The Vixen Trials

Give Me The Choice

"You've told me you're not good enough for me. That's what you believe. But why don't you ask me? Why don't you give me the choice?"

Keilah

She knew she should go. The body of her grandmother needed to be cared for. She needed to take control of the soldiers and get back her villages. But all of that faded from her mind with Dakkoul in front of her, with his funny crooked grin and that soft look on his face, the one she'd feared was gone forever. His words echoed in her mind: the ones that had filtered past her fox-brain: My heart is hooked to yours. I love you. She frowned. "Don't you have something else to say to me?"

​He stared at the ground. "I've said everything in my heart."

A rush of fury enveloped her.​ "You've told me you're not good enough for me. That's what you believe. But why don't you ask me? Why don't you give me the choice?"

​His dark eyes widened, his head swung up and he came towards her, his left hand held out. He placed it palm up in front of her. "This hand represents all I have, my strength, my mind, my wonderful singing voice," his voice lilted upwards at that and she hid a smile even as she blinked back tears. "I give you the rest of the years of my life, and my body. I offer it to you and only to you, always". He stopped with a deep breath. "Now you should refuse me, but I'm glad I've said it. I've wanted to for such a long time, only I never thought I should."

He had spoken. She rushed to speak then stopped. What did she want to say? What did she want? The words came up onto her tongue, the words of the village betrothal ceremony. They wanted to spill from her lips. The lack of rim stones did not matter, the words themselves were enough and she made them hers before she declared, "I will put my hand in yours. To your strength I will add my strength. My fortune to your fortune, my heart to yours, hooked to yours forever. I promise to join my voice with yours in song, so that together we will make beautiful music and no one will cover their ears." She smiled to show that line was a jest but he did not echo it. He looked stunned, so she sobered and continued, "I will live my life with you always, sharing all my joy, my sorrow, my pain and my love."

All her confusion, all her doubt was gone. A tremendous joy flooded her. This was right. To be with him was all that mattered. 

Dakkoul did not move closer, no doubt afraid to, but she sniffed the air and stepped forward. "I'm okay now. The fox is gone" and she pressed herself against him and let him hold her for what seemed like hours, reveling in being encircled in his arms.

​He broke into her thoughts. "I wish you could stay here with me always."

​"Me too," she said, but in her peripheral vision she could see her grandmother's body. She made herself move. "Pipsqueak," she called out, and a sheepish looking Phil-Aemon came from out behind a starberry bush. "I think you've watched long enough, don't you?"

​She ordered Pipsqueak to get horses for them all, a warm cloak for Dakkoul, and provisions for a long journey. Then she snuggled back into Dakkoul's arms. It should have taken Pipsqueak no time at all but it seemed she had just got comfortable when he returned with Jalen and Alyssia, his cloak around her shoulders. Keilah greeted them warmly but cut their fussing over Dakkoul short. It was time for them all to go.

​Two bats swooped overhead. Keilah grimaced at them. "Take Pipsqueak with you. You can't come back here, it's too risky for you. Send him with word of where to meet you after you've rescued Jagur and when you find a priest, any priest, that can marry us properly, only not a Wayvolkan one. I wonder if that old man from the hidden valley is still around."

​"The one that muddled the words and dropped the rings?"

​"The same," she said with a grin. "But anyone will do. I want to marry you properly Dakkoul, in front of everyone I care about including Jagur.

He gave her a wry grin. "That would take a miracle, but you know what? After today, I believe in miracles."

With one final squeeze, she left him, and set off into the coolness of the night, alone except for Jalen and Alyssia, but determined. She would rule her House. She'd get back the villages so that they would be safe. She'd deal with the Prince and his mother and she'd marry the man to whom she'd hooked her heart. Nobody would stand in her way.