Page 15 of Dweller of the Mists

Catching the male by the arm, he dragged him aside with a hiss. “Are you insane? You do not just say such things. We are not mates, and for you to claim it as such so simply?—”

“She has not chosen yet?” A look of shock made Jyel’s natural swarthy deep purple coloring fade noticeably as the male grew pale. “But just seeing you there… you look like a mated couple. And Mother was certain.”

“Well, Noelle is not,” Gwum snapped in a low voice. “She is not Bia or Gwyr. She is?—”

“An offworlder,” Jyel finished with a knowing nod. “We had just recently received word of what happened in the Warderoon territory. It is a fascinating story. From what I understand those found by the Warderoon look very much like Bia, but it was from some sort of modification to their physical form.” He peered up at Noelle’s barely visible glowing face. “This is their natural form?”

“Accentuated by the spores of the water saroong. Their skin is thinner all over and so they glow thus when intaking it.”

Jyel made a small sound of awe but ruined it by turning to Gwum with a smirk. “It is a good thing that Mother believesyou are claimed and that your little female at least appears to be deeply bonded with you, or else you might have our younger relatives competing with you.” Jyel’s heavy hand slapped him on the back. “Just find a way to hurry and finish this mating so Mother will cease worrying.”

Gwum frowned and cast an unconvinced glance in Noelle’s direction. Is that what his brother saw? What his family saw?

“Are you certain? How can you tell?”

Jyel scoffed but not unkindly. “It is the way her eyes never leave us just now, but especially not you. She is looking to you to protect her as a mate would. She was also angled within your direct line of sight and lingering close to you as you sat out in the garden rather than exploring on her own. These are all signs of an attached female. Otherwise, she would have easily abandoned you for her own interests.”

Gwum shook his head. “She keeps me within sight because she is vulnerable to the dangers of Kren. Noelle,” he raised his voice to call over to her, “come down and join us.”

Her nose scrunched skeptically but she nodded and straightened just enough to descend safely from the higher tiers where she’d been sitting and made her way down to them. Gwum gave her an encouraging smile as he elbowed his brother to give them a little more space as she arrived at his side. Her warm body pressed against his side as she leaned into him and glanced curiously over at Jyel.

“This is my elder brother, Jyel. My mother invited us?—”

“More of an order. An invitation can be refused, but no one refuses Mother,” Jyel corrected with a friendly smile.

The corner of Noelle’s mouth curved in response, and some of the tension that Gwum felt at the prospect of how his little female might react when encountering more of his kind faded.

“Well, I certainly can’t refuse then. My grandmother raised me with better manners than that.”

Jyel’s grin widened. “Excellent. It seems that my timing was quite fortuitous that I am getting the pleasure to be the first to meet you. My siblings will be yellow with jealousy.”

Noelle laughed at his exaggeration, and Gwum frowned.

If it were not for the fact that the male was already safely and happily mated, Gwum would have been concerned about his brother becoming infatuated with his jymlina. All the same, he narrowed his eyes unhappily at him.

“What are you doing here anyway? Should you not be at Viaya’s side?” he demanded.

Jyel sighed and lifted his hands helplessly. “What am I to do? She has all of her female relatives crammed within our home and threw me out. She is spawning again, our fifth child—a daughter this time, I suspect—and as far as she is concerned, I am in the way and annoying her with my tender affections. So I am here to annoy our mother instead,” he concluded jovially.

Gwum shook his head, but he was not entirely surprised. Even healers were squeezed out except in the direst of emergencies. Spawning was ruled over by the nesting female’s female kin, and it was rare that they permitted any others present… even the mate of the female in question and father of her offspring.

“That must be comforting for her,” Noelle observed with a fond smile. “Family is important. And no one really understands what you’re going through better than other female relatives. It is a network of love and security, as well as understanding and sympathy that you don’t really get the same way from anyone else.”

“I never considered it that way before,” he slowly replied. “In my experiences with this tradition, I always saw it as a selfish and foolish whim that erroneously put priority in the wrong place, but when put that way it is easier to understand the reasoning behind it.”

“That is because you are a healer. It makes you prickly because they do not permit your involvement unless there is an emergency,” Jyel teased.

Gwum puffed up at his brother but deflated at the mirthful smile on his female’s face as she patted his hand. “Don’t feel bad. We all get a little prideful when it comes to things we feel are our responsibility. The fact that they trust you when it matters is what counts the most. In a normal birthing situation, I imagine that they have it handled and would have nothing for you to do. My grandmother delivered many babies in the swamps back home before—” She shook her head and gave Jyel a sympathetic smile. “It is a pity that you don’t get to be there to comfort your mate, however.”

The big male grinned in turn. “Do not feel too badly for me. My Viaya has the right of it. I am great with our offspring and a loving mate and father, but I am a nuisance in stressful situations. I would have been allowed to stay if I did not inspire a desire within her to strangle me or remove important parts of my anatomy in the process for saying the wrong thing at the wrong moment.”

Noelle’s laughter rang over the pond just as their mother emerged from her home, her pink eyes fastening immediately on the human with an expression of utter adoration that made Gwum want to disappear into the swamp again. His mother meant well, and she adored all of her sons’ mates as she was never lucky enough to have born a single daughter. A pale hue of purple and pink with dark pink eyes and the long coils of her crest bound at the top of her head with a red vine, his mother was over a head taller and twice as broad as Noelle, and the little human disappeared entirely when she swept her affectionately into her arms. Gwum tensed, prepared to defend his mate and insult his mother by ripping her out of her arms, if necessary, but relaxed at the soft sound of Noelle’s laughter.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Noelle gasped as his mother released her with a gratified smile.

“Such a delight! And look how unusual and pretty you are!” his mother gushed. “The Shoowilp clan is very fortunate to have you.”

Gwum winced and attempted to signal to his mother but gave it up when Noelle showed no reaction to the female’s statement. She clearly did not understand what his family assumed, but he was not in a hurry to enlighten her as his family continued to enthusiastically extend their greetings while his mother ushered her inside. Perhaps it was not such a bad thing. It made his mother happy. He could come up with a convincing story of some minor tragedy to explain why she did not return with him. They would be sad, but at least they would have this… and he would have this memory as well. For this moment in time, he could pretend that he had a mate and had the pleasure of expanding his family. At least his mother would no longer pressure him into mating. Bia only mated once, and his mourning would be respected.

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