Blacktail Deer Plateau this is for the good ol' boys

dearest leifa, sweeter than perhaps rusalka deserves.

of course i do, rusalka answers, unable to imagine anywhere else he'd rather be. which was such a one-eighty from who he was before them.

but his children and his wife were his pride and joy.

you sure that it's not me you hear snoring? he teases with a wily grin tugging at the edges of his lips and an affectionate boop of his nose to her forehead, if she allows it.

her last question is a loaded one, and fills him both with pride and that dread that surely fills all fathers at the thought of their little princesses growing up and leaving the nest.

rusalka blows out a breath that morphs into a sigh.

one day, you'll be old enough to leave raventhorpe, if that is what you wish. i cannot — will not — stop you. it's apart of growing up. i expect it, rusalka pauses. i'll be proud of you, no matter where you go. no matter what you do. doesn't mean i won't miss you and your brothers like crazy but ... your mom and i'll be fine, when that time comes.

it wasn't a direct answer to her question, because the truth would be that he'll be sad when his first children flew the coop, so to speak; but it was apart of growing up. he'd left warsaw islands himself, after all.