Ouranos knew that the festival was going to end soon, he could almost taste the rain on the wind. Soon his daughter would be whisked away by her human fiance and he might never see her again. He had been sulking for days, to the point where Gea had become seriously annoyed with him. She'd even sat him down and told him not to kill the boy. She'd made him promise and she knew he couldn't break a promise.

The wistful wick wandered towards the circus, pondering this issue. He just didn't know the boy from the first man. How was he supposed to know if the match was a good one? This wasn't just fooling around, marriage was a serious thing in Ouranos' world. There was no other person for him in the whole of Vita, now that he had Gea in his life. He wanted to be sure that Calli had the same.

Ouranos hadn't really had the opportunity to peruse the circus before. It had quite a wick look to it, even if it wasn't run by tekaa. He walked about, looking for someone he could talk to, to ask for Calli's whereabouts. She'd gone off that morning to practice and was due home for lunch. Gea wanted Dorian to come. She had sent Ouranos as... some sort of test, probably.

Ouranos caught sight of a brown-haired head and had to fight down the urge to growl. He walked up behind him and placed a hand, not too forcefully, on the boy's shoulder.

"Hesta." He said. "Is Calli about?"

Dorian had been working on a new fireball. A rope with two heavy weights at either end. Wrapping them tightly, he would dip them in pitch soon. The hand on his shoulder and deep voice froze his hands and he stared into the distance with a look of horror.

Uh-Oh.

Composing himself, he stood and turned around, looking up...and up.

"Uh..no..no sir. She's gone out for practice and said she'd be back for lunch." Swallowing, he smiled.

"Did you..did you want me to go find her?"

Ouranos resisted the urge to tell Dorian that he would not like him to find Calli, he would like him to die. He was such a tidgy natt. Ouranos wondered if the muscle he apparently had was good for anything... Tristaan had said he was benny enough but Ouranos just found that difficult to believe in the face of one important fact.

He hadn't been asked first.

"Ne, I'd say it would be benny if we both went and found her, kov." Ouranos said, saying kov in an altogether less friendly way than usual. "Gea says she wants to have ye round fer lunch, get to meet Calli's fami."

Ouranos thought family was very, very important and he couldn't quite fathom why no one else was as upset as he was about this. Truth be told, he was a very protective father but that wasn't the only reason. They knew they didn't need to give Dorian a hard time because they knew Ouranos would. It was that simple. They were free to just enjoy meeting Dorian more fully, safe in the knowledge that if anything came up, Ouranos would obliterate it.

Dorian had sudden irrational thoughts that he might be the one being served as lunch if Ouranos had his way. Nodding, he smiled.

"Sure, I can do that! I...uh.." The sword swallower panicked suddenly, glancing around the circus area in sudden terror. What way had she gone!? If he lost Calli, would he die?

"Should we head to your kint first? See if she's there?" He tried to be casual about the way he spoke. This was scarier than fire breathing.

Ouranos gave Dorian a look that could have curdled milk, cut steel and then slaughtered a pig without slowing down. His dedication to heeding Gea's wisdom was being tested and Ouranos never did well on tests.

"She already came down here to practice wif her friends." He said, resentfully, knowing she'd also come to spend time with Dorian.

He could see the marks on Calli's neck and he knew what they meant! And he hadn't even asked before proposing! Ouranos was never going to be able to get over that.

"I think you 'n I should have a talk, brunno." Ouranos continued, still looking like the rock gleefully rolling towards somewhere that was most likely hard, with Dorian trapped in the middle. "Y'see, my wife told me we'd be welcoming you into our family and I ent pleased about a few things, I'm sure ye can tell."

Ouranos sat down on a log, pulling Dorian with him.

"I'm sure ye noticed our Calli is a wick, oes?" He said, voice dry, he was aware Calli avoided speaking tek when in the company of non-wicks. "We have our customs sure as you do. Fami is important, ye chen?"

He wondered if Dorian was following his line of reasoning.

Dorian didn't know what to say. He couldn't think of anything that wouldn't have him gutted. Mutely, he nodded. The fire-breather hadn't spent that long with his actual parents. In fact, he could only vaugly remember that they were nice folks, somewhere around Dorhaven. Balder and Winslow had been his family, then later, Taegan. No one had ever told him he had to ask permission for asking a girl to marry him. It was...well...it made sense..but..he didn't know!!



The brown haired boy squeaked out a garbled reply as he was forced to sit down.

"Yes? I...fami..family? Yes! Very important!"

"Have ye ever even asked her about bein' a wick?" Ouranos asked, exasperated. "I know she acts a bit tsat, only speaking estuan in front of you natts and nattles but she ent. She's a wick and we have our ways. Ye can travel around as much as ye like, with whoever ye like but marriage means something!"

Ouranos leant back a little, he'd been getting too close and red in the face. You could only let so much spittle fly before you got a bit dry.

"Maybe not is she were a Hand but she takes after me and I'm Laughing Sky originally." Ouranos continued, looking proud. "She'll think ye mean forever because I raised her to think it means forever and honestly, not many Crows bother with the fuss unless they want it to last. Yer about te marry into the fami, brunno, which means yer a Crow now as much as she is. Even though ye got no damn idea because ye didn't even ask her, didje? You didn't even check with us and ye know where our damn kint is!"

Ouranos was beginning to resemble a beet again. He was almost sweating with rage. He was like a big manly volcano, set to wreak havoc.

"Is it so hard to ask first, ye daft idjit?" Ouranos roared. "Were ye raised in a barn?"

Dorian understood some tek. Some. Ouranos was spitting it out like a walking lexicon and it was lost on the young human.

"What? I...tsat? Wait, yes marriage!" He clung to the bit he understood.

"Of course marriage means something, otherwise I wouldn't have asked her. It's not like asking her to come juggling or to dinner. It's for..life."



Dorian shrunk into himself, scared of the man. He shouldn't speak, he should wait for Calli, but his tongue wanted to damn him.

"I meant it to mean forever. I didn't ask her coz I wanted to keep it a surprise...check with you? But..I..I.."



The boy raised his arms in defense, sure the man was about to hit him. Or kill him.

"Yes!?" He yelled back from under his arm-y barrier.

"I was raised in a tent! With the circus! I didn't know I needed to ask you anything! Is it so bad that I love her enough I want to spend my whole life with her?" His eyes were squeezed shut as he yelled back at the man.

Well, at least he'd had some time with Calli. Sure, she'd grieve for him, but she'd move on eventually.

He hoped they buried him somewhere nice.

"THAT WAS ALL I WANTED TO HEAR!!" Ouranos roared, full of paternal wrath, a vein on his forehead bulging and resembling a caterpillar crawling down a branch. "WAS THAT SO HARD?"

Ouranos sat back, eyes still wide and critical. Now, only now, could he be content. He didn't think Dorian was lying. He was a tidgy thing, with no trade to speak of aside from breathing fire apparently, but that was fine in a wick. Firebreathing was acceptable. Breaking Calli's heart was not.

"Anything else ye want te ask me about?" He asked, now sounding less like a rabid animal and more like someone's dad.

Dorian peeked out from between his crossed arms with wide brown eyes. Calli's dad was crazy!

Batshit, clocking insane!

Lowing his hands, ears still ringing from the man's loud yelling, the boy tried to think.

"Um...uh...are there any special...uh...things I should be asking or doing at the wedding? Wick things? D..do I have to ask her ma anything?"

"She's probably the best person te ask." Ouranos said truthfully, she was better versed in social niceties, obviously. "Ye may want to think about getting a kint before ye start a fami."

The look Ouranos gave Dorian implied that getting Calli pregnant immediately would be a mark against him.

"I can assist ye there." He said, voice like a blunt instrument. "Ye should also get te know Calli's beatas' names. An' her brunno. It would be... polite."

Dorian gulped. Fami..ly? He knew eventually they would start one. But..like..not yet...like...later...

He forced the unbidden thoughts of just what went into starting a little bit of him, a little bit of Calli...far, far, far from his mind, not wanting to have ANY of those thoughts around her terrifying father.

"Y..yes sir! I've got plans on buying us a kint of our own. Uh...I...should I wait till we're married before we move into a kint together?" He didn't know whether it was okay or not!



The boy blinked, almost afraid to ask his next question.

"B..beata? Brunno? W..what, I'm sorry?"

Ouranos' expression was once again pained. He was still worried that Dorian was some kind of mental deficient.

"Her brother and her sisters." He said, gritting his teeth. "N why wouldn't ye get a kint first? How would ye know ye'll get along if ye don't?"

Not that he relished the thought of Dorian laying hands on Calli, it was just how things were done. You got a kint, you lived together, if everything worked you got married... And you did not hurt sweet-tempered romantics like Ouranos' daughter or he killed you. In your sleep!

"Brunno, brother, beata, sister." Ouranos grumbled. "Kint, caravan, you should at least learn her language."

Ouranos thought he could hear Calli coming. It was the cadence of her steps. He could hear her a mile away.