as he leisurely strolled out of the tower.

The Blue Mage sighed as he continued preparing to make dinner. It was one of Valley's favorites: fried Fsh and Frostval sauce. Before he began cooking he locked the door to keep Cysero out when he decided to straggle back. If anyone was going to screw this up, it was going to be him.

"Thanks for seeing me on such short notice Celestia," Valley sighed as she shook the snow out of her hair.

"It's no problem dear," Celestia replied. "What can I help you with?"

Vallenncianna sighed as she sat down on the sofa in the tea room, "I've been getting really sick for the past three mornings…and Warlic's right, it's not normal. I don't know what's wrong."

Celestia thought for a moment, "You're glowing. And it's not from Cysero's cooking this time either." Both women giggled.

"Serenity said that too – without the cooking part," Valley mused. "I don't think she's heard about that yet."

Celestia laughed lightly, "Here, I have a tea that just might help." When the tea was brewed she handed it to the younger woman, "What does it taste like?"

"Like…raspberries…" Vallenncianna looked up at the Lady, "Why?"

"It's a medicinal tea," was all that she said. "May I ask when your last period was?"

"It's been a few weeks…come to think of it, I am a little late this month…"

Celestia giggled, "And?"

Things clicked. "You can't be serious?"

"Afraid so."

"What about the tea?"

"Changes flavor according to the health of the drinker; since it's raspberry…well…do you want to know the gender?"

"Shit," Warlic cursed as he hexed one of the clean sock monkeys out of the kitchen, the smell of burnt Fsh in the air. The whole meal had to be scrapped and restarted – which meant he had to go find some more Fsh…

"At least that idiot Cysero isn't here, else I'd be in real trouble …" he muttered to himself as he went out to get the ingredients – again.

After dinner, Warlic and Vallenncianna went outside to play in the snow. As Valley went off to her favorite spot for making snow-people, Warlic took a small plush object out of his pocket. He admired the tiny plush sock monkey that Lady Celestia stitched up for him; it looked exactly like Bubbles – Valley's first Clean Sock Monkey. Its arms were magically sealed together, holding the ring that he picked out for her. He placed a spell on it so it would stay dry and packed snow around it to make a snowbox. He wandered over and placed the snowbox where Valley was working – making sure she didn't see him, and helped her as he waited. She turned to start working on the next snowperson when she spotted the box.

"What's that?" she asked.

He smiled, "Why don't you find out?"

She looked at him suspiciously, "I will."

She picked up the cube of snow and examined it closely. The younger mage poked a corner and started picking the snow away. When she got to the edge of the gift in the center she frowned and knocked off the rest of the snow.

She gasped, "Warlic…"

He wrapped his arms around her waist, "Vallenncianna?"

She looked up at him as he took the sock monkey out of her hands and tugged the ring gently – the monkey let it go. He toyed with it for a moment before taking her left hand in his and sliding the ring onto the appropriate finger, she watched him do this – unable to breathe.

"I want to be with you forever. I want you to stay here and grow older with me – I want you to be my wife," he said softly. "Will you?"

Her eyes watered and she bit her bottom lip, swallowing past the lump in her throat. "Warlic…I…" She looked back up at him, grinning from ear to ear. "Yes! I'd love to!"He smiled and kissed her lovingly.

"I hoped you'd say that," he whispered and kissed her again.

When they parted Valley looked up at him, blushing, "That reminds me…I have something really important to tell you…"

He looked at her curiously, "What is it?"

She took a deep breath and said slowly, "I'm…pregnant…"

The 5,000+ year old mage was stunned, "You mean…we…you…me…we did what?"

It amused Vallenncianna to see Warlic at such a loss for words, "We're going to have a baby…"

"A baby…" he breathed – and then it hit him. "We're going to have a baby?"

She nodded shyly, "Uh-huh."

He stared at her for a moment, "We're going to have a baby…" A grin slowly made its way over his features, "We're going to have a baby!" He laughed and picked her up, spinning her. She laughed with him and hugged him tightly when he set her back down. The happily giddy couple went back inside and settled in on the couch in front of the nice warm fire. As they cuddled, Warlic realized something.

"You went to Celestia, didn't you?" he asked her.

"Yes, I did. Why?" she looked up at him.

"You know, she's going to be sick of us in the next few months," he chuckled.

"No she won't – I know her as well as you do. She'll insist on being my midwife and you know she would curse us if she's not allowed to help with the wedding."

He sighed, "You have a point there, my love…when will we tell her about the engagement?"

"She'll know the next time I go to visit her – the ring will be a dead giveaway," she smiled.

He looked at her lovingly, "Sometimes I feel like the biggest fool in the world – but then I remember our idiotic roommate, and am happily reminded that I am not that stupid."

They both laughed at this and cuddled happily, watching how the garland glittered in the firelight. They hadn't noticed Cysero enter the tower earlier, but were alerted of his presence when an explosion sounded from upstairs and the muffled shout of: "I saved the garland!"

It had been a long year and that Frostval Eve was more hectic than any other – it was Warlic's and Vallenncianna's wedding day. The wedding ceremony had been simple enough, despite the extensive guest list. It seemed that all of Lore had been invited to the wedding – but when Celestia went over the guest list, she pointed out how a few unfavorable characters (such as Xan and Sepulchure) had been left off of the list.

"And rightly so," Warlic muttered as he took his two-month old orange-haired, violet-eyed daughter from his now cousin-in-law. "Thank you, Raven."

The woman nodded and smiled tiredly, "Congrats again guys. I'm sorry, but Tomix and I have to leave early."

"We understand," the new bride smiled. "I was tog-tired when I was pregnant with Alondra, too. You should go home and rest."

"Thanks," the pregnant brunette sighed and hugged her cousin, minding the growing baby bump. Hugs and handshakes were exchanged between Tomix (now Raven's husband), Raven, Warlic, and Vallenncianna.

The reception wound down quickly after that and all of the guests left. Celestia offered to keep Alondra for the night. The happy couple thanked her but turned down the generous offer and took their little daughter with them. When they got back to the tower, they put little Alondra in her crib and crawled in bed themselves. They didn't need a honeymoon – they didn't want one either. They just wanted to spend Frostval together, just the three of them – and occasionally Cysero.

Sometime in the night Vallenncianna woke up to Alondra crying. She looked over at the crib and gently shook her husband awake.

"Hmmm? What is it?" he asked groggily.

"Alondra's sneezing butterflies again," she muttered. "And I have no idea what you did last time to stop it."

Warlic looked over to the crib and sighed, "Yes…I do believe she's sneezing butterflies again." He got out of bed and picked up his infant daughter, holding her close. The baby sneezed and suddenly Warlic had a butterfly plastered to his pajama shirt. "You go back to sleep, I'll take care of this," he told his new wife. "And remind me to lecture Cysero tomorrow – I need to make sure he stops slipping things into Alondra's baby food."

Vallenncianna nodded wearily and went back to sleep. She was almost asleep when a butterfly Alondra had sneezed out landed on her nose, fluttering its exquisite emerald wings. She shooed it away and cast a charm to keep the butterflies away from the bed.

Cysero really needed to stop messing with her daughter's food.