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Calyryssa had always been what she liked to think of as the "princess sort". She was refined, loquacious, polite, kind, and quite proper indeed. She loved romance stories, and stories about royalty. She identified with the princess' insomnia in the princess and the pea, and dreamed herself of living in a castle with a cadre of attendants to see to her every need. As it was, she passed her days sitting in shaded glades with family and friends, and they would generally do her hair for her, which she loved. There was just some special thrill to the feeling of someone's hooves in her hair. It was her second favorite physical sensation; her favorite was sipping from a truly cold mountain spring. And every so often she would determine that any given pond or stream had entirely too much grit, too many impurities, and that she simply could not stand it any longer. Then she would leave everyone behind, with two buckets strapped across her back and would make her way up the nearest mountain to drink what she considered to be the purest water in the valleys.

The time she spent alone making those journeys let her ruminate upon the stories she so loved, the tales of the most romantic couples. Some of her favorites were tales of love past adversity, or impossible romance; Pygmalion and Galatea was the one she loved most of all. Her family and friends were eternally bemused by the fact that she rather loathed Romeo and Juliet, however. And she did, she thought that they were spoiled teenagers who had no actual clue what love was, who killed themselves needlessly, confusing teenaged rebellion for romance. Seriously, they had been together for less than twenty four hours and decided to run off and get married; he had been in love with another mare up until he met Juliet. She found it to be a horrible story.

Calyryssa had her ideals about her dream man, she knew since she was a yearling exactly what the man she wanted to marry would be like, the princely sort, urbane and witty, handsome, with a castle full of attendants who would take care of her every need. Her dream stallion would have fine clothes and expertly coiffed hair and would lavish her with attention when she wanted it and leave her alone to raise their many many children the rest of the time. For that was her dream, to raise a herd full of little ones in a castle, without having to play "please and thank you" with their father. Most of her family thought that she was dreadfully naive in her dream, all but her father, really. He loved her dream and cherished it as she did, though she did find out eventually that it was because he was certain that it meant that she would never let any male touch her.

And then one day, to the astonishment of all, she seemed to have found him, her perfect prince. He seemed to be all she had ever wanted, his clothes were impeccable, his hair short and neat, he spoke clearly, and even took her to see the castle he was having built. She was impressed as she looked out over the servants building it, he urged her not to bother them, for if they knew he was there, they would fawn over him rather than completing their work, so she stayed with him in the shadows and just watched. She was fascinated by them, for even his servants seemed themselves regal, and powerful. She saw one male changing from giant pony to giant bird and back to set bricks, one woman growing and commanding all manner of fascinating plants.

He courted her for some time, and it seemed to be love. She was certainly happier than her family had ever seen her, it seemed perfect. Then one day, she could not quite resist and she went back to the castle to see how it was progressing. One of the servants found her and asked who she was. That was the day that she began to learn the nightmare behind her dream prince. Oh, she wasn't shallow enough that finding out that this wasn't his castle and these weren't her servants would break them up, would make her leave him; but it was enough to take the rose colored glasses from her eyes, and she watched him more carefully, and realized that he was not all he seemed at all. Thinking her thoroughly entranced with him, he no longer kept himself quite so in check, and she realized that increasingly his wit was becoming snark, that his urbaneness was snobbishness. She may have felt herself too good for some things from time to time, but never once had she felt herself too good for another person, much less said it. She realized however, that he did feel that way and she became more and more uncomfortable. The last straw, however, the death knell of their relationship came when he tried to convince her that even though he wanted to wait to marry her until the castle was ready so he could fete her in style, there was no reason not to get started on their family.... No. She wanted a large family, and she was perfectly happy to be raising them on her own, but she was no fly by night hussy to be loved and left. While she could not literally kick him to the curb, that was due to a lack of curb and was no statement at all about how hard she kicked him or where she kicked him. Or how many times she kicked him.

Her family was stunned and confused, her father was over-joyed, but no one understood. She did not care to educate them, so she coped on her own. Her family tried to convince her that whatever he had done, it couldn't be that bad, but she'd hear none of it.

Still, the castle fascinated Calyryssa, for it was part of the dream she still believed in. She came back to that spot often, which her family took as proof that she was still not over him. She was, it was the castle she cared about, all that was left of him in her was the slight tenderness that lingered... on her hooves.

Then one day one of the so-called servants found her and the next thing she knew she was sharing with them the most peculiar meal of her life, a pot pie harvested hot from a tree, a loaf of bread off a breadfruit plant, also still hot, topped with the wings of a butterfly, which turned out to actually be butter, and water from an ice cold metal spring - spring water. The people were themselves royalty, remaking their own castle here in a new land. She inquired, but there were no eligible princes, the Queen, for she was the one growing the fantastic plants, had one son who had apparently gotten himself betrothed to two fiancees at once when he was twelve. He was married now and his mother was quite firm that he was not looking past his wife for romance. Once Calyryssa assured the woman that her only interest in married men was in marrying one herself, they got along splendidly, and she was invited to visit the castle once it was built. Then they had to return to work, and Calyryssa left, pensive.

They were royalty, a king, a queen, princesses, a prince... and yet... and yet they were all working, and working hard to build their home, and from speaking to them she knew that they always worked hard. She had thought that the life of a princess was a life filled with servants and ease. Yes, she had much to consider.

And life returned to how it had been before her engagement, though her friends and family still seemed to be on egg shells around her in some moments.

Then, one day, long after she had become once again single, still firmly believing she would find her prince, she went once more to the mountains for cold clear spring water, smiling at the thought of the metal spring she had sipped from with her friends at the castle build site. She had her friends help her load the buckets onto her back again, hanging on either side of her from a secured bar, and she set off. She had gone for water...

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He was not a prince. Where Calyryssa was fair and pale from resting beneath the shade of a large tree, he was dark from the sun. He loved adventure, he loved traveling to new places and taking risks. He loved climbing mountains that were too high to fly to; spelunking in caves so deep and tight he had to struggle to keep from becoming stuck. He loved adventure more than nearly anything. The feel of his muscles being pushed to the limit, the feel of anticipation, adrenaline through him... There was nothing better. His family called him the wild child, and he took it as a badge of honor. When he was with other people he was generally gruff and aloof to hide the fact that the one fear he didn't enjoy was his fear of large groups, of the rules and borders of society. It made him feel penned in, trapped, and he hated it. So he got into fights because it was easier than talking, and more fun too, and it meant that he was invited less and less frequently to places where people gathered. He was fine enough one on one, though one on one, usually others found him to be a braggart, and disbelieved his wild stories, which only compelled him to make them more and more wild, fishing for an approval even he did not realize that he sought.

And then one day, having just scaled a mountain that wasn't the toughest ever, but wasn't easy, he saw something surprising. There, by the spring-fed stream near the summit was a mare who was as pale as the snow and as out of place there as he was at a ball. She wore a gown that flounced about her knees with poofed sleeves, her hair coiled in a million braids artfully intertwined atop her head, with a single curl escaping between her eyes. He burst out laughing. He wasn't introspective, he didn't think about why it struck him as hilarious, or how she might feel about being laughed at. He wanted to laugh, so he laughed. And if she didn't like it, she could leave.

But the oddest thing happened, after a moment, she laughed as well. He hadn't known that a voice could sound so much like the music of nature. The curl bobbed as she laughed, which only made it all the funnier, and it was several minutes before either of them could catch their breath.

Once they could, they both drank from the stream to cool their throats and both looked up at the same time, seeming equally startled about how close their noses were, across the thin trickle of water.

He was struck by how pretty she was, despite that one errant curl, or perhaps because of it. It certainly seemed to hint at some hidden wildness within her, trying to get out. He wanted to know more about her, but had no clue how to ask, he had never tried to ask anyone before. But then, the only times he had met pretty mares was when his family was trying to push him to settle down, and the ropes of society were tightening around him. Before he figured out what to say, she asked him about himself, about how he had come up the mountain, for she had seen him emerge from a cave.

Well, the mountain had been an easy enough one, that was why he tried to climb it... from within. He had spent the last month finding tunnels, and making them when he could not. She was so fascinated by his story that he hadn't had to embellish a single thing, and when she made a delighted sound and asked for stories of more of his adventures, he found himself filled with an odd warm feeling, and he spoke for longer than he ever had before. No one had ever been this honestly interested before, not even his family. It was... surprisingly wonderful...


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Her family was waiting for her when she came down the mountain again, especially since she had taken days longer than usual. She knew that they had expected her to return, as she always did, with water, and saw from the stunned expressions that not a one of them had expected her to return with a stallion who looked as though he were carved from the mountain itself, with hair like a wild brush. Knowing her love for Pygmalion, her cousin actually asked her in a whisper if she had carved him from the mountain stone herself. Calyryssa laughed and did not deign to answer. She loved the expression on the younger girl's face.

After the initial shock, her friends and family more or less shook their heads and let her be. It was more than long enough after the engagement broke for them not to fear that this was some rebound affair, and they all knew she was not the one night stand sort, so they all just sat back to wait until she came to her senses.

But she didn't. Oh, they had their differences of course, and their relationship was hardly one continuous thing. It wasn't that either of them ever spent time with anyone else romantically, it was just that she was a homebody, even when home was a glade with her friends and family, and he lived for freedom. She never pushed him to stay, and understood that when he left he was not leaving her, so much as leaving the place. His wanderlust was too much for him to stay in one place overlong. In fact, he invited her to come adventuring with him several times, but she always demurred. So it was years before either of them had even begun to want to discuss romance. Mostly they shared stories. She had always thought that romance stories were the best stories, but listening to him, Calyryssa learned that it was only because no one had ever told her adventure stories with the passion he had when he regaled her with his adventures. He seemed surprised at first that she was interested even in the minutiae, asking what it was like to spend that night in the cave listening to the rain outside. In exchange, she shared with him all of her favorite stories, tales of romance and love, triumphing over adversity, and the seemingly impossible couples turning out to be the best ones. She found herself recalling stories she had never had cause to retell before, so had long forgotten but still loved, like the tale of Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle. They would spend a few evenings together each time he returned from an adventure, finding some small secluded space, sharing stories. She was aware that her family was starting to wonder if she was sharing more than stories, much to her annoyance. Unlike with her past fiancee, she did try to correct their assumptions, to defend the virtues of her adventurous buck, but they thought that the lady doth protest too much, and she spent evenings in tears some nights. She knew they loved her, but she was starting to feel the weight of their love like weights about her body.

But when he was there, it was as if all the weight had vanished. She enjoyed freedom from it, liberation, through his freedoms.


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He found the oddest thing, the longer he associated with Calyryssa... he somehow enjoyed his adventures more. He had felt that way when escaping his family, that being free of them, free of society, had made him appreciate his freedom more but this... this was different. Somehow knowing she would be asking about every little detail made them stand out all the more in his mind, while he experienced them. He appreciated even the parts of travel that he might have disliked before. When he received a gash across his leg, he knew that when he returned to her that she would fuss over it and tend to it while listening fascinated to his tale of how he was wounded. Even if it had been a stupid mistake with no glamor or glory, she reacted as if he had won the wound in battle, rescuing some innocent child.

There was something in her breathlessness when he told her these stories, the look in her eyes, it made him want to run out and do more daring and stupid things to impress her, at the same time that it made him want to stay with her... just a little bit longer...

He started finding small things from his journeys to bring for her. She seemed delighted by the polished stones, and just as delighted the time he tried to bring her an icicle, and hadn't thought it through enough to realize that what he was delivering to her was a slightly soggy pouch where he had stuck it. They had both just laughed themselves silly when he reached into the pouch to give her the present and his hoof came out wet.

And wasn't that a wonder? He had never really laughed like that with anyone but his sister, and not even that since she had grown up and decided that she was too adult o laugh over stupid silly things... he hadn't realized that he had been lonely at all... until he met Calyryssa. And even not immediately then. But being with her... there was something wonderful, and remembering her and anticipating being with her brought an extra sweetness to each adventure.

He had no interest in settling down, in being tied down, even to her, but he was finding that there was something nice about having a place to come back to between adventures. Not so much a home as a home base, but it was wonderful. They worked together to build a small home, a house, really, to shade her from the sun and protect her from the rain and wind. It kind of amused him that she acted so much like a delicate flower, given how they met. Still, he found he wanted to please her, and working on the house, a little at a time, let him stretch and work his muscles in ways that adventuring often neglected. It was, in its own way kind of fun, and working with her so closely, feeling her breath on his shoulder when she suggested a different placement of this plank or that stone...


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Calyryssa had never dreamed of a love like theirs, he was no where near the mate she had dreamed of since she was a foal. He was no dashing erudite prince, but there was something in the way that sweetness tempered a psudo-savagery that really appealed to her. And they worked well together. She loved his stories, and she felt guilty for admitting it, but she rather enjoyed looking at him when he moved, and the sound of his laugh did all sorts of wonderful things to her spine. He brought her gifts that were not the diamonds and jewels she always imagined her dream man would shower her with, but each gift came with a wonderful story, each gift was something he brought her because he was thinking of her when he was wandering. Even if there were times he was not the brightest star in the sky, that only made her more attracted to him.

She understood, after time, how he felt about the ties of society and the pressures his family put on him to settle down and marry. She learned that he did like children well enough, but didn't think he could handle raising them, and he hated having to spend every day minding his ps and qs. He wanted freedom, but he wasn't totally disinterested in some of the other side of life... but he always thought that he would have to give up his wandering ways to have them, and that cost was always too high for him.

Ultimately, she was the one who proposed to him. She phrased it carefully, making sure that he understood that she was not tying him down, that she was happy to keep their arrangement as it was, except that they would be husband and wife, and they would be working on building a family, which she was more than happy to raise on her own.

He surprised her, not by agreeing which she thought he might if he would just listen to the whole proposal, but by his wonderfully sweet offer... After saying yes to her, after she stopped crying from joy and relief, he looked her in the eyes and told her that if he didn't have to be involved in planning the wedding, she could have one, he would let her have whatever she wanted for that one day, even a crowd, he'd even wear a suit and comb his hair. That had set her off crying all over again and they shared their first sweet kiss. It tasted like tears of joy, and the taste would remain with her always.

She threw herself into planning the wedding with gusto. She enlisted her whole family, and his family, and all of her friends. She wanted to be a June Bride, she decided and worked hard to build the perfect wedding, but.... doubts began to crowd in around the edges. Not hers, but from other people. He would be off on an adventure while she worked on floral arrangements and place settings, and she'd hear cousins and sisters gossiping, wondering if they were doing this because she was pregnant, talking about how the marriage wouldn't last, how they were too different. Calyryssa's father had to be pulled from the room after he nearly attacked her fiancee's father, claiming that his daughter was being taken advantage of.

Calyryssa put on her bravest face and hid her feelings within. She kept a smile on and acted as though she was unaware of the growing tension, but it was eating away at her. But she knew that once they were married that the families would shut up, that they'd see that they were serious.

And finally her wedding day came. She had her vows memorized. She wasn't worried if he had his memorized, even if he didn't, whatever he said, she knew would be from his heart. He didn't dissemble. He was always himself, wonderfully and purely himself. But even as her maid of honor and bridesmaid were adjusting her veil she heard them taking bets on if he would even be waiting at the alter. She saw her mother preparing tissues and her favorite comfort foods to ease the pain when he left her at the alter. It was getting harder and harder to keep her fury in. She wanted to scream at them all, but she stifled it. They didn't know him, never gave him, gave THEM a chance. Her family had never tried to get to know him, and his family was sure that she thought she was too good for him, that he was just a dalliance, a passing fancy. She had been so sure that the wedding would convince them that the love was true, and was forever, but tears escaped her, unbidden. How could she handle it if her family stayed this way after the wedding? Would her children grow up hearing everyone whisper about how it was just a matter of time until their parents divorced?

Then the music started. Her maid of honor gave her a knowing, and incorrect, look as she fixed her make up to hide the tear tracks, then lowered her veil over her eyes and took her place. The wedding procession began. There he was, at the alter, waiting. He looked splendid and wonderful, and so brave standing there. Surely he heard the whispered too. Even in the audience, his family was whispering, wondering what the prank was, and when it would be sprung. Her family was taking bets on how close to the alter she'd be before he'd bolt. Suddenly it was all too much.

Her steps sped, she got to the alter, and she knew he saw her crying despite the lace over her eyes, and she kept going. She ran, tripping and stumbling, unable to see through her tears, and she ran and ran until she couldn't move anymore and collapsed to the ground, except...

she found herself falling against someone. She looked up and saw pewter wings. She swallowed hard and looked at him as he moved her veil from her face. She realized that he must have flown after her, waiting until she ran out her strength, then cam down to her.

He asked her want was wrong, and haltingly, sobbing, she told him, told him everything. She told him about her last fiancee, and how much better things were now, and how much she wanted to be married to him, to have the life they had planned, to have his children and wait for him to come home with new stories to entertain them all... Then she told him how she couldn't marry him. She couldn't do that to her children, she couldn't have little ones growing up always afraid their parents would split up, even though they loved each other so much. She couldn't, she just couldn't.

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He held her and nuzzled her, and calmed her, cradling her until she fell asleep against him, both of their fancy outfits hideously stained and dirty. Once she was deeply asleep he got up and did the bravest thing she ever heard about after.

He pulled away from her gently, took off his jacket to cover her, then he returned to the wedding party. He felt the ropes of their expectations settle around him again, as he had felt waiting there for her at the alter, but now his fury burned, and burned pure, singing the ropes off of him. He probably should not have been proud of the way he lit into their friends and family, about the way he screamed and yelled at them, about how he threw things around, about how he stalked off back to her, too upset to even fly.

He lay beside her, watching her sleep, trying to hold onto his anger, but he was never the type to keep a temper stewing. He nuzzled her lightly, and dozed lightly, ready to wake and protect her...from any threat, even verbal.

When she woke, he took her back to their home, and they curled up together. She told him again that she couldn't marry him, couldn't have his children. She asked him if he would be okay with things going back to how they had been... sharing stories and a heath for a home base for him. No more kissing, but they could still... could still be together as they had been before the engagement, couldn't they? He felt his heart breaking, not for himself, for he loved how things had been and would not mind for them to have remained that way had she not proposed. No, his heart was breaking for the pain that she was in. He promised her that he would do whatever she wanted, and even in that moment, had she begged him to stay in that house with her forever, he would have agreed, but then... he would have never fallen in love with someone who would trap him that way. And she didn't. She thanked him, went to kiss him, the demurred. That... that he regretted, but the pain in her eyes was worse. He wanted to go climb a mountain or dive off a cliff to see how close he could get to the ground before pulling up to work off the tension... but he didn't leave her.

Two days after what would have been their wedding, a contingent made up of the mothers of both families came to their home. He refused to let them in, telling them bluntly that they had hurt Calyryssa enough already and he was not going to let them hurt her again.

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Calyryssa came up behind him, and shook her head. She told him that she would talk to them, she wanted to let them know what they had decided and why.

He knew he didn't want to step aside, but he did. She turned to glance at him, but stopped herself, she couldn't afford to give him a loving glance, she couldn't lead him on when she knew she would never marry him, no matter how much she loved him, and she still did, with all of her being.

She stood and faced the women, her head held high, and struggled to push her fury and pain and misery down, so that her face was composed when she braced them. Before she could speak, however, they apologized, which stunned her. They told her a story about her fiancee that she did not know herself, that she realized he was never going to tell her, the story of what he said... and did... at the wedding after she ran off. They told her how the families had talked... and then talked to each other. They apologized on behalf of everyone who had been gossiping and betting, and whatever else. The said that they would try and take their relationship more seriously, and that they only wanted their children to be happy, and that had been at the root of it.

Calyryssa listened, fighting back tears, then she shook her head. It wasn't that easy, she told them. They didn't get to rip her heart out, then just say that they were sorry contritely and have everything be alright, that she still was hurting and she couldn't trust them enough to believe them. Then she closed the door in their faces.

Her fia.... no, he wasn't that any longer... he tried to cheer her up, he told her stories, brought her her favorite foods, but nothing helped. She could tell he was upset as well and knew that while brooding was how she handled heartache, it was not how he did. She insisted that he went and had an adventure. He kept refusing, wanting to take care of her. He appreciated it, but saw in his eyes that he was tempted as well. She yielded to her own temptation, she kissed him, even though she had sworn she never would again, then with tears in her eyes she asked him to please go... to go and bring her back a new story. He assured her he wouldn't be gone long, and left.

She collapsed onto the bed he had built for her, because she preferred to sleep on something softer than the ground. She sobbed herself to sleep missing him with a fierce ache that she knew would never go away, even when he was with her. Because they could never be together the way she had begun to dream. She knew she would always love him, and no other, so she would never marry, never have kids, she no longer had a family even, so... she would just be forever in this house in the woods, waiting desperately for his return without ever letting him know how empty and lonely she would be while he was gone.

He was gone longer than usual, though there had been some trips this long before. They just were not often, and she honestly had not expected him to choose now to be gone so long. But she did not complain. Some of the younger kids from the family came to visit her sometimes, and it helped. They didn't understand what was going on, just that there was tension and that she never came to play with them anymore. They didn't understand why when they came to visit her now that she would sometimes hug them close and burst into tears, inconsolate. She did have a sense that the two who were going to be her ring bearer and flower girl had some sort of secret, but she was too tired and too wring out to press, especially since it probably had to do with one of their parents or siblings, and the adults in her family were not what she wanted to think about any more than she had to.

Most of the time though, she was alone in the house that they shared, the house they were going to fill with children they would now never have. There was no one around to help her with her hair, to whisper secrets to, to try on clothes with. If she were the type to binge eat, she would have gotten horribly fat, but as it was she had no appetite. She forced herself to eat a little each day, just because she didn't want him to be worried about leaving her to go on his adventures. Her heart was broken and her dreams shattered, she was not going to do the same to him.

Then finally he returned. He swept in and kissed her, shocking her senseless. When she finally recovered her aplomb she found that he was brushing her hair. She wanted to protest, knew she should protest, but it had been so long since someone had ran a hoof or a brush through her mane that she closed her eyes and let him. She knew it was wrong, knew that she could stop him, but he had been gone nearly a month and she had missed him so much, she was so lonely, and she had dreamed of being married to him, of it being just like this. She had dreamed that he would come back from a long adventure, and kiss her, brush her hair, tell her stories.... but... they were no longer affianced, this wasn't fair, not to him, not to her, to tempt them both with what they could never have. But every time she got her breath to protest, he stroked her shoulder, or kissed her, or did something else that made her wait just a moment more before protesting. She felt like crying, she felt like kissing him back, she felt like running away, her emotions were in a maelstrom.

Then he was leading her outside. She winced at the bright sun, she hadn't been outside much at all since he had left. She demurred, trying to go back inside, but he looked at her with a pleading, and she relented. She couldn't deny him, he was the only good thing left in her life. Then he asked her in a breathy whisper if she trusted him. She nodded and turned to tell him that of course she did when he dropped a blindfold over her head, being surprisingly careful about her hair. She let him lead her, blind. If she got hurt, who cared, just... being outside again, being with him... felt so good compared to the last several weeks that she couldn't complain.

Then the blindfold was pulled off and she was staring at the wedding pavilion, rebuilt, decorated the way she had planned, including the flowers that she had not been able to get in time the first time, but really wanted. he grinned, kissed her, then walked off as the mothers approached. Before she knew what was going on, she was back in the bridal suite, being shown her repaired wedding dress. In fact... it looked better than it had the first time, the small tears masked by lines of small glittering stones and pearls that now decorated the whole of the dress, and the hem was now a fine lace.

As they worked on her make up, the women of both families explained part of the adventure that had taken him most of the past month. He came to the families to ask how serious they were about their apology, then he worked with them to build her the perfect wedding, that this was the best way he could think think of to convince her that they meant it about being supportive of their relationship, not with words, but hard work and action.

She wasn't sure she quite trusted this, but she was entranced by the dress and the renewal of the dream. If it broke again... she didn't think she'd survive, but.... but she wanted the dream so badly that it hurt. She got into the dress, hope and terror warring in her, which her mother cheerfully informed her was how most brides felt. They went to do her hair but she demurred. He had done her hair for her and even though she had dreamed of an elaborate up do.... this partially up partially down not quite expert style, though she did relent and let them give the loose bits some curl and bounce. Then the veil was on again, and this time her father went down the aisle with her.

Through the gauzy material over her eyes she saw her fiancee standing at the alter once again, looking, if possible, even more handsome than the last time, and she realized she was once again blindfolded, following his lead, trusting him. She saw only him, and the only whispers she heard were about how good they looked; and if some of those comments sounded forced, she found she was able to tune them out.

They stood before each other suddenly, and she found her mouth dry as he cleared the veil from her face. Was this when he was supposed to? She couldn't remember any more. In June she had drilled herself in every aspect until she could recite the ceremony in her sleep, but now, in July, she found that all she could focus on was him. It was just as well that he said his vows first, because she didn't think she could have said a word if she had tried.

"Calyryssa, I promise to protect you when I am near, and think of you when I am far. To love you always, and to know that my home base is wherever you are. Whatever you wish, I shall give to you, and if you wish to have a house full of children and stories, that's what we shall do. Even when I am upon the tallest mountain, or diving in the deepest river, you are with me, and I know that I shall never again be alone, no matter how many valleys are between us. I will always return, no matter how far I roam, for you, Calyryssa, you are my home."

Tears slipped past the makeup around her eyes as she stared at him with wonder and admiration. He had only ever spoken so well when telling her a story of his adventures, but these words... these words were different, and they hung in her heart, lifting it. She swallowed hard, staring into his eyes, wondering what he saw when he looked back. Then he coughed and whispered "Um, I think you're supposed to talk now..."

She flushed and ducked her head a bit, but his hood went under her chin and lifted it again so she could not break his gaze. She tried to remember the vows that she had worked so hard to memorize. They flew away from her, but the feeling behind them didn't. She had never dreamed that she would extemporize her wedding vows, but it felt... right.

"You live for adventures, my love, and I would never tie you down or clip your wings. Marriage... marriage is an adventure we can share, that lingers like the backdrop to all future adventures. While I listen avidly to your stories when you are with me, we will be making new stories together to share with our children. Stories that are romance and adventure... together."

"Like us," he whispered.

"Like us," she agreed.

The rest of the ceremony seemed to take forever and be over in an instant, leaving her dizzy, and then it was done... they were married. Not the stallion she dreamed of, but the stallion she should have dreamed of.

The celebration after was quite the fete, and even though he seemed uncomfortable, he insisted on staying by her side all evening. There was a large crystal bowl that was filled with mountain spring water that he had fetched himself, more than a dozen trips to get enough for the whole affair. The only slight hitch in their getting hitched this time around was just before they cut the cake when the flower girl told her happily that she didn't have to worry because she and the ring bearer had frosted over all the parts that had gotten fuzzy. Calyryssa refused to cut into the cake until an adult assured her that this was a brand new cake, and she heard the little girl giggling.

"Remind me why I want to have kids," she murmured to her new husband, not really meaning it. He kissed her and she leaned her head against him. "Oh yeah, that's why," she said softly, closing her eyes, content.