"Sam, will you be my mate?." Luna requests as she kneeled there in front of me.
"Uhhh… ummmm… what?" I ask completely surprised by her request.
"I want you to be my mate Sam. It's the keidran version of human marriage" She explains to me as I stand there.
I begin scratching the back of my head nervously unsure of what to say.
'I love her and can't imagine my life without her, but are we really ready for the next step?' I think to myself before deciding what to say.
"Luna, I love you and I will always love you, now and forever. I would be honored to be your mate." I say as I walk over and take her paw in my hand, helping her get up.
Once she was up, she wrapped her arms around my neck, rubbing her muzzle against my cheek before nuzzling me under my chin.
"I love you too." Luna says, still nuzzling me.
"Awww such a touching moment. But we really should be heading back to the village." Ethel said as he came up to us.
"You're right Ethel. You can start heading back, we'll be right behind you." I say as I turn to Ethel, who nods and leaves.
I turn my attention back to Luna "We should head back, the whole village was searching for you. Honestly if we don't head back now they might think the worst." I say as I grab her paw and start walking towards the cave entrance.
The walk back to the village took considerably less time since I was no longer injured. When we made it back to the village we were immediately mobbed by all the villagers saying how worried they were about me and Luna, mostly Luna.
After a few minutes of Luna telling everyone that she is ok, Wulfrik walks through the crowd and stops before me and Luna. "Where…" he started before he noticed Luna was holding my hand.
"W-what is the meaning of this?" he demands, practically seething with anger at Luna's show of affection towards me.
"Well father, Sam and I agreed to be mates!" Luna states loudly, a wide smile beaming across her muzzle.
Almost everybody in the crowd gasp at the sudden announcement. After a few moments of sheer silence the villagers start to say how we would make a great couple and how proud they were that Luna could find someone to truly love.
"And honestly father, I don't care if you approve or not. I love Sam not for what he is but for who he is. He is a great man, a caring person, and would risk his life to save another. And if you can't deal with us being together we will just leave." Luna says as she lets go of my hand and starts walking towards her father, forcing her father to back up.
"Luna may I say something?" Wulfrik asks as his back bumps against a pole.
"What?" Luna asks, prepared to snap any second.
"I apologize for how I treated you the other night. After going over everything in my head a few thousand times I feel completely awful. Your mother would have been supportive of your relationship no matter who it was with. After considering who you love, what he means to you, and what he will do for you, I wish to give you my blessing."
As soon as those last words came out of his mouth Luna immediately hugged her father, tackling him to the ground. "Do you really mean it?" Luna asks as she continues to hug Wulfrik tightly, practically crushing him.
"Y-yes sweetheart I really mean it, now please *cough cough* stop crushing me" Wulfrik says between coughs, while trying to desperately get air.
"Oh sorry daddy." She says as she lets go of her dad
"Out of the way!" Ylva says as she pushes her way through the crowd "I must make sure they are both ok."
The crowd moves apart to let Ylva through.
When she gets to me and looks at my chest in complete shock. "What happened? There is no cut or scar… How is that possible?" she stammers.
Luna raises her paw "I healed him. I used a spell that my mother taught me when I was still a pup."
Ylva looks at her with wide eyes as she walked towards Luna. "I didn't know your mother knew how to use magic." Ylva said with a tinge of jealousy.
"It was something she rarely used. It requires a fairly large mana crystal to work." Wulfrik says as he walked over to Ylva's side. "She only knew the one healing spell though, said she was taught by a wandering keidran." Wulfrik continued.
"Well I would still like to take a look at you both" Ylva said before we started walking towards her hut, since it was closer.
(Ethel's POV)
'Ugh this human is giving me a headache' I thought to myself as I continued to watch the human girl Erin yammer on.
"Why won't you tell me if Sam is ok?" Erin shouted, practically in my face.
"Sam fine. Luna too" I answer as best as possible. I honestly despise the human language. It feels so weird to speak their words.
"Wait you can speak the Human language?" She said surprised
I thought for a second before I came up with the right answer. "Bits" I said.
"This entire time… you could understand me. You must be the village fool or something... Are all your people this stupid or do you just accel at it?"
I just smirk at her as I get right up in her face. "Least I not captured by enemy"
She just sat there with her mouth open for a few seconds trying to register my comeback before pushing me back "God, you're dog breath is as rancid as the mush you call food" she says holding her nose.
I inwardly smile as I start to move closer to her again. "What wrong with breath?" I ask making sure to exhale heavily with each word, so Erin can get a better wiff of it.
She kept backing up trying to get away from me and my breath, which I thought smelled fairly nice. What I hadn't noticed is that she was backing right towards a stool.
"Is breath that bad?" I ask, exhaling extremely heavily on the last word.
She backs up trying to get away from the smell of my breath and starts to trip over the stool behind her. As she loses her balance she grabs onto me, to try to keep herself from falling. Unfortunately I wasn't on balance either and I started to go with her.
Next thing I know is we are on the ground, lips locked. At first I was repulsed but I couldn't move for some reason. Like my body was keeping me there.
After a few seconds of having our lips locked together Erin's eyes go wide and she pushes me off of her. Her hand raising to her lip "Ow I think you bit my lip." she says as she touches her lip, wincing as she feels a sore spot.
"All your fault. You pull me down." I say, casting off the blame, as I wipe off my muzzle. 'Why are my ear tips warm?' I wonder as the events that just transpired were running through my head.
"How is it my fault? You were pushing me back with that rancid breath of yours on purpose. If you hadn't we wouldn't have k-k-kissed…" Erin retorts, the last part she stuttered out causing her turn away and blush heavily.
Seeing her blush and turn away makes my ear tips burn even hotter. 'What are these feeling? Do I actually like this filthy human? I never even felt this way for Luna.' I thought to myself as I turned away from her feeling the heat from my ear tips spread to cover my whole face.
After a few minutes of sitting there in complete silence I decide to break the silence. "How lip feel?" I ask kinda concerned, but mainly to break the silence and make small talk.
"It's ok it only stings…" Erin started to respond before Luna, Sam, and Ylva entered the tent.
(Sam's POV. A few minutes prior)
"Luna you need to teach me that spell if you have the time, it could be very helpful in the future."
I hear Ylva ask Luna
"I would, but it requires a decent sized mana crystal everytime. The bigger the wound the bigger the crystal needed." Luna explains to Ylva, causing Ylva's ears to go flat against her head.
"If it requires a large mana crystal everytime then I wouldn't be able to use it often. Still would be good to know in case of emergencies." Ylva says.
"Um... Ylva? How has Erin been doing since I last saw her?" I ask a little curious.
"Oh that little human girl? She is doing fine. She said she wanted to wait here until you got back. I think Ethel went back to looking after her." Ylva responded as we reached her hut.
We walked in and I heard Erin saying something about stinging.
"Woah Sam what happened to your wound" Erin asks with surprise as she looks at my chest.
"Oh, Luna healed it for me. It was actually pretty cool thinking back on how she did it." I responded which made Erin look even more confused.
"Wait so the mutt that hurt you..." Erin started to say before I interrupted her.
"Ok seriously Erin stop insulting Luna. I love her and when you insult her you insult me." I snapped.
"What's up with you Sam? I mean it's not like you're married to her" Erin responded defensively.
"As a matter-of-fact I just agreed to be her mate." I stated.
Erin's jaw dropped as her mind was going a thousand miles a minute. "You agreed to be her mate? You, a human, agreed to marry her, a keidran… wow that's a first" she said completely and utterly dumbfounded, her mind trying to process everything I just laid out on the table.
"What, no witty comebacks or smart remarks?" Luna asks as she walks over to my side.
"S-so you guys kissed?" Erin asked blushing as she glanced quickly at Ethel
"Many, many times" Luna says, a huge smirk spreading across her muzzle.
I look back and forth between Ethel and Erin. "Ok… what happened to you two? For one Ethel has been extremely quite. And for two you are blushing like crazy Erin." I asked.
"Ethel what did you do to Erin?" I ask, turning towards Ethel.
He started waving his paws in front of himself defensively. "It was all her fault" he blurted out before covering his muzzle with his paws.
I turn to look at Erin. "What happened?" I asked, causing her to blush heavily again.
"He kissed me" Erin said softly, before hiding her face behind her hands.
I was about to turn back to Ethel before I heard Luna start to laugh. I turned my attention to Luna as she fell to the floor and started to roll around on her back, completely consumed by laughter.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHA! You kissed her Ethel? Ahahahahaha. That's so adorable. Someone's got a crush. Hahahahaha… ahhhh, I needed that laugh." Luna said, slowly calming down.
Ethel growled "I don't have a crush, especially with a human like her." Ethel spat, adding emphasis while trying to deny the claim.
"Deny it all you like Ethel. You kissed her and the fact that you are embarrassed means you either liked the kiss or like Erin."
"What are they talking about?" Erin asked.
"Ethel loves you" Luna responded in a sing-song voice, causing Erin to turn bright red.
"Ok enough of who loves who, I need to take a look at both Sam and Luna. Now both of you go into a room and Sam I will need you to strip." Ylva says, interrupting our little back-and-forth.
Both Luna and I look at each other before Ylva pushes us towards separate rooms.
(Erin's POV)
"D-do you really like me?" I ask looking at the keidran named Ethel sitting across from me, looking down at the ground.
"Maybe little bit." Ethel says still not looking at me, ears flat against his head.
I walk over and sit down next to Ethel. "Well I think I might have a little bit of feelings for you too." I say as I lean up against his fur.
"Y-y-you feel same?" Ethel stutters unsure of how to react to the new emotions he is experiencing.
"Yes. To be honest I might be crazy, but I think I like you… fuzzbrain." I say, insulting him at the end to not seem like my emotions were in control of me.
He growls at me playfully before leaning his head back, making contact with the back of my head.
"If you wouldn't mind teaching me, sometime, I would like to understand the keidran language a bit better. It's unfair that Sam speaks both our languages fluently. I feel left out when you guys are talking." I say, hoping that he would be willing to teach me.
"I no mind. Only if you teach human to me." Ethel responds, I honestly didn't think he would want to learn the human language.
"So how old are you?" I ask trying to make small talk.
"Seven years. Keidran live shorter. I twenty eight human years" Ethel responds somewhat surprising me. He has been on the planet for a shorter time than I have, but he is technically twenty eight so I guess maturity wise he is older than me.
"You?" Ethel asks.
"I'm nineteen years old. I'm from Eldervale, it's quite a ways from here though. My family and I left from there when I was three I think. We were on the road for a bit before my parents were killed…" I reply before remembering how my parents died.
"What happen to parents?" Ethel asked me
"T-they…"
