Welcome to Gaia! ::

Faolan got up fluidly and held a hand out to help her up as well. "If you get uncomfortable or tired, we can come back here and snuggle." He grinned broadly at her, eyes twinkling. Were it not for the bruises, one might never know he'd been through some rough times in her absence.

Faolan leaned past her and shut the door. "We'll give Zia some time alone, too. It might want to go through your things in private." It really was hard to tell when he was joking or not sometimes.

He led her across the grounds, pointing out where some stalls or tents had been changed around from their last location. When they arrived at the bonfire, Foalan stood there a moment, holding her hand and taking in the party. Giving her a mad sort of grin, he pulled Ellandra along to where some of the performers were sitting around to introduce her to them, ignoring the clowns offering him alcohol and the few roustabouts jeering at him, especially ignoring one very sullen roustabout with conspicuous bruises.

"Ellandra, meet the Flying Fernallis. They do the trapeze act," Faolan introduced, then gestured to a young woman about Ellandra's own age. "Anita loaned you that dress the first morning you were here."

The girl nodded and held up a hand as if to say it was nothing. She went back to conversing with one of her sisters, hands moving rapidly through the air, not speaking.

Faolan looked at Ellandra, touching his throat briefly, a silent explanation. He looked over at his dad approaching and grinned, "Hi, Da."

Keagan just raised an eyebrow, looking first at Ellandra, then at Faolan. "Do I need to know what this is about? Is she living here now?" He got a hold of Fao's shirt and pulled him closer. "Come here a moment." He dragged Faolan off out of earshot, clearly having more than a few words with him that ended with an affectionate slap upside Fao's head before the two came back. The old man looked at Ellandra, pointing at Faolan. "Please marry this idiot one day and make an honest man out of him. Well, as honest as it gets around here."

Faolan looked down at her, moving his arm so it rested around her waist. "No need to do that, lass. I'll marry you true enough soon."

Keagan raised an eyebrow at that, then looked down at Ellandra. "You've bewitched him, haven't you? Ah, well, so long as it keeps him from being too much of a jackass." He bowed a bit to the girl, then looked up, giving the same mad sort of grin Faolan usually wore. "I'll leave you lovebirds to it." He walked off to see to the alcohol the clowns were handing out.

"I will marry you one day, Elle," Faolan said softly, waving to Keagan's retreating back. "It won't be tonight or anything, but you have my word, we'll be married soon."

Faolan laughed, then looked down at her. "Yeah, 'cause what I want to do is take Zia shopping with me. Ain't sure I can afford a ring anyhow." He extracted himself from her and fidgeted about, then held out a ring with a red stone set in it. "Here, though. You can wear this till I get you a proper engagement ring."

Faolan moved around so he was standing before Ellandra and dropped to one knee, taking her hand in his. He felt only slightly awkward at this, less from all the eyes on him as other carnival residents stopped what they were doing to watch and more from being unsure as to what a proper engagement was suppose to be. In Farstep, if two people said they were going to get married, that was that and they got married.

He had a feeling that Ellandra wanted more, though. She'd been brought up proper, had good breeding. She probably even knew what the heck that weird little fork on the dinner setting was for that was always there and no one ever seemed to use. To put it bluntly, she deserved more, in Fao's eyes, than the usual "let's get hitched" talk that served for Farstep's usual engagement methods.

With her hand in his, he slid the ring on her finger--one of the few things of jewelery that he actually wore often and cared about--and looked up at her. His eyes searched her face, looking for reaction and perhaps trying to find the words there to say to her. "I ain't ever had to do this, Elle. Certainly ain't seen someone do this. I wanna marry you, though. I don't know the words I'm suppose to say and I ain't got a shiny diamond ring for you to wear, but, believe me, lass, the meaning is very decided upon. I waited three years for you to complete my life, and then waited another twenty for you to come back to me. I don't want to wait anymore for you and I don't want to let you go."

He looked down, ears drooping a bit as he tried to sort out the words he wanted to tell her. Looking back up, he smiled, shy and awkward, a hint of worry on what her answer might be in his eyes. "Guess I'm just askin' for you to be my wife, Elle." He gave a short laugh. "And answer a bit quick, I think I'm kneeling in a puddle here."

Faolan felt relief wash over him in that simple word, moving to hug his arms around Ellandra's waist, head resting against her belly. He was quiet a long moment, then murmured something against her stomach and looked up at her. "Would you be terribly upset if I ruined this moment by standing up? The water from this puddle's soaking through my pants."

Faolan was certainly far from being the most wonderful man in all of Drente, but he did alright. Standing up slowly, he let Ellandra rest against him, stroking her hair. A moment later the two were swarmed by the other residents all wanting to wish them well . . . and also tell Fao that it was about damned time. He shooed them away finally and began walking Ellandra back to his--no, their vardo, getting that she might need some time to digest everything.