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“Let me show you.”
I walk her through the house and onto the back porch.
The entire crowd begins to cheer at our arrival. Hyrrokin love a good surprise.
She looks around at all the chairs and decorations, the standing beings all dressed in fine clothing and start tearing up.“Mom? Dad? Oh my gods, is that my brothers and sisters too?” She squeezes my claw. “How did you do this?”
“It’s a surprise for you. This is our bound declaration ceremony. And also, it was mainly all my mother’s doing. She’s the mastermind. You can thank her later.”
Music starts playing that I don't recognize, but she must because she starts sniffling and we walk down the aisle, hand in hand, that's created between all our guests. I can see my family and hers. All the ranch hands are here from all three ranches. Most of the Hyrrokin I know from our community, neighboring ranches and from town are here. Erid Loadstone and his family are here, as well as team Molten Lava and their human bounds. Even Prince Brimstone has arrived with his bound and offspring.
I'm doing all I can to make sure that she feels she made the right decision giving everything up to live here on Tarvos with me. All I want is for her to think she always made the right decision choosing me.
We get to the end of the aisle and I take her hand and step up onto a small stage. We stand together and face our guests. The music ends and everyone quiets down.
“Thank you for being here,” I say, ready to make my formal declarations for my bound as I’ve always imagined, my whole life. “Today is an important day. I am here to declare my love for Mica Robertson in front of our friends and family. I met Mica over one moon cycle ago, long enough to know that she is the one. I found her alone and running away from a dangerous situation at the end of the rainy season.” She nods and I can see her eyes are wet. “I took her back to my med lab and had her healed immediately but the criminals who’d first wanted her continued to try and find her. But in the end they were defeated by many of you who are here today and both Mica and I want to thank you again for your help and courage in keeping herand our first offspring safe.” The audience cheers. “She's safe and our community is safer because we were able to route these criminals who lived on the edges of our community and could in the future have caused harm to more of us.” I turn back toward my female. “Mica, I want you to know that I love you. I am honored a female of your high worth would choose to leave all that she knows behind to move across the entire four sectors to restart here with me to make a life with me. Would you do me the honor of walking with me to the courthouse to legally be my bound? The mother of not just one Flagstone but the mother of future Flagstones and be part of my family line?”
I perform the ceremonial offering that I know is important to humans on the part of the planet where she lives. I pull out of my pocket a small box. I open it and there is a diamond ring exactly the type that her mother said she would most appreciate.
I open the box and she gasps with delight.
I take her hand. “Do you accept this ring as a symbol of my commitment? Will you take me as your legal bound?”
“Yes, yes, of course I would.”
Then I slide the ring on her finger and there's clapping all around. And I think that we're done except we aren't.
“One moment,” she raises a finger. “I have my own words of commitment. I would also like to make.”
She smiles at me and now is my turn to be surprised because she pulls out a box from her pocket. “I ordered this weeks ago and it finally arrived today and I had it in my pocket because I wanted to ask you to be my husband. I was going to propose to you.” She turns and looks at everyone who matters to us and says loudly so the voice amplifier can pick up everything she says and every last person in our community hears her words. “It all happened as Thorn said but I want to make sure everyone here knows how much I love you to in return. I love you Thorn Flagstone. I haven’t said this yet until now. I don’t know whybecause I’m sure you know by my actions how I feel. I suppose I was scared? But I want to tell you that I’m not scared anymore and I want you to be my bound, too. I am so lucky, after being through something so terrible to have found not just you,” she sweeps a hand out toward our guests, “but an entire community who cares enough to try and keep me protected.” She places a hand over her heart. “Know that I will return that same level of caring back to you as well as everyone here. I love the home you have built for us and our future family. It is perfect.”
I think water starts to appear in my eyes when I sniff. Her words might be the most beautiful thing I've ever had someone tell me in my life.
She grabs both of my claws. “Will you do me the honor and becoming my husband, my legal mate for the rest of my days until days turned into time? Would you do me the honor of being the father of my offspring and allowing me to become a Flagstone?”
And then she opens her small box and there is a simple platinum band.
“Yes,” I say. “Yes, I would.”
Then she slides it onto my finger and it fits. And I find I'd like this human symbols of commitment. This is not something we do on my planet but maybe we should start.
Then I pick her up and swing her around and kiss her in front of everyone.
Our guests all stand and clap and whistle, shouting their approval of our union. Music begins and everyone starts eating at the buffet.
And this begins the start of our new life together.
Epilogue
Burl
I’ve lived my whole life out here at the Flagstone Fire ranch.
Rodan and Kentra Flagstone took me in as a youngling, old enough to work and make my own decisions but not old enough to be one my own. I did not want to be adopted after my parents and younger brother died in a freak domicile fire that decimated our entire home, causing me to lose my family line. And I had no one else, no cousins or grandparents. No one. But my father had been a vendor to the ranch, selling handmade branding tools. He was well respected and he and my mother were greatly missed. Their death was considered a shocking tragedy.
The Flagstones took me in and so did the ranch hands. I moved into the cabin of the ranch manager, taking his smaller room. When I got older, I moved into the barracks with the others. I was happy to have the opportunity to finish my schooling alongside the other Flagstone sons and then to work with the ranch hands, under the tutelage of the manager. I learned so much from everyone on that ranch, soaking up all the knowledge of how to run this business, how to take care of the pyrotaurs in the ways of old and slaughter and sell responsibly for market.
This ranch is my home and the community here in this section of the wildlands and the Flagstone ranch owners as well as employees are my family. We work hard and look out for each other as well as the land and the animals therein.
