This Is What It's Like To Be Lovers [ON HOLD]

5: Honey, There Is No Right Way

• Someone New by Hozier •

As the water near their feet gurgled, Jade let out a low "not again" before she, Larimar, and Mewton were pulled in. Only this time, the fall was short and they landed gracefully on wet grass. The calico promptly jumped off Lari's shoulder and stretched to weed out the exhaustion that sitting on her bonded human's shoulder must have brought upon her.

She purred, claiming the women's attention to the cottage that stood in front of them. In the absence of moonlight, they would not have been able to make it out if not for the feline's direction and some flickering candles casting minimal light through the ajar windows.

"I believe the Moon meant for us to stay here," Jade stated the obvious, holding out a hand that the Princess didn't take.

They knocked on the door and a woman opened it, standing in a dress and an apron, and with a ladle in her hand. "Your Highnesses." She acknowledged them, beaming. "Please come in. We've been waiting for you. Please make yourselves at home. Avento!"

"My name is Citra." The woman continued. They could hear her smile as she spoke. She had made her way to a corner of the room that the door lead them to, casting long shadows on the walls with every step. The candles displayed a neat, little kitchen there, with utensils overturned onto a yellow slab and a fire where the woman stirred her ladle in a bowl of...something.

"Nice to make your acquaintance, Citra." Larimar bowed, prompting everyone else in the room to follow the etiquette.

A child soon walked in from an adjacent room and stood awkwardly beside a cot. With his klutzy hands, he tried to sway it and was stopped immediately with a low reprimanding sound from his mother.

"You'll wake her," Citra rebuked, raising her ladle again before turning to the royalties. "Your Highnesses, this is my son, Avento." She pointed to the boy and then to a very young baby sleeping in the cot. "And this is my daughter, Jada. We named her after you, my Queen."

A deep blush spread over Jade's cheeks. In a world where only the older, and the more experienced held positions of power, she had become a Queen too young, too soon. While many scholars and recorders of history criticized her triumph, her people adored her for driving out a tyrant and deemed her worthy of the several titles they came up with - Youngest Queen, the Vigilante Queen, One True Jahiman Monarch, the Ironwood Warrior, Protector of the Woods, and Saviour of the Trees.

Yet, this felt like one of her greatest achievements. "I'm honored," Jade said softly, bowing.

Avento tugged the women into the room he came from, making them face to face with what The Moon must have meant by, "everything you need".

There was one pallet on the floor that looked nothing in comparison to the comfortable bed Lari was supposed to be sleeping on that night. Opposite that, sat two wooden boxes, tightly shut.

The boy pointed a candle at the boxes and the women glided towards them, distinguishing their own by the color of their realm. The boxes looked small but held an impressive amount of things - the depth magically immeasurable. As expected of Arcane deities. Other than items of basic necessity, they had weapons.

The blue one had a bow and a quiver, albeit void of arrows, for Larimar. On the quiver was a note in beautiful handwriting. "May your quiver never be empty, and all your enemies defeated."

The sword that Jade pulled out of her green box had another note on its sheath. "This is no Laz-killer, but something I blessed with as much power as I could ~ Sol."

"I can only assume they meant we'll have to fight soon." Jade extended her arm and swung the sword, measuring the might of the longsword.

"Or maybe they just want us to be in practice," Lari replied with a smile and in the flickering light, Jade couldn't tell if it was sarcasm or innocence.