To say Gerhart was nervous about meeting Cirice's parents would have been an understatement. He couldn't tell if this was too soon or too late in the relationship to be doing that, if they would even like him, basically any reason he could think of to make him nervous popped into his head.

He just hoped it wasn't too obvious on his face as he flew beside Cirice on their respective mounts. They had a lot of time to talk over the flight, but it was hard to shout across the air as wind rushed past your face and stole most of the words before they could make it out of your mouth. But what was he gonna say? 'Sorry, this is too soon, bye.' That didn't exactly seem like an option and would probably make things even worse on him.

Gerhart motioned to the beach towards a safe spot for them both to land. After sliding off the back of Halcyon, he'd jog over to help Cirice down as well. No backing out now, just stop being such a baby. He smiles at Cirice as they both settle on solid land.....well at least as solid as sand allows.

"You ready?"

“I’m incredibly nervous, if I’m honest.” Cirice replies, hopping down from her wagon and coming over to stand beside him. “Last time I saw my parents I introduced Cyran to them and they asked him to be my godfather… They might freak out and try to plan us a wedding on the spot…” She jokes with giggle, taking his hand. “But you’re really important to me and I want them to know that.”

She reaches up to give him a soft kiss. They’re both nervous and can feel it through their exchanged rings. “Maybe… We take a nice walk on the beach to calm our nerves before we head to the Manor? The sound of the waves is really calming. Maybe we can find some crabs! Did I tell you about the crab boil I had in Sol City?” She giggles.

Cirice slips her boots and socks off and sets them on her wagon to really enjoy the sandy beach. The two of them leave Halcyon and the wagon behind, wandering down towards the water's edge. The weather isn’t as nice as the last time they’d been to the beach together, the waves washing against the shore with much more ferocity.

“Good thing we aren’t trying to swim today, the current would be dangerous. The waves are pretty rough too. There must be a storm farther in the sea stirring things up. What do you think of the ocean like this, Gerhart? Scarier than a lake?” She squeezes his hand as a very large wave washes over the shore, coming all the way to their toes and pulling at their footing like desperate scrabbling fingers.

"No pressure then." He laughed softly as Cirice mentioned planning a wedding. "Not that I wouldn't, but it's only been what? A month or so," It seems as he had more words to see, but he is thankfully cut off by a kiss. She can feel the edge of that nervousness fall off when they meet in intimacy.

Taking her hand, he gives a bigger grin as they turn to start walking. "A whole manor huh? That's a lot, so are you and your family like noble-people around here or something?" More and more of the nervousness eases as they start to walk and talk, taking his mind off the focus of the big meeting a help.

"A crab boil huh?" He looks over to the angry waves of the water as she talks, it certainly does look dangerous. "We used to dig crawfish out of the rivers as kids. Not quite as big as a crab, but get enough of them together and it can feed a few mouths. Whatever it took in those days, ya know?"

When the wave hits their feet, Gerhart does get a little worried. This seems stronger than normal....What is happening out there? "Actually funnily enough, I got caught out in a pretty bad storm on some guy's ship a while back. Pretty nasty winds almost toppled over the mast, but for some dumb reason I ran to try and hold it up. No idea how but we managed to keep it up till it could get repaired enough to limp back to shore when the storm calmed down."

“It has been a wonderful month. No, no we’re not nobles. My mother comes from a trading family so they built it. It’s a traditional Crescent Isles-style home they moved here from Moonglade and really embraced the culture.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever had crawfish… They aren’t native here. Perhaps we could get some sometime?” Cirice smiles, “You had to care for a big family, right? I’m sure those days were special. Everyone working together for a feast? Sounds incredibly memorable and fun!”

“A bad storm? That sounds awful! I’m glad you’re alright! I can see you holding the whole ship together with just your determination and these muscles!” She giggles, “You always manage to save the day. You’re amazing, you know that? My hero!”

Theres a slight rumbling beneath their feet and a massive wave washes over them, drenching them both and leaving bits of seaweed in their hair. Cirice clings to Gerhart for dear life as the tide tries to pull them out with it, but they manage to keep their footing. The beach is a mess, tide pools forming all around them in deep depressions in the sand.

“Oh my that’s getting far too common… What is going on? I've never seen the sea this angry for so long...” She shivers against him.

"I wouldn't exactly call them feasts." He gave a sheepish smile as he scratched at his cheek. Gerhart hadn't quite dropped the lore on Cirice yet, that these cute stories were actually a handful of kids struggling for survival. It only sounds cute when you leave out that context. It was the reason he always got so shifty when she mentioned meeting his family and tried to change the subject. He could just introduce her to the Kymenos', but there was a thing about them that would make his actual origins a bit more obvious.

The ranger is lost in thought a bit when he sees the wave coming in, putting an arm around Cirice's waist and stepping off some pads of air to get clear.[1] Though the size of it still leaves them splashed as he helps clean the seaweed and bits from Cirice's hair. He looks around the beach with a little sigh.

"This really is intense....kinda glad we flew in...strange we didn't see any big storm clouds forming. Something else has to be causing this." He keeps close to Cirice, holding her against him in an attempt to keep her warm. Not much he could do, but better than nothing.

---

1. Step of the Wind

“M-me too…” Cirice responds, pulling the gerhug tighter around her shoulders. “Thanks for that. You’re right… The sky was clear. Maybe the earthquakes are causing it? They’ve been growing in frequency lately…” She sneezes a little, cute and high pitched. She looks up at him and picks a piece of seaweed out from behind his ear.

“Gerhart, look!” She gasps and points across the beach towards the pools where they had had their date before where two large grey shapes are flopping angrily. “Those are manta gliders! Look at them! They barely fit! We have to go help them before the pools dry up or they might die!”

She wriggles out of his arms, taking his hand in hers and running over towards the massive rays where they thrash about, tossing water and other small creatures about with force from their frenetic escape attempts.

“Oh no they’re splashing so much its draining the pools…” she frets, trying to see a way to help them without getting whacked or stung from their long tails. “Hey-hey calm down! We’ll help you!”

A stinger comes towards her with blinding speed, the creature feeling threatened by her loud noises and gesticulations.

"Wait hold-!" He can't quite get in front of her in time as the tail lashes out, but there's a dull flash from inside one of his scabards as the tail seemingly gets deflected away.[1] Gerhart grabs her hand and pulls back so they are just a little bit out of range. He cups her face in has hands a moment to make sure she is ok before letting go with a soft smile.

"Good, you're safe....We do need to help them, but we need to be careful....I'd ask Halcyon to just grab and toss them, but his talons would hurt them too much." He puts his hands on his hips looking over the scene and also trying to come up with a plan.

"Learn any new spells recently? Something that can be used to maybe move them?"

_{"UsE mY pOwEr"} A voice whispers into Gerhart's ear as the ranger looks off into the distance as if he's heard something. He shook his head before looking back to see what ideas Cirice had. Between the two of them, they probably could roll the gliders over to the ocean, but the tails were going to cause a problem for them if they wanted to get close.

“Sorry, oh um I didn’t think they’d…” Cirice takes a deep breath, “Thank you.” She gives him an apologetic smile as he cups her face, her heart flittering in her chest at his soft smile.

“I could heal them, but… maybe I could push them out on a wall of light? I could try to get it under them and then maybe push them back into the water? I don’t think I could lift them with telekenisis.”

She watches him look away as if he’d heard something. “Gerhart?” She asked confused, trying to find what he was looking at but coming up with nothing.

“I could maybe speed you up? Or maybe make them really tired so they aren’t able to fight…”

She summons a wall of light next to one of the Manta-gliders¹, not sure she can manage it under one of them. “How about I quicken you and you throw it on there before it can sting you. If it does sting you I can heal it!”

She touches Gerhart's arm and the runes under her gloves flare to lavender life, imparting speed unto him². "How about that? We can try this?"

---

1 Wall of Light
2 Quicken

"I don't think they thought to either, just a little scared of us." He gently kissed her forehead before focusing back on the situation.

He takes a few steps forward holding his hands out to try and be as non-threatening as possible. Even Cirice could feel a gentle aura coming from Gerhart as the first of the Manta Gliders seems to calm and stop thrashing.[1] With the immediate threat gone, it was going to be a lot easier to move these creatures. Gerhart steps forward and slips his hands under it to try and get a good grip.

"Come on there little guy..." He slowly moves the glider onto the wall, though quickened Gerhart means him moving slowly is actually roughly normal speed all things considered. "All right try and send him out."

He grins wide watching Cirice, if this works then hopefully they can just do that for the other one. If not, he wasn't sure he would be able to so easily calm the other one. This was really one of the first times he was working with the celestial to use its powers. The rush of energy and warmth he exuded was a strange feeling for him, he'd never felt anything much like that before.

---

1. Calming Aura

Cirice watches Gerhart handle the manta-glider with gentle confidence, his aura of calm washing over her as she admires him. The forehead kiss had made her blush but watching him work and just be this bastion of positivity and warmth. Goddess he’s so wonderful. The haze of lovey-dovey thoughts was broken as he spoke to her, pulling her out of her daydreaming.

“Right!” She slowly has the wall float towards the ocean, as far out as she can get it to go and then she lowers it slowly into the water, dispelling the wall and watching it swim away with a flap of its flippers above the surf. “We did it! One is safe! That was amazing Gerhart!”

She smiles at him, just in time to see a stinger coming towards him. Without thinking she runs forward and grabs it between her hands, the stinger caught between her palms cutting into her flesh and injecting her with paralyzing poison¹.

“Ow…” Her arms grow numb and heavy, locked around the stinger as the manta glider tries fruitlessly to pull it away. “I can’t move my arms! I’m sorry, I d-didn’t want you to get hit.”

---

1 Steel catch

Thanks to being quickened, Gerhart can get over to Cirice and catch her before she falls. One arm takes firm hold of her and the other pulls out the stinger. It's gonna hurt, but it's not really a situation where they can wait and be gentle as the manta starts to thrash and roil.

Gerhart gives a quick whistle as Halcyon starts to dart over. The ranger keeps himself in front of Cirice to block another lashing of the tail as the kestrel grabs the manta and flips it into the sea. The glider also ends up a little hurt from the talons, but that's life.

"Someone forgot that I have armor for a reason...Let me see the wound." He gently takes her hand, the ring she gave him on Hearth's Day glows slightly as she feels the pull of her own magic as the weight is lifted from her arms.[1] While he does that, Gerhart reaches into his pack to take out a few salves and bandages.

Field dressing a wound has become pretty easy for him at this point. He bites off the end of the bandage and ties it in place before giving her palm a small kiss to make it feel better. "You all right?"

---

1. Remove Condition

“I… I didn’t forget,” Cirice winces as he pulls the stinger out. As the healing washes over her banishing the paralysis and the pain she gives him a grateful smile. “Just because you can take a hit doesn’t mean I want you to… I want to protect you too. If something bad happened to you I'd never forgive myself.”

As he bandages her up and gives her wound a little kiss she’s too touched to heal it, this wound can heal naturally with his love and care. Maybe it will leave a scar she can wear proudly to remind her of this day.

“I’m okay. Thanks to you as always.” She looks up at him with big violet eyes full of appreciation, a light blush on her cheeks and a feeling of gratitude and love in her heart. Leaning in to press her lips against his cheek and rest her head against his shoulder, she sighs happily. “My hero.”

She’s content to sit like this for a moment, just enjoying the calm after the fight, but her parents are waiting on them.

“Well after all that excitement meeting my family will be pretty boring.” She jokes softly.

He laughs softly as he nestles her in his arms a moment, "And you call me reckless~" Gerhart taps his forehead to Cirice's before letting his grip on her loosen.

"Admittedly, I would still rather do that again than this dinner. I don't think I can embarrass myself in front of the manta's, plus I don't have to explain to them the bandage on your hand."

Another little laugh as he takes her hand to start walking again. It's pretty clear he's not mad, Cirice isn't grievously wounded and it wasn't like she was being destructively reckless. Just an honest attempt to protect others, it would be incredibly hypocritical of him if he were to hold a grudge over that.

He was happy to be out of danger though, they had a bit of time to calm down and reorient themselves after that. It was far from the worst thing either of them faced, but the adrenaline was still there. Plus honestly Gerhart just like walking and being outdoors, he's lived outside for so long so it makes sense. If you're going to be forced to live outside, you might as well come to like it.

“I might be a little reckless too.” Cirice chuckles softly as he taps their foreheads together, a gesture she’s really grown to appreciate and adore. “You don’t have to explain the bandage, I could just heal it but… Then I wouldn’t have a scar to remember this day by. You don’t have to be afraid of dinner, but if you’d rather not go we can bail. We can just go have our own dinner just the two of us if you really want.”

The sea is still raging as they get out of the danger zone and away from the raging waves. “I promise my parents aren’t scary at all. They’ve heard about my knight in shining armor, they’ll be as enchanted by you as I am. But if now is a bad time, we can do this another time.” She leans up and kisses his cheek, “I want to meet your family too someday.”

"No, no, we promised to go see them. It would be rude to back out so soon. Plus we would have to find someone to send them a message otherwise they might think something has happened." He gives a little smile and gently squeezes her hand. "And trust me, as a guy with a few, there are better souvenirs than a scar~"

It's only a gentle tease from the ranger, the idea of keeping a scar as a souvenir was sweet in a way. He didn't want to encourage the behavior, only one of them can be completely reckless, but he wasn't gonna shut it down completely. Gerhart hides the subtle tenseness in his shoulders for a brief moment when she asks about his family.

"Someday yeah, I promise." Meeting family was such a complicated topic for him, he never knew if he should tell her the truth or just take her to his adopted family. Sooner or later he wouldn't be able to run from the answer without it being weird....well weirder than he already made it."