Chapter 50

                                    

                                          
“What the…? Hey—out! Out!” I shouted, despite my laughter. Avani giggled helplessly as two cold, wet snouts snuffled at us and eight massive paws tried to sneak into our tent. “Baldur! Fenrir! Go on, get out of here, you clowns!” I exclaimed again in exasperation. Fenrir immediately backed out into the pre-dawn darkness, but Baldur gave me a reproving, wounded look with his luminescent cobalt eyes before departing. I lay back against the cushions of our bed and looked adoringly at my wife, who cuddled up close to me, still snickering at her giant wolves’ failed impersonations of lap-dogs.
                          
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When we first began to plan our honeymoon trip, we quickly learned that just about everyone in town had an opinion as to where we should go. Arthur offered to arrange for us to stay in style in the capitol, and Forte and Kiel echoed his suggestion. All four elves in town promised to send us letters of introduction if we wanted to go visit the distant island home of the Elven Kingdom, and Illuminata and Deasún even offered to accompany us there, just to ensure a warm welcome for us. Lin and Xiao, of course, suggested we simply stay in their inn, thus avoiding the rigors of travel.
                          
Vishnal spoke up for his hometown, two days’ journey by foot southeast of the Selphia Plains. Both Clorica and Amber recommended going to Kardia, where, they had apparently heard, there was a small inn that had some of the most comfortable beds in the kingdom. Porcoline likewise recommended Kardia, where the patriarch of the de Sainte-Coquille family lived in the old family manor house. Nancy and Jones urged us to consider the tiny village of Trampoli, where they’d spent their own honeymoon some years back, and both dwarves agreed, saying that the mountains there were not only beautiful, but rich in ores and gemstones.
                          
Dylas reluctantly supposed in passing that we might find the Eastern Isle to our taste, and Blossom sighed as she reminisced about her own long-ago honeymoon, spent in a quaint inn on Fenith Island. Even the semi-permanent visitors, Barrett and Raven, chipped in, putting in a word for their respective hometowns of Alvarna and Sharance.
                          
In the end, having compiled the numerous suggestions and recommendations, we just looked at each other. “Well, My Lady. Where do you wish to go?” I asked her as we sat together on her sofa one afternoon.
                          
She looked thoughtful for a minute, then grinned up at me. “Someplace quiet…”
                          
“Mmm, yes?”
                          
“… and secluded…”
                          
“Even better,” I grinned.
                          
“… away from the hustle and bustle of cities and towns….”
                          
“Keep going….”
                          
“Someplace like….” Then she grabbed my hand and dragged me up to her study, where she dug out a huge map of the world and spread it across her desk. “Like here!” she exclaimed, pointing to a spot in the southern part of the kingdom that fell under the label “Terra Incognita”.
                          
I stared at the spot above the tip of her finger for a moment, my brow furrowed in thought. “There? What lies there, My Lady, that attracts you so?”
                          
“Leo, really?” she said with a reproving look. “‘Terra Incognita’—‘unknown land’! That’s what attracts me. Who knows what adventures we might have there? Though honestly, probably nothing too dangerous. But still, doesn’t it just sound enticing?”
                          
She sidled up to me, tucking her hand in my arm as she gazed at the map with dreamy eyes. “Just think of it—camping out in the wilds, no one but us for miles and miles around. We can go fishing, or hunting, or exploring… or even… just… stay in bed all day,” she added looking up at me with her eyes half closed, a sensual smile spreading over her lips as she reached up to trace the markings on my cheek.