Dragon's World

54.

"Right into the ponds, Ms. Vanessa!" Oslo directs as I hurry with the egg. It's heavy and not as stabilized in my arms as I thought.

I quickly make my way over to the center of the pond, where I'd been standing. Placing the egg there, I crouch down and clean the remaining dirt from its surface.

"Your dress!" Kassenna cries behind me.

"That was hot," Rune kneels on one knee beside me. With that, I laugh as I continue to wash the egg off. A black and white pattern reveals itself on the shell as I wash away the dirt, small specks of gold and silver here and there.

"I don't remember there being a specific species with black, white, gold, and silver," my eyebrows furrow as I study the shell.

"Maybe it's one of a kind," Rune shrugs next to me before straightening himself and holding his hand out to help me up as well.

"Congratulations, Ms. Vanessa, you're now a citizen of the kingdom," Oslo holds his book to his chest and bows deeply before closing his book upon straightening up and smiling at both Rune and I.

"Thank you, Oslo. Will I see you tomorrow?" I nod to him gratefully.

"Only for the wedding. I will wed you two, however, I believe it's Honna who will officiate the spiritual ceremony for you both," he adjusts his eye glasses before nodding.

"We'll see you tomorrow then, chap. Thank you very much for your time," Rune hugs the man, bringing him in for all of us to hug. He's so cute!

"Thank you," he bows his head again before taking his leave.

"Vanessa? What happened?" Kassenna finally approaches after standing nearby with a horrified expression for the last few minutes.

"I ran into a bit of trouble when it came to returning with the egg and Hephaestus' Light. Sorry girl, I'll help you fix it," I cower a little as I look down at the ripped dress, now revealing my pants.

"Jeez. You're lucky you're my favorite out of all my siblings spouses," she shakes her head, inspecting the dress with a still horrified expression.

"Well, shall we then?" Rune sighs before looking to the car.

•••

When we make it back home, it's nearly two in the morning. As soon as I get out of that dress, I flop onto Rune, whom reads a book peacefully to himself until so.

"Oof," I groan, pulling the book from between us. I should've planned that better, it stabbed me right in the chest.

"Long night, I know. Tomorrow will be better, I promise," he wraps his arms over me as I nuzzle my head under his chin.

"Oh yeah, there's one thing I want to clarify with you for tomorrow night," I pick my head up and look at him. "I don't want you to expect so much out of me tomorrow. I'm not used to any of this, it's something that was clearly before my time and I was never granted the privilege of learning about. But thanks to Kassenna and you, I've learned a little about what's expected of me tomorrow night after our wedding and slash or even during the spiritual ceremony. Rune, I'm not ready for any of the nasty business right yet. I know, I tease you a lot and granted, even sometimes purposely try to get you going, but I'm truly not ready just yet for that. So I'm hoping you don't expect so much, or at least such, from me. I'm sorry," I avoid eye contact as I don't particularly enjoy talking about sex, it's awkward. Especially since I don't know anything about it but am expected to know everything at my age.