The Book of You and I

While they traveled, Azariah found she couldn't keep her eyes off of Ulric as he moved. He was a well-built male, and as such, every step he took made the witch's mouth water. He would catch her staring every so often when he looked toward her, and she would quickly look away with a big grin and a small giggle. She kept pace with him easily enough and would see the way he would look at her, which only served to draw her in more. At a few points in their day-long trek, she had walked close enough to him so that their bodies would lightly touch before she set herself straight again. The monochrome woman found herself pulled more and more from her shell, finding it easy and comforting to be herself around him. It gave her silliness that hadn't been there since she was very young, and she was completely bewitched. So, fo the rest of their traveling, Azariah took to laughing and playing around.

With her mask placed over her face once again - the only real way to travel with it - Azariah was free to chat as much as she wanted without having to stop and put her father's skull down. It was an odd custom she had adapted, to carry her father's skull, and making it a mask made more sense. He had been a much larger wolf than herself, coming close to Ulric's own height, so wearing it was only as hard as pushing her face into it. She no longer thought of her father that often, his memory simply not worth carrying around when she lugged him everywhere she went. Maybe it had helped her cope with his loss better than she thought. The loss of her parents didn't bother her as much as it had, but she did wish she had someone for Ulric to meet.

Only ghosts haunted her past, but she felt more and more optimistic about her future. Throughout their day of traveling, Azariah regaled the grizzly-wolf with stories of the fae, without telling him she possessed the Sight. More than once that singular confession had ruined her, had seen her thrown to the curb, or even attacked outright. From their conversations, she knew he was not a judgemental wolf, but she wasn't quite ready for that particular confession. Instead, she passed along the tales she knew of faeries and their own mystical land, which she would soon discover bore striking resemblance to the mangroves.

Lover's Mangrove was everything Ulric had promised and more, giving her pause as her eyes first touched the land, this place was practically alive with faeries of all kinds. Respectfully, Azariah removed her mask as they entered, revealing her full features and displaying the awe she felt without hindrance. She was quite honestly floored by the sight of the mangroves, their natural luminescence obvious even at sunset. "Ulric...It's beautiful!" She exclaimed softly, her voice just barely above a whisper to convey the reverence and amazement she felt. Unconsciously, she leaned into him, not even realizing that it was becoming second nature to do so in such a short amount of time. At that moment, she felt like she needed him to hold her up or she would surely faint. His home was stunning and grew even more so as the sun got lower in the sky. Umbra would have loved the glowing branches of the trees, they would have hidden her very well. To Azariah, it was a palace, for them and for the fae, who swarmed once again to see the pair. Their lights only added to the radiating majesty of the place, and Aza had to sit down for a moment to take it all in. He had not warned her about this, and the surprise floored her.