Redsand Canyon hummingbird

shes looking for her buddy but AW <3

"@Aquene?" tamar said breathlessly.

her pale eyes were filled with excitement.

she searched after the healer, and when she found the woman, she discovered she could not speak. tamar only stood near-trembling with anticipation, a wide, great smile on her face.

taking advantage of it being AW since i wanted a tamar thread, lemme know if you'd rather me edit/delete <3
also assuming she looks pregnant at this point!? can edit if wrong!

visitors were here. those of epoch had returned and he did not know for how long or what reasons. he only knew he should take advantage of this time to meet them once more.

it was tamar he found today.

she looked...different. familiar! he remembered the changes in towhee, it wasn't all that long ago after all.

tamar?!

there was excitement in his voice. perhaps more than should have been presented from a scutarius of mereo.

ur perfect! also yes she does!

"maxim!" she exulted.

he had grown into mereo or perhaps it into him. he stood taller and with more confidence. she smiled brightly at him. "how have you taken to being a father?"

maxim did not think he would have greeted anybody so eagerly when he first arrived here. nor would he expect such a question to be asked of him! how wild! still he glowed with new fatherhood, the magic of it all would last for some time, he supposed.

already he wondered if there would be a next year.

it is wonderful! he boomed with love, pride and delight. cherishing the thought. have you seen them now at all? they're so grown! and— his mind had run away with his excitement. you!

she shook her head!

"i want to see them. can we meet them now, maxim?" her face was alight. she looked down at the delicate swell of her sides and inhaled. "it is early but —" and then all she could do was laugh with sheer delight.

"do you think that towhee will be able to tell?" she asked. "i mean, tell me for certain?" the strong woman had borne many children. she was as close to a qualified midwife as aquene would be.

both of them shined with their youth for these moments. maxim full of boyish wonder at the small swell to tamar's delicate frame and her giddy, seeking a more positive answer.

i bet she could. she has had many children, even a grandchild is here! he boomed once more with a swell of pride. he had made a fine deal with towhee that day. although truthfully it felt as if it had blossomed beyond a deal.

he did not utter these things in a soldiers' space.

come, come! tell me of you and arensio's place while we walk? i had been intending a visit.

maxim confirmed this truth for her.

she paced happily at his side. "oh, it is so beautiful there! the vale has four lakes connected by many rivers. there is a place to cool, of willow trees, and a forest all of red trees! there are so many flowers and birds; it is like a paradise."

it was. and for the moment, it was only she and arsenio there. it was a honeymoon of a kind. mereo held its own strong beauty, but tamar preferred the delicacy of epoch.

he listened as she described her place in great detail. he found himself...charmed. the place sounded so very different than mereo. it sounded less like sand, stone and canyon walls.

for a moment he imagined himself somewhere like there with towhee, then whisked the idea away.

it seems you and arsenio have found a very special place. perhaps there was some gleam of jealousy in his voice. but mereo was home, it always would be.

yours will have playmates in ours. if you like.

"i would like this."

her eyes glowed.

"when i met you, you were not happy. and i was not calm." was it the truth? "now we have found both of those things."

she thought fondly of him as a brother. but she wondered if it might have been different without arsenio or towhee. would germanicus have rushed to marry her off as quickly as aquene?

he smiled, sheepish. perhaps some trickle of embarrassment. he did not forget the way he had regarded most plebians in his arrival, a boyish spring staking a claim in him. now he felt so aged from there already!

germanicus gives me structure and purpose. towhee and the children give me motivation. things he had not said to anyone, he now spoke here to tamar.

what have you found in arsenio? your paradise home?

her joy went on unabated.

"four lakes! all connected. a forest of blood-red trees. a place of shadows and willow-trees. and so many herbs. so many flowers. i could count for days and not name them all!"

her eyes glowed. "you must come and visit, when we are settled."

would you like to fade and assume BTS he took her to towhee for whatever conversations they may have? <3

he was breathless from the bumbling excitement and emotions of it all. usually these moments did not happen outside of the space he shared with towhee and the children, but the company of an expecting tamar had him blossoming too.

i will, we will. there is towhee and the children and — towhee has so much family here, tamar! he beamed with delight. brothers, children, grandchildren. he did not know who all she had seen before she had gone to the vale.

he was excited to show her these faces after her time with towhee.

they would bring your vale to life even more.

lets do it!

so much life.

so much family.

tamar was transported for a moment to the simple shelters of her clan. "i want to see," she said to maxim.

they would rendezvous with his lovely family. she would think of her own as they spoke.