"Believe me, my love, I have no intention of messing with her ever again. And I think that I did a damn good job making sure that she won't be coming around here," he said softly as he shifted so that he could be sitting in front of Angela. "I know, it's a terrible habit, that both of us need to break," Drae said with a slight laugh. He reached out gently and took the velvet covered box from Angela's hands. 

"I am very surprised that you didn't peek, so I am very, very proud of you love. I would have hated for this surprise to be ruined. Now, if I know you, you were just the teensyiest bit jealous while I was talking to Eva… but believe me when I promise that my heart belongs to you and the children," he said before he carefully slid down off the cot and knelt in front of Angela. 

"Now… Ang… I want to be able to always be there for you, for Rohan, for Iva and Sapphire, and the twins. I might be the father figure to the oldest ones like Fox and Amaranth and Ash, but at least I want to be there to support them.." he said as he took her hand and lifted the box. He snapped the box open, and inside was a beautiful ring, carved of gold with a delicate red rose made carved from exquisite ruby, with a diamond inset in the center of the open bud. The band was fashioned to look like the stem and leaves of the rose. 

"Angela Rose, Goddess of Life… goddess of my life… please… will you do me the honor, of becoming my bride and wife… for what remains of my life?" he asked her.

Angela had a sheepish look on her face. “I might have thought about peeking… maybe twice. I was more worried about you than the box. I may have thought about leaving it in Rohan’s crib as not to tempt me, though.” When the thought of jealousy came up she gently itched at her face. “I’m not a woman without bad habits. Jealous was what I was.” Though he did look at her the same way that he looked at Eva. Maybe that was why she had a jealous streak.

She almost got up to put him in bed when he opened his mouth. She instead stared at him with a dead on glare as he knew he should have been in bed. His words softened it as she knew what was coming next. It didn’t help the inevitable rain of tears that formed in her eyes at his words. It was coming and she knew that but still… mortal emotions were nice to feel.

She didn’t even look at the ring for a few moments as she wiped her eyes clean and chuckled at him. When she finally did look at it, she found herself looking at the most beautiful piece of craftsmanship that had ever entertained her temple. “I don’t even want to know what you did for that.” It had to be a running joke about the type of man Drae could have been at times.

“You know I would have you through good times and bad. Until the end of your mortal life and well into my immortal reign. Even when you cease to exist will I love you.” There was no secret that Drae would pass before she would but still she loved him all the same. “How long have you been planning this?” It wasn’t the most perfect moment but when she stared down at that ring, she knew he had been thinking about it for a long time.

"Trade secrets, Love," he smiled as he slipped the ring onto her finger before he kissed the back of her hand. 

"Well, my love, if you ever saw fit to extend my mortal life, I will gladly let you do that," he said as he stood up staggering slightly before he pulled her to her feet and slipped his arms about her. 

"I've had this planned for a while… believe me, I was hoping for… well a slightly more romantic set up than you patching me up in the infirmary after digging spectral daggers out of my salty hide," he told her gently. "But I suppose, at this point, you are accepting to take me with my flaws and all… and if it also pleases you, I would ask, that you allow me to not only become your husband, but become your personal warlock… for me to make a pact with you so that I am always tied to you, to better protect our family," he offered. 

Angela chuckled a bit and nodded. “Consider it done, as long as that’s what you want. I’ll extend it as long as I can.” She kissed his forehead and started to grin a bit as they crossed a threshold in life together. 

She moved her hand as he embraced her long enough to boop him on the nose. “You stopped being salty after you came home from the ocean. I would say it’s more of a graying hide maybe.” She checked his hair and teased him. “Gods know you probably have a few grays from the children.”

For a moment she thought about it and nodded. “When you are well… we can set it up. I think it would be nice for you to be able to tap into a little bit of my power, a blessing of sorts. It will help us keep our family safe especially Ro and Iva. As long as you are sure you want to stay in this crazy fa–”

She was caught off with a clergy member came in panting. “My lady!– and my lord! Rohan escaped out of his crib. I’m not quite sure where he’s gotten off too but there are… paw prints? Not big ones but little tiny bear-like prints.”

Angela took a sigh and smiled up at Drae. “You can always change your mind… Crazy only gets worse.” She kissed him softly. “Think you can hunt the little monster down?” She chuckled. Rohan beginning to learn his magic and starting to walk was beginning to become a pain.

"Graying… I don't want to admit that, but with your help, I won't grey much more than this," he chuckled, lightly indicating to the graying streaks in his hair. "I am sure that you have contributed yourself," he chuckled. 

They were talking about making him her warlock when they were quite abruptly were interrupted by one of the nursemaid who came rushing in announcing something quite odd. 

"He's escaped? He's barely crawling– ah hell," Drae chuckled. "Change my mind? Are you insane?" Drae chuckled. "Yeah, I can track him. Who'd a thought the rugrat would be able to shift at this age?" he wondered out loud as he shed his tattered shirt and vest and shifted into the giant black bear he had learned to control. 

The bear grunted and snorted as he pawed down the hallway towards the nursery where he did in fact find that there were baby bear prints and the musky smell of bear mixed with Rohan's natural scent. 

I'll be damned… he's my son after all. 

He moved over to the open window and took a deep sniff of the open air. Outside he had gone. That made things a touch easier… in a way. The great black bear climbed through the large open window and headed out after the baby that had manifested shifting powers incredibly early. He perked up his ears up at a strange grunting out in the gardens. 

The sunshine gleamed off of his shiny black coat as he marched through the sunshine out into the gardens where the great trees cast shade on the flowers that loved the gloom. He heard the grunting again and looked up into the boughs. 

Really kid? It had to be a bloody tree? Drae sighed and lumbered up to the tree where Drae started climbing up the tree to retrieve his wayward infant son.

Angela was quick to follow Drae out to the tree. She had only seen this form a few times and normally it was while playing with Iva. She was panicked now as she looked up in the tree and seen faint movement. “DRAE HE IS UP IN THE TREE.” She ran back into the temple and grabbed a broom as she came out. “Over there!” She pointed as she began to reach up into it with the broom and swat around.

“My lady is that safe? He is only a baby!”

“Safe my ass, if he can climb a tree… he can fall a few feet and I can catch him.” Angela was shifting the broom around lightly. “He’s too high!”

Meanwhile up in the tree, the littlest black bear was working his way up. His green and red eyes were staring at the beautiful orange wings of a monarch butterfly. Soft grunts left his lips as he continued to climb up to try and catch it. The monarch seemed to know what he was up to as it gently evaded him. 

“ROHAN, GET DOWN NOW.” Angela was stomping her foot.

Looking down and moving his ears lightly he made an interesting sound… It was more like he was telling his mother off before continuing his way up the branches. Angela in a bewildered start had dropped the broom and was about ready to climb up herself.

As he made his way up the tree trunk, Angela came out waving a broom to attempt to get Rohan down. As she started waving the broom around she accidentally swatted him a couple times. The bear dislodged from the tree and shifted back into a human form. 

"Dammit woman! A bloody broom? Really? Put that away!" he ordered her before he turned and began working his way up the tree. Drae grunted as he climbed up and up and up after his son. As Angela shouted at their son to come down from the tree, their son returned with some grunts that made Drae raise his eyebrow. 

"Now, I wonder where he learned to talk to you like that!" Drae shouted down to Angela as he climbed higher. There were some more grunts and Drae glanced back upward. "Oi, don't you take that tone with me!" he shouted as he began gaining on Rohan. Little tyke is barely crawling and he already has his Mother's vocabulary as a bear. Gods help us all. 

As Drae reached the higher branches, the monarch that Rohan had followed up into the tree lighted on the wind and fluttered downward back into the garden. A look of disappointment crossed the baby bears face as he looked down to where the butterfly was. As Drae reached out to grab his son by the back of his furry neck, Rohan did something that even Drae wasn't expecting. Rohan shifted form yet again, and a barely fledged black bird lighted down from the bow into the garden. He used his little wings to glide down on the breeze and landed unharmed in the garden where he shifted back into the crawling baby boy he truly was and inched over to the flowers where the butterfly landed and giggled as the butterfly turned and crawled onto his nose. 

"What?" Drae found himself asking before he began scrambling down the tree, where he dropped down from the tree and landed in the grass and brushed himself off. 

"Our son… is a shapeshifting prodigy."

Angela shot a look up at Drae. She was in a dead set panic as she did as Drae asked. “Sorry,” she waved her hands at him to show she wasn’t going to hit him with the broom again. At the grunts, she sheepishly smiled up at Drae. “Not me. Never me. I didn’t even think he would remember it! Normally babies don’t.” He was far from a normal baby after all.

Dumbfounded as they both were she stared at Drae and back over at the toddling little tyke they had together. “He’s something alright but his behind is going to be a color changing prodigy in a second. Did you hear the words he said to me? And you.” She added in the last bits. “He is going to be worse than Iva is.” She chuckled a bit as she watched her son keep crawling towards the flowers.

“He’ll need to be watched more or we’ll have to put a magic lock on him.” Angela was now concerned as she whimpered. “He could change and swoop into a gate at this point and we’ll never find him!” Of course, Ang was thinking of him going to Parvpora where the goddess was practically powerless with her earth charm.

Rohan once bored sat on his naked rear and looked back at his parents with a squeal. He pointed up at the floating butterfly and Ang had an amused smile on her face. “We have to talk about manners already young man.” She moved and scooped him up. “I’m not even sure if you completely understand what a panic you had us in.” She raspberried his belly and he squealed more as his red and green eyes looked shamelessly at Drae.

“I don’t even know if punishing him will do any good. I’ve never had a baby quite as smart as he is.”

Drae chuckled as he crossed the grass into the flowers and joined Angela as she picked up their son and blew raspberries on his bare belly. He squealed in delight and Drae couldn't help but smile and chuckle. 

"I hate to break it to you honey, but our baby boy knows exactly how much trouble he caused," he smiled. "He has to know his limits. His powers can be dangerous and he could get hurt doing things like that," he did say quietly. He poked Rohan's tummy and the infant giggled again. 

"You sir, need clothes. While I am grateful that you have my genes, baby boy, I don't think we need to be showing off to the world," Drae chuckled and summoned a diaper for the infant and deftly tied it about the little one's bare bottom. 

Angela let Drae do his business and smiled down Rohan. “I don’t know if he can control it all the way. It certainly seems like he can. I don’t know if it might be an emotional response which is why I do worry about him.” Her green eyes looked up into Drae’s steel colored gaze. 

She took a deep sigh and stared down at Rohan. “I’m going to put a block on his magic should it get too out of control. I don’t need our baby going some place he shouldn’t and getting hurt. As it stands, he’ll probably become worth something to the outside world if people catch wind of his talents.” There was a dark light in her eyes. “A child prodigy of a goddess is nothing to scoff at. There are bounties on my golden cornucopia. I can only imagine how the black market will see Ro.” She gave warning to Drae. “We can’t fight everyone Dear.”

She snuggled the now tiring infant in her arms and kissed the top of his once dark but now red hair. “He is a mystery to me. Only Iva saw him coming and yet she had been eerily silent on it since he showed up. I wonder if she knows something we don’t. I thought about confiding in Bryony about him and seeing what she knows. I want to be ready for him in any possible way.” She reached up and kissed Drae.

“How is your back? You really shouldn’t have been climbing that tree in your condition.” She frowned a bit as the doctor in her finally kicked back in. “If I had been thinking about it, I would have stopped you and climbed myself. You are in no shape to be playing tag in the tip tops of the trees.” She waved her finger at him. “And you.” She stared down at a sleepy-eyed Rohan. “Stop worrying me. I’ll turn gray or maybe even wilt.” She gave a smile. “My boys will always worry me, I suppose…”