08. warmth
How do you explain your love to a family tribe? For the purpose of mating, sex and love have always been separate, and sparse few tribe members take permanent, promised mates. But the children of the tribe are important, and if not your children, then your skills and how they benefit or protect the tribe. Quinn will bear me no offspring, thank the ancestors, and at best he serves to distract me from my ability to cast effectively. Quinn has no skills to offer outside of ascerbic wit and a violent disposition with a penchant towards boredom. He refuses to do that which he does not wish to do, and his primary concern is always for himself.
How do you explain this kind of love to a predominantly pragmatic family? I have never been one of theirs, their 'type' to speak of, but they are loyal, and I will always be one of them. I will know all their names whenever I drift back, and I will learn the names of the new children, and I will grieve honestly for the lost.
And I will always be Daimd. They may name me however they like, but I am only Daimd, and I have always been different from them, even before I knew I was.
I am Daimd, and this is my love! The one being I love more fiercely than life itself, and value higher than the riches of all the dragons in the world. I will hear no words spoken against him and see no judging looks cast his way. I live for his happiness and well-being before mine own, and before that of the clan. If that ousts me from your circle, then so be it, but who ever doubted that Daimd the Sometimes-Traveller would find something out there in the world to swear his life to? Daimd, who refused to be father to any child in the clan, even those undoubtedly sharing his blood, and Daimd the Damned, blessedly cursed with indubitable magic?
The Daimd who stands before you, loving this elf, is no stranger to you all, bar that he is now happier than he has ever been. Chief! I ask that you recognise my mate as mine, as my partner for now and for always, just as you took the Chieftain before all the tribe and the ancestors. I ask humbly, honestly, and as no stranger to my own flaws. I ask anyone here to disapprove if they feel it is needed. I promise only that I will walk with him, regardless of what you choose. Know that, and speak your decision.
How do you explain this kind of love to a predominantly pragmatic family? I have never been one of theirs, their 'type' to speak of, but they are loyal, and I will always be one of them. I will know all their names whenever I drift back, and I will learn the names of the new children, and I will grieve honestly for the lost.
And I will always be Daimd. They may name me however they like, but I am only Daimd, and I have always been different from them, even before I knew I was.
I am Daimd, and this is my love! The one being I love more fiercely than life itself, and value higher than the riches of all the dragons in the world. I will hear no words spoken against him and see no judging looks cast his way. I live for his happiness and well-being before mine own, and before that of the clan. If that ousts me from your circle, then so be it, but who ever doubted that Daimd the Sometimes-Traveller would find something out there in the world to swear his life to? Daimd, who refused to be father to any child in the clan, even those undoubtedly sharing his blood, and Daimd the Damned, blessedly cursed with indubitable magic?
The Daimd who stands before you, loving this elf, is no stranger to you all, bar that he is now happier than he has ever been. Chief! I ask that you recognise my mate as mine, as my partner for now and for always, just as you took the Chieftain before all the tribe and the ancestors. I ask humbly, honestly, and as no stranger to my own flaws. I ask anyone here to disapprove if they feel it is needed. I promise only that I will walk with him, regardless of what you choose. Know that, and speak your decision.