Chapter 58 part 4

There was so much about his past that she really didn't know, and it wasn't like she expected to get much time to learn about that. Not with how things seemed to keep coming at her one right after another. Sometimes even before she'd been able to get the dust settled on the previous item.

The same would be true with Cithis as well. She couldn't be sure that this would turn out how it does in her min, especially since she couldn't be sure if there were other cultural issues that she wasn't aware of that would come into play here as well.

"That may happen sometime, but this time I'm certain that I'll come back in one piece, okay?" Jenn amended, wondering if she might have gone a little too far in her statement. She didn't want to lie to him, or at least not about this, but she had a feeling that he needed some kind of assurance that she would be coming back. That he wouldn't lose her as a mother, or at least as a mother-figure. "Whatever else might happen, this will be resolved and I will return, no matter what it takes."

Jenn wasn't exactly sure when she first felt Haln's grip on her loosening, but by the time she had finished, she could easily break out of his hold if she felt like it. Though, she didn't bother. Instead, she knelt so she was eye level with him, pulled him in another embrace, and lifted him up, using her magic to enhance her strength so she could do so.

Then she walked into her room, with him in her arms. She had a feeling that he wasn't going to be any more trouble when it came time for her to leave, but she felt a little surprised at how much she wanted to spend time with him until it was that time. She wasn't sure she really understood it herself, just that it felt like the right thing to do. She merely sat in the place she usually did, settling Haln on her lap before she began to wait patiently for everyone else to arrive.

When everyone was gathered, she didn't try to have Haln leave, but instead, asked Cithis to join them. She hoped that if she started to include them in these meetings, that they might start to feel more at ease when she had to leave. Especially when it felt like a dangerous task, such as this one clearly did to them.

Even though it was Haln here who was the one more troubled by it, Jenn suspected that Cithis was either doing a better job of keeping it to herself or if she at least knew enough about this that she didn't feel as worried as she would have otherwise.

As the last person was taking their seat, she opened up the meeting. "Now that we're all here, I need all of you to tell me what the situation is. Has there been anything specific that they've demanded, other than to have our chief fight theirs. Beyond that, I'm not sure what else there is that you were told."

"There wasn't much more," Jianopra said. "They didn't say if it was a fight to the death, but I had the feeling that it'll only be to the death if they win. Or if they find that you're… uh, I think they said weak or something. I'm not really sure myself, but I don't think they think much of us."

Jenn nodded. She got that impression from the one she'd spoken with. Although, she couldn't be sure if she shouldn't count it as two, since there were two heads on it and each head seemed to think differently and that they didn't always seem to agree on things. Despite them being stuck with each other.

"Was there anything else?" she asked, hoping that she might be able to get even just a little more bit of information about these creatures.

"Um, Oleania and I were wondering if you would marry us," Roesadra said quietly, making Jenn wonder if she was worried about either the timing of her request, the request itself, or both.

She definitely thought it wasn't exactly a good time to bring it up, but she also had a feeling that it probably was taking a lot of her courage to broach the subject right now. Oleania even seemed surprised at the request, though she quickly threw her arms around Roesadra afterwards.

Jenn sighed, wanting to answer her stand-in, but also wanting to finish with the other subject first. "Aside from that, is there anything else about our current situation that I should know? About these creatures who want me to fight their chief, I mean."

Jenn had the impression that some might have something about it that they wanted to say, but when no one answered her, she had to assume that there wasn't anything for them to say. That it was merely just time to deal with the request Roesadra made.

"Okay, so, both of you want to get married, right?" Jenn asked, wondering why she was feeling a little jealous over them. After all, it wasn't like she didn't have someone herself, even if that someone was back on Earth and she had no idea how long it'd be before she was able to even speak with Alex again.

Both nodded as Jenn took a deep breath to calm herself down as she could tell she was working herself up. Which if she didn't calm down, that she'd quite possibly say something that would get at least both of them offended or upset with her. Something that she couldn't afford to do right then.

"Is there anything we need to get together?" Jenn asked, hoping too elaborate. Especially since they had rather limited resources. Although, she supposed that those two were already aware of that. Which meant that it might not be necessary.

However, that didn't mean that there wouldn't need to be any other preparations. Such as if they needed something special to wear or if there was something else that was needed.

Jenn felt like her mind was starting to overheat with all the potential possibilities. To the point she was wondering if maybe she was overthinking things. Such as if some of what was going through her mind didn't have any place in their culture.

"Not really," Roesadra said. "We have everything we need, but we wanted you to officiate the ceremony."

Jenn felt like Roesadra had something else to say as well, but after a minute, it was clear that she wasn't going to add anything to it. Though, as Jenn was about to move on, Oleania did speak.

"Um, we were hoping that maybe you knew what spell to cast so that we could have children together."

Jenn couldn't help but feel like her rain stopped functioning for at least a minute. She wasn't sure where that bit had come from, though she thought she might have heard someone say something to that effect, or something similar, before. With all that had been said so far, she wasn't sure if it had or not. Besides, it wasn't like she'd even heard of anything like that.

However, as she opened her mouth to say as much, she suddenly had a thought. She wasn't sure if it would work or not, but she supposed that it wouldn't hurt them, if nothing else. Besides, she was confident that even if she referred to it as an experiment, they'd be more than happy to let her go about letting her experiment on them.

"I'm sure I can come up with something to try," Jenn said, hoping that she wouldn't regret saying that. "Though, it'll likely just be an experiment. You don't mind that, right?"

Both of them shook their heads. "No, we trust you completely," Roesadra said emphatically.

"Okay, I'll do that, but we'll have to wait until we're done with our current situation and have moved everyone to the village back on the other side of the gate, okay?"

"Sure!" Roesadra and Oleania said together, making it clear to Jenn that they were more than happy to wait that long. Though, Jenn couldn't help but wonder if she should have asked for a time even later than that. Later enough that she might have even been able to forget about it herself. Besides, if she had, as she looked at the others in the room, she had a feeling that they wouldn't let her forget.

"Does anyone else have anything to bring up?" she asked, partly hoping someone did so she could get her mind off of what it would look like for her to 'officiate' the two young women's wedding. Which she suddenly realized she probably should have asked what her 'officiating' it would look like. After all, she had no idea what would be expected of her with the culture that her people were from.

When Jenn was met with silence, she only felt more miserable. Partly because she had actually wanted there to be something. Which was merely another point for her to dislike being the one in charge.

"Okay, since we don't know what I should be expecting, we'll send me with the tunic and mask I made," Jenn said, wishing she could have thought of a better way to have put that with how awkward listening to it spoken aloud sounded to her. "I'll be bringing this prism knife and I'm sure my magic will be all that I'll need, however, if I'm asked to bring another person, is there anyone who would like to accompany me?"

Jenn had only just thought of this issue, that she might be requested to bring another, but she couldn't deny that it was at least a legitimate possibility. As if she was required to engage in a duel, they might want her to have a witness or something, though her reasoning felt a little fuzzy on that aspect.

If they wanted to sign an agreement or something, then they might want her to have a witness of her own people there, although she couldn't see why these creatures would have taken any of her people hostage if it was for something like that.

"I'll go," Maelia offered. "If necessary, I'm sure that I can run back here without being noticed and bring the others to help if something goes wrong."

Jenn smiled sadly. "If something goes wrong, we might not have that ability," she answered. "Because with the snow here, it's possible that anything that goes wrong could create other problems, such as barriers caused by natural disasters, like an avalanche."

Jenn felt strangely satisfied when she received blank stares. Though, she supposed that she shouldn't be that surprised, since she didn't really see any mountains for these people to have seen anything even close to an avalanche.

"Okay, since I can see none of you know what I'm talking about," Jenn continued, wondering if this was end up being a lecture about dangers from living in the mountains. "An avalanche is where a lot of snow and ice builds up and then for a number of possible reasons, becomes dislodged and flows down the mountainside. If you can't imagine what it'd look like, think of it as a moving wall of snow. Then when it stops, it will harden almost immediately, so if you get caught in it, you won't even be able to dig your way out of it. It's possible you might be able to get it to where a part of your body can move, but don't really expect it.

"Where I come from, people die from avalanches, even those who prepare for them. If one occurs, and I'm caught in it, then that's probably because I wasn't able to use my magic. If that happens, I can't say if I'd be able to come out alive."

Jenn glanced at Haln in her arms, and she quickly regretted how she said it. After all, she had promised him that there wasn't any real danger of her doing this. Although, to be fair, she was referring to these creatures at that time. Natural disasters, even ones like avalanches, weren't anything that she could really predict. Especially when it came to what condition she might be in if it struck.

"However," she amended, hoping that she'd be able to fix her lapse. "That would also be under extreme circumstances and isn't something I plan on letting happen easily.

"Besides, I'm pretty sure that whoever these creatures are, they're well versed in avalanches and have likely built their homes somewhere safe, or if they're nomads, that they know which areas are more likely to experience avalanches and would avoid living by those locations."

"Uh, would that mean this area could be prone to avalanches?" Jianopra asked, sounding rather nervous.

When Jenn heard the words spoken, she had to admit, that was a distinct possibility. It wasn't like she had any control of where the gates opened up on, so it wasn't like she knew what was safe and what wasn't. She just hoped that with how much vegetation and trees had grown here before they started building this settlement would be an indication that it was unlikely to have an avalanche. Though, she couldn't deny that the question still had her a little nervous. Especially since she couldn't say very well that she knew these mountains. Not even anywhere near as close as she knew the Rockies.

She also hoped that she wasn't going to give everyone here nightmares about what could happen before they moved out of here and into a winter home for the time being. Although, on the other hand, it wasn't like she could do anything about it now. As it wasn't something that she could very well unsay or anything.

"I really don't know if that's a danger here," Jenn said to the question posed. "I'm confident that there's less danger than in some areas, because an avalanche will destroy tress as well as other things. So because there were several trees standing here, trees that showed signs of having grown for several years, that should mean that avalanches don't happen here that much."

Jenn wished that was all there was to consider about that subject, but she was also confident that if she didn't say anything, that her people would quickly start imagining all sorts of things that could spread like wildfire, which she was certain wouldn't be helpful to them at all.

"Now, whatever was said here, is to not be shared with anyone who is not present right now or around anyone who is not present at this moment,' Jenn said, feeling like she needed to put an order in place so misunderstanding about any details of avalanches doesn't spread to where it'd create a potential panic while she was dealing with the current situation.

"What about the others who had left with you?" Zirisia asked, her gaze piercing Jenn through, as if she could see through Jenn's intensions.

"I'll brief them if I feel it's important," Jenn replied, hoping that would put an end to the subject. "As they're already on the other side of the gate, they're not likely to need to worry about avalanches there."

Jenn waited for any further statements or reactions, and felt immense relief when nothing else was said. She was very happy that she'd managed to get out of that mess she'd created for herself. Especially with how she wasn't sure how to get out of it either. She wasn't sure what she'd have said or done if anyone had called her on the fact that trees were growing here when they arrived.

While the trees had been growing for at least a few years, she couldn't say that those trees hadn't started growing after an avalanche struck previously. There was too much she didn't know about this world and she was pretty sure that her people's ignorance of all aspects of avalanches is what was saving her from more probing questions right now. Though, if they did understand them more, they wouldn't likely need to ask her for more details. That they'd know what she'd have been leaving out themselves and wouldn't have needed her to have brought this up in the first place.

"So, anything else now?" Jenn asked, hoping that no one would. She was already starting to feel rather tired, and hoped that she could look around for something to eat and then to get some sleep.

When no one said anything, Jenn then adjourned the meeting. She hoped that she'd be able to find some food quickly, but with how much light there was outside, she worried that dinner wouldn't be getting served for a while yet. While it was possible for there to still be some lunch leftover, she couldn't be sure about that point.

Though, if there wasn't, then she'd just have to get some sleep, get woken up for dinner, then go back to sleep. A simple method, though she didn't like the idea in general. As she knew her stomach wouldn't be happy with being empty at the first part of it.

When the others left, Haln and Cithis remained with Jenn. "Mother, can I stay with you tonight?" Haln asked, and Jenn was pretty sure that Cithis wanted that as well.

Since they'd been on this world, neither of them had wanted this up to his point, but there had been a couple times when they had wanted to sleep in the same bed as her. Which she couldn't bring herself to deny them.

She couldn't be sure if it was akin to when she'd let her sister sleep in the same bed or if there was something else about it. She was only certain that right now they were clearly worried about her going to meet with those creatures and wanted to at least be around her.

Though, while she hadn't done anything of the sort before, as she lay on her mattress, with Cithis and Haln in her arms, both using her chest as a pillow again, she started humming 'You Are My Sunshine' to them for a verse before singing the two verses she knew of the song.

Neither of them interrupted her, but instead she heard their breathing even out, indicating that they'd fallen asleep. She wasn't going to complain, but part of her wished that she'd have been able to fall asleep with them as well. Though, at the same time, she couldn't help but feel happy looking at them sleeping so peacefully.

Somehow, that made the situation worth it for her.