Ouroboros Spine Under billowing sky

Her jadestone gaze trailed down to the slow curve of his lips, finding her own soon to follow suit -- unable to repress the way her features softened in response to Sivullik's warmth nor the anticipating wag of her tail. It seemed silly to have been apprehensive now, unable as the greenpaw was to find any sign of expectation in the icebear's honeyed gaze. 

She felt practically giddy as she waited for the words to escape his pallid maw, feeling a tremble sweep along the length of her thin frame at the rumble of his low tones. No longer the reserved and skittish old soul Adrastus had come to know, the two-year felt her layers had been stripped away beneath the canopy of the pines -- leaving the gangly girl who had never even been kissed by a man before, let alone courted or married, to stand before the first hunter.

"I accept you," the mouse lilted, the words as soft as featherdown caught in the wind, unable to completely conceal the accent that afflicted them. She felt a lump rise in her throat, swallowing against the memories of another land -- never imagining she might need the ceremonial words of her former tribe's marriage rite. 

The agouti went to him then, wondering if her gait reflected the way her joints seemed to shake as if they had come unhinged. There was only a brief hesitance as she reached for the Baptiste, muzzle moving to sweep tendlerly up along the spiritbear's throat and cheek to nuzzle at the corner of his dark lips. She had not touched or been touched since..

She shoved the memories away. They had no place in such a joyous occasion.

Thinking of her worries, she allowed a grin to curl along her lips -- pulling back enough that he might be able to catch her rueful expression before the dove dipped her diadem of deerskin. In the end, she hadn't had to worry about what might be an appropriate bride price but still, the herd-watcher felt the need to share her thoughts with her husband -- the words giving her a little thrill as she thought them.

"When Kukutux said I should ask a bride price of you before we married, I confess, I had no idea what to ask you for," the herbalist chuckled, allowing her temple to brush against his alabaster shoulder again -- simply because she could. 

"In my homeland, when a man wishes to take a wife, he builds a home like this one," the sparrow drifted just a pace or two beyond him, admiring the ulaq he had once offered to let her paint. "A place she might fill with the laughter of their children."

She had planned to ask him to let her help him in turning his dwelling into a real home for the both of them, for their family, but he had given her that -- he and Kukutux both. Her home was Moonglow, no matter where her head rested, and they were the main reason the cloudberry had begun to emerge from her shell. 

"I suppose it would be more accurate to say that I have something to ask and something to give.." She mused aloud, knowing she was keeping him in suspense but needing to keep her thoughts in order -- lest she make a fool of herself by stammering and stumbling over the words as she so often did when nervous. 

"Kukutux has offered that I share motherhood with her this season," she revealed, in the ways that she had learned women spoke of such things in their village. Peridots flickered back to Adrastus over her shoulder, hoping to gauge his reaction with a pounding heart.