She had lived with him for a year as Ariana, and next to him for a year as Spark, and now, just over a year later, they stood together and surveyed their farm. The fields were beginning to green with the first planting. The further fields where a smaller farm house had once stood were now a pasture for a whole herd of goats, which Ariana grumbled about milking daily.

"It looks pretty good," said Jonathan.

"So it does," said Ariana. "But there's still planting left to do, and tending, and mending. There's always more than enough work."

He chuckled. "Yes there is, love. And I'm glad you're here to share it with me. I..." he stopped then as a whir of wings overhead made him look up.

"Oh bother. If I miss the rest of planting, I'll be really miffed!" said Ariana as she raised her arm for the dove to land. He put his arm around her as she read the summons, and squeezed comfortingly when she sighed. "Well, duty calls. Though the stipend for my absence should be enough to hire a little help while I'm gone. You'll need somebody else to milk the goats, and least."

"I still don't do dairy," he said with a grin, "So yes." He kissed her, and then they walked together back to the farmhouse. She took her sword down from where it hung over the mantle of the main room. The mail shirt was in a chest against one wall.

Armed and armored she stepped out into the yard. Jonathan hugged her again, not minding the mail coat at all. "Come back safe and soon, love," he said.

"I will," she promised, and then with a leap and a flash of wings she was aloft. He watched as she vanished into the sky, and he smiled. Then he turned and went back to the fields. There was always more work to be done. He still loved his farm, loved the land, and the work was rewarding, though it was hard. And when she returned, it would be more rewarding yet, for he'd found that the one thing better than working the land he loved was working it beside the woman who loved it just as much as he.

The End.