Author's Note: This chapter takes place about four years after the first.
2
"Excuse me?" Revya said to Marlene, who guarded the door to Virtuous' private chambers. "May I see her?" As Marlene went inside, Revya rolled back and forth on the balls of her feet. After a moment, Marlene gestured her in, then stepped out and closed the door between them.
Lady Virtuous had been caught in a rare moment of unreadiness, stringing the long strands of beads through her hair. Revya could count the times she'd found Virtuous' appearance less-than-perfect. Though the goddess was the closest thing to a mother Revya could remember, she was a very poised and distant matriarch.
But she smiled now, catching Revya's eye in the mirror. "I've been expecting you."
Revya executed a quick genuflect, pressing her right knuckles to the floor, then rose. "What do you mean?" She glanced to either side, looking for signs of trouble. "Is there some problem?"
"I hope not." She tucked one strand behind her ear and stood, gathering her robes about her. "I expected you to come a bit sooner. It's been almost a month. But I suppose you didn't feel sure until now."
Revya blinked, hard. "So - you already know?" She blinked again, then shook her head. "I should've guessed. Being what you are."
"You waited long enough. You're going to be twenty-seven this year. I thought you'd never work up the courage."
Revya laughed shakily. "Courage had nothing to do with it. We're both surprised."
Virtuous raised her thin eyebrows. "And happy?"
Revya's laugh was less shaky. "Yes. It's going to be in-"
"Winter, of course."
Revya's smile slipped. "You...worked it out that fast? Wow."
It was Virtuous' turn to laugh. "There was no working it out, my child. I've known it for ages. I'm the Master of Life. Why, I was aware the moment the baby was conceived."
"Yes, well," Revya said, very quickly and loudly. And, just to talk over anything else Virtuous might say, "I'm glad you're happy. Ehem."
Virtuous fondly watched Revya attempt to collect herself. "Have you told anyone else?"
"No. We're still...not quite sure how to go about it." Revya stared thoughtfully across the room at Virtuous' tall mirror, studying her bare, flat midriff. "I'd kinda like to say nothing and just let them all notice. I mean, it's going to be obvious soon enough. But then everyone will be hurt we left them in the dark so long."
Virtuous raised her small fist and coughed delicately into it. "You mean Danette."
Revya smiled and shook her head again. "She's due back from Corsius today and she's going to go crazy. But hopefully in a good way."
Marlene, Virtuous' Whirwin guard, gave Revya an inquiring look when she left the elder's chambers, but Revya only waved in response, heading down through the cave's twisting galleries, lit by glowing crystals, until she came to her own rooms. As she opened the door, she heard the sound of Gig violently rolling over, letting her know that, third time this morning, she'd woken him up.
She crossed their open, all-purpose room, stepping through another door into their bedroom. Gig, lying on his back and wound in the sheets like a burrito, didn't acknowledge her.
"She already knew. You should've warned me she would," Revya said, sitting on the bed. She studied him a moment, then lay down at a right angle from him, head on his chest. Gig grunted and held up five fingers. Revya sighed but otherwise remained silent, mulling over her conversation with Virtuous.
When five minutes had passed, she cleared her throat. Gig sighed heavily and blinked his eyes open. "Lemme guess: smug as hell, right?"
"She got into this big philosophical thing about the Master of Death creating life..."
"And, as fascinating as I'm sure it was, you really don't need to go into it."
"Anyway, she got me thinking." Revya watched as Gig's eyes slowly flickered closed. She reached over and poked his left earlobe. "Stay with me here."
Eyes closed, Gig freed his arm out from under her and flopped it across her waist. "You got to thinking."
"We need to figure out how to tell Danette."
Gig opened his eyes in order to roll them. "Why does it always have to be about the cow?"
Revya opened her mouth to launch into the explanation he'd heard a million times before - how they were practically sisters, how they'd gone through so much together, how she deserved to know as much as anyone else - when there was a knock at the door. Revya rolled up to her feet, heading across the room to open the front door. "Yes?"
A Sepp she didn't recognize stood before her, covered with dust. "You're Revya, right? I gotta message for you." Revya noticed that the Sepp wore the badge of the Astec postal runners on his vest.
"Thanks." Revya waited until the Sepp was gone before she closed the door and turned the note over in her hands. "It's from Danette. Hey, she remembered my name for once."
"She's got to be sick," Gig said, walking into the room, jerking a tunic over his head. "She's got colic or something."
Revya opened the note.
Hey!
Don't worry, I'm still coming home on schedule. Just wanted to let you know that I'm bringing a friend. (Judging from the smudges, friend had been written, erased and rewritten several times.) He's named Killian, I think you'll like him. Anyway, could you ask Janey to get a guest room ready for him? Thanks. Dying to see you again!
D
"Friggin' hell," Gig said, reading the note over her shoulder. "Another one. That cow picks up creeps like burrs."
"They haven't all been creeps," Revya said, dropping the note onto a chair. "Remember that guy she was dating last winter? The scribe. He was nice."
"He was also running an illegal yak-scalping business."
"But he was nice," Revya reminded him. "Great table manners."
"The cow," Gig reminded her, "descends to new levels of stupidity faster than a falling anvil."
"She's testing the waters. It's not a bad thing to do." Revya glanced at the note. "Figures she'd go for a guy with 'kill' in his name."
Beyond asking Janey to prepare a guest room, they didn't discuss Danette's note further as they went down to the mess hall. Revya had contented herself with a few banana pancakes when she looked up to see Gig plunk not only his plate down but a second one in front of her.
"Whoa," she said, eyeing the potato fritters. "I don't need that much."
Gig gave her a stern look. "You're eating for two. I'm not going to let that little hotpod go hungry."
Revya glanced to either side, but no one seemed to be listening. "We don't need to worry about that quite yet." Gig smiled and cut up the fritters for her. Sighing, Revya accepted them and reached for a pat of butter. "This isn't going to be very fun," she continued in a murmur. "Lady Virtuous insisted I go off all combat, even guard duty. She doesn't expect us to be attacked, but she doesn't want to risk anything." She bit moodily into a fritter.
"So what are you planning to do for the next eight months?" Gig asked, studying her plate as if wondering whether she needed more food. "Sit around and compose poetry?"
Revya tried not to flinch at the thought of long hours of inactivity. "Well...maybe we could go down to the Nereid palace. I'd have company." She cut up one of her pancakes. "Juno's expecting her third."
Gig didn't suppress a groan. "Week after week of the fish femmes? You're kidding me."
"You don't have to come. Though...I'd like to be with you." She lightly kicked his leg under the table.
"Yeah, yeah, it's all my fault," Gig said for her. He began slicing a hotpod. "Besides, I don't want to miss out seeing my ever-increasing wife." Revya considered kicking him again, harder this time, but she ate a pancake instead. "And the little sprog and I already have a lot in common. This isn't the first time you've eaten for two."
"Pregnancy isn't quite the same as body-bunking with an evil war god who wants to eat my soul."
"Pass the salt," said Gig.
Revya was polishing the onyx blade when Danette returned. She almost never polished the onyx blade. It was the sort of thing she did when she wanted to be out swinging the sword and kicking ass...but knew she absolutely couldn't. It was like being starving, cooking up a bunch of hotpods, and then not eating them.
Danette burst into her front room without knocking. "I'm here!"
Revya tossed the sword to one side (clatter) and got to her feet. "Guess what?"
"You guess what!" Danette threw her arms boisterously around her friend. "I've got news!"
"Oh-!" Revya stepped back. "So do I."
"That's great!" Danette's rosy eyes were sparkling. "But it can't top mine."
Revya raised her eyebrow. "Just maybe." And said, "I'm pregnant!" just as Danette said, "I'm engaged!"
They stared at each other.
"What?" Revya said, honestly not sure she'd heard correctly.
"WHAT?" Danette exploded.
"Wait, how long have you known this guy?"
"You're preggers? Holy holy cow, I don't believe this, you're - you don't look pregnant."
"I'm hardly a month along. How long have you-"
"Oh about a month, he's really great. So wait, were you planning this?"
"No. So is it this Killian person you were talking about?"
"Yes. Good, because if you'd been planning this without telling me-"
"Planning - wait, you've gotten engaged to someone without telling me?"
Danette stepped back and put her hands on her hips. "Oh yeah, like you've never heard of that before."
Revya set aside a touchy remark. "Well - yes, but you knew Gig before we, um, eloped. I didn't even know this guy existed until a few hours ago."
"Well, you don't have to worry. We're not getting married this week or anything. I wanted to give him time to get to know everyone before we finalized it."
"Okay, good," Revya said, slowly nodded. "Um..." She looked nervously at her friend. "He doesn't have anything to do with...yaks, does he?"
Danette sighed dramatically. "Look, not every guy I meet is a conniving bastard. At least I didn't run off with the freaking Grim Reaper. Speaking of which-" She trotted over and hugged Revya again, kissing her cheek. "I'm really happy for you! This is awesome. I'm gonna be, like, Auntie Danette, and-" Her eyes went wide. "Holy crap! I need to get pregnant too!"
"What? Why?"
"Because, our babies have to be best friends too, and if they're too far apart in age they won't like each other."
"Wait on the wedding," Revya advised. "I'm sure our babies will cope."
Danette lost her panicked look after a moment and rolled her eyes, hugging Revya close again. "Anyway, this is totally cool. You're gonna be a great mom, as soon as you stop being so scatterbrained..."
Revya wondered if Danette could feel her pulse quicken. "I hope so."
"...and unreliable...and kinda flaky...Why wouldn't you be?"
"Well - I mean-" Revya looked uncertainly up. "I don't know a lot about being a mother. I never really had a..."
"Lady Virtuous..." But Danette trailed thoughtfully off. Virtuous had been an authority figure for the two of them, but they both knew she hadn't been as ever present as Nei was with her children, or Juno with her daughters. Danette stuck her chin out, all but forcing cheerfulness into Revya's face. "You'll be fine. Think of yourself as a clean slate. No bad examples. Look, plenty of people a lot dumber than you have popped out babies, and they haven't totally messed up."
"I guess you're right." Revya looked down at her bellybutton, then touched it softly.
"Kid, have you seen the - oh hell," Gig said, stepping in the door.
Danette released Revya and whirled. "You jerk! You knocked up my best friend!"
Gig stared a long moment at the ceiling.
"What?" Danette demanded. "Praying for mercy?"
"I'm trying to decide whether it would be more satisfying to draw and quarter you or to lock you in an iron maiden. Actually," he leaned against the door in a thoughtful pose, "I'm torn between whether I want you to die quickly or slowly."
"Danette says she's happy for us," Revya said.
"I'm happy for her," Danette clarified. "And I'm getting ready to be a good aunt, because it's going to take a lot of surveillance to make sure the baby doesn't turn out like you!"
"Tch. It's going to be the most maxed out Gigified creation in the-"
"Danette has news too," Revya interrupted, before this could turn violent.
Danette blinked confusedly a moment, then remembered. "Oh, that's right, I'm engaged. Don't say anything!" She poked Gig in the middle of the chest. "I have just as much right to reproduce as you do!"
"Yeah, go have fun with your wimpyass progeny..."
"My babies are not going to be wimps! My babies could beat up your babies any day of the weak!"
"Please, I'm an ex-god. My genes pwn your genes!"
"Headache," said Revya, rubbing her forehead.
"Look what you did!" Danette and Gig snapped at each other.
"I left him with the luggage," Danette admitted as the three of them made their way through the twisting passages. "Poor Killian. Janey was showing him to his room when I ran to get you - Did you pick out a nice one? You'd better."
"I put him in the dungeons," Revya said, the corner of her mouth twitching.
Danette pulled her arm back to punch Revya's shoulder - then froze. "Dammit, I can't hit you when you're preggo."
"We put him on the first floor," Revya said. "Close to the main courtyard. Less chance of getting lost." She frowned. "He doesn't sleepwalk, does he? 'Cause that would be killer down here."
"No..." Danette said slowly. "I don't think that'll be a problem. Oh - is this it?" They'd come to the first floor, where a door stood open, bags and boxes spilling out of it. "Killi? How you doing?"
"Um-" came a thin voice from within "-pretty well, I think."
"Great." Danette trotted forward, waving at Gig and Revya to stay in place, which they did, though they exchanged odd looks. "So - um." Danette glanced from her friends to the room, twisting her hands together. "I got my friends, so why don't we all...meet...each...other...?"
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Gig demanded, striding forward. "Is he some sort of-" He looked into the room, and though he neither swore nor reeled back in horror, he raised his left eyebrow in surprise. While Danette grabbed her horns and emitted an "arrgh" of frustration, Revya joined her husband in the doorway.
A slight young man, his blond hair pulled back into a small ponytail, cleared his throat and gave them a trembly smile. He had a fluffy pillow under one arm, a potted blooming cactus in the opposite hand, and a large opened crate at his feet. But nobody was really looking at those. They were staring at the enormous, creamy white wings sprouting from his back.
Revya took a moment to gather herself, then put on a smile. "Hi." She glanced at Danette, but Danette was still glaring at her hooves. "I'm Revya, Danette's friend." She went inside and offered her hand. Killian's palm was cool and very smooth. "And that's my husband, Gig." Gig smiled and made no comment. Revya was sure he was over his surprise and that his raised eyebrow was now deliberate.
"Very pleased to meet you," Killian replied, fluttering his wings a moment. "Danette's told me so much about you." He glanced hesitantly at Gig. "Both of you." Then he spoke quickly to cover up the momentary uncertainty, though his forehead remained creased. "So I'm so very, very happy to be here. I'm quite happy." Finally he looked at Danette. "I am."
"Sorry," Gig said, very slowly and politely, "I didn't hear what you said. Are you regretting coming here?" The next moment, Gig half-groaned half-gurgled as Danette rammed him into the side of the doorframe, stomping past him without a look. Revya glanced at Danette's wrathful face, then Gig as he braced himself against the doorframe, gasping for air and clutching his side. She started towards him.
"Well, I'm glad we're here," Danette said very loudly and very firmly, "you, me and my friend, even though she's going over to comfort her stupid rude baby daddy instead of standing by her friend who's been her best friend for twenty damn years!"
Revya, halfway to Gig, twitched back in Danette's direction. "Well-"
Gig, still trying to recover his breath, had been muttering during Danette's speech, saying several descriptive things that showed just how creative he truly was. His voice had now regained strength. "...suck your brains through your eyes..."
"I mean, yeah," Danette continued in the same voice, apparently not listening, "she can definitely see which of us is the better person!"
"Bite me, tenderloin!"
"Tenderloin!" Danette squealed, wheeling on him with fury in her eyes. "I'm going to bend your neck like an accordion!"
Revya interposed herself between the two combatants, arms outstretched, not exactly sure which one of them she was protecting. "Listen, guys, I - I - I...?" She blinked, staring over Danette's right shoulder.
"No, I'm not gonna listen if you keep defending him just because he - huh?" Noticing Revya's wide-eyed expression, Danette also turned around.
There was a tall dresser in the room. Killian was crouched on top of it, his wings hunched closed to his body, the very large flowery cactus held defensively out in front of him.
Danette nibbled her pinkie nail. "Um. Never mind. We'll get back to it-" she darted a lethal look at Gig "-later." Gig, for his part, was staring fixedly at Killian, eyes slightly narrowed. Revya knew he was processing this, turning things over in his head. She'd get his opinion of it soon enough.
Killian's hazel eyes were wider than Danette's. Revya tried not to fidget as they rested on her, then Gig, then Danette.
"So, yeah, everything's cool," Danette said, more firmly. "Why don't we take a tour of the village? Hey!" She clapped her hands. "Let's go see Lady Virtuous. I'm sure she'd love to meet you."
Killian drew the cactus closer to him. It seemed to muffle his voice. "Another friend?"
Danette bit her lip, then gave Revya a "Say anything and I will kill you" sort of look. She held out her hand to the male Whirwin. "You'll like Lady Virtuous. She's not batshit like my other friends."
"But we aren't chicken shit either," Gig said, only loud enough for Revya to hear. He was watching Killian cautiously put down his cactus and step down from the dresser. Taking him gently by the wrist, Danette lead Killian out of the room. Gig smiled. "You know, cow patty, some of the things Virtuous is capable of might frighten you."
Killian tucked his wings closer around himself.
That night, Revya sat on the foot of the bed, combing her hair. Gig, en route to his side of the bed, bent to study her expression. "You've got that brooding-obsessively-about things-you-can't-control face on."
Revya gently lobbed her brush onto her dresser, where it wasn't out of place in the mess. "It's been a weird day."
"Which part?" Gig sat next to her, then flopped back, kneading his forehead with both hands. "Pre-breakfast, where you got intensive psychoanalysis with a goddess? Post-breakfast, where you met the cow's wide-eyed man canary? Lunch time, where the cow got into an argument with Grunzford and the canary refused to come out from under the table? Post-lunch where we finally convinced the canary to come topside to show him Virtuous' garden? Afternoon, which we spent trying and failing to ditch the two of them? Dinner, where-"
Revya sighed and flopped down next to him, staring at the ceiling.
Gig lowered his hands and watched her for a moment. "It was dinner, wasn't it? I swear to hell and back I didn't start the food fight. I was too busy watching Canary Man go flapping away in terror. I was sure he was going to miss hitting that big red crystal, but he looked back at just the wrong moment..."
"It's not really that," Revya said after a thoughtful silence. "He's just not the sort of guy I thought Danette would go for."
Gig shrugged and rolled onto his side. "She wants a wuss to dominate. It's all she has. She's not going to find anyone stupider than herself, after all."
"...Hiding under tables?"
"It's kinda weird that he's a Whirwin too."
"There's no reason why she can't marry one."
"Yeah, but...I dunno, I don't think this world's ready for flying cow babies." As much as she loved Danette, Revya snorted with badly-suppressed laughter. Gig, evidently pleased by this reaction, slung his arm around her waist.
"Hey!" yowled Danette's voice much, much too close. "He-e-e-e-y!"
Gig groaned and gritted his teeth. "The Return of Tweedle-dweeb and Tweedle-dumb."
Revya, having sat up and shrugged Gig's arm off, was already out of the bedroom, nearly running into Danette as she burst into their front room. "What's wrong?"
"He's gone!"
Rolling his eyes, Gig sat up on the bed. "Did you check under the tables?"
"Shut up, I'm serious here!" Danette's hooves clattered on the floor; she seemed unable to hold still. "I checked his room, I checked the garden - he isn't anywhere!"
"He's a Whirwin," Revya said. "Did you check the sky?"
Danette's fists were shaking. "The guards said they hadn't seen him!"
Revya put her hands on her hips and tried to think. Gig, meanwhile, lounged back on the bed. "And he's like... a toddler in Whirwin years? Too young to survive five minutes on his own?"
"He's new around here and very upset!" Danette countered, eyes narrowing.
"Did you make sure to clip a pacifier to his shirt?"
"Shut up and help me find him!"
"Hey, wait a minute," Gig said before Revya had even opened her mouth. "It's almost midnight." He bounced on the bed slightly. "We're in our jammies and everything. We are not going to drag our asses all over the cave looking for your wussychick. We're going to bed."
Danette crossed her arms and regarded Gig in his jammies, which weren't enormously different from his day clothes. "You're going to snooze while he's lost and - alone and-"
"Yes."
"Fine." Danette turned to Revya. "We don't need him."
"Hey, wait a minute," Gig said again, again before Revya had even opened her mouth. He stood and crossed to her side, putting his arm around her shoulders as if he expected her to break for the door. "You can chase your boy toy to hell and back if you want, but you aren't dragging the kid with you."
Danette stepped right under his chin, glaring up. "You're not her boss. She was my best friend first."
"You sure don't take good care of her then," Gig shot back. "She's pregnant! She can't go stumbling around the cave at night."
"There are lights," Revya said, however Danette and Gig were focused exclusively on each other. It was almost enough to make a wife jealous.
"I take plenty good care of her, you soul-sucking psychotic sicko!"
"Would you shut up, you manic moronic milkbag!"
Almost.
"HEY!"
Revya rarely shouted. That was the only reason Gig and Danette noticed. They broke off at the same moment and turned to her, their faces betraying odd mixtures of frustration, anxiety and incredulity.
"Look," Revya said, much more calmly, "I don't see why we can't take a stroll around the caverns. We don't have to make a big deal out of it." Here she looked at Danette. "Because if he's just on a walk or something, he'll be embarrassed if we rush him. All right?"
Danette pressed her lips together, her eyes tensing in a way Revya hated to see. But, to everyone's relief, she didn't cry. She took a steadying breath. "Okay. Th - that's a good idea."
"Fine. Whatever. Good deed for the millennium." Gig released Revya and stalked back into their bedroom. After a moment, he tossed her her slippers and stepped into a pair of boots.
"We should get candles," Danette said, grabbing a few from the bedside tables. "In case...in case he's gone into the back caverns."
Revya started to say that he wouldn't, but didn't make it very far.
As Gig had mentioned, it was nearly midnight, and though the light quality never shifted in the cave's depths, most people were asleep by then. All of the corridors were lit by glowing crystals magicked by Lady Virtuous; in the most commonly used corridors, there was enough light to read by. The three friends tried these first.
Of course he wasn't there.
"Let's call his name," Danette suggested. She curled and uncurled her fingers anxiously. "A lot."
"Yeah, way to make the rest of the Village hate us," Gig replied. "These walls are thick, but nothing's thick enough to muffle your loud bawl."
"The rest of the Village," Danette shot back, "already hates you."
Revya was careful to always walk between them.
So they turned off the cave's main streets into the smaller alleyways, leading to shops, houses, small stone clearings.
"I shouldn't've brought him here," Danette fretted, blinking hard. "He's a Whirwin, they like wide open spaces and...clouds."
"Marlene's a Whirwin," Revya said, "and she loves it here."
Danette stopped dead in her tracks. "Marlene!"
Gig and Revya glanced at each other. "What?" Gig asked. "Did you finally remember who that is?"
Danette spun on her heel and went tearing up the corridor.
Revya would've liked to run after, but Gig said no.
"You're really going to use this against me," Revya muttered, walking as fast as Gig would let her. "You're going to use the pregnancy card every single time."
"Like you won't be using it to your advantage." Gig darted her a sidelong look, as if to make sure she wasn't jostling herself too hard.
"I need a Gig Edict," Revya said after a moment. "'Quick 'n' Easy Two Minute Pregnancy'. Right now."
"How about 'Sane Cow Friend'?" Gig suggested.
Revya shook her head. "I should've made better use of the Edicts while you still had them." They'd come to a forking path. "Okay, Marlene's house is to the left, but she could also be on guard duty, to the right. So which one do we want?"
Loud shouting began down the left hand path.
"That depends," Gig said. "Do you want to mop up Crazy Cow's tears or do you wanna go back to bed?" With a resigned sigh, Revya started down the left path. Gig watched her. "I think I can cite irreconcilable differences right here." But he started after her.
"Just hand him over, you feathered floozy, or I'm gonna rip your wings out and feed them to you!"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"I know what you're up to - don't lie! You're like thirty aren't you? Too old and wrinkled to get a guy of your own, so you hafta go steal my Whirwin-"
"Wrinkled?"
"Your feather have wrinkles, you ugly slut, and if you think I'm gonna-"
Gig and Revya watched Danette and Marlene struggling in the latter's door way, Danette trying to maul Marlene's wings, Marlene having grabbed Danette by the horns.
"I, as you keep reminding me, am pregnant," Revya said. "So it's up to you."
Gig sighed and rolled up the sleeves of his pajama top.
Revya grabbed his arm. "If you don't live through this, I just want you to know that I love you."
"Tell that to the cow," Gig muttered. "If anyone's dying, it's her." He shifted sidewise, braced himself, then lunged towards the combatants, shoulder-first. Even with her years of battles and training, Revya couldn't quite follow the action. She saw Danette's leg's windmill up through the air, an explosion of feathers around Marlene, Gig spinning around while Danette's fingers scrabbled for his eyes, Marlene bouncing off the ground, Danette flipping to do a high kick, Gig slinging Danette around by the wrists, and Marlene sweeping both of them to the side with one savage swoosh of her right wing.
"What're you doing here, Gig?" Marlene snarled, probably not from any particular malice towards Gig, just life in general. "Is this some sort of conspiracy?"
Danette was sprawled face-down on the ground. Gig was sitting on her back, leaning forward to examine a bruise blooming on one shin. He had a long shallow scratch across his forehead. "I think the cow thinks you seduced her arm candy."
Marlene stared. "What? He's practically a fledgeling. Not my type." She smiled. "I prefer Dracons."
She didn't seem to mind the way they all stared at her.
Gig waited until Marlene had closed her door before standing. "Okay, if you ever do something like that again, I don't want to hear about it."
"Are you two okay?" Revya asked. Danette pulled herself up with a hearty nod, ignoring her bruises. Gig allowed Revya to touch his scratch gently, but when she tried to use her sleeve to clean it, he jerked away. "So, we giving up on Canary Man?"
Danette tightened her jaw and shook her head.
Eventually, the only corridors they hadn't searched were the back caverns.
"You did warn him about these, right?" Revya asked, cupping her hand around her now-lit candle. These caverns, winding and mysterious, were never lit.
"Of course." Danette's hooves slid over some loose rocks. The back caverns, like the rest of the Village, had been carved out centuries even before Virtuous had brought her community there. No one was sure who had done it. The original Villagers had used them, but as the soul cycle diminished and fewer people were born, the far caverns were closed off, only the ones closer to the entrance being used.
All the children had been told never to go into them.
So of course all of them had, and had lame "Did you hear a sound, I thought I heard something, let's run!" adventures. As adults, most of them didn't bother going in. Because even if they didn't know for certain, they were pretty sure things lived back here.
"I thought I heard a sound," Revya whispered.
"It was probably me," Gig answered, "rolling my eyes."
"No, seriously," Revya said, and her voice wasn't shaking. "I thought I heard something ahead."
Danette gulped, then called out softly, "Killi?"
Echoes bounced back. "Kill - kill - kill."
"Oh hell," Gig said. "This is getting ridiculously morbid at just the wrong moment."
"RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" roared something further up the path.
"Killian!" Danette screamed, running forward.
"Wait - hey!" Gig shouted. "You don't even know he's in here!"
Revya lunged forward. Gig caught her around the waist. "We have to help her!"
"You have to stay safe! I'll run forward and tear it a new-" He fell silent. So did Revya.
Gig looked down at his wife. "Shouldn't we have heard another inhuman roar by now?"
Revya had clamped one hand over Gig's, either in an attempt to pry it off her or to reassure herself. "I - What if it's eating her?"
"Must've gotten her in one gulp. I don't hear any screaming." As Revya struggled away from him, he released her, but insisted on preceding her down the corridor. After a short moment, they heard two voices. Neither was Danette's.
But Revya recognized the low grumble. "Gramps?"
As they turned a corner, a torch flared in the darkness, the Redflank Ben's face lit above it. "...And of course young Revya isn't far behind. And her tame god."
"I'm in the mood for steak, bullshit," Gig mentioned.
Somebody was softly weeping. "Why? Why?"
"Buck up," Ben said, lowering his torch. "She'll be fine. She's run into much harder things than me before."
As the combined firelight drew larger, Revya was presented with a tragic tableau. Danette lay sprawled on the ground, knocked cold. Above her stood the Redflank, a fresh bruise on his shoulder. And kneeling over Danette was the weeping form of Killian.
"She came fast," Ben said, rather approvingly. "She tried for a head butt. But you don't do that to Redflanks."
"She - she was so-" Killian sobbed, grasping Danette by the limp shoulders and clasping her to him. "I never got a chance to - to really say how I-"
"What're you two doing here?" Revya asked.
"Yeah," Gig said, eyeing them. "Because if you're about to confess something, this could be really interesting."
However, Ben had already been talking and so fortunately didn't hear. "The young Whirwin wanted combat training." He gestured to two wooden practice swords on the ground.
"Ooog..." said Danette, blinking slowly. Killian cried out and began kissing her face.
"The males don't get training in their own clans," Ben went on. "It's normal. But when he came here, he felt out of place among all us warriors and our..." Ben cleared his throat. "...warlike tendencies."
"Blurgh...what?" Danette said faintly.
"He felt he'd been cowardly, and so he wanted to impress Danette by suddenly being able to fight one day. So we arranged secret lessons."
"Mmph," Danette observed around one of Killian's kisses.
"Still, he's pretty bad. He keeps poking the air around my knees. And I was giving a demonstration on battle roars just now. The Whirwin keeps squeaking. I don't think his heart is in it yet." Ben picked up his sword and tucked it into his belt. "But I guess it goes to show the unreasonable lengths a man will go to impress his woman."
Revya nodded, then frowned, then looked up at Gig.
"What?" Gig demanded. "Okay, I heaved my ass out of bed for you, I broke up two screaming banshees for you, I-"
Revya raised her eyebrow. "Actually, I was just thinking that we should really clean that scrape."
Gig narrowed his eyes. "You're welcome, pumpkin."
