Merit sure did sleep a lot. We'd left Lellip's home three days ago and it felt as if Merit had slept through two of the three days so far.

Walking behind the wagon, I wondered if she did so because she was bored or if it was just something she's always done. I felt as if she had been sleeping more than when we had been in Lumen, but in reality I had no idea if she was or not. I had spent a lot of time with her, sure, but I had also spent a lot of time with others.

She was on the wagon, or rather in it. The cloth covering on the wagon was right now tied up and sealed, hiding its contents from view. I could hear her soft snores from within it, and judging by the sound of them… she was likely curled up between some of the larger crates near the front of the wagon. They were muffled, and not just because of the cloth cover.

Lilly was sitting at the front of the wagon, guiding the horses that pulled it. Lellip was walking next to me, smiling happily as she looked around at the world we were slowly passing.

We were still in forests, but they weren't half as thick as the ones she called home. And the road we were on wasn't just large, it was slightly busy. Every so often we passed other travelers or merchants on their own wagons and carts. To me it was something normal. Vim and I had been traveling like this for years, and although it wasn't often I traveled with a wagon it was also something I'd done before. Lellip however was obviously having the time of her life, experiencing something she's never done before.

"How far are we from the ocean, Renn? Will we pass by it?" Lellip asked.

"Hm? No. We'll pass some really big rivers though," I said. In fact one should be near us right now.

"Is Lilly's home near the ocean?" she asked further.

"Not really… but if you want to see it, I'm sure we can figure something out. It's a couple weeks to the ocean from where we're heading up north," I said. I'd not mind taking her to see it, if she wanted. We could visit Rapti as we did.

She frowned but nodded, and I wondered what it'd be like to have never seen the ocean before… She wasn't the first to have brought such a thing up before with me, but it seemed each time it happened I still found myself perplexed. "Have you never left home, Lellip?" I asked.

"No… Or well, yes, I guess. When I was young mother and the rest had taken me to Telmik, supposedly, but I don't really remember it. And of course I've visited some of the towns near home, but never for long and they were all in the same mountain," she said.

Right… "Well you'll get tired of traveling soon enough. Especially if it starts to rain," I said. Off in the distance, in the direction we were going, were very dark clouds. The thick kind that told me there was far more than just rain within them.

"Speaking of weather… is it getting warmer already? I almost want to take a layer off," Lellip asked as she shifted a shoulder.

"Hm… maybe?" I frowned as I too thought about it. It was warmer than a few days ago and even more so than it was in Lumen, but it wasn't really noticeable to me.

Or maybe it was…? Come to think of it, not too long ago I had been complaining over the cold hadn't I? It was why Vim had gotten and made that fox scarf for me. I wasn't wearing it now, it was in a bag in the wagon.

"Speaking of being hot… do you have fur? Like how your grandfather does down his back?" I asked. I had seen Nebl's bare back a few times, when he had been working in the smithy. He sometimes didn't wear a shirt, or wore one that was really loose. He had patches of thick fur that ran down the back of his neck to the middle of his back.

"A little. Think that's why I'm feeling hot?" Lellip asked worriedly.

"You're just used to living up on a mountain, is all. You'll get used to being down here," I said. Wonder if she'd show me her back if I asked?

"Right… do you have fur anywhere?" Lellip then asked.

I perked up and pointed at the top of my head. "In my hair, between my ears," I said.

"That's kind of boring, you can't even tell," she said.

"Vim said the same thing," I said with a small laugh. He had once said, or at least hinted at, that he was kind of disappointed I didn't have more on me. Particularly around my butt, for some reason.

"Does he even have anything anywhere? He looks completely human doesn't he? How can he complain about that when he has nothing himself?" Lellip asked, as if offended for me.

"Personally that's why I think he finds our traits so attractive. It's because he lacks them," I said.

"Why are you having such a fun conversation by yourselves!" Lilly shouted from in front of the wagon.

Lellip snickered happily. "Poor Merit," she said as she hurried to round the wagon, as to head up to the front of it.

I didn't follow her right away, and instead glanced around. We were alone, of course, but not far off behind us was another cart. One that looked like it was slowly gaining on us, likely because it was half the size.

There was no reason to worry about being overheard or anything, but I knew soon we'd start passing through villages and farmsteads. It'd not be long until we did have to be careful, if at least a little bit, in what we said and how loud we said it. I had already figured Lellip knew better, but a part of me knew to keep an eye on her as we traveled. As I'm sure Lilly and Merit were doing too.

Concerning Merit…

I tilted my head a little as I heard Lilly and Lellip talking. Lilly was complaining that she was being excluded from such interesting conversations, and Lellip sounded like she was doing her best to apologize. They weren't really being loud, but…

Yes. I heard Merit shift around in the wagon. She was no longer snoring. She had woken up, likely from Lilly's earlier outburst.

Rounding the wagon, I reached the front right as Merit popped her head out from the tightly wrapped cloth. She looked ever like a child with the way she had the rest of her body hidden, with only her face and unruly bed hair visible. "He once complimented my gills," she said proudly.

Lellip's eyes went wide as she sat down next Lilly. She had climbed up onto the front seat while I'd dawdled behind. "You have gills!?"

"What's surprising isn't that he finds such things attractive, but the range of them that he does. Wings, gills, tails and ears? I myself don't even like all kinds of wings, for crying out loud, I couldn't imagine finding even other traits attractive too," Lilly said with a frown.

"You don't like my ears, Lilly?" I asked, smiling a little as I did.

"What…? No they're cute, but that's only because you're cute. Ears on other people are stupid looking, as if they're all deformed or something," she said with a wave of a hand.

I frowned at that, since I myself felt more like Vim than not. I found many people's traits, even the odd ones, adorable. Though… we weren't really talking about adorableness, were we? We were talking about something a tad more… intimate.

"Wings stink," Merit said.

"Says the fish!" Lilly shouted.

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My frown turned into a smirk as I pointed at my own head. "Do you think my ears are cute, Lellip?"

"Huh? Yeah? I like cats and dogs though," Lellip said.

That wasn't really what we were talking about though, was it…?

"Did your newborn have wings, Lilly?" Merit asked.

Lilly happily nodded. "Aye, she did! Beautiful and strong set too, she'll definitely be a flyer," she said proudly.

I too nodded. "They were indeed beautiful. Bigger than her, nearly twice so!" I said.

"Wings, huh…" Lellip sighed, sounding jealous.

Couldn't blame her. I too wished I could fly in the sky.

Glancing up, I found the sky was now a bit darker. The clouds I had seen earlier were starting to arrive.

"Wonder which bloodline would win out, monkey or owl," Merit then said, teasing the two as she slipped back into the wagon's covering.

Lellip tilted her head, as if she didn't really understand, but Lilly groaned. "Ignore her. She's just trying to stir up trouble," Lilly said.

"I'd prefer my kids had wings too, to be honest. I bet flying is so useful!" Lellip said.

Lilly smiled at that, in a way that told me that Lellip had likely just earned a lot of respect and trust. More than she already had, at least.

"And they say monkeys are supposed to be smart," Merit grumbled from within the wagon.

"I still don't even know what a monkey is…" I said softly as Lilly slapped the cloth of the wagon behind her.

"Anything's smarter than a fish, at least!" Lilly shouted.

"Don't hit it! If you rip it stuff will get wet, birdbrain!" Merit shouted back.

I laughed at the two as movement caught my eye in front of us. I stepped back a bit, as to see past the horses pulling the wagon, and saw a group of people heading our way down the road.

They weren't on horses, nor did they have a cart or anything, but judging from the large packs they carried they were likely just merchants or typical people traveling from one place to another.

I wasn't too worried about brigands or anything, even though we were still several days from Telmik's area, but I knew better than to not be on guard for them. Considering how many times I'd encountered such people in my life, I'd be foolish to not think the odds of it happening again weren't big enough to be concerned over.

Though with Lilly and Merit here, I wasn't as stressed over them. At least, not as I had been when I had been traveling with Oplar, Sillti and Angie. To be honest it was a little relieving to know the people I was traveling with could be so reliable.

Vim of course always made me feel safe, no matter the situation, but he wasn't a fair standard. If anything he was a rule-breaking one.

"Are you eating already!" Lilly shouted, drawing my attention back to my friends. I smiled at them as Lilly actually handed Lellip the reins to the horses and turned around, crawling into the wagon as if to punish Merit.

"Knock-it-off!" I heard Merit shout with what was undoubtedly a mouthful of food, which made me laugh. She sure did eat a lot for one so small!

"Um… Renn, I've never done this before," Lellip worriedly said as she stood up straight, holding the reins with unsure worry.

I quickly climbed up to the seat, and went to ignoring Lilly and Merit who both were arguing with one another. By the sounds of it Lilly too now had a bunch of food in her mouth. Hopefully they'd share some here in a moment.

"It's not that hard, just hold them. They surprisingly can sense what to do on their own most the time," I said as I took a seat next to Lellip.

"Like when plowing a field," Lellip said.

Oh…? They hadn't had horses had they? At her home? Maybe they had at one time, or something. "Yep. Really the only time it matters is when we need to move a certain way fast, or if one of them is unruly and likes to test whoever has the reins. These two seem very calm though," I said. They were the same ones we'd brought with us from Lumen, and although they didn't seem to like Lilly much they also didn't act out at all.

"Wonder who even thought up doing this. Throwing a lead on a horse and telling it what to do and all?" Lellip wondered.

I frowned at that and nodded. "I… don't know? I assume people just tried it with any and all animals, figuring out which ones worked and which one didn't," I said.

Lellip hummed as she pondered it, and I decided to ask Vim about it next time I saw him. He'd likely know the answer, or at least be able to explain it a little as to the how and the why.

It was honestly something I'd never thought of before. She was right, of course, someone had to have done it first… right? Maybe it was just something as simple as a wild horse having followed a person around, since that person had fed them or something, and they eventually just went ahead and put a saddle on them just for comfort if nothing else.

"Gosh, I miss your wings!" Merit shouted.

"I bet you do!" Lilly shouted back, and the wagon shifted a little as they moved around a bit. Had they just moved one of the crates…? Or knocked it over in their roughhousing?

"What do you think she meant by that…?" Lellip then whispered.

"Hm…? Ah… I assume Merit means the wagon itself. Lilly's wings had probably been too big and bulky for her. She'd have likely struggled to crawl in there with how full it is, what with the cloth covering, if she still had them. Thus allowing Merit to eat in peace," I said, reasoning as well as I could.

Lellip frowned as she nodded, seemingly finding my idea to make a little bit of sense at least.

"Renn!" Merit shouted, sounding worried.

It was my turn to frown as I leaned around, grabbed the small flap that wasn't tied up and peered into the wagon. I found Lilly standing up, and Merit opposing her. There was a bunch of stuff in the middle of the wagon, on the floor of it, which confused me since there shouldn't have been anything there…

"Why'd you break it…?" I asked with a sigh. One of the crates had been broken, and some of its contents had spilled out from it. Apples and other fruits were rolling around on the floor.

"She pushed me into it!" Lilly complained as she bent down to pick up some of the stuff. Merit instead went to messing with the broken crate, likely to see if she could fix the damage or at least make sure nothing else fell out.

"Probably bruised them all, birdbrain," Merit complained as she moved stuff inside the crate. Lilly went to putting the stuff she had picked up back into it, huffing at Merit in the process.

I shook my head and turned back around. I allowed the flap to close, since there was no point in watching them clean up their own mess.

There wasn't enough room really for me to join them. I'd just be in the way. The wagon was too full.

"What'd they break?" Lellip asked, sounding concerned.

"Just a part of one of the crates. The one with the apples in it," I said.

"Ah… Why'd they do that?" Lellip asked.

"Right!" Lilly shouted.

"Don't eat them, pick them up!" Merit complained, and I heard Lilly crunch into an apple noisily as if to defy her with as much gusto as she could muster.

Smiling happily at them, I watched as a distant section of the sky got really bright for a moment. A few heartbeats later, a very distant and soft rumble filled the air.

"Storms," Lellip said, having heard it too.

"Like I said, you'll get tired of it soon enough. I love the rain but storms like that make traveling annoying," I said with a sigh.

"Annoying? How so?" Lellip asked.

"Makes it hard to set up camp," Lilly said.

"Hard to cook too," Merit added.

Although I agreed with my friends, I gently wagged a finger at young Lellip. "Makes it hard to have lovely conversations as this, what with the rain and wind blowing every which way," I said.

She nodded quickly, seemingly agreeing with me the most.

And after all, how could she not?

I knew days like today were mundane. Simple. Without event or cause for concern… but it was days like today that made everything worth it, in my opinion.

I was enjoying this. I looked forward to picking up Randle and Angie. I looked forward to building a home up north for them all, and myself too if I could get away with it. I looked forward to seeing Lellip and Branches meet, and even more so looked forward to the day that everyone else showed up too.

I knew right now Vim was likely working hard. If not already at the coast, I was sure he wasn't far from it. I knew here soon he'd be dealing with chaos. Death. Pain and destruction. But it was precisely because he was going through such trials that I had to enjoy every moment of peace I could. It'd be insult to his struggles if I didn't.

All he did, all he was doing, were his attempts to keep everyone in the Society safe. And in that safety, they were supposed to find happiness.

So, being his wife, I needed to not just find such happiness… I needed to find a lot of it. To prove to everyone he was doing a good job. To prove to everyone, and Vim especially, that his efforts weren't wasted.

The flap behind me shifted and Lilly leaned out from it. She wrapped an arm around my shoulder and neck, resting on me as she offered me an apple and Lellip another. "Snack away, since we'll likely not be setting up camp tonight," Lilly said, likely saying so because of the storm about to meet us.

Taking the apple, I nodded and smiled. "More like eat them all now, since they're bruising," I said.

"Ha!" Merit shouted, happy I had seen through her ploy.

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