Page 145 of To Fight and To Fold

Thea caught her, of course, and Carissa was a little too knowing. "I'm going to go find Runa. You two lovebirds…" Her expression softened suddenly. "Enjoy."

Stormstrike and Starspark greeted one another with little sniffs and long blinks, and Starspark stared longingly after the parting dragon. Humor bubbled behind Thea's teeth as Starspark looked so pleadingly sad. She scratched atop his snout until his tail shook happily.

"Go on," Aaryn urged with a laugh, and Starspark snuffled before prancing in their direction.

And then they were… alone.

Now Thea's heart was pounding.

"We're early. It won't get rowdy for a while yet," Thea told her.

"Rowdy?" Aaryn said, taking Thea's arm. "Why do you think it's going to be rowdy?"

Thea tried to focus past the thought that their arms were linked, their hips bumping with each step. Courting. "Tensions are high. Drinks and smoke will be flowing. They'll be trying to blow off steam and forget their worries."

"Which one are you?" Aaryn asked.

"Hm?"

The fire came into view, already lit and flames high. Dozens of people gathered around the space, but there would be hundreds by the end of the night.

"Will you be blowing off steam or forgetting your worries?" Aaryn clarified.

The wind cut through the air, tousling her long hair around her face, and a tendril brushed over her cheek. Instinctively Thea reached over and pushed it away before it could fall into her eyes.

"Not the latter," she answered. "I'd like to remember tonight very vividly."

Aaryn's cheeks flushed. A sweet scent curled through the air—for once, not Aaryn, though her eyes lit at the familiarity of it.

"It's the blooms," Thea murmured, eyes keen for the smokers. They were easy to find amongst the crowd of chatting people, cups or pipes or rolled leaves pinched between their fingers.

Aaryn was quiet, and Thea glanced over to find her attention rapt on a nearby couple who were sharing a pipe, the fresh, earthy scent permeating the air.

"Want to try it?" Thea asked.

A smile slid onto Aaryn’s lips. "Yes."

Thea grinned. "I forget that you've been a little sheltered."

"Let the corruption begin."

Maisy, an orc with two slits in her brow and a greenish band of runes on her wrist, wore a knowing little smile as she handed them a pipe packed with moon bloom. Aaryn oohed as she stroked the moon carving in the handle, very vocal with her admiration.

That won Maisy over, and the woman sent them off with a small pouch of blooms in case they wanted to indulge later in the evening as well.

"People are so talented. Look at the detail," Aaryn continued, stroking a finger over the raised design, a little crescent moon and clouds.

Thea snorted. Only she would be more interested in the pretty pipe than the blooms inside of it.

It was so very… Aaryn. And Thea liked that.

"Why a moon? Just because it's pretty?" Aaryn wondered aloud.

"’Cause this comes from those little orange flowers you think are so pretty. They only bloom at night. Moon blooms."

Her little blinks were so cute, and she gasped. "Those are—Thea. How did I not know this?"

“I mean, that’s why we picked that corner of the Nest to put him in, hoping the blooms would calm him down. He didn’t really seem interested.”