Be wary, young sailor, Of wind and high water. The sea has a secret, The sea has a daughter. She'll swim along starboard, And capture your heart. With a flip of her tail-fin, Underwater, depart. ~Unknown.

I was reading another book from the Mystic Moon, a quaint little folklore and divination book, that anchored people's personalities to the year and day and time of birth. So I got out my calendars and charts and figured out how I'd be categorized according to this alien calendar. As far as I could figure, I was born in the Mystic Moon year of the Rat which would make me charming, funny, skillful and possibly horribly greedy. Hehe! Yeah, that sounds about right. So then I thought I'd look up Millerna. She was born in the Mystic Moon year of the Horse and was supposed to be obstinate, tactless, hardworking and extremely likable. Yup! I kept going. Merle was a courageous and vivacious Cockerel. Allen and Eries were more charming Rats, Van and Hitomi were altruistic wishy-washy Goats, and Gadeth was a loyal Dog. Folken, a Monkey, too clever for his own good. I was really having quite a chuckle at this little book. What fun! So I slogged on through the translation, until I got to the marital compatibility charts. Oh, boy. ...Bummer. The book said that Horses and Rats were not compatible at all, that they'd have endless trouble and lots of difficulty communicating. Skeptic though I claim to be, I can't tell you how disappointing I found that. I don't even subscribe to the book's alien religion, and I hate to think of myself as superstitious, but honestly, I would much rather have read something nice and auspicious and comforting. Dammit, I am so tired of other people deciding my fate. They always get it wrong.

"Do you really think he'll go for us, Eries?" "Do you think he's had a better offer?" "Um. ...No. Everybody thinks he's a slut and won't go near him. Kind of odd, really. I don't think he's gotten much more than a couple of kisses the whole time I've known him." "Maybe the press pinned that reputation on him because he's so gorgeous." "Could be. So how are we going to ask him?" "Well, that's the hard part, isn't it?" "You're not kidding. ...We could try more alcohol." "Couldn't hurt."

Dryden's horse was in the stables, so I knew he was somewhere in the palace, but he wasn't in library. He wasn't in his room. None of the pages had seen him. I finally found him out on our balcony. (Last place you look, right?) He was reading a book and drinking lemonade. No shirt. Oooh. I dragged a chair over to him. He's got almost invisible freckles all across his shoulders. The hairs on the backs of his arms are blonde and shine against his tan. There are only a few light brown hairs on his chest and they are barely visible, almost the same colour as his skin. I was rather expecting more considering all the whiskers. Not that I'm disappointed. I scooched my chair closer.

"Good book?" I asked him. "No." "What's it about?" "Theory on the demise of Atlantis," he said. "Sounds like just your speed. Why don't you like it?" "It's poorly researched, inaccurate, badly written and the guy can't spell." "So why are you reading it?" "Because I have to. This guy is refuting my work." "You wrote a book, too?" "No, I just wrote a paper. It was groundbreaking, brilliant and concise. Unlike this." Dryden hefted the rather thick book. "This debacle is just a waste of trees." "Can I have some lemonade?" "Sure, help yourself." He handed me his glass, which was empty except for the ice, and I stepped around him to grab the pitcher off the little table. Dryden kept talking, "I mean, listen to this: It is another world entirely, and it is enclosed within this one; it is in a sense a universal retreating mirror image of this one, with a peculiar geography I can only describe as infundibular.* Infundibular?!!! Excuse me? Say what?" "Dryden!" I squeaked and the lemonade overflowed my glass, ran over my hand and splashed on the table. I stopped pouring. "What? You getting some insight into this seeming nonsense? I'm getting nothing here. Don't tell me the mysteries of the universe are unfolding before you?" "You're not wearing any pants!" He looked up at me then and smiled. "Now that's an interesting non sequitur. Either that or else the best compliment I've ever received in my life." "No! Why aren't you wearing any pants?" "It's hot. ...You're darn lucky I'm wearing anything. If it gets another few degrees hotter, I won't be. Aren't you hot? Why are you wearing all that? Take something off." He grabbed the hem of my shorts and tugged. "No!" He shrugged and turned back to his book. "Fashion slave. So anyway, this guy not only cites my paper incorrectly, he takes everything I said out of context in order to refute it. And, assuming that wasn't a very elaborate group hallucination, then we have actually been to Atlantis, and he hasn't, so-" "-Dryden?" "...What is it, darling?" He tossed the book onto the table. It started soaking up lemonade. "Am I really a fashion slave?" "Have you seen your closet? You've got more shoes than all the horses in the stable put together." "Do you think that's weird?" "I think you're about average for a princess. Don't worry about it, darling." "...Why do you call me 'darling?'" "Uh... I hadn't really thought about it. I guess that's what my father calls my mother. ...uh... Do you mind?" "No, I don't mind. ...Meiden says 'darling'?!" "Sure. Why wouldn't he?" "It's just hard to imagine. I mean, Meiden is so... um... different from your mother." "Gosh, your diplomacy lessons have sunk in almost too well. I think what you're trying to say is: Dryden, your dad is so extraordinarily butt-ugly, how in the world did he land a catch like your mother? It must be one of those opposites attract things. Also, my mother is always SO very happy to see him that I suspect he must have..." Dryden picked up the edge of his habayah and slowly uncovered one brown leg. "...hidden talents," he finished archly. I grabbed his habayah out of his hand and tucked it back around him. "Aw. You're not gonna kiss my knee again? How sad." I kissed his mouth instead. It was delicious, kissing him is always delicious, but afterwards he opened his eyes, raised an eyebrow and said, "Ah. A toll. What is it that you want?" Sheesh! How could he tell? I said, "Eries wants to have her birthday party at the beach. She's got a little beach house out on the Amici coast. It's like five hundred miles away, though. She wanted me to ask you if you might take us all there on the Corsair." "Yeah, sure. No problem." Dryden picked up his book again, which hadn't taken well to lying in water with its spine cracked open. Pages started falling out of the cheaply bound book and disintegrating over his lap. Dryden frowned at it and then brightened. "Ah, yes. Suicide. The only honorable way out for a book this bad." "So will you come to Eries's beach party? As well as taking us all there?" I asked. "Sandfleas. Bleah. The undertow. Bleah," he said. "I'll be in a swimsuit." "...Wouldn't miss it for the world," he said. Oooh! I bent over him again.

"You remember everything else; why can't you remember to shave?" "Maybe I like it when pretty girls pull my whiskers." "Pervert," she said. "You started it. I was just standing here all innocent-like and you come along and start getting all touchy... No, no. Don't stop." "See, you are a pervert." "Well, if you say so. I'm not sure I'd know a pervert if I saw one, but I trust your opinion." "...Just what are you implying?" "Why, that it takes one to know one, of course. Yeee! No, I'm NOT ticklish!" Hooey. It's all absolute hooey. I looked it up. My parents are a Horse and Rat, too. And they've been happily pulling each other's tails for nigh on thirty years now. Hooey, I say.

Merle and I were invited to Princess Eries's birthday party. We went, mostly because Merle wanted to go. We showed up in Pallas with everyone else and boarded the Corsair. Merle says she loves beach parties. What a weird kitty.

The Corsair is a beautiful ship, especially at night with the lanterns hanging all over the upper decks and sending flashing glints all over the brass. I leaned against the butt of the bowsprit. Even that was fancy, carved in the shape of a sea-dragon and all painted. Very beautiful. Bleah. When we had all boarded the ship earlier I had tossed my duffel into my usual quarters, Millerna had tossed hers into the cabin next to mine... and Allen had watched us putting our stuff into separate rooms. And how exactly did that make me feel? Defensive? A bit. Angry? Not exactly. Embarrassed? Yes. Humiliated? Well, I wouldn't go that far. Jealous? Hmmmm. Yup. I'm jealous of Allen. Allen, who can have any woman he wants. Gallant, handsome, twit Allen. And then there's me. Married for a year. Twenty-two year old virgin. How pathetic... Right. This ain't profitable. At least I have my health. Let's see, what else? Um... this lovely airship. Wow, has it really been a whole year since I've traveled by airship? Spent five whole years on airships before I got married. ...I miss traveling. ...How is it possible that I miss sex even more and I've never even had it? Auuugh! Right. Lovely, lovely airship. Oh, hell. ...Well, I could go jerk off or I could have a cold shower. Those seem to be my options. ...Neither one really floats my boat. Weeeeeeeeeell. I could just stand here unmoving. The wind tumbled and eddyied over the stacked decks of the ship and blew my clothes randomly around. I couldn't tell the wind direction at all this low, so I leaned against the railing and looked up at the anemometer. I looked up further and checked our direction against the stars, tried to recall the coastline map in the navigation room, and did calculations in my head. Distance equals rate times time. It used to be a game I'd play: plot a night course and see where I'd end up in the morning. I used to be good at it. I guess we'll see. "Hey." I looked down to see Millerna at the top of the ladder. The moonlight bleached her hair to silver, but turned her blue eyes black. "Pretty night." "Uh. Yeah, I guess so." "Can I come up?" she asked. "Of course." She jumped up the last rungs and onto the deck. She put her arm around my waist and leaned against me. "Why do you stand at the front here and look back at the ship? Why don't you look out where we are going?" I said, "It's no fun to be able to see the future. It ruins the surprise. Besides, it's a very pretty ship." "Well, that's true," she said, but she turned in my arms, putting her back to the ship. She wasn't looking where we were going, either. Her eyes were shut; she stood on tiptoe. You know, if I had followed the original plan then I wouldn't have returned to Asturia and gotten married until Millie turned eighteen... so, technically, I'm getting some damn fine kissing a whole year ahead of schedule! How about that!

I can never go to sleep on a moving airship, I always end up restlessly walking around for a few hours until I eventually feel ready to fall over. So I was pacing through the halls when I saw Millerna leave her stateroom. I followed her. I intended to catch up with her, but I guess she knew the Corsair better than I did, and I lost her for a minute. When I caught sight of her again, she was climbing up to the forecastle deck. I saw her walk right into Dryden's arms. I stood there for a minute and then I turned around and went back to the quarter deck. I know better now and I've known better before. That loose hold is unbreakable. Why do I keep traveling in the same lousy patterns? Because this is exactly, EXACTLY the same. I didn't even know what I had with Marlene until way, way after she had left Asturia, not until I happened to visit her a year later and saw her in the arms of her husband looking... just like that. Why am I like this? In a hurry to die and always too late for love. I just can't get this right.

Dryden had lent me his bandana so I could braid my hair up, but he didn't help us set up the volleyball net. Everyone else helped and that might have been too many people helping anyway, because it took us rather a long time before the net didn't just topple over into the surf. Once we had it set, I ran up the beach to fetch Dryden. "Come play!" I said. "No thanks." He'd put down his book to talk to me, but he wasn't moving. I pouted. "You know, if you don't play, Eries's team will slaughter us." "Tough. I don't want to play." "Why not?" "I don't feel like it." "...Dryden, it's a beach party. Playing in the water is the whole point." "Oh. Well in that case, I'll go home." He got up and started walking back towards the house. I looked down and I stood there flabbergasted. He forgot his book! His favorite book! I ran after him and grabbed his elbow. "Okay. What is going on with you?" "Nothing! I don't want to talk about it!" "I don't think so. Spill it. Now, husband!" But Dryden just looked sideways at the rest of the party, who were all staring at us expectantly. Hmmm. Months ago, I probably would not have even noticed, but now the moment seemed an impossibly huge intersection of possibilities, any of which I could choose, any of which would betray what my priorities were. "How about we go for a walk?" I said. "What about the volleyball game?" "Screw the volleyball game." He smiled faintly at that and let me take his hand and pull him over to where everyone was waiting. I said to them, "Bye, guys. Dryden and I are going for a walk. I abdicate as team captain. I appoint Serena. Pick the teams again. Come get us when you're done and I'll start cooking dinner." They all looked at each other, but before they could say anything, I turned and walked off. I curled my arm round Dryden's waist and drew him off down the beach. He seemed happy enough to go. Once we were definitely out of earshot I said, "Can you swim, Dryden?" "...not... really." "Oh. ...Does not really mean not at all?" "...um. Yeah." "Is that the whole story?" "...no." "So?" "Um... I told you my dad is a great horseman? He's great at everything else, too. But I... well, you name a sport, he tried it on me. And I sucked at them all. I just had lousy hand-eye coordination as a kid. It was no fun, so I just took to avoiding him whenever possible, lest he drag me off for yet another excruciating experience. But my dad...wanted to find SOME sport I could do with him, I guess... so one day he took me out on his buddy's sailing boat... which I rather liked... until he picked me up and threw me into the water. You know, that sink or swim thing. I totally wasn't expecting it." "Oh. What happened?" "I sank." He was so deadpan that I had to force myself not to laugh. There was a twinkle in his eye as he said that, but still, I didn't laugh. "Um. Did you try to swim then?" I said. "Oh, yeah! You bet. ...Didn't work." "So, then what?" "Um... Have you ever tried drowning?" "Nooooo." "I don't recommend it." "Uh? ...You...you..." "I breathed in a whole lot of water... which hurts a lot more than you'd ever suspect and I... then everything went dark... and, uh... I woke up on the beach with my father walloping the life back into me. ...He pretty much left me alone after that." "Oh. So you haven't been swimming much since, eh?" "Try AT ALL!" "Well, gosh! Why did you even agree to come to this party?" "...I wanted to be with you." Oh! ... "Well, that's just an awful story. He could have killed you. It makes me angry just thinking about it. I bet you must feel..." I sputtered to a stop. He was looking at me like I'd grown a second head. "Whaaaaaat?" I said. "Hey, I'm Dryden. I don't DO bitter." I stared at him, and then I slowly bent over and grabbed my stomach, crying with laughter. "You are such a card." "Oh, yeah? Which one?" Dryden looked quite pleased. "No, really. My father comes from a long and illustrious line of imbeciles. It's only to be expected that he made idiotic parenting mistakes. At least he fished me out, right? And it's not like he wasn't sorry. ...Course that might partly have been because my mother yowled at him for weeks about it." "So... you're not angry at your Dad about it all?" "Well, no. And it's not like karma didn't come back and bite him in the butt." "Like, how?" "A couple years ago, I bought up all the stock I could find from one of his favorite little companies, one that he ran personally and then I fired him. Hostile takeover." Dryden rocked on his heels and looked out at the horizon, grinning fondly at the memory. And he says he's not a pirate. God, I love that grin. "How'd your dad take it." "Better than I thought; he does have a sense of humour. ...I think he was planning on giving me that company eventually anyway." "Oh." I looked out at the ocean, too. It was so strewn with big black rough rocks here that the crashing surf came through sieved and smaller. The bottom was sandy and shallow and very gently inclined. A really big tidepool. Ooooh! I stepped in front of him and I unbuttoned his shirt, slipped it off him and pressed it into his hand. "Gosh! And what of yours shall I take off for you?" he said and he reached out and snapped the elastic on the leg of my swimsuit. Ooooh! Yowie! I told my knees to ignore the reverberation of that elastic and I undid the knots of his sash. Dryden slid his fingers under one of my shoulderstraps and pulled it down my arm. "Such a nice little swimsuit. I could peel you like a grape," he said. Aiii! I shrugged my strap back up, folded his clothes and dropped them in the sand. Then I backed into the water. He just watched me, blankly. I said, "Just come in a little bit with me." He shook his head. I stood knee-deep in the water and the waves were so dinky that my suit didn't even get wet. "Come on. It's not even as deep as a bathtub." "No, thank you." "Please?" "NO!" Oh, maaaaan! Well...... What can't he say no to? Hmm. Well, I'll give it a shot. I sloshed back to him, till the water was only ankle deep, and then I lay down on my side, put my hand on my hip and a coquettish smile on my face. And then I chanted, "Would you kiss me in the sea? I have kissed you for a fee. I have kissed you on the knee. I love you, don't you love me? Could you, would you, let me be? Will you kiss me in the sea?" He blinked. "That was terrible... Absolutely terrible... I don't think I can resist." "Oh, good," I said and batted my eyelashes at him outrageously. He rolled his eyes at me, but dropped his glasses onto his pile of clothes and stepped into the water. "Well, I guess these are pretty small waves," he said as he sat down next to me.

"Do I get a kiss now or do I have to make up some more bad poetry?" "Ooooh! Do I get iambic pentameter?" "Oh, just come here." "Not even a haiku, huh?" he said, and then, "Mmmph!" as I silenced him. I leaned back into water, and his lips followed mine. The little tidepool waves licked at us, but then all the water pulled away, gathered into a bigger wave and rolled over us. I held my breath, but he didn't remove his arms from around me, he just squeezed me tighter and kissed me again. The cool water felt electric and did not cool me off at all.

He kissed me and kissed me for what felt like forever but it still wasn't long enough. He broke free for a moment when another biggish wave rolled over us. I wriggled and panted, almost weeping in frustration. Aaaaii! "What is it?" he asked me. I said, "My swimsuit is filled with sand," and felt disappointed at my automatic evasion. But Dryden was too cunning to easily let go of even such an oblique hint as that. "Where exactly?" he said playfully. "Down at the bottom." He swung his leg over mine and pressed his canvas-covered thigh between mine. "What, here?" Another bigger wave that lifted me off the sand, floated me momentarily against him. "Ye-eh-eh-eh-es!" "Maybe I can help you with that?" he said. It felt like I was on fire, like the ocean should have been hissing around me. "Please!" I said and he moved against me. Aaah! Not quite right....I tilted my hips up, desperate, clamourous. Oh, yum. "Sand going away yet?" "I don't know," I said, not quite willing to admit how perfect it felt. "It feels like you've got a whole sandcastle in your bathing suit." "No," he said in my ear, "There's no sand at all in my shorts." "Eeeep!" I said, and he must have thought I was really scared or something, because he pulled away -Aiii! Right at the wrong moment!- I grabbed at him, but then another wave hit us and slammed him back into me. "Unnnngh!" I said and shook under him. "What?!!" he said. "What was-" "-Tide c-c-coming in," I said. "Oh!" He giggled and pressed me into the sand. I opened my eyes then, and so I had a seconds warning and I didn't jump the way Dryden did when Eries said, "Hmm. So when she says 'Dryden and I are going for a walk' what she means is 'Dryden and I going to go have some nookie.'"

"Dammit! Go away!" Dryden said to the world at large and most especially to the fence of legs around us. He looked at me." I thought you said this was a private beach." "Yeah, well. Next time we won't bring friends," I said. Eries poked me with her foot. "Come on, Millie. You said you'd cook. Do I have to fix the chow for my own birthday?" "I DID say I'd cook, " I said to Dryden. "No!" he said. "Aaugh! Dammit, dammit, dammit!" He crouched over me and didn't move. He looked ferociously annoyed. "Er... You... aren't... prepared to leave yet?" Another wave crashed over us, but this time it was just cold water. Dryden looked up at our giggling audience sourly. "Unfortunately I AM prepared to leave now." He sighed and then he visibly gathered up his usual good humour, and stood and offered me his hand. "So, how much sand do you have in your swimsuit?" he asked me. "None at all anymore." "Lucky you." he said and winked at me. I was sunburnt and so looked like I was blushing already.

So we all walked back to the house and Millie went to go cook. I called first dibs on the shower and somehow no one argued with me. It was a tiny beachhouse with only one bathroom. There were only two bedrooms, as well. All the guys would be sleeping in one room, all the girls in another. I wasn't going to get anymore time alone with Millerna tonight. I looked around at the terra-cotta tiled bathroom. This was gonna pretty much be it for time alone with myself, too. Hmm. I took my opportunity to commune with myself for a while, which relieved my body, if not my soul. I left the bathroom feeling pretty happy, with clean wet hair and clean dry clothes. Gadeth jumped into the bathroom after me, looking sorely in need of some communing himself. Adrian stood waiting for a turn after him. Gosh. A line.

Dryden walked into the kitchen and stopped cold, staring at me, Millerna and the disaster. "Good Lord! What is this?" he said. Millerna giggled. "When I requisitioned fresh chickens, I forgot to mention that I wanted them pre-plucked. Ooops. At least we didn't have to kill them." "You need any help?" Millerna picked a feather out of her mouth and said, "If you help us with this, you'll just need another shower. Van and I are half done anyway. You could take the corn away from the mess and start shucking. But first, come here. I want to tell you a secret." Dryden stepped over the piles of feathers. "Yeah?" "Closer," she said.

Dryden glanced at me, shrugged and bent closer to Millerna. "There are feathers in your hair," he said. She ignored that and gave him a little kiss on the cheek, the chin, the lips, the other cheek. "That was the secret?" he asked her, smiling. "That was it." Dryden pulled a bottle out of the icebox, tucked it into the basket of corn, picked it up and went out the screen door, grinning. "Was that for my benefit?" I asked her. "No. His," said Millerna. "Well, bleah! I could just puke." "Sorry," she said, not sounding sorry at all. She picked up another chicken. Serena poked her head in the door then and called, "Hey, Adrian, I found the lighter fluid! I'm gonna light the grill! Come help!" Adrian, who had been parked outside the bathroom, went running. I could hear Gadeth in the shower and everyone else was outside somewhere. We were, for the moment, actually alone. The best chance I'd had all day. Hmm. How should I put it? I took a deep breath and said, "Uh... Millerna, you ever done any fencing?" She was pulling feathers with great enthusiasm and she answered me rather inattentively. "Yeah, back when I was a kid. I haven't kept up with it at all, though." "Well, you know a skillful fencer is supposed to be able to pick up any old sword and do just fine with it... within reasonable limits I suppose, but-" "-Just what exactly are you trying to say, Van?" "...My advisors have been presenting me with princesses and duchesses and ...ladies. They want to arrange a marriage for me. And... and you're in an arranged marriage, so..." She scratched her head and sand fell out of her hair. "Oh. Um... I don't think I'm the right person for you to ask." "Why not? You-" "-I married Dryden for the good of the country. Asturia was desperately in need of a ruler who was rich, powerful, and more experienced than I was if we didn't want to get trampled. No offense, but after Dornkirk's death, Fanelia reverted to being a small, out-of-the-way, bucolic little country. You're not surrounded by vicious- Uh... you're not strategically located at all. You've got your work cut out for you what with the rebuilding, but other than that... well... You don't NEED to get married, Van." "But-" "Hey, if all your friends dove headfirst into a chipper-shredder would you do it, too?" "...But Dryden and you seem... pretty happy together," I said. She smiled and nodded inside her own personal feather blizzard. "Yeah. But honestly, Van, I think I just lucked out." "So you think I should wait for the right person?" "Or animal," she said and winked at me. Oh my God! How can she tell?

I walked over the summer-scorched and rather yellow lawn to the patio. It was surrounded by wild dog-roses, that, baking in the heat, sent up an invisible aromatic fence. Yum! I dropped the basket on the hot stone and sat down next to Merle and Allen. "What are you all drinking?" I asked. "I dunno. Eries and Gadeth were making them. They called it Magic Love Potion, alpha version," said Merle and she poked her tongue into her glass enthusiastically. The liquid was bright green and had a little paper umbrella in it. "Uh-oh. You be careful with that," I said and I popped open my beer. "They said mine was Love Potion Lite." "Ah. Yours is full-strength, eh, Allen?" He giggled inanely at me and then said, "So, Dryden, you're afraid of the water." Jerk. "So, Allen, you're afraid of intimacy." "Nevermind!" he sang. "Quite."

The idiot was still smiling away, his inhibitions dissolved in alcohol. Grrr. I said, "Hey, I think the ocean water has made your hair turn a bit green." "What!?" Heh. That sobered him right up. "It's probably just the reflection off your drink," I said. "Oh, great. Now I have to go look," he said and started walking up to the house. "Gadeth's in the shower already," I called after him. "Oh, he won't mind if I just pop in." Good riddance. I turned to the little catlet. "So, Merle, shall we shuck some corn for the cook?" "Meru!" I like Merle. At first glance you wouldn't think we'd have much to say to one another, Merle and I, but strangely we share a lot of the same perspectives.

Somehow Millie and I ended up doing the hosting duties for Eries's birthday dinner. Not that I minded; it was kind of fun. I poured drinks and passed them out and then handed out the plates that Millie loaded. I went back to the house to get the butter and when I returned to the patio and sat down, Millie handed me a plate. Chicken, rather burnt, Millie-style. Sweet corn on the cob, perfect! She can boil water, woohoo! She sat down next to me and put her arm around me. I love it when she gets affectionate with me in public. "I hear you have been teasing Allen," she said. Tattle. "He started it." "Oh, how mature. Don't let him get to you. The ocean wasn't quite as sucky as you thought it'd be, was it?' "The water was okay, I guess. The kissing was grand." "Oh, yeah?" she said loudly. "So... next time... do you think I might entice you to go deeper?" "...uh..." Oh, good lord. What is she asking me? In public? Am I blushing? Would it even be possible for me to rip my gaze away from her? Nope, can't do it. "I mean... in the water," Millie purred into the utter silence surrounding us. Eries started choking on her dinner then. Serena helpfully smacked her on the back. Allen put his hands over his mouth, but, I'm sorry to say, he did not smother himself. "That's it. Forget dinner. I'm just having Millerna." I dropped my plate to the side, grabbed up her leg and the butter knife, and I liberally buttered her calf. She screeched and then she screeched and laughed at the same time as I chomped on her leg. "Grrrrrowrrr! Yum, yum, yum!" She was laughing so hard that she had a very difficult time pulling her leg away from me, but she finally managed it. She looked down at her butter-covered leg and said, "Aaagh! Why did you do that?" "Because you deserved it. And anyway, Millernas are better with butter." Then I seized her hand as if to kiss it ...and I wiped all the butter off my face with it. Millerna looked down at herself, all sandy and salty and now buttery, too. There were still feathers in her hair. "Bleah! Dibs on the shower!" she said and ran off. Yeah, girl, go get yourself clean while you can. "There's no more hot water," said Eries thoughtfully. "A cold shower will do her good," I said and picked up my plate again. "Is that what you had?" asked Allen innocently. "...I think I'll post you out in the middle of nowhere again," I said to him. Serena grinned. "Waaah!" said Allen. "Well, maybe not. I suppose you have your uses." Allen looked relieved. So did Eries. And Gadeth. Hey wait a minute, I thought those two were sweet on each other... Interesting, I wonder... "Even if they are mostly decorative," I continued. Allen really didn't want to get sent off. He said nothing to that sally. I smiled at him and reached out and patted him on the knee. Then I moved my hand up an inch and squeezed his thigh, which made Allen look confused and then horrified. But not surprised. Is he EVER surprised when people hit on him? Eries and Gadeth both looked outraged. Both of them. Oho! Hehehe! Oh, boy! I really ought to try to get over this tendency to shove sticks into hornet's nests just to see what will happen. I'm just terrible. I apologized and told Allen I was just teasing him and we all went back to partying. Millie came back from her shower and we all had cake. (Sans gong). A good time was had by all. Nevertheless, when we all went to bed, Allen refused to get naked in my presence, preferring instead the trusted company of Gadeth. And did you know that Van has a night shirt with little blue kitty cats all over it? Bwahahahahaha! I suppose they all can laugh at me just as hard. I dreamt of hot buttered Millie all night long. Sigh. Maybe we'll go for another walk tomorrow! Yeah!

I followed Millie around the whole of the next morning and afternoon, but I never got a chance to have a moment alone with her. Instead we were treated to an impromptu and drunken acapella by Eries, Allen, and Gadeth. Eries wasn't bad, and Allen could have been okay if he wasn't drunk, but Gadeth couldn't hold a note with both hands. "I'll definitely need more beer to enjoy this," I said.

"Yeah! Y'all suck. Boo! Hiss!" said Merle. Adrian was more appreciative of the free entertainment. "Oh, I dunno. It's got a certain charm. I wish I'd brought my camera." Fire suddenly shot out of Millerna's eyes. "Your camera?!! Are you that Adrian? Hey, come back here!" When Millerna returned, having found out the hard way that Adrian was an accomplished marathon runner, she was too tired to go for a walk with me. Well, maybe in a bit, I thought, but, no. The Corsair arrived that evening, a day and a half ahead of schedule, with the news that King Aston was dead, and the party became a wake. It was a long quiet trip back. I didn't have any idea what to say. Both of my parents are still obstreperously alive. I can't imagine what it would feel like to lose so much family so young. Grava Aston was much loved by his country and by his daughters. I threw myself into organizing the funeral for them. Afterwards I took on most of the Royal duties that Eries and Millerna had been performing so they could have some space in which to grieve. Millerna and her sister were utterly depressed. My daily flirtation with Millerna was suddenly so inappropriate. Strange, what a large portion of my life those little exchanges with her had become. Ouch for all of us.

Even in deep mourning Eries and I would have to stop crying every now and then to let the well refill. During one pause I said to Eries, "I was visiting Dad the other day, before we left for your birthday and he was telling me he thought you were in love." "Really?" said Eries. She smiled a bit but she didn't say anything else. She's always been one to play her cards close to her chest, even with me. "Yeah," I said. "He said he'd gotten reports that you had been seen kissing Gadeth." "Oh. ...Well, it's true; I was kissing him." "I figured it was true from the way you two were at your party." "...So what else did Dad say?" "He was real happy. He said Gadeth was a good man. He was so happy that you were over Allen." I hadn't even known about Eries's crush until Dad told me. Like I said, she usually plays her cards very close, but this time she said, "...Oh. ...Well, I wouldn't say that either Gadeth OR I are over Allen. We are both still working on him." "What? Gadeth and Allen? You and Gadeth and Allen?" Holy moly! "Um... Gadeth and I are ever hopeful," she said, blushing a bit. "Oh! ...er..." Maybe Eries plays her cards close because when she lays them down they look so weird. She patted my hand. "What else did Dad say?" "He asked me if I was kissing Dryden yet." "And what did you say?" "I said I was... and Dad asked me if I liked it, and I said I l-l-loved it and then he asked me about school and stuff and then he sai-sa... waaaaaaah!" "Shh... It's okay... What did he say then?" I sniffed a bit and said, "He said... well, good. Now both my daughters are happy. Now I can die contented." "He called me his daughter? Really? ...Waaaaaah!" So Eries had her turn to cry then and I hugged her and eventually she blew her nose and I said to her, "So, you and Gadeth have formed a posse to get Allen?" She gave me a damp giggle. "Uh... well, I wouldn't call it that." "Oh. So have you always wanted a harem, Eries?" "Milleeeeeerrrrna!" "Okay. Not a posse, not a harem. What is it? A hairy possum?" Eries looked disgusted. "Sheesh. You sound like Dryden." "Funny that." "Oh, for God's sakes. Put your tiara-thingie back on before your head swells up any more." We laughed a bit and then we went back to crying.

Next: Chapter Thirteen Four Minutes Intro to Escaflowne Chapter One: Unseasonable Weather (Card Zero) Chapter Two: Letter to the King (Page of Cups) Chapter Three: A Kiss is just a Kiss (Knight of Wands) Chapter Four: Visions of Roses (Ace of Wands) Chapter Five: Practice makes Perfect (Deuce of Swords) Chapter Six: Walking Wounded (Eight of Cups) Chapter Seven: Four Minutes (Eight of Swords) Chapter Eight: Foundation (The Hanged Man) Chapter Nine: Horseplay (Deuce of Cups) Chapter Ten: Lessons Learned (Deuce of Coins) Chapter Eleven: Keeping Time (Strength) Chapter Twelve: Wind and Water (Ace of Cups) Chapter Thirteen: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. (Four of Wands) Chapter Fourteen: Reader, I... (Epilogue) Dedication & Webliography Goodies for You! (Wallpaper) Award! Didodikali's Lemonade Party (Links)