The wait proved to be a shorter one than Kethro had feared. There was no village priest, and the nearest priest was a full two week's travel away. When Serali told Kethro that, he envisioned a whole month while a messenger went and brought the priest. But the priest was of the pantheistic faith that followed Aldon as the king of the gods. The people of Serali's village worshiped the Creator, those of them who worshiped any god, at all and the nearest human priest of the Creator was more than a thousand miles away.

Instead Serali's parents officiated, reading a set of traditional questions which the couple had to answer. Serali and Kethro stood side by side before them, both dressed in white, and answered. It was the white clothing that had taken the longest.

There was not a dress in the entire village long enough to fit Serali, but her mother had taken the hem out of the longest one that could be found. It was still a bit short of the ankle length that tradition called for, but Serali looked dazzling in it regardless.

Kethro's white outfit had been almost impossible. Every pair of white pants in the town had been examined, but not a one was anywhere near long enough and none could be let out more than an inch or two. A white shirt had been found, donated by Breck, but his pants where still too short and hopelessly wide for Kethro's more slender build. When Serali had been informed that the wedding would have to wait on someone sewing Kethro a suitable pair of pants, she had decided to take extreme measures. She spent a night with her spell books and in the morning Kethro's formerly green pants were white.

Then there was the problem of the troth gifts. The couple were supposed to exchange gifts made with their own hands at the ceremony. Again, Serali managed to find a suitable gift, but Kethro hadn't ever made anything in his life. As he exclaimed to Serali in a moment of exasperation, "I'm a hunter, not a dragonsmith!" But after much pondering he at last managed to think of something. Much to Serali's annoyance he absolutely refused to give even a hint what it was.

At last all of the problems had been dealt with and the couple stood in front of Serali's parents as the whole village looked on. They answered all of the questions, they swore their vows, and then they exchanged their gifts. Serali presented Kethro with a bracelet made of natural crystals and twisted wire. She hadn't really needed much time to make it, but quite a few hours had been invested in several useful spells that she had placed on it.

He in turn gave her a green dragon's scale almost as wide as her hand with a delicate semi-abstract design featuring two dragons scratched into the surface. Afterward everyone wondered how on earth he had found a dragon's scale that large and how he had scratched the designs on it, since dragon scale is so hard, but he kept his mouth shut and smiled mysteriously. Serali grinned at their bafflement. The best way to carve dragon's scale is a with a dragon's talon.

Finally Falio pronounced them married and they kissed. When at last they parted, Kethro's opinion of kissing had improved a notch.

The ceremony traditionally began at noon, with a celebration and feast after. The crowd retired to the inn to eat, drink, and socialize. They congratulated the newly wedded couple and brought useful gifts. Serali thanked them all, though she wondered exactly what she was going to do with some of the gifts. After a few hours of this Serali and Kethro exchanged a glance. As soon as the parents of the bride weren't looking, they sneaked out of the festivities.

"I'm glad that's over and we're married! If we had to do just one more thing, I think I would have screamed!" Serali shook her head.

Kethro laughed. "Go ahead and scream then, because there is just one more thing."

She eyed him. "And what would that be?"

"We're married as humans now, but I want us to be mated as dragons also. We need to fly a mating flight," he said. Then he smiled. "I doubt you'll find it unpleasant."

She felt a nervous fluttering in her stomach. Unpleasant, perhaps not, but though she now felt to her core that she truly was a dragon, she was still keenly aware of having been raised as a human. And she didn't have the least idea of how a mating flight was supposed to go. She wasn't even entirely sure what constituted a mating flight. She knew what it sounded like, but... The butterflies grew stronger. She'd never made love in human form, nor in dragon form, and to do it for the first time on the wing...

He squeezed her hand reassuringly, sensing what was going through her mind. "It's all right. Nobody's taught me what to do either, though my father told me the words. But you don't need any words, and the instincts are there. I'll know, and you'll know too, when the time comes. So come on." He turned and ran, and she smiled and ran with him. The sun was setting as they raced through town and across the fields, as she had done so many times, to reach the shelter of the trees, though the stubby scrub oaks were no longer tall enough to hide her dragon form, let alone his. But there was no one to see as they changed there on the edge of the village and flew on into the gathering twilight as dragons.