Iaine sat there sharing a bottle of mead with Savern as the dark haired woman related her latest escapade with Mozenrath. She chuckled as Savern sighed and made a show of fainting on the table from exhaustion. "You are thoroughly besotted with this man." She said and Savern shrugged.

"Not besotted…just enjoying a little new blood around here." She admitted. "I'll have to marry sooner or later…may as well enjoy my freedom until then."

"So your fathers onto you again is he?" Iaine sighed, that man had been trying to wed his daughter to every eligible man of status since she started her moon blood. "You know you aught to remind him you're a free woman. There's nothing he can do to force your hand until you choose to give it. You're a good woman Savern."

"That means a bit coming from you." She admitted. Secretly, Savern had always envied Iaine's position. She could pretty much do as she pleased when she pleased, and access to such secrets as those of the druid path must have. To have that kind of power over earth and sky seemed god like to her. Sometimes she felt so simple in comparison. She was just the daughter of a warrior, a once famed warrior who was faltering in old age instead of dying in battle like a grand hero. One day soon, she would have to offer her hand to someone suitable and produce the next generation.

Druids, as a general rule, didn't wed. The considered their human relationships secondary to that between them and nature. Most women and men weren't willing to put up with being second in any kind of binding and sooner or later got fed up with the situation. It wasn't that they were selfish as friends or lovers, but there just wasn't that closeness that one could see between truly blissful couples. Their dedication to the earth and their people would always be first, no helping that.

Tristan had married once, long ago. But that was to a fellow druid who could understand and followed the same principals. She had given herself to the gods when famine struck what seemed to be all Erin. Her devotion was praised even amongst enemies. Somehow, Tristan had never looked at another woman the same. Cigfa had been wedded in her youth, but when her husband died she underwent such grief it was said she passed into the Otherworld. When she came back from under her coma she had somehow turned seer and was pulled into the druid company. She had taken a lover or two since then, but mostly to quiet her grief when loneliness tugged.

A woman's heart is hard to kill.

"What?" Savern jerked up suddenly, realizing that Iaine had been talking to her directly.

Iaine rolled her eyes. "I said, why don't you just have a child from someone from the merchant bands? It wouldn't be the first time a trader passed through and left a round belly behind. You wouldn't have to wed him, and even if you did he'd been gone during the summer time. You wouldn't have to put up with him for half of the year." She pointed out the aspects Savern would be most attuned too. Celtic women were well know for their independence and she knew part of what her friend feared was a man's dominance over her when vows were taken.

Savern smiled suddenly. "Nah. I think I'll wait for a man exactly to my liking."

"Perfection is hard to come by Savern." Iaine warned just as Mozenrath and Tristan were coming back from their hike.

"He needn't be perfect…" Savern said dreamily, looking her lover up and down invitingly. "A good man will do just as well."

Something in Iaine's chest tugged when she heard those words and their hidden meaning, but she said nothing, just smiled pleasantly at Tristan and Mozenrath. "So how did your lesson go?" she asked, intentionally locking eyes with Mozenrath.

There was a moment, a split second where he felt his head swim and his balance fall forward. But he caught himself in time and frowned at Iaine. She looked down in what he presumed was embarrassment and apology. "We decided it's time for me to have my own place." He said slowly and Savern rose from her chair with a squeal to hug him tightly

"Oh there is so much to do!" She said as soon as she'd calmed down. "Of course you men folk will take care of all the building and such, but there's more to a house than sticks and stones and mud." She flipped her hand outwards when Mozenrath began to speak. "Hush now man!" she said playfully. "Leave it to the women folk to make a home for you. You're a druid, you can't go sleeping on the ground!"

I can lay upon you on the ground, but I can't take a good nights sleep on it? Mozenrath thought privately but kept his mouth shut. He had learned quickly that Savern was the type of lass who delighted in managing and organizing those who lacked the ability. "But what are you going to decorate with? I've no property of my own. I've been sponging off Tristan for the past two months."

Savern gave a secretive grin. "Leave that to me." She took Iaine's hand and rushed off in the direction of her father's house.

"Hell no!" Fergus snorted, throwing an animal skin over his shoulder and into a trunk as he raged at his only daughter. "I'm ta give my hard worked possessions to this whelp your bedding down with?"

"It's not as if I'm asking for much!" Savern protested, jerking her head to Iaine for support. The female druidess tilted her head in an amused fashion. In other words she wasn't going to interfere yet. "Just a few of the things we don't use much. Like this." She lifted up a fine bear skin pelt, tanned with such skill it was as soft as down.

"Don't think I don't see past yer games Savern! You think your self witty enough to fool your old man! BAH!" He snatched the skin away from her and threw it too in the trunk. "You know damn well everything here…" he gestured to a few trunks. 'Is for your coibach. How'm I ever going to get a man to take a troublesome wench like you if I can't provide a good enough dowry?"

Savern snorted, her eyes blazing angrily. "Back on that track again?" she groaned at the old argument. "It's no wonder I'm not jumping at Beltane. Who would wed me with a father-in-law like you?"

Fergus looked as if he was going to smack her cheek but remembered Iaine's presence there. The druidess was staring at him strictly with those bewitching eyes of hers. He lowered his fist and simply took Savern's chin. He remembered fondly for a moment, how much she looked like her mother. He changed tactics for a moment, remembering how he used to get his way with her. "Savern…my little lily. You know I'm only looking our for your best interests." He stroked her hair. "What would your mother, gods rest her sweet soul, think of me if I failed in my duties as a father?"

Savern mumbled something and felt a little guilty. She pressed forward however, determined. If there was one thing that could be said for this duo, they shared a stubborn streak a mile wide. "I suppose..." She began to comment but a gesture from Iaine caught her eyes. She was gesturing to her wrist, the place where a wedding garland would be bound. Savern could have kissed her. "I suppose your right. I just don't know how we're going to live in such a poor place."

Fergus's eyebrows rose. "We?" he said and rubbed his great red beard. "Has this druid designs on you as a wife then?"

"Perhaps…he is asking me to help make his house a home…" Well, technically that wasn't true. But it wasn't a lie either. More like Mozenrath was allowing her to deck out his place.

This seemed to be enough for old Fergus, he couldn't throw enough things at her, though he did hold back on touching her allotted dowry. "Your elder brothers Heinin and Cano are going with the cattle traders to the city next month and they plan to seek a bride." He smirked at Savern's disappointment. "I've not a mind to show this man your worth until I'm sure he's seeking a family. So until then I'll just let your brothers use this to gain a good woman."

Iaine took Savern by the belt before she could ruin what luck they'd had thus far. "It's time we got going Fergus, still much more to do." Savern stuck out her tongue as her father's back turned and shuffled the pile in her arms.

"It's a start." She said as they inspected what they'd managed so far. Fergus had been generous enough, some good goat, deer, and small animal pelts to cover the floor. A mortar and pedestal, several wooden bowls, a few bronze and low quality silver drinking cups, some flint stones, a nice bow and arrows for hunting, a hearth board, and a loom. Savern flinched at the loom. It was a definite sign that Fergus expected a proposal in the works. The loom was strictly a woman's tool, used by the wife and daughters to spin thread for clothing for their family. Iaine had called in a few favors from the smith in order to get him a sturdy cauldron, a pretty knife from high quality bronze and star rock, a chisel and hammer. Cigfa had supplied a nice little array of herbs and medicinal stock, just common things you would use in everyday life. Savern smiled. "Yes it's defiantly a start."

Iaine agreed. Mozenrath hadn't yet build a standing in the community, and as a bachelor nobody would be expecting him to have a neat, orderly, and rich household. All in all, this was adequate for a single male. "Well, we'd better get a move on. Ossian wanted to teach Mozenrath to hunt for himself tomorrow, and he'll need our help if he's going to get any sleep tonight."

"That brings a question to mind." Savern said smoothly. "The things your teaching him, hunting, sewing, herbs, wildlife, lay of the land. None of this stuff seems like the kind of things that make a druid a Druid. Shouldn't he be learning how to praise Lugh and show respect to Morrigan? How to read a birds entrails to see when the next rain will fall and if McDougal's heifer will bare a strong calf?" She shifted the weight in her arms. "Iaine I knew how to sew a tunic when I was seven, and by the time I was eight mother had me helping to cook meals and watch the sheep with my brothers."

"You have to bare in mind, Mozenrath isn't from these shores. He may not have had to do things the way we do them. Besides, most of these are lessons in focus, dedication, and good hard labor. You'd be surprised how much a job well done can improve your whole outlook, not to mention your self esteem…"

"And your body." Savern said, eyes wide.

Iaine followed her eyes and her own soon enlarged. Mozenrath was there, along with Ossian and some of the stronger men in the village building his hut. The circle had been drawn in the dirt, the wall gully dug, and steaks for the wall planted. Some of the wives of the workers were weaving thick hazel wattle around the posts and bringing cool pitchers of water to the men. They were arriving just in time to watch as Mozenrath took hold of a rope and place the huge center post in it's hole. His muscles strained magnificently as he and the other men grunted and groaned over making the post stand and holding it as they tied down the ropes to keep it steady.

Iaine licked her lips unconsciously as Mozenrath took his work tunic off and wiped the sweat from his brow. She suddenly saw Savern walk up to him with a cup full of water and tip it playfully to his lips. The couple turned to look at her and without thinking she smiled back, forcing herself to ignore that uncomfortable pang in her chest.