Thanks to Emily (Crimsonoaks) for beta-reading this chapter.

Crouched under the rain, alone on the sand of the river bank, Shi was staring at the dark water. The clouds had parted, and the moon was sending silver reflections across the estuary. This was not Mugroba; this was Anaxas, where wet weather was a fact of life. Where the lower races were really lower, the humans close to slavery, and the wicks hiding in the wilderness as often as they could.

And yet, the first rains of spring, the start of the rainy season, led to parties – and drinking - that she had never witnessed even in the hot and dry Mugroba. Because, after the dry winter months, it would enable the crops to grow before the summer heat. Because, after the cold winter months, it held the promise of warmer times. But mostly, the petite stranger supposed, because people so oppressed needed an occasion to party, and this one was authorized – or at least tolerated, like the gathering of all those wicks tribes on this wooded island.

Do I need an occasion to party too? She answered herself with a sip of ale from the skin at her feet. The bubbles were long gone, but it still held the taste of Mugroba. Of the best of Mugroba. Of Noli's last special brew.

On their visit to Noli's home, preceded by a letter, she had felt so uncomfortable. Like all the members of the family had gathered to vote on whether she could be allowed to join them. It was so different from the unassuming ways of the Laughing Sky here. No need to ask. No awkward questions. Do I like children? Yes Madam, of course. That one a lie, of course: the only children she had known were her annoying wick cousins. Can I speak Mugrobi? I'm learning, feel free to use it, but don't be offended if I have to use Estuan to answer. What's my speciality? What do you mean? Ah, cooking? Well... Rice and omelet? Yes I'm a witch, sort of. No, my grandmother was galdori, I was raised galdori. Yes, I know some magic. No, I don't read palms, that's not real magic. Yes, I'm not Mugrobi, well, I am, but my family is from Hox... And no Noli to support her, as he had disappeared with his father, probably to discuss the business implications of this union.

It had been a relief when Noli's mother had disappeared to cook the dinner. A short relief: she realized, with strong hints from the youngest daughter, that she was supposed to help. Help during which she demonstrated her lack of anything beyond basic cooking knowledge, and surely botched the answer of dozen more private questions. She knew she was not supposed to have shared a bed with Noli before, but what was she supposed to answer about her life? She had obviously not spent her youth perfecting her cooking. Was studying magic a big no for a bride? What about the travels to Anaxas? Should she hide them? And why wouldn't it be proper for a woman to own a sword? It was a family heirloom! Yes, that sword had been passed from mother to daughter for countless generations in her family, what was so strange about it when you knew her family had always been ruled by women?

And then the dinner, were instead of sitting near Noli, she had to serve him, and eat in the kitchen with his mother. And when she was finally let alone, she ended sharing a room with Noli's sister. Who, at least, was the one Noli had told her to trust. What a disaster!

The young witch shivered, in her wet tunic under the rain. She thought about the winning grin on Noli's sister face while she listened to the truthful answers to her questions. When she learned how it was through sheer chance, and the general low fertility running in Shi's family, that she wasn't already pregnant. How she had felt bad, how she'd had to cling to her trust of Noli's judgement, when the girl slipped away after casting her a predatory gaze. Or how she ended up being pushed out. Or Noli insulting his father, calling dishonourable their breach of hospitality toward her.

-+-

Noli was beginning to worry. He'd been looking for his wife for one hour now, when he finally spotted her crouching by the river bank.

"Aren't you cold?"

"I don't mind. I come from a country of snow-capped mountains, remember?" She kept her head turned toward the river, but the din from the drinking songs in the camp was remote enough for him to hear her.

"Well, I come from a city hiding by the river from a hot desert. Wouldn't you come back under the central tent?"

"What's the worst? Being in a cold and wet country, out of touch of you family, or out of a job?"

"Probably realizing a family you thought loved you are so close-minded. Or seeing a master you esteemed bowing to their demands." Azeen had not, he thought with relief. Azeen would have resigned with me, if it could have solved the issue. But I was right to tell him no. His wife isn't an outcast. Their future is in Thul'Ka.

"In a way, they did it for you." She now looked at him, but he only saw her wet hair glistening in the moonlight. "They thought I had bewitched you."

"Well, you did." He saw her rise, ready to explain that magic didn't work like that, and laughed. "And before you object, notice that I'm perfectly happy with that!"

"I think that's what puzzles me most." The young witch took one step toward him, he caught a glimpse of how the wet fabric clung to her body. She looked almost naked. One good thing with small breasts like hers was that most of the time, they needed no support. Nothing stiff under the tunic to spoil the view. "How can you be? I know we've already discussed that, you did not follow me just out of some strange Mugrobi idea of honour, but still..."

"And I thought you had agreed to stop being a pessimistic golly and become a shameless witch?" Noli was now ready to welcome her in his arms, but Shi had stopped three meters away, feet still in the water.

"What do you think, I'm working on it!" Her voice was stronger, and she now brandished a skin. There was almost an echo of laughter in her voice.

"I don't think you should drink, then, if it makes you re-ask questions we settled at least ten times before marrying." Noli tried to keep a stern voice, but he had difficulty to keep serious. After all, he was seriously inebriated himself; and what he would have deemed annoying from Shi on a normal day was fun when she was acknowledging it.

He couldn't say he didn't know before marriage how pessimistic she could be. And he couldn't deny that the common ground they had found, with each one abandoning his future to flee to a country where only golly could live comfortably, would be viewed as a failure by a lot of people. And he had to admit that the nice symmetry he saw in their story would be viewed as being a fool by those same people. Especially if they were Mugrobi humans with their usual ideas on women place.

But he did not share that view: he wasn't afraid of change. He loved to learn, even if it was in more concrete ways than the wet girl in front of him, and he had faith in his ability to adapt to the simple life of the Laughing Sky. He also had faith in Shi's intelligence. Being pessimistic and over-thinking the past was just part of that intelligence. He loved her for it as much as she loved him for being the one putting one step in front of the other.

"Not drinking would be wickish?" She interrupted his thoughts. "Which wick isn't gutterred tonight?"

"Maybe Maxine..."

"That's just because she hides it well. A Durg has to keep a minimum of control, ye chen?" The petite witch ended her sentence with a loud sneeze.

"Or because she's too good a cook to accept drinking much of what passes as beer around here." The human watched his wife splash water on her face, and although reasonably dry himself, shivered. "You really should get rid of those wet clothes."

"That's easy." She fiddled with her tunic buttons, then the cloth went over her head, and then it was in a heavy ball in her arms, before she threw it on the shore.

The moonlight gleamed on the pale skin of a naked breast, and Noli was breathless for a moment. It was not the first time he saw his wife half-naked, but the public setting... Why am I so affected? We're alone, and just disrobing is quite tame by a drunken wick standards. It's just a nice sight I should enjoy. That I enjoy.

"Hey, where's my ale?" The witch interrupted his contemplation.

"You threw the skin with your tunic." The human foraged in the wet heap of cloth to retrieve it, and recognized the seal. "Now, I understand why you're not complaining about the beer taste. Is it still any good?"

"Not as good as new, but fine enough, compared to what they drink here."

"I wish I could explain them. To have to choose between bad beer and stale beer..."

"You can't explain to people who weren't trained, or don't even read. You have to show them! Can you throw me that skin back?"

"I'm not sure," he smiled, "we've not yet decided if drinking was the right thing for your mood." The former brewer tasted a sip of his old production. "Maybe I could show them. Of course, a kint cannot become a proper brewery, but with some adjustments, I bet I could make some decent ale."

Shi's answer was to get rid of her pants and throw them in his direction. They unfurled mid-air and splashed miserably on the wet sand, but none of them cared. She crossed her arms in a defiant attitude, enhancing the shape of her small breasts. "Is that wickish enough?"

Noli swallowed, but decided that was the last reaction he was going to show. We can be two to play this game. "I don't think so. Young wicks, tonight, are rolling in the mud together, and doing whatever they usually do when young naked people lie together in the night. You should join them to be really wickish."

She answered with a snort, and he felt a small pang of jealousy at the thought of his wife in the arms of someone else. I've been raised too traditionally to ever think of that as lightly as a real wick would do. Good thing she was too, and that the Laughing Sky respect that.

Affecting to study the skin closely, he continued: "You know, I even think I could become a brewer for the Laughing Sky, what do you think? I'd bet the other tribes would be ready to pay some good ging for a decent ale. Of course, it means we'd first have to teach them that alcohol content isn't the only quality of a beer but..."

The muscular human was interrupted by the petite witch dash for the skin. Lounging out of the water, finding support in the sand, she had moved swiftly and managed to surprise him. Of course, he was stronger, but she knew tricks he didn't and soon, they were both rolling in the sand, then in the water. And she was naked, which was distracting enough. Plus, that skin was the last one of its kind. Noli had to be careful with the strength he used to protect it, if he wanted to be still protecting something.

In the end, a naked Shi was fleeing towards the kint with the precious ale, and Noli running after her, weighted down by his dripping clothes. He decided it was no use and slowed down to a walk. He even took the time to get back and pick her clothes.

He found her in front of their kint. The thing was an old chariot formerly inhabited by an old woman. It looked decrepit, but she had had her husband modify it for her old bones comfort. One of the main modifications had appealed Shi and Noli, because it enabled to set up a tent in front of it, which was what Mugrobi wicks used to get some shadow from the harsh desert sun. But today, its exact utility, and why the cloth was so thick and oiled, was demonstrated: it was good at keeping a fire dry and running, together with the people around it, under the rain. Of course, Noli was not very interested by the tent technique tonight. The sight of a naked Shi sitting by the fire was much more interesting.

"The roof is leaking," she declared as a greeting.

"I don't see nothing," he answered, examining the tent with one eye, keeping the other on her naked figure and her wet hair. Yes, a very interesting sight.

"No, I mean the kint. Inside. All my clothes are damp. The bed too. I've salvaged some blankets." She indicated the big cloth she was cross-legged on.

Noli shrugged and sat down on the bench, facing the witch, now eyeing her openly. He removed his water-clogged boots and his dripping coat. "We'll see that tomorrow. What's important now is what you did with the ale." He followed her gaze toward the skin on the ground but she was too quick to grab it, stand, and escaped while he only hug air.

He watched her take a big gulp, following with interest the curve of her slender arm to her small breast and her pretty stomach. He slowly extended his arms, not sure if it was to caress or grab, but she escaped again.

"Do you want some?" They had turned around the fire, which now separated them. She was now facing him from the other side, fully lighted, standing on the blanket with a playful smile. He felt the flames heat. The fire was roaring. She must have added wood before he came back, though that was not what the human was thinking about how. He just felt hot.

"Please?" But she only took another gulp. "It's the last skin," he explained, removing his wet shirt.

His brown skin welcomed the heat radiating from the fire, although his backside would soon be in need of cover. That country was definitely not Mugroba. But if there was a time for the small witch in front of him to remind him more of hot Mugroba than of the snowy mountains of Hox, it was now. That Mugrobi women had brown skin and enticing curves instead of her pale slender figure meant nothing at the moment. If she wanted him to pretend he was still working bare-chested in the brewery, he would.

Except that said girl did not hand him the ale or beckon him closer. She just emptied the skin on her face, letting the liquid run small rivers along her body, rivers that Noli's gaze followed on her skin, his mouth agape. She had to talk to drag him out of the fascination.

"If you stand there all night, there's not going to be much left to taste."

The human didn't even notice her serious expression or the fire in her eyes. The only thing he was able to think about was that this challenge did not suffer the time to run around the fire.

He just jumped on his wife through the flames and grabbed her legs, making her fall on the blanket. She accompanied the move, abandoning all pretence of resistance.

Noli had always liked to believe that this was the night Neti, his second Hoxian princess, was conceived.