“What the…? Hey—out! Out!” I shouted, despite my laughter. Avani giggled helplessly as two cold, wet snouts snuffled at us and eight massive paws tried to sneak into our tent. “Baldur! Fenrir! Go on, get out of here, you clowns!” I exclaimed again in exasperation. Fenrir immediately backed out into the pre-dawn darkness, but Baldur gave me a reproving, wounded look with his luminescent cobalt eyes before departing. I lay back against the cushions of our bed and looked adoringly at my wife, who cuddled up close to me, still snickering at her giant wolves’ failed impersonations of lap-dogs.

**************

When we first began to plan our honeymoon trip, we quickly learned that just about everyone in town had an opinion as to where we should go. Arthur offered to arrange for us to stay in style in the capitol, and Forte and Kiel echoed his suggestion. All four elves in town promised to send us letters of introduction if we wanted to go visit the distant island home of the Elven Kingdom, and Illuminata and Deasún even offered to accompany us there, just to ensure a warm welcome for us. Lin and Xiao, of course, suggested we simply stay in their inn, thus avoiding the rigors of travel.

Vishnal spoke up for his hometown, two days’ journey by foot southeast of the Selphia Plains. Both Clorica and Amber recommended going to Kardia, where, they had apparently heard, there was a small inn that had some of the most comfortable beds in the kingdom. Porcoline likewise recommended Kardia, where the patriarch of the de Sainte-Coquille family lived in the old family manor house. Nancy and Jones urged us to consider the tiny village of Trampoli, where they’d spent their own honeymoon some years back, and both dwarves agreed, saying that the mountains there were not only beautiful, but rich in ores and gemstones.

Dylas reluctantly supposed in passing that we might find the Eastern Isle to our taste, and Blossom sighed as she reminisced about her own long-ago honeymoon, spent in a quaint inn on Fenith Island. Even the semi-permanent visitors, Barrett and Raven, chipped in, putting in a word for their respective hometowns of Alvarna and Sharance.

In the end, having compiled the numerous suggestions and recommendations, we just looked at each other. “Well, My Lady. Where do you wish to go?” I asked her as we sat together on her sofa one afternoon.

She looked thoughtful for a minute, then grinned up at me. “Someplace quiet…”

“Mmm, yes?”

“… and secluded…”

“Even better,” I grinned.

“… away from the hustle and bustle of cities and towns….”

“Keep going….”

“Someplace like….” Then she grabbed my hand and dragged me up to her study, where she dug out a huge map of the world and spread it across her desk. “Like here!” she exclaimed, pointing to a spot in the southern part of the kingdom that fell under the label “Terra Incognita”.

I stared at the spot above the tip of her finger for a moment, my brow furrowed in thought. “There? What lies there, My Lady, that attracts you so?”

“Leo, really?” she said with a reproving look. “‘Terra Incognita’—‘unknown land’! That’s what attracts me. Who knows what adventures we might have there? Though honestly, probably nothing too dangerous. But still, doesn’t it just sound enticing?”

She sidled up to me, tucking her hand in my arm as she gazed at the map with dreamy eyes. “Just think of it—camping out in the wilds, no one but us for miles and miles around. We can go fishing, or hunting, or exploring… or even… just… stay in bed all day,” she added looking up at me with her eyes half closed, a sensual smile spreading over her lips as she reached up to trace the markings on my cheek.

I reached for her, her delicate touch stirring my blood. “You make a powerful case, My Lady,” I replied huskily as I leaned down to kiss her neck.

An hour later, as we lay basking in the afterglow, I gave my wholehearted assent to her suggestion.

**************

I stepped out of the tent and stretched as I looked around. Avani had scouted out a marvelous bit of geography, to be sure. Our campsite was near the shore of a large, deep blue lake surrounded by stands of towering ancient evergreen trees and meadows of lush green grass. The southwestern mountain range rose tall and smoky blue in the distance. A few fluffy white clouds were reflected on the lake’s surface, and the brilliant sun was just beginning to peek above the trees to the east.

She had made a charming and cozy tent of large, colorful quilts hung over a heavy rope stretched between two trees. The quilts were anchored to the ground with guy lines and clamped to the rope with sturdy wooden pins to keep them from shifting around. She’d spread some heavy canvas on the ground as a barrier against the dew, then over that she’d spread a pile of old woven rugs. In the center of the tent, she placed a large feather bed she’d unearthed in some half-forgotten storeroom in the castle. Cushions and more quilts for bed covers completed our sleeping arrangement.

I looked back at Avani’s sleeping form and smiled. After the wolves had awakened us, trying to crawl into bed with us for some reason, we lay awake for a while, talking over our wedding—and our wedding night. That naturally enough led to another amorous interlude, culminating just as the sky began to lighten to the east. Afterwards, she had lain nestled in my arms, sleeping peacefully with a blissful smile on her face as she dreamed. I was unable to return to sleep, however, so after a little while, I carefully slipped away.

Although it was still early in the morning, it was already warming up. I gathered up my fishing tackle and sauntered down to the lake, intending to fish for our breakfast. We’d brought an adequate supply of food and drink, but I was always willing to enjoy grilled fresh fish—especially if that fish happened to be rainbow trout.

The glassy surface of the lake was broken at frequent intervals near the shore where I stood watching the fish swarming near the surface, attempting to catch the caddisflies that had gathered thickly just above the water. I cast my line out into the midst of the nearest swarm, and within moments had a bite. Grinning in delight,  I pulled out a huge trout and dropped it into my pail before again casting my line.

I was well pleased with this location, and glad Avani had persuaded me to come here. Not only was it breathtakingly beautiful, but it was so pristine, so untouched. It didn’t look as though another human being had been there in decades, if indeed ever. The fishing alone was evidence of that. The lake was teeming with large fish—bigger than any I’d seen in the areas surrounding Selphia, anyway. When we’d fished for our dinner last night after setting up our camp, we had caught enough fish, not only for our own meal but also to feed our beasts, within half an hour. Of the monsters we’d brought with us, both wolves were carnivores, naturally, while Thor, Avani’s thunderbolt monster—the same variety of horse monster that Dylas had been bound to as Guardian—and Charmie, her tame mammoo, were omnivores. As such, they were just as happy to eat the proffered raw fish as the wolves, though they were equally happy to graze on the tall, thick grass surrounding the lake.

After perhaps twenty minutes, I’d caught enough fish for breakfast. Besides my enormous rainbow trout, I had also caught a few lake trout and a couple of perch. I returned up the short path to our camp, and finding Avani still asleep, I quietly stirred the coals into flames, building the fire up to make the glowing embers needed to grill the fish properly. Next, I filled the coffee pot with fresh water and placed it on top of the arranged firewood to come to a boil. While I waited on the coals and for the coffee to brew, I cleaned the fish, filleting and boning a pair of lake trout for Baldur and Fenrir. Since Charmie and Thor didn’t seem to care either way, I decided I’d just let them graze for their breakfasts.

By the time I’d finished with that, the coffee pot was just reaching a boil and the flames had begun to die down. I removed the pot, setting it on one of the rocks that formed the fire ring. Then I crept back into the tent to awaken my wife.

She was still smiling sweetly in her sleep, and I couldn’t help but watch her for a few minutes—she took my breath away. But time and tide wait for no man, so I sighed and gently brushed the hair away from her cheek. Light as my touch was, it was enough to rouse her, and her eyelids fluttered open. Seeing me seated by her side, her smile broadened and she reached up to caress my cheek. “Good morning,” she said drowsily.

I clasped her hand and raised it to my lips for a kiss as I smiled back at her. “Good morning, my love. If you would care to join me, I have some coffee brewing and a fire just about ready to cook some freshly caught fish.”

“Oh, that sounds wonderful. I’m famished! I seem to have worked up quite an appetite somehow!” she said with an impudent grin. She sat up, yawning as she stretched, the covers slipping away to reveal her bare honey-golden skin, radiant in the early morning sunlight. It was all I could do to keep myself from pulling her back down into the softness of our bed, but I controlled myself—for the time being, anyway—out of consideration for her present need to satisfy a more prosaic hunger.

**************

Three days before our wedding, Avani vanished for the day on Marina, her tame Aquaticus clone, to look for potential campsites from the air. That suited me beautifully, as it gave me a day to focus on finishing the rather intricate wedding ring I’d been fashioning for her under Bado’s tutelage. Although she was traveling in uncharted territory, I wasn’t especially concerned for her well-being, as not only was she one of the mightiest warriors in all Norad, but she was also accompanied by a large, powerful dragon that had become quite attached to her.

And sure enough, just as I returned to her chamber, the completed ring carefully secured within one of the interior pockets of my rucksack, she darted in through her back door. She leaped at me, throwing her arms around my neck. “I found it!” she exclaimed jubilantly. “I found the perfect spot for our honeymoon!”

Laughing, I disentangled myself from her embrace and led her to the sofa. “Tell me all about it,” I said with a smile as we sat down together.

Scooting up close to me, she leaned her head against my shoulder. “Well, it’s quite a long ways south of here. Even as fast as Marina is, it still took a few hours of flying to get there. Of course, we were flying all over the place, rather than heading there directly. We’d nearly reached the mountains that make up the southern and south-western border of the kingdom when I spotted a large lake in the midst of an expanse of forest. It appears not only to be unpopulated, but completely untouched. The trees there looked very old, and the animals I saw were unafraid. Well, of me anyway—they did shy away from Marina, unsurprisingly. The lake is surrounded by meadows thick with luxuriant grass that reached almost to my waist, and the water looks beautifully clean and pure. Oh, and it was positively swarming with fish—I only spent perhaps fifteen minutes on the shore, and I must have seen at least a dozen large fish leaping while I looked. And that was midday—just imagine what it must be like at dusk or dawn! I also saw a small herd of hinds and their young, as well as a few large harts keeping watch over them as they came to the lake for a drink on the shore opposite me. There was an abundance of birds and small animals, and while I did see a few monsters, they appeared much less numerous than they are here, and didn’t seem to be at all aggressive.”

“It sounds ideal,” I said, putting my arm around her shoulders and pulling her a little closer. “How long do you think it would take us to reach this Elysian field of yours?”

She thought for a few minutes, rapidly calculating. “I was thinking we could ride Baldur and Fenrir, and take Thor and Charmie as pack animals. Despite her size, Charmie is pretty fast, so she shouldn’t have any trouble keeping up. I’d say the lake was not all the way to the south, more like half to two-thirds of the way to the southern border of Norad, and not far from the western border.  I think if we take the airship and have it drop us off somewhere nearby—but not too close, since we don’t want any unexpected company!—we could reach the lake by early afternoon. Provided that we don’t get started too late, that is.”

“Well, don’t get your hopes up for one of your famously early starts, either, My Lady,” I replied with a smile. Then leaning down to nibble at her ear, I whispered, “I fully intend that we shall be far too exhausted to rise even with the sun—let alone before it.”

**************

After breakfast, Avani proposed going for a swim. I agreed and started back to the tent to retrieve my swim trunks. She stopped me, saying with a puzzled look, “Where are you going?”

“Uhh, to get my swimsuit?” I said, feeling suddenly that this was a foolish reply.

She started to laugh. “Leo, my love, there’s nobody around for miles!” She grabbed my hand and tugged me down towards the shore. She quickly shed her clothing, then stood golden and radiant in the brilliant sunshine at the edge of the lake, where sapphire and emerald met, waiting for me to join her. Casting my own clothing aside, I strode to her side with a broad smile. She took my hand and pulled me farther into the water, then we dove together down into the cool depths, schools of fish darting out of our path as we swam.

It was going to be a glorious day.