It didn't take Athanora long to hear the next bit of news. It took her even less time to find him and confront him. In fact, he'd only just gotten little Elcha'orene Neldae-- "We're going to have to find a good nickname for you, because that is one long name," Thyravon had said almost immediately, making the little pup giggle-- settled in at the apartment, with his favorite books and toys and his special blanket, when she came pounding on his door. It had to be her; no one else would bang that hard, and no one else had reason to be banging, at all.

"Don't worry about it, it's just my fiance," he told Elcha'orene with a sigh, standing up from where he'd just set the basket he'd brought to ensconce the pup in at night. "She's probably extremely surprised that they let me bond you."

"Why'th'at?" Elcha'orene asked, trailing innocently after him. What could they shorten that name to? Elcha, maybe? That meant "little"-- certainly better than Orene, which just meant "snake". Maybe just "El".

"Thyravon, why'th she thurprised?" Elcha repeated, pawing at his trouser leg when he didn't answer.

He paused to think out a "safe" answer for that, and the door shook with another pounding. "Because she doesn't like me," he finally said, and continued.

"How come?"

"I'll explain once I'm done explaining to her that your mother let me adopt you," Thyravon suggested. He could already tell Elcha was going to be a talker-- or, rather, a questioner.

"Oh, okay," Elcha said, sitting himself down and looking at the door expectantly. He was obviously going to demand that full explanation later... better start thinking on what to say now. Except he had to figure out what to say to Athanora now.

"Hello, 'Nora," he said as he opened the door, forestalling the outburst. "Come to congratulate me?"

"I can't believe they let you--"

"'Nora, dear, this is Elcha'orene Neldae," he interrupted firmly. "Elcha, this is my fiance, Athanora Ssaarymany."

For his part, Elcha performed flawlessly, beaming at her and puffing up his furry little mane. "Hi, Athanora Th-- th-- uh, can I jutht not thay your latht name? I have trouble with etheth." The little lisp his slightly-too-widely-spaced canine teeth caused him only made him seem cuter. "Oh, hi, Kiralreath!"

Thyravon looked down in surprise to see Kiralraes peeking around her bond's legs, looking nervous and wide-eyed, as usual. "Hello, Kiralraes," he echoed politely, with as friendly a smile as he could. She just ducked her head back a little, hiding herself in the folds of Athanora's loose pants.

Athanora, for her part, seemed thunderstruck, unable to say a thing. She either hadn't thought far enough ahead to think that she didn't want to have a shouting match in front of a pair of children, hadn't expected anything Thyravon bonded to be cute and seem happy, or hadn't realized her bond was there to witness the fury she'd had planned for the unleashing. Whatever the reason, she seemed oddly deflated, and thoroughly speechless. Thyravon wasn't sure whether to smirk smugly or feel sorry for her-- though he was leaning towards the former, since it was him would have had to deal with that sharp tongue of hers.

"Do you two, uh, want to come in?" he suggested awkwardly.

"No, no, that's all right," Athanora finally said, pulling herself back together little by little. There was even a little acid in her tone when she added, "Just wanted to offer 'congratulations', yes."

"And so tenderly offered they were," he replied with a surfeit of honey. "My humble thanks."

Glaring at him, Athanora turned and stalked off. Kiralraes, looking wide-eyed up at Thyravon for a moment, turned and scrambled to follow. Thyravon closed the door with a sigh. Apparently his assessment that Athanora would hate him if he bonded was correct. "Well, that went well."

"I didn't think it did," Elcha'orene said solemnly, his big, black eyes just as wide as Kiralraes's had been.

"Yeah. You're right, it didn't." Wondering if fuzzy things really did make one feel better, he bent to scoop the enkeyn pup into the crook of his arm and carted him over to the couch. "Sorry you had to see that. You'll probably see more of it-- though if we're lucky, just having you around will keep her from actually yelling at me."

Elcha squirmed around until he set him on his lap instead of against his arm, then settled like a contented kitten. "How come? Why'th she yell at you?"

"Because... she's supposed to marry me, and she doesn't like me, I guess. I'm not what she wants--" just like she wasn't really what he wanted... "--and I'll admit, I was kind of stupid for a while, because I felt kind of the same way. But now that I'm trying to be something more like what she wants, I think it's too late. She won't take it, and she just keeps being angry."

That seemed to mostly go over the pup's head, judging from his blank expression. "Why doeth she have to marry you if she doethn't want to?" he asked, centering on what he probably could understand, out of that-- though that answer wasn't very simple, either! He thought for a moment, idly stroking the silky, furry-feathery wings under his hand, and decided to leave out a lot of the political and economical stuff, not wanting to confuse the poor pup any more than he already was confused.

"Because her family wants her to, and my family agreed with them. Kind of like how your mother wanted you to bond: you do what your family wants, even if you don't necessarily want to, yourself. Because they're your family."

"But I did wanna bond!" Elcha'orene protested, squirming around so he could look up at him without poking his hand with his little horns-- which, he discovered when one poked him at the first squirm, were remarkably sharp for a baby. "And it worked out good, right? I've got you now!"

Thyravon laughed and ruffled his short, fluffy mane. "You've got me, all right, for whatever that's worth."

"I think it'th worth plenty," Elcha said, sounding pleased, and he bumped his muzzle into Thyravon's hand again-- an obvious plea for more petting. Chuckling, he resumed readily enough, and the pup arched under his hand like a cat. Next, Thyravon thought with amusement, he'd start purring!

Actually, next he said something unexpected: "Well, the bonding thing worked out good. Maybe your marrying thing will work out good, too."

"Maybe. I hope so." Either that or he'd get her pregnant and then probably never see her again, except for special events or something like that. They wouldn't be a family, they'd just be two people who happened to have a child together. That was either very depressing or very liberating, he wasn't sure which.

"Hey, maybe Kiralraeth will like me more now!"

At least there would still be the enkeyn. Thyravon laughed. "I, uh, wouldn't count on it, Elcha! She doesn't seem to like very many people."

"She'll like me!" Elcha predicted. "You wait an' thee!"

"Well, since you're both going to be stuck on the same ship with each other, I sure hope so."

"Ship? What ship? Are you a thailor?"

"Er, not exactly...."

And with that, he launched into the explanation of just where Elcha'orene would be spending the rest of his childhood-- and with the amount of questions the pup asked, it took more than enough time to distract him from Athanora, at least for the rest of the day!

Chapter Eleven

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