Avuri and I were laying in bed four days after her family had arrived, and my mind was wandering. The talk with her family in the afternoon had been interesting, to say the least. Severa felt distinctly like a snake to , while her husband Lark was just along for the ride. I hadn't spent as much ti with the others yet, but I had suspicions that I'd feel the sa toward most of them. The group of teens were pretty nice though.
I let out a sigh, thinking about the events of the day before we went to do our farm work. Avuri rolled over to face and smiled, reaching out to lay her hand on my shoulder. She caressed it gently and I let out another sigh. She didn't ask anything out loud, but I felt like her actions carried a question with them anyway.
"I never thought I'd say this, but with your family here…Avuri, I miss when all we had to deal with were demons."
She chuckled and asked, "Oh, really?"
"Oh, you doubt , do you?" I responded with a grin. "I'll give you that your family - at least on the surface - doesn't hurt, use, or kill people in quite the sa way that demons do. But that's all. At least I know how to deal with a demon."
"Sword through the neck?" She asked with a knowing smile.
"Mhm. Easy." I said, then added, "Well, in theory anyway."
"At least talking with my family doesn't co with a death risk?" She offered, sounding unconvinced.
I laughed. "You don't even sound entirely convinced of that yourself."
"Because I'm not." She responded regretfully.
"...Do you really think they could be that bad?" I asked, quietly.
Avuri took a mont to think that over seriously, and rolled back onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. "Honestly? I'm not sure. Ten years ago, I would've said that they could be ruthless rchants, but their evil streak ended as soon as you left the negotiation table. Now though…I don't know." She let out a sigh very similar to mine from earlier.
"Severa in particular worries ." She continued. "She's always been a little too power-hungry in my eyes. And seeing that she's basically taken over the family and that Lark is doing nothing to try to stop her from going overboard…Well, I'm not a fan."
"See? So much easier to put a sword through a throat." I said, trying to lighten the mood a little. I wasn't sure it had worked at all, though. "The biggest concern is that we don't really know where they stand. We can keep praying that they're not that bad or not that evil until we're proven one way or another. I just wish we knew from the get go."
"Yeah. No hurting people just because they're assholes, right?" Avuri said with an empty laugh, and followed it with a big sigh. "You're not wrong though. At least we know demons are unequivocally evil. People are too nuanced."
"Yup." I humd agreent.
There was a mont of silence, as we both laid there staring at the wooden ceiling, our fingers intertwined. Eventually I said, "I won't lie to you, Avuri. After seeing your parents and brother playing unusually nicely with the girls, I'm worried that they're planning sothing."
" too." She said, the worry sounding in her voice. "I want nothing more than for them to be genuine in the way they played with them today. But I can't help but feel they're just being nice to use them sohow."
I nodded in the darkness. "The issue is that I can't figure out to what end they might do that. Cierra is seven, and Stena is four. The only thing I can think of is kidnapping them to be used as so kind of twisted bargaining chip, but that doesn't seem like sothing your family would do. It's too straightforward."
"No, they wouldn't kidnap them." Avuri confird. "The obvious thing I can think of would be using them for information; Kids famously have no filter, and it's possible that they would let sothing important slip to new, happy grandparents." Avuri grumbled. "I'm not sure Stena would know anything worth keeping a secret. As for Cierra, I'm not sure."
"Do we even have any secrets? Other than living here, I guess?"
"Vale and the Elders?" Avuri suggested.
"Hm. I suppose Cierra could ntion that Vale is a dragon, but I don't think she's aware that the Elders are?"
"No, but we did et them all in person. If she ntions that we know them even remotely well, my family could latch onto that."
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"Okay, sure." I admitted, "However, our wedding is catered by one of them, and being hosted by another. If we were worried about your family realizing we have any ties to the Elders at all, we probably missed the boat to hide it months ago."
"Yeah, fair." Avuri said flatly.
"Besides, if they're smart, if they sohow find out any or all of them are dragons they would keep their mouths shut. Angering a dragon is a quick path to an early grave, and surely they must know that."
There was a snort, then a beat of silence as sothing was reconsidered. "You know? I'm not so sure." She said, sounding worried again. "Of course everyone has heard stories, but in Bouquet and the greater Floral Hills, dragons are basically a myth. The area isn't strong enough for any to settle there, so we only got stories."
"Oh." I said, echoing her sentint.
"Yeah, 'Oh'." She chuckled. "I didn't really take dragons seriously as a thing that existed until after I joined the sect and heard a few people talk of their run-ins with them. It is certainly possible my family would know better, but they may not. Even worse, they may not take one seriously when it cos to business, given they're well known for brute strength, not wits."
I nearly let out a full bellied laugh at that, but held it back; I didn't want to wake anyone. "Under no circumstances should you let Vale - or any other dragon for that matter - hear you say that."
"Yeah, no shit, Ery." Avuri said bluntly. "Obviously that isn't correct. But even you have to admit, most stories about dragons involve their terrible might, and are less focused on outsmarting people."
"You apparently grew up with a very narrow breadth of stories, then. Many of mine growing up were about dragons completely tricking humans into various things. Or just winning a very straightforward battle of wits."
"Really?" Avuri sounded so sincerely shocked, that I turned to look at her. "That's actually fascinating. I know you obviously grew up with a dragon so you're bound to get so very different stories, but that's still very interesting."
"I wouldn't put it on Vale's parenting." I said, idly stroking the back of her hand with my thumb. "Most of the stories I heard growing up are classics in plenty of places. Flowing Dragon City, too, for example."
Sothing clicked for both of us when I said that, and Avuri let out a low whistle. "You don't think that stories like that are directly related to where dragons settle, do you?"
"There's no way." I said, disbelieving. "It'd be too obvious, surely. And stories are bound to spread, right?"
"I suppose." Avuri agreed.
Silence overtook us for a while then as we both thought it through. Surely the Floral Hills only had stories about the physical might of dragons because it was simply the most obvious trait.
It didn't take long for my mind to cycle back around to the original topic, though. "Do you think we should be worried for their safety?" I asked, suddenly cutting through the silence.
Avuri took a mont to answer, "No, I don't think so. But I'm definitely concerned about letting them spend too much ti with the girls. Especially after the way Severa offered to watch them more than once today."
I nodded assent. "I also got the feeling she wanted to get them alone with your family."
"Yeah."
"If they so much as lay a finger on one of them…" I said, a bit of anger bleeding into my voice.
"Don't worry. I'm not about to give them the chance to try, sa as you." Avuri said, gripping my hand tighter. "And if they try sothing, they're gone. They can try to weasel their way around all they want. But if they try to do sothing with Cierra or Stena, I'm kicking them out on their asses imdiately."
With a big smile, I rolled over to half drape myself over Avuri, laying half on top of her. She let out a giggle as I did so, and I gave her a warm, loving kiss and snuggled into her. "Maybe hearing you say you'll kick out your family isn't sothing I should be happy about, but still."
"Well, If they actually play nice and don't cause trouble, it'll never be an issue. I want nothing more than for them to be perfectly civil and generally good people." Avuri said, nuzzling into my hair. She pulled a little bit closer with the arm that was underneath . "I'm worried that - outside of the three teenagers - they just aren't good."
"We should keep an eye on the teens." I said, in response to her ntioning them. "I know Severa and Lark said they were catching up on school work, and that's absolutely believable. But we should make sure they aren't doing anything shady."
Avuri nodded agreent. "We should." Then she took a deep, steadying breath. "We should also just be careful that they aren't being used to bait us." My stomach dropped at the thought. Avuri could probably tell from my physical reaction and continued, "I'm not saying that's the case. I think there's more evidence in their favor than against. But we shouldn't be too quick to trust them."
"Right." I said, feeling deflated. "I wonder if I'm just too trusting…"
Avuri gave a reassuring squeeze. "I don't know if I'd say that, so much as you have a bit of a hero complex."
I looked up at her, my eyes narrowed. "Be careful with what you say next." I threatened.
She rely smiled. "I think whenever you see anyone that is conceivably being used or mistreated, you imdiately take their side to defend them. It's ingrained in your personality at this point, I imagine. You don't like seeing people used that way."
I begrudgingly let it go. "You're probably right."
"Hey, I think it's sweet of you to leap to people's defense like that." Avuri said, and kissed the top of my head. "If nothing else, I'll be here to help you out a little with a healthy dose of skepticism when you need it."
I let out a deep breath and snuggled against her for a bit in silence, and Avuri seed more than content to do the sa.
A few minutes passed in silence with each of us thinking to ourselves, before I said quietly, "Yeah, I really do miss just dealing with asshole demons."
Avuri chuckled.
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