"My, and here I thought you were born with a smile on your face," Marris said as she leant forward with her arms folded across her chest. She tipped her head to one side, dark eyelashes fluttering while she peered beneath them. "But here it is, plain as day, a frown of all things."

Leif pursed his lips and raised a brow, hands tucked in his pockets. "If I grin too much, you think I'm simple. Too little and it's worth gawking at," his shoulders dropped as he trailed off into a sigh before adding, "You're a hard one to please."

Marris reproachfully clicked her tongue, and drew back with narrowed eyes. Leif inclined his head to one side, keeping her gaze as he waited for the tell tale signs of a smile in her lips' twitching corners to give way.  Clamoring chatter from the tables and upper floor filled the silence left from the lapse in their battle of wills, but soon enough a peal of poorly bitten-back chuckles spilled out from Marris' lips. She lifted her arms and a dopey grin settled on Leif's face as he unsheathed his hands and dove in to wrap his arms around her waist, spinning her around as their laughter melded together.  

When Marris' heel nearly clipped a passing patron in the back, Leif stumbled backward and tucked her close until her knees bracketed his torso. He flashed a smile to the stony-faced, grumbling man before lifting his head up to take in the breathless giggles raining down on his head.  The approaching shades of the afternoon slipped in through the inn's windows and bathed Marris in soft blues and ambers, from the beige scarf keeping layers of tight, dark coils  from falling in her eyes to the apron dirtied with tidings from a day's work. Her eyes scrunched at the corners as she laughed, framing Leif's face between her palms with a sweet smile.  

"Well, you always seem to manage, Sir Leif,"  she snickered at the title, and Leif tucked the fondness in his chest aside to jostle her. With a sharp cry, she flung her arms around his neck and he lifted his chin with a slight smirk when their faces came close enough that he could almost see himself reflected in her eyes when they popped open. 

Leif watched her closely, searching her eyes before he asked,  "What has Ambriel been filling your head with?" 

While seeming taken aback, Marris' shock quickly melted into amusement as she rested her forehead against Leif's and toyed with one of the threads woven around his locs. It chimed when her fingernail strummed along its length, harmonizing with her teasing hum, "Only stories about the greatest hero yet to enter Tolle-Armida,"

The sound of jeering and salacious whistling interrupted Leif's attempt at protest, and made him roll his eyes as he set Marris on her feet. A wave of his hand enthused the hecklers who called after them with ribbing and good-natured chaffing as he led Marris back to the bar.  "Lies, then," he grumbled as she slid her hand into the crook of his elbow and snickered behind her hand. "If I'm a hero for finding lost things, then that would make this village Tolle-Armida itself."

Marris threw her head back with a bark of laughter, letting Leif hold her hand as she twirled to face him with their intertwined fingers keeping her from falling against the wooden counter. She smiled as she said, "How lucky I am to serve spirits amongst the Heavens," and pulled their joined hands until Leif braced his hand on one side of her to keep from tumbling into her. Their noses nearly brushing when he drew back, heart hammering from the warmth of her breath against his cheek. "Mayhaps you were good trouble all along, Sir Leif."

Leif curled his fingers against the wood grain, and stared blindly at Marris' face. He knew he should have said something but the flash of bright white when he'd blinked stolen his words. For a scant moment, he wondered if he knew how to even breathe. Good trouble is what Marris called him more times than he could remember but this time, he wondered if the trouble he'd brushed with had been good at all. A gentle pat to his cheek jolted him out of his thoughts and to Marris' narrowed eyes, darting about his face as if she were looking for a missed spot on a glass she'd cleaned. 

"What's happened?" She whispered furtively, and if Leif weren't so close her voice might have been lost within the din. "You've never given up this early."

Leif swallowed back a grunt, glancing through the thin slivers of space between the locs framing his face. The bar was left relatively empty save for a few patrons talking amongst themselves at the end, and the number of tables at his back were filled with the drunk and the hungry. It wasn't the best place for a quiet conversation but before he could spin his reasons as to why, a quick but sharp tug on his loc forced him to meet Marris' gaze. A furrow formed between her brows as she pulled back her hand to touch his jaw, trailing her finger down to his chin.

"Nevermind their thoughts," she said, putting her finger to his lips when they parted slightly. "I only need to hear yours."

After what felt like an eternity, Leif thinned his lips and glanced down at Marris' finger until she removed it.  Her arms slid around his neck, disturbing the threads and beads woven into his hair as she pulled him against the seam of her body. In the dimness between their touching foreheads and stern gazes, the clamor around them quieted and Leif could hear the susurrus of zephyrs spinning around the whistling words falling from Marris' lips. The muscles in Leif's arms loosened as he settled into the guise of a lover returned and the zephyrs drew closer together until the din was practically muted. 

 "The wind adores you today as it does everyday," he laughed until she flicked at his nape. "Ouch, forgive me for not leaping into the shallows firsthand. A bit of levity is what a friend provides, is it not?"

Marris clicked her tongue. A warning, but Leif preened despite it until he recalled the day's earlier events and found it difficult to keep a smile. He closed his eyes and ignored the tittering zephyrs whispering about the conversations happening around them, shutting out every sensation but the weight of Marris' arms against his nape and the warmth of her breath against his skin. In darkness, he found solace when thinking of the burning pain from the brilliant light that consumed his world. Thunderous roars echoed above his head as a storm waged within his chest, heart hammering with each beat of the butterfly's wings spurring on violent winds that howled and thrashed like a wild beast within the confines of his mind. 

His temples throbbed as he chuckled bitterly, and asked, "Would you believe me if I were to say that I'd been met with the misfortune of an audience with a Goddess, Marris?"

He could imagine her dispirited glare in the biting nip of her nails pinching his left lobe just shy of where his earring sat. "That had better not been another one of your jokes, Leif."

"You're a beauty," Leif settled into the words with an sig as he turned his head to one side to shake off her reproach. Then, his eyes fluttered open and dispelled the howling winds and blinding glare when his gaze met hers.  "However, the one I speak of is not you."

Marris searched his eyes for something, and he knew she would attempt to find a lie but there was none he could offer. Not even to himself. Gradually, her eyes softened with horror and the hold she had on him tightened as if she would pull him to her breast to shield him from an unseen foe. Leif might have laughed at the attempt if she didn't seem so frightened. Instead, he laid a hand on her back and rubbed circles along her spine with light pressure applied from his forefinger and thumb. 

"Calm yourself, she only imposed Her will because my partiality for jests wasn't to her liking," Leif laughed self-consciously when Marris' eyes widened, "None of that, now. Not a thought was disturbed, and I'd ensured to keep the bit of coin on my person hidden."

When her lips thinned and a shimmer swam in her eyes, Leif's heart thudded with fear that she'd been close to tears. Then her fingers curled around the shell of his ear and gave a sharp tug, sending him reeling down as she whispered in his ear, "You utter fool. Hadn't I told you if you were to come across the Hinterlady, you should treat her with nothing but respect?" 

Leif winced, doing his best to shake off her hold but the grip between her forefinger and thumb was stronger than expected. He whined, holding onto her wrist instead and swore, "But I did exactly as you'd taught me."

"If I know you as well as I believe," Marris tilted her wrist back, deliberately lifting his head so their eyes met. Leif tried for a smile but it was hard to muster anything more than a grimace until she released him with a sigh, "You'd likely managed to pervert those teachings into your own game."

"Rude," Leif huffed, rubbing his stinging ear. "I believe you were going to comfort me when this conversation began."

Marris pushed the arm bracketing his hips, stepping out from under his embrace with her arms crossed. "Comfort is for victims," she began, squinting at him over her shoulder. "You likely brought about your own doom." 

"The Hinterlady appeared before me," Leif interjected. Marris turned around fully, urging him to go on when she stepped closer to him and leaned in. He shook his head at the implied demand for him to get to the point as he continued, "I haven't the faintest when she'd begun to take notice, but as I recall it, Alan's homestead is one of the few yet to miss a single of its flock. She met me after I'd left there."

Leif glanced off toward the inn's ground floor, watching as people milled about from table to table with drinks in their hands and food on their plates. Some, drunk from the spirits they'd consumed, were raucous and playful while others were happy to fill their stomachs with another helping served by attendants graciously slipping into the mood with their charges. Their visages were illuminated from behind by tempered, burnished orange licking at the cerulean sky like the mouth of an open flame. In the distance where the mountains and hillocks paled against the horizon, Leif noticed the hazes of light zipping across the gloam with motes of light trailing after them. Attendants stationed by the windows lifted them as the lights drew closer, darting past to the roaring cheers of the patrons turning their faces up to the sound of cracking laughter. Zephyrs abandoned their lanterns to circle around the lights, wrapping around them until they'd taken on the shape of a bird's wings, soaring around the lanterns hanging from the rafters. The light trails drifted into the lanterns, illuminating them until the ground floor was awash with a lambent glow. Sound funneled back into the pocket of space as the zephyrs circling them dispersed to join their kin, and Leif turned to Marris who watched the proceedings with puckered lips and drawn brows.

When she noticed his gaze, she gestured for him to continue and another round of cheers drowned out Leif's musing as he told her, "A couple of kids from the village told me Svet went missing earlier this morning. He's known to wander. But sheep, even ones that are the adventurous sort, would avoid anywhere their shepherd hasn't taken them. Yet, I found Svet near Phiedoc's Glade."

"Frega would never bring Alan there," Marris mused aloud. "And the boy's too skittish himself to go."

Leif hiked his shoulders half-heartedly, leaning against the bar with his fingers drumming atop the counter.  "I'd wager Svet recognized the Hinterlady's presence before I did," he said, though the thought was disconcerting at least. Sensing Marris' growing concern, Leif batted a hand and pressed a simpering smile to his lips,  "Either way, She knows we're poking about Yun-Fe now and I doubt we'll go for long without seeing her again. With the Bowlord's Blessing, I doubt she'll interfere but it'd be best not to disturb the Children."

His gaze slid toward the crowd, and Marris' followed suit before her arms fell to her side as she wearily shook her head.  "I understand," she said, laying her hand on his with a light pat. "But you should know that the wind keeps no secrets for long."

Leif curled his fingers around hers, giving a squeeze. "Then I'll just need to be faster than the wind itself," he winked as he let go of her hand and slipped away before she could pinch the soft skin between his forefinger and thumb.  "'Til next time, Marris!"

As he started up the winding staircase leading  to the second floor, he called over his shoulder, "Oh and if you see Ambriel, please remind him to stay out of trouble."

Marris laughed, calling up to him, "Of course, how else will you have your moonlight rendezvous?!"

Leif's ears burned and he swore under his breath as he continued to climb.