Welcome to Gaia! ::

Serenity smiled at Gaunt. "I wouldn't considering putting it towards anything else," she assured him, "unless we had an abundance of money. Still ..."

She was silent once more as she thought about Gaunt's opinion of weddings. She had never thought of it like that ... then again, her father had no family to speak of. Her parents' wedding had been an almost one-sided event ... though it had still been a lot of fun.

Suddenly a new fear gripped her. If she did have a wedding, would she have to have a wedding like her parents had had? In the Southland palace with her greatgrandmother officiating? Not that that necessarily was bad but ...

Ian raised his free hand for a high five. "We'll have the most fun ever!" he cheered.

Serenity blushed and giggled, suddenly realizing that she seemed to have stopped the conversation.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, "I was just thinking ... I had never thought of a wedding that way before. Papa has no family, or rather didn't until he found Mama, but ..."

She bit her lip gently. "Our family was raised with the values of Mama's culture, of this culture," she explained. "Weddings are actually rare, usually kept for royalty of those of high social status, or those who really want them. The general practice is that once two people pledge themselves to each other ... then they're married already. It's just as official as a wedding ceremony."

She shrugged. "Physical union is just a consummation of their pledge. I had never really thought about ... well, until I met you, even about having a boyfriend, really, but ... about marriage ... weddings ..."

Serenity smiled. "It's how almost everyone in this world is married," she assured him.

Her heart just about stopped when she heard his confession, and she studied the ground, her face burning. To her, it was dishonorable and wrong ... but ... they were from different cultures ... and she did have to admit, it meant a lot that he was honest with her.

On the other hand ... it made her stop and think, wondering if he really loved her or if, like the others, he just thought he did.

"I'm not angry," she murmured finally, gently rubbing the back of his hand with her thumb. "I think ... if I had found out later, without you telling me on your own, I might have been ... but you're being honest with me. I can't be angry."

Sad, perhaps, and maybe disappointed. Still, it only reinforced her belief that physical union must not occur until after marriage, even if it was a simple exchange of pledges.

"But I hope ... you won't be angry if I tell you," she added, looking up at him anxiously, "that I ... won't ... can't ... do that ... unless I'm married ... specifically so that the same thing doesn't happen to me. I want to save myself for the one person that I will devote my life to ... and I'll be honest with you, Gaunt - I hope it's you. I really hope it is. But ... we've only started dating, and if something happens and it doesn't work out ..." She trailed off, hoping that he wouldn't take it the wrong way.

Serenity smiled and blushed darker just as they left the trees again and several large buildings came into view, and she squeezed Gaunt's hand tightly.

"Then let's just focus on enjoying today, shall we?" she murmured happily, her eyes sparkling as she looked at him. "After all, if we look too far ahead, we'll just lose sight of the here and now."

She lifted their hands to her mouth and kissed his knuckle, then let it drop again and nodded at the buildings. "And here we are."

Ian's eyes were huge, almost, it seemed, bigger than his face, as he looked at the buildings ahead. "Whoaaaa," he breathed in awe. "They're all so big ..."

The first building they were coming up to was the barracks, an enormous two-storey building nearly one hundred feet long. To the south the main ranch house was in view: four storeys and as large as a mansion.

Serenity smiled at Gaunt and followed close beside him, holding his hand tightly. She was excited to be back here again ... it had been a while ...

Beyond the barracks was a rather large yard, where a handful of elves were going about their business - some of them golden haired, some of them black-haired, some with horses and others not. One of them, a youthful-seeming man with shoulder-length black hair and a very muscled build, spotted the foursome almost immediately and jogged over to them, smiling widely. When he got closer to them his height became very apparent - he was well over seven feet tall.

"Serenity!" he beamed. "It's been such a long time! How have you been?"

Serenity stared. She had no idea who this was ... but it had been a long time, even for her, so who knew how much time had passed here?

The man frowned. "Don't tell me you forget me," he teased her. "Ada won't let you hear the end of it."

Serenity's eyes grew wide. "Arahad?" she blinked. "I haven't seen you since you were ... seven ..."

Arahad grinned. "Twelve years ago, cousin. How long has it been for you?"

Serenity coughed. "Seven months ..." she said sheepishly. Then she laughed. "Wow, so much has changed ... and where are my manners. Arahad, this is my suitor, Gaunt, my son, Ian, and Gaunt's son, Prince. Everyone ... my cousin, Arahad Aldrich."

map of ranch for reference

Arahad smiled warmly at Gaunt and returned the bow. "And a great pleasure to meet you as well," he said brightly. He chuckled softly at Prince's greeting, and reached over to ruffle the boy's hair. "Likewise," he grinned.

Serenity giggled softly. "Are your parents at home?" she asked him. "We have a bit of a favour to ask them ..."

Ian's eyes lit up and he blurted out, "Ulrich is gonna make me a bow but he says we gotta go get it in the morning so can we stay here the night so that we don't gotta go home first?"

Arahad laughed heartily. "Mother's inside, come on," he beckoned them towards the house. "And of course you can stay, there's always room for guests."

"Utopia?" Arahad repeated the unfamiliar word, looking to Serenity for an explanation.

"Perfect world," Serenity explained. "I ... don't know if there's an elvish word for it ..."

"Ah." Arahad smiled at Gaunt. "Well, we're working on the slavers problem, but they seem to crawl out of the woodworks. My thinking is that maybe we should deal with the dwarfs, and then the slavery problem will disappear. The dwarfs," he added, assuming Serenity probably hadn't explained things, "were exiled for ... well I'm not sure what it's all about, but anyways they've been exiled to the north. No one is quite sure how, but they've somehow got contact with the humans, and are paying - no one knows where they're getting the gold either - extravagant amounts of money for the humans to kidnap elven children - the younger the better, it seems - and bring them to them for slaves."

He led them to the back door of the house and opened it for the others, allowing them to enter first.

"So my reasoning is, get rid of the payments, and the abductions stop," he concluded. "So far all we're doing is going after slavers that have already abducted children. But that doesn't help the ones that are already there."

He shrugged. "On the other hand, that's not the only problems we have here. Moor cats sometimes make their home in the swamp to the west, but once in a while they'll make their way here. Our ranch has over a dozen fighters, purely for our protection. We're literally in the wilderness, and anything can happen out here."

To the right of the door were hooks for cloaks and the like, and there was a mat on the floor for them to either wipe their shoes or remove them. They were at one end of a hallway. Directly to their left was a flight of stairs, ahead and on their left was a double doorway of glass that led to a mixture of a study and a playroom, with desks and a box of toys, and on the right was a large open doorway that led to an enormous dining room.

"Spy," Arahad chuckled. "Nako would be the only candidate I could think of, but I don't think she would want to do something like that anymore. What about your mother, Serenity?"

Serenity raised one eyebrow at her cousin. "Mama has two half-year-old children," she said pointedly, "and has fought her entire life to stay out of situations like that. I really don't think so."

Arahad raised his hands defensively and grinned. "Just a thought."