Story Time
Sarahi’s jaw fell slack at those words.  There was so much wrong with that one sentence that she couldn’t decide where to begin arguing.  She was jolted out of her shock by the sound of a basin hitting the floor.  Whipping her head around, she found Tuli standing in the entrance with an equally slack-jawed stare.  The Ferruda quickly recovered herself and picked up the basin, which had fortunately fallen almost perfectly flat and managed to retain most of its steaming contents.  “Oh!  Sorry.  That, uh, sounds like there’s a story behind it.”
Seeming unphased, Nayeli nodded, smiling gratefully as the woman slid the basin under her feet and she gingerly dipped her toes into it.  “Oh, there are many stories to tell you.  Once everyone’s back, I’ll start with how we met and began this outlandish relationship, and what part you all now play in it.  Mmph,” she grit her teeth as her pads followed her toes into the hot water, then sighed as the pain was replaced by soothing warmth.  The twins soon arrived with salt, medicinal herbs, and all the healing kits they could find.  The group carefully moved Nayeli to Sarahi’s back, so that she did not have to put wet feet on dirt, then shuffled her and the bin over to a chair where she could sit more comfortably.  A short time later she was happily soaking her feet in salt and healing herbs, sorting and restocking the medicine in her kit, and smiling contentedly as everyone made themselves comfortable on various chairs and beds that the kobolds had brought them after the chair.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this pampered in my life,” she giggled quietly, flexing her toes in the water.  They looked like a family gathering for story-time before bed, though with a decidedly odd assortment of children and a mother almost the same age as the oldest.  It made her laugh to think about.
“Well, to begin, on the day we met, he killed me,” she started softly, immediately hooking their attention and curiosity.
~He grew up in fear and uncertainty.  In the lands of his birth, Ferruda were seen and used as animals, including being hunted for sport.  Safety was bought at the cost of endless labor, and lasted as long as one spoke no unwelcome word to the masters.  His father died under the whip for reporting a lack of crop.  His mother fled the town not long after, taking him and four sisters and their aunt.  They survived by the good fortune of being found by a clan of Dog Ferruda instead of humans.
For a few years they lived in the forest, hunting and harvesting as a small, half-hidden village.  It was there that he first discovered what a full belly and warm bed felt like.  Hope was kindled.  But a long, frost-biting winter pushed off planting, and kept the animals hiding in their dens.  Hunger returned to him, and to many others.  The Dogs soon realized that Ferruda Rabbits had much more meat than regular coneys, and were not much harder to kill...
He fled once more, this time alone.  Young, lost, scared, he felt betrayed by human, Ferruda, and Nature herself.  It soured grief into bitterness, and then into hate.  It was in that dark wood, starving and freezing and nursing a vengeful heart, that the demon found him.  This time, he did not flee.  When it threatened to eat him, he agreed, but asked if it would be satisfied with so small a soul as his.  Intrigued, it asked him what he proposed...and a small, frightened Rabbit, wittingly or otherwise, entered into a pact.  He would show it the way to his village, then to the town, and then willingly be eaten.  In exchange, the demon would not eat him until after he had watched it reek his vengeance on all he had known before.  And he kept his promise.  But the demon saw the hateful fire had not died in the Rabbit’s eyes, and asked if he was satisfied with so small a vengeance as this.  Intrigued, he asked what it proposed...
For ten years he terrorized the country, and its neighbors, and lands even beyond that, killing everyone that crossed his path, feeding them to the demon that had replaced his skin with its own, and moving on in an endless hunt for more victims.  At last he came to the edge of a country that belonged to The Order.  There he ravaged the first town he came upon, taunting those who begged for their lives, mocking those who fought back, consuming all in his path as he had all before.~
“I was nothing to him that day,” she remembered with a look of genuine sorrow, “Not a girl, not an orphan, not under care of the Order...certainly not a priestess!  I was just another frightened face among many.  Much as I wish I could tell it otherwise, it was not courage or even faith that stopped me from screaming, but the simple understanding that there was no help to call.  Nothing in our little town could contend with him.  So I just waited my turn and tried not to go before the Authority in too undignified a state.  Looking back, I think maybe he found me dull.  So he just ran me through without a word, and tossed me more-or-less whole into Gorgorond’s maw.”
They were, to a one, staring at her, enthralled by the story so far.  Kylan asked the question on everyone’s mind, looking and sounding exactly like a curious child: “How did you get out?”
“I don’t know,” she shrugged, gaining curious looks from every head gathered around, “From my perspective, there was a tremendous amount of pain and a few minutes of total darkness.  It was very much like being asleep.  I remember seeing a light suddenly, and thinking the sun must be waking me up and wondering if I was late for morning service,” she giggled, “Yes, I was very confused, and it didn’t help when I saw the man who’d just killed me reach out from that light and drag me up into it.  You can further imagine my surprise when I opened my eyes a minute later to find him frowning at me while I lay on the ground.”
“So...he brought you back to life?” Diya asked, for clarity.
Nayeli nodded.  “Yes, though don’t ask me how.  I’ve never seen him do it for anyone since.”
“Forget how,” Sarahi interrupted, “Why?”
“You know,” Nayeli giggled at the memory, “I asked him the same question right there, before I even got up off the ground, and all he said was, ‘You taste bad.’  I had to pester him for months to get any details out of him, and I’m not sure I can trust them.  He doesn’t spend much time pondering whys and wherefores, so it may have just been the best comparison he could make.  But according to him, he can taste the sins of those he feeds to his demon, and the more corrupt the sweeter the taste.  Sadly, no soul is sinless, and most are sweeter to him than they might realize,” she sighed.
“So when he told you that you taste bad...he was saying you’re basically a good person?” Tuli asked, thinking it was the first time she’d heard about something like a compliment coming from Oro.
“Not exactly.  More like...my taste has been purged.  I’ve talked to him a lot about it, and how other things ‘taste’.  For example, he says animals and the undead are bland.  They have no conscience.  I’m not so sure it has as much to do with sin as with guilt and forgiveness.  I am often told I am too forgiving, but it may be that much has been forgiven me in turn.”
“...I’m not sure I understand,” Tuli admitted, earning a sympathetic smile and shrug from Nayeli.
“Honestly, neither do I, with any certainty.  It’s all guess-work.”
“So what possessed you to follow him after that, much less marry him?” Sarahi prodded, bringing them back to the original story, “I can’t say I’ve ever known anyone so content to be tied to their killer.”
“Well...at this point, I have to admit to some uncomfortable things, so please bear with me,” the Ferruda admitted.  Turning in her chair, she pointed to her habit.  The self-supporting garment had been set up in a corner of the tent like a silently observing servant awaiting orders.  “Do you know why I wear that?”
“It’s not because you’re a priestess?” Diya tilted her head.
Nayeli shook her head with an understanding smile.  “Priestesses of the Order do wear something like it, but the headpiece is not required, and none have a veil, much less an under-frame designed specifically to make the wearer look like a walking tea-pot,” she giggled, “This was custom-made for me roughly two years before Oro came to our town...half as a precaution, and half as an apology from our hierophont.”
“Apology for what?” Kylan asked.
Her smile faltered just a little.  “I don’t remember my parents.  I don’t remember how I came to be in that town.  My earliest memories were of being in the shelter wing of the small ziggurat of the Order.  So there was no one to warn me what would happen to my scent when I bloomed.  It took a long time for me to even figure out it had to do with my scent.  In the meantime, I was a frequent target of...aggressive advances...both from my peers and superiors.  It was flattering at first.  I thought they found me beautiful, and maybe they did.  But it started causing fights among the boys, and the adults started making unusual excuses to assist me with chores, or have me assist them.”  Shaking her head, she decided to skip the sordid details.  No good could come from speaking ill of the dead, and she had not wished ill upon them even in life.  Besides, any justice they merited had been served the day Oro arrived.  “Suffice to say, I was no virgin when I first came to the marriage bed, and knew no less than six men fairly regularly before I figured out the source of my allure...including the hierophont.  So he commissioned a special habit to hide my figure and contain my scent.  I had significantly less trouble in social circles afterward, but I think he always regretted not acting sooner.”
“But...for goodness’ sake, do humans have no self-control?” Sarahi hissed.  Commoners might be one thing, but those who lead others in worship, whose very job was to inform their morality and guide them to virtue, should strive for higher standards.
Nayeli could see these thoughts in her eyes, and gestured for her to calm herself.  “Yes, they do.  I am sure I effected many, many more than those few who gave in to their lust, many who approached me and accepted my refusal, however unhappily.  But they are not Ferruda, much less Lion Ferruda.  Our kind are more acclimated to this scent and its effects, so it is easier for them to recognize and respond to their attractions appropriately.  Once more, it was years before even I knew why I was approached so frequently.  But I’ve run off on a tangent.” She cleared her throat.  “By the time Oro came to us, I had some idea of what I was capable of, so when it became clear that he intended to continue his rampage I disrobed, threw myself around his neck, and covered his nose with both hands.  I figured if I could get him to focus on me, anyone he hadn’t gotten to yet would have a better chance to escape.  And that’s when I discovered he didn’t respond like anyone I had met before.  Instead of becoming aroused, he yawned and started staggering like he hadn’t slept in weeks.  The next thing I knew, we were both in the dirt and he was out cold.”
“So...,” Kylan began slowly, as if afraid she might take offense to what he was about to suggest, “Not that you’re the type, but given the situation...why didn’t you kill him then?  Or did you try?”
“She didn’t,” came a surprising answer from the direction of the bed.  All eyes snapped around to Oro, who was sitting up with his chin on his fist and his elbow on one knee.  His eyes were still closed, as if tempted to fall back asleep, but his ears were twitching in irritation.  “’Cause she’s a damned fool,” he grumbled, “And damned lucky to top it off.  Anyone else would have tried without a second thought, and learned that Gorgorond can open his maw just fine without me.”
“Did we interrupt your nap?” Nayeli asked in a sympathetic tone.  “I’m sorry.  My treatment is almost done, then we can give you some quiet,” she assured him, having already withdrawn one foot from the (now cool) basin and begun to dry it.  There were bandages nearby for her to wrap them in, though she seemed to be the only one in the room confident in her ability to walk from there.
“No,” he answered firmly, “There is something I need to discuss with the kobolds, and you need a proper bath.  All of you,” he growled, glaring at each one in turn.
Diya looked most uneasy.  “I’m still not—”
Oro cut her off.  “I will make sure they do not intrude.  And you can gossip all you want while you’re at it,” he added, getting to his feet and popping his neck with a tilt of his head (which caused Nayeli to wince) before marching out of the tent.
Sarahi scowled at his back as the flap closed behind it.  “I swear, he grows more insufferable by the hour.”
“Are you comfortable knowing he can kill us all on a whim the moment the moods strikes him?” Nayeli asked, putting away the bandages and looking around for the packs where their clothing had been, “Neither is he comfortable knowing we can put him to sleep just by standing too close.  He will rarely admit it, but it is always at the back of his mind.  So, let us ease his fears by mitigating our potency, and he will likely become less hostile.”
“Not friendly, though,” Sarahi guessed, getting up to haul clothes and towels from their packs.  She was already thoroughly convinced that the Rabbit was unlikely to ever be friendly.  She carried Nayeli to the bath tent with the others around them.  Oro was standing outside, already speaking to a pair of kobolds in that gutteral double-voice.  He spared them little more than a glance as they passed by him through the tent entrance.
Inside, several large barrels had been set on raised beds above firepits.  The fires had died to almost nothing, but there was still an inviting haze of steam rising above each of the barrels.  Nayeli had Sarahi stand near the door until everyone was inside, then ran a hand along the edge of the flap.  “By the Authority, vested in me, I command that which allows entry: forbid it.”  A quiet descended on the tent.  The sound of the kobolds going about camp, the roar and smoky scent of the bonfire, Oro speaking just on the other side of the canvas...all of it was suddenly lost, as if nothing existed outside this little canvas cave.  “Oh my,” Nayeli chuckled, “I may have overdone that.  But rest assured we will not be disturbed by anything that does not physically cut through the fabric.”
“Oo, I kind of like it,” Tuli mused, noting how even the sounds they made inside were muted, as though the walls were absorbing anything that touched them.  It let their voices carry well inside the space, and gave the area a quiet, calm atmosphere.  The sense of disconnection from the outside, and attendant privacy that came with it, made them all much more comfortable as they stripped down...everyone except Kylan, that is, who hesitated in undoing his belt as he stood with his back to the rest of the occupants.
“Is something wrong?” Tuli asked, noticing his unease.  She was already bare as her birthday but seemed oblivious to the fact.
“Uh...well...I kind of just followed along with everyone without thinking, but...will all of you promise not to be mad?”
Everyone paused and gave him curious looks, until he turned around and opened his pants, head still down and cheeks visibly pink even through his fur.  They had almost forgotten.  He didn’t speak up often, and his voice was light and young when he did.  Like his sister, his appearance naturally impressed them as that of a child, and the face they shared made it easy to forget he did not also share her anatomy.  What stood out above the hem of his pants, however, brought the truth back into crisp focus.  “I mean...I can’t really help it.  I’m a male, after all, even if I’m being called a ‘wife’ here...and you’re all very...”  He shut up, realizing he was including his sister in that statement, and his patchwork fur threatened to become uniformly pink.
Nayeli laughed.  Not in mockery, but good nature.  “Look all that you like and share all that you have,” she assured him, “I am quite certain that before even this first week is finished, we are all bound to find ourselves together in still more intimate circumstances than this.  I, for one, will forgive every embarrassing, accidental, and even intentionally rude word and touch.  I hope you will do the same.”  As if to drive home the point, she deliberately sat facing toward him on the little wooden platform beside the barrel, while she waited for Sarahi to bring down a bucket of the steaming water for her to wash with.  The Sha'khari also snuck a glance toward him and quietly moved her hind leg back to give him a glance at the part she did share with him, just barely peeking from its sheath, and an understanding wink.
Though not much less embarrassed, Kylan breathed a sigh of relief as the other women nodded their agreement, and finished undressing.  They each stood on the little wooden platforms, using buckets and cloths to wash themselves.  Tuli took it upon herself to assist the twins, who were barely tall enough to get their buckets into the water, while Sarahi brought water down to Nayeli.  The Ferruda in turn assisted the Sha'khari with scrubbing her hindquarters, which were uncomfortable for her to reach in the best of circumstances.  Once they were all satisfied with their scrub, Sarahi helped her up into the bath (having four legs in addition to two arms had so many advantages!), while Tuli again assisted the twins, who essentially had to float near the top of the barrel and hang on the sides.  The Ferruda then held Sarahi’s bath steady while the large Sha'khari hoisted herself awkwardly in (the narrow space wasn’t made with a body as long as hers in mind) before finally settling herself in.
As the water stopped sloshing, there was a collective sigh of contentment among the group as they soaked in the soothing heat and quiet.  Sarahi was the one to finally break it, though she sounded much less accusatory than she had back at the command tent.  “So you didn’t try to kill him when you first had him asleep.  I’m still not sure why, but what came next?”
Nayeli leaned back against the side of her barrel, half-floating in the warm water to the great relief of her feet.  “You are welcome to think me a fool, as he does...but laying there on the ground, he looked to me to be nothing except tired and sad.  I didn’t know his story then, but I knew what it was like to be misused by those you trust, and those who ought most to be concerned for you.  I thought that maybe he had endured something similar...and not come through it as well as I had.  And I thought that I would like to give him a chance at that, if I could,” she sighed, “Since that day...well, I will never call him wrong when he names me a fool, but I am glad I took the risk, all the same.”
“I think it will be a long time before I understand that,” the Sha'khari replied evenly, but remarked no further on it.
“Me too,” Nayeli chuckled, “After that, I drug him all the way back to the ziggurat.  I must have been quite the sight in nothing but my underwear, but it hardly mattered.  The streets were empty.  The ziggurat was empty.  He’d first entered town on that side, and hit the Order hard.  He swears it just happened to be the first building in his path, but I wonder if Gorgorond didn’t recognize a threat that needed dealt with while they had the element of surprise.  Regardless, I dragged him into the pantry and laid him on a potato sack, then locked him in while I ran through town looking for help.  There weren’t many of us left, but I did manage to find a merchant trying to shove the rest of his wares into a cart on the street beyond where Oro had killed me, and convinced him to take a message to the Order in the next town as quickly as he could.”  She hadn’t bothered looking for her habit during her desperate run, so her scent had probably done much to calm the man and make him agreeable, but she could only count that as a small reward for his help.  “Then I ran all the way back to the ziggurat, sat down beside him in that little pantry...and waited.”
“So the Order sent priests to help?” Diya asked.
“It took them three days, or nearly so.  And they were none too happy to find me in the state I was in, especially when I refused to let the paladin take his head.  May the Authority bless that man with many glories,” she added quietly, “He had a very intimidating presence, but it’s a funny thing: having died once, I wasn’t terribly worried about suffering it again.  And yet he did not kill me when I didn’t move out of the door for him.  I thought he might.  He would have been well within all rights.  He didn’t even exercise his power to command me to move aside.  Instead, he sealed the room and sent a letter all the way back to Corruscant, appraising The Matriarch of the situation (may she live again), and kept guard over us while awaiting her direction.”  Nayeli put her hands to her cheeks and smiled at the fond memory.  “I’ll never forget the day he slid the first reply under the door.  I had only decided to be a priestess a year before, and hardly begun my training.  Never did I imagine I would get a letter directly from The Matriarch herself (may she live again) in my life.  But there were several letters over the following days.  She asked about me, asked about the demon, whose name I did not even know then, and asked what I wanted to do.”
The way she recounted it, like the secret exchanges of a childhood romance, seemed to amuse Tuli.  “You really treasure this woman, huh?”
“She is an exemplar of virtue, to say nothing of the her favor with the Authority or being founder of the Order.  She was and is everything I have ever aspired to be,” Nayeli confessed.  Seeming to realize how much she was gushing, the Ferruda cleared her throat and straightened up a little in her bath.  “In the end, she asked if I would be willing to be his warden, and be responsible for the risk I asked her to place on all our people.  I agreed, on the condition that I be married to him with her personal blessing.”
Sarahi nearly knocked her bath over when she bolted upright on her hind legs in the narrow space.  “That was your condition?!” she blurted out.  When Nayuli confirmed with a nod, she carefully eased herself back down.  “I’ve been thinking this whole time that this was something put on you by The Matriarch.  But you...actually chose that binding.  Why?”
The priestess nodded again, looking genuinely regretful for the first time since they had come to know her.  “Yes, my circumstances are of my own making, and I will not complain about that.  I will, however, have to ask all of you to forgive me for this.  I am the reason you are in this unusual position, under such bizarre conditions.”  She kept her eyes closed, and her head bowed, as she explained the rest.  “To keep him quelled, I knew I would need to frequently be in very close contact with him.  Intimate contact, even.  You might think that, having known as many men as I had, I would have become comfortable with that...but I had not.  I have not.  For once, I wanted that touch to be legitimate, free of guilt under the teachings of our Order, even if they lacked the love of a proper relationship.  So I asked to be married, and The Matriarch (may she live again) consented to my terms, and the paladin who had watched over us performed the ceremony to bind us.  And so, for the last eight years, I have been his wife, and his guard, and the vent for much of his frustrations.”
“So it finally got to be too much, huh?” Tuli nodded sympathetically, “He seems like a handful.  I would have wanted help a lot sooner.”
She was surprised when Nayeli shook her head.  “I do not want this,” she told them softly, but firmly, “It is against the teachings of the Order.  It is a mark of failure on my part.  I have agreed to it because The Matriarch herself (may she live again) has sanctioned and pardoned it, and as a concession to her for all she has done for me up to now.  I feel nothing but pity and gratitude toward each of you for coming to my aid, and I do not even have the right to send you away.  But. I. Do. Not. Want. This.”
None of them seemed quite sure what to say to that.  She had done nothing except welcome them, reassure them, comfort them, share with them.  By her own admission she held no misgivings towards them.  The dissonance was telling.  “What happened?” Sarahi asked simply.
“A battle,” Nayeli said through a surprising lump developing in her throat.  Though she had been telling all this as though it were a favorite story from her childhood, her words were suddenly short and forced with some reluctance from her throat.  “He turned on us.  There was another demon, and they turned each other back on their own side.  My life is lived to prevent exactly this.  But I could not do it.  He was too excited at the feast.  Our entire front-line fell before I turned him back, and then only by planting myself in the path of the other demon.”  Taking a deep breath, she forced her throat to relax, and the mist in her eyes to clear, briefly sinking her face into the warm water to wash away the traces.  “Oh, forgive me.  I am ashamed of nothing in my life more than that day.  The only real compliment he has ever given me is that I deserve, by his estimate, to die last.  And the only real promise he has ever made is that I will do so by his hand alone.  So I forced him to choose between his bloodlust and keeping that promise.  As he says , I am ‘damned lucky’ he chose in my favor.”
Diya, in the barrel closest to hers, leaned far over its edge to pat her shoulder comfortingly.  “It’s okay.  We’re not trying to pry, just to understand.  No matter what anyone says, I don’t think you failed at anything.”
“So The Matriarch thinks a stronger scent is needed,” Sarahi filled in the rest, “It’s become less effective, or he’s growing acclimated, or something of that sort.  At least that makes a certain amount of sense.”  Giving the Ferruda a concerned look, she added, “I am sorry.  I did not mean to disparage you.”
Nayeli shook her head, patting the comforting hand on her shoulder, as she slowly regained her composure.  “You have not.  I’ve just never had to speak these thoughts aloud.  It...purifies them.  I didn’t appreciate how strong they were.  I’m fine now.  Thank you,” she said to Diya with the return of a genuine smile.  Taking one more deep breath, she leaned back once again in her tub to let the now cooling water work the last of its magic on her tense muscles.  “I still have many, many stories to share, but now you know the most important one, and why you are here, and why we are what we are.  I will be happy to answer any question you bring to me at any time.  And I do look forward to having someone to answer my questions without a lacing of venom,” she admitted.
“If it’s our scent that was important, I don’t know how much good I’m going to do,” Diya admitted, changing the subject for Nayeli’s sake, “I’m only half Ferruda, so my scent is pretty weak.  And he doesn’t have it at all,” she nodded toward her brother.
That made Nayeli chuckle.  “There’s no cause to worry.  The agreement with Absol was to provide only a single bride.  Oro took it on himself to claim more, to reassert his dominance, but in the end it means we three are more than enough to keep him quelled,” she said, gesturing between herself, Tuli, and Sarahi.  “You won’t have to be called on for that duty.  As it stands, he can hardly keep his eyes open in a room with us all.”
“No!” Kylan thumped the side of his tub firmly, surprising everyone, “Now that I’m part of this, I want to do my part.  I’m tired of...sis, don’t take this wrong...but I’m tired of being stuck in hiding, or a corner of the room, while Diya does all the work to keep us both alive.  I’m not big, and I’m not terribly strong, but I can run, I can cook...I can even ‘play’, if that’s what it takes,” he insisted, though he grew a little quieter with each assertion.  “I want to help.  When he agreed to take me with all of you, I was actually glad he told me I’d have to work.  I’ve been worthless up to now, and I owe Diya a lot.”
The halfbreed in question just rolled her eyes and splashed bathwater at him.  “As if!  Don’t blame me that a bunch of Ferruda with more rank than brains think you’re ugly or something.  I never believed a word of it.”
Watching them, something seemed to have snapped inside Tuli, who sank low in her tub, until the water crested just under her nose, before erupting up with a huge splash that reached all the way over Kylan to soak Diya’s head.  The Ferruda cackled madly at the shocked looks of the twins, and even Sarahi had to cover a snicker.
The somber mood was broken.  None of them missed it.  They came very close to losing at least one of the tubs in the brief water-fight that followed, and everyone at last climbed out of the lukewarm water feeling relieved and refreshed...not to mention sweet-smelling.
“So you didn’t drown,” Oro remarked as Nayeli lead the way out of the tent, her feet thoroughly wrapped and padded with bandages and medicinal herbs, and dressed in a dark green dress, one of only two that she owned and rarely ever got to wear.  The rustle and chime of the outside world seemed to invade the bathing tent in a torrent as she broke the seal of her blessing.  “You took a damned long time, and I couldn’t hear so much as peep, so I got my hopes up,” the Rabbit added, shaking his thumb in the direction of the bonfire and a long table that had been brought out in front of it.  Several of the kobolds were running around it, laying down steaming plates and bowls, testing those that weren’t steaming any more and taking away any that felt too cold.  “You should eat before it all goes to waste.  I can’t seem to convince them that I don’t want every bite of meat and bread they can find.”
Her response was to smile, and kiss his cheek.  “Thank you.  I think we are all very hungry.”  Sarahi followed, again wearing the blouse and corset she had earlier, with the blanket making a kind of skirt around her hips and across her long back.
“Don’t get me wrong, Princess,” Oro stopped her with a hand on her shoulder as she tried to march passed, “But you’ve surprise me twice today, so I’ll admit you’ve got some balls on you.  Try not to drop ‘em.”  He let her go at that, and started for the table, apparently having nothing more to say to the rest of the group.  Sarahi couldn’t move for another few seconds, unable to decide if that was some kind of compliment, a subtle threat, or his tasteless idea of a joke.
They went and dropped their clothes and towels off at the tent, then joined him around the table.  The sheer amount of food was overwhelming.  That the kobolds seemed to be competent chefs, even going so far as to make a pleasant presentation of the dishes, was surprising.  The twins, especially, having never seen so much food they were actually allowed to eat, seemed lost about where to begin.
“Eat everything you can,” Nayeli encouraged them with a smile, “It’s rare for us to have a feast like this, so be sure to enjoy it.”
They were only too happy to obey.  Diya’s meager earnings as a servant had kept them fed, but never full, and usually on much more common fare.  Steaks and apples and honey-braised carrots were new like a stream of desserts to their tongues.  The only thing that slowed their eating...or Kylan’s, at least...was Oro’s frown directed squarely at the patchwork half-breed, while the Rabbit sat with an untouched plate.  Putting his fork and knife down at last, he asked quietly, “Do...you not like it, husband?”
Oro’s ear twitched in annoyance.  “Don’t accept your fate so easily.  It’s dull,” he grumbled.  They were both referring to the ruffly blue-and-white dress Kylan was wearing, an exact match to his sister’s.  They had agreed that if he was going to play “wife”, he was going to lean into the role as hard as he could, including dressing the part.  He had thought that might appeal to whatever warped desire had convinced Oro to include him...but maybe they hadn’t understood very well.
Nayeli, sitting to his left, gave the little one a sympathetic look.  “For what it’s worth, you are every bit as attractive as your sister.  But appearances mean almost nothing to this one, so clothe yourself for comfort before appeal,” she advised, then turned to Tuli.  “On a similar note, I’m surprised to see you in that again,” she remarked, eying the same simple dress from the choosing ceremony, “Did we fail to get you anything that fits?”
“Oh, I think I’ve got two or three changes that’ll do,” the Ferruda assured her happily, “I just really like these, but I don’t think I’ll be able to wear them much after today, so I’m making the most of it.”
Sarahi arched a brow at her.  “You like being more than half-naked in the open?”
Tuli nodded enthusiastically with a big smile.  “Oh yes!  Back home, I went completely naked as often as I could.  I just love the feel of the wind in my fur,” she sighed, tipping her head back as a breeze swept over them dramatically, “Sometimes I like to dance in it, even!  Teehee...and sometimes, I think it talks to me when we dance, but that’s probably just my imagination.”
Sarahi, Nayeli, and Oro were all giving her odd looks, but not all for the same reasons.  “Talks to you?” Sarahi mused, “You are a strange one, no offense.”
“What does it say?” Nayeli asked gently, seeming less disbelieving and more...concerned.
“Oh, all kinds of things,” the busty Ferruda answered cheerfully, oblivious to any concern, “Sometimes it tells me things about far-off places.  Sometimes it just kind of remarks on what’s around me.  Remember what I said about the kobolds worshiping dragons?  I think I heard that from the wind.”
“Did it tell you anything about me?” Oro asked in a low tone, looking very pointedly at Tuli as though reassessing exactly how much of a thorn in his side she would be.
For the first time, she seemed to realize she was being taken seriously...and possibly not in a friendly way.  “Um...no, not really.  It did warn me not to back away when you pointed your sword at me.  Something about showing weakness, I think...?”
Oro put his face in his hand as Nayeli’s eyes widened and Sarahi finally began to catch on to the significance.  “Wind-wife,” he hissed, “I picked up a fusking wind-wife!”
“Huh?” Tuli tilted her head, “I don’t think so.  Don’t they get...like...gifts or something?  Oh, a blue sash!  That’s what it was: they get a blue sash from the wind.”  As if on cue, a strong gust of wind blew through the camp, lifting a strip of blue fabric from the pile of uniforms the Kobolds had made and dropping it directly on top of Tuli’s head.
The blood-red Rabbit gave her a narrow look, saying once more for emphasis, “Wind. Wife.”
“Oh...,” Tuli looked more baffled than anyone at the cloth she pulled off her head, “So...is that bad, then?”
“It means you’re the worst kind of spy: the kind that doesn’t even know they’re someone else’s eyes,” Oro growled, “There’s always going to be a breeze around you, watching and listening, carrying fusking messages to that fusking Matriarch in Corruscant...”
“Well, we always knew she was keeping tabs on us, and that was probably how,” Nayeli reminded him, pressing a palm against his nose to coax him back into his seat and calm his growing ire.  Turning her gentle smile back to Tuli, she asked, “Do you know what it means to be a wind-wife?”
“Not really,” the Ferruda admitted, “Other than one of the four winds likes you for some reason, and brings you a sash as a sign, and some of them go off to join an order in Coras.”
Nayeli chuckled at her answer.  “Well that’s more than most know.  Specifically, it means you’ve attracted the interest of the North Wind, as she is the one known to give tokens of her favor.  And you don’t seem the type to have undergone rituals of dedication or made offerings, so the favor you’ve earned is wholly natural and unsought...which is the most potent kind of favor.  In short, as it stands, you would need little more than a pledge to become an Initiate priestess of the Order, dedicated to the Saint of the North Wind, one of the Order’s most powerful servants.”  The lioness patted the dazed-looking Tuli’s arm.  “Also, it means he is going to be extra venomous with you, at least for a while.  He really hates the winds.”
“Of course I hate the winds!” the Rabbit barked, slamming a fist on the table and gnashing his teeth suddenly, “How the fusk am I supposed to kill something I can’t cut?!  Even Gorgorond can’t fit the entire fusking sky in his maw...all at once,” he quickly added, as if suddenly remembering it might be possible to eat the sky under the right circumstances.
“Er...does that mean I’m...like, cheating on someone now?” Tuli asked for clarity, pointing from Oro to the sky and back.
“Hell if I care,” the Rabbit grumbled, “I’ll fusk you all the same, and all the better if North gets jealous.  You’re mine now,” he declared, though motivated entirely by spite rather than devotion.
Nayeli sighed, pushing her empty plate back.  “I would not be concerned for the wind.  She knows full well the situation, and she would not have instructed you to catch his attention if she did not approve of your entering into it.  But for the moment, I remain the only one here actually married to him.  And that...is something we should address soon, before Coras’ soldiers arrive,” she noted the sun setting beside the mountains behind them.  The reinforcements would be arriving soon...not realizing they had just become the front lines.