**authors note: sorry it took so long to write another part, as my apology here is a much larger chapter than the first. Thank you for your patience**
Hours had passed before carriage had finally stopped. As the door swung open she was greeted by the face of her husband as he extended a hand for her. From the few steps up in the carriage she was only just at eye level with him, his horns extending his height a few inches above her.
If she hadn't already felt small, the moment she put her hand in his only made it worse. She stepped down and took a glance up at him, remembering what it was like to be a child looking up at her father. His companion walked up beside him beaming from his extreme height as well. "Are all humans this small?"
"You're just too tall." She pouted. Whether he husband approved of the banter or not it did not show on his face. As she looked up at him now, with the sun slowly setting behind him, she realized his hair was black however the horns she had thought the same were actually a deep brown. They seemed to rise up just past his hairline and then curled down to just below his ears.
"Is Ralakshar so handsome you can't stop staring?" Julika had realized she was staring when the friend joked with her again.
She waved it off as she turned to follow the crowd. "I was merely wondering if the different horn shapes meant anything." Her husband very quickly caught up and matched her pace, as silent as ever. When he quipped back at her before the carriage was he angry then?
"Oh you're asking 'cause mine curl out and Ralak's curl in? No horn shape just is genetic, like hair and eyes. Our tails are pretty much all the same though."
Right, she had almost forgotten they had tails. She snuck a peek at her soon to be husband's back where a thin strand, no thicker than a piece of twine, lightly swung back and forth behind him. Bobbing back and forth at the end was a small poof of hair? Fur? She continued to walk with the crowd, pondering to herself how the tails worked. Did they have nerves? Muscles that small? If she asked would they say something nonchalant like magic?
"You're people, what are they called?"
"What do you mean?" Again it was her husband's friend who spoke.
She stopped mid stride and let out a sigh. "For hundreds of years we've only referred to your kind as demons." She made a vague gesture towards their horns. "But I doubt that's how you would like to be called."
"Tal'ri." She was almost shocked to finally hear her husband's voice. "I am the Chato-ran and Osbien, Ralakshar. This is my second Haemon." His friend bowed his head, turning the two points of his horns up to the sky.
She had no idea what either of his titles meant or why he had two but she curtsied in turn. "Princess Julika, and my hand maiden Amira."
He bowed his head and motioned her towards a group of women standing in front of the temple. Julika held up a hand to greet them then turned back to the men with her. "Are you not coming?"
Haemon pointed out a group of men standing at the opposite side. "We'll go in that side. It's symbolic; you enter the temple as two separate people, you say your vows to each inside and the priest blesses you, then you leave the temple together."
"Oh, that is rather cute." The words slipped out before she could stop herself. She turned to gage her soon to be husband's face but it was as stoic as before, and his friend still smiled just a step behind. "Well, see you inside then." She gave a small curtsy and he bowed his head in turn.
She started towards the group of women as Amira stepped up to her side. "You always were a sucker for romantic flourishes."
Julika could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. "I just said it was cute is all, now let's go see what a Tal'ri wedding is like shall we?" The group of women ushered her into a small room and began undressing her and brushing out her hair. "So I have to change for this?"
Some of the younger women continued to shuffle about uneasily but an elderly woman let out a sigh as she untied the bottom of Julika's corset. "You and the Chato-ran enter the temple, display yourselves in front of the gods and ancestors with a priest to observe, then you leave as a married couple. Then we celebrate with feast and party afterwards." She folded up Julika's clothes and placed them in a basket to the side.
She paid no mind to the tone of annoyance and continued her questions. "I was told I was marrying one of your princes, I imagine that 'Chato-ran' is your word for it?"
Another sigh escaped the elderly woman as she came back with the princess' new dress. "Our rulers are the Chato and Chala, though they may be similar to your queen and king they are not the same. Those that are their heirs or are second in line are the -ran. You are marrying the heir to our ruler the Chato-ran."
With a nod she took the dress from the woman's hand and froze. It felt similar to silk but a pale iridescence shined as different colors as she moved it through the light, it was a thin single layer and looked more like a nightgown than a proper dress. However the real problem was how sheer it was. Folded over in her hands, even with both layers she could see straight through to her fingers. "I-I'm supposed to wear this for the ceremony?"
The group around her nodded or mumbled agreement as she stood in the middle of them in the cotton slip of her undergarments. The elder woman reached out to pull up her underclothes but she snatched it away from her. "You must be joking! I've already stripped off my dress and putting this," she shook the sheer cloth in the hand opposite of her cotton slip. "this is no different than being completely naked!"
"If you'd prefer to be completely naked that's fine, but you must remove that." She motioned at her underclothes.
Amira rushed between them to Julika's defense. "You can't expect the princess to just waltz out in front of all of your people in such an indecent attire." Julika's hand started to tremble clutching at the little clothes she had left. Maybe these people really were demons.
"In front of . . ." The elder groaned as she rubbed her forehead. "The only ones inside the temple are you, the Chato-ran, and the priest. The Chato-ran even went out of his way to ask for a specific priest for you and you're crying about having to change into ceremonial dress? Normally it would be your family in here dressing you, and in the antechamber to change you after the ceremony but since you have no family here—"
"Amira, Amira is with me." The horned women all turned their eyes on her hand maiden. "You can all leave now and she can take care of the rest, and redress me on the other side."
Another Tal'ri woman finally spoke up. "If you're certain we can leave you, but you must know only you can go into the main temple. She'll have to step out with us."
Julika nodded and the women slowly filtered out of the room. The moment they were alone she crouched down on her knees and muffled a scream in her hands and the thin iridescent fabric. Amira nervously folded her hands in front of her. "At least you're not naked in front of everyone."
"He's already going to strip me down and have his way with me tonight why do they . . ." Her face went white as she crumbled the rest of the way to the floor. "You don't think - that's not what the ceremony is right? He's not going to . . . now?"
Amira flinched when Julika glanced up at her only friend. She couldn't keep her gaze and shifted her eyes to the side as she offered the princess a hand up. "Neither of us asked for details on what happens. And we know nothing of their culture."
She stifled the tears in the corners of her eyes. "Right, that wasn't fair. You don't know any better than me." She took Amira's hands to stand back up and softly placed the ceremonial dress in her hands. "Maybe it's better if we just get this over with."
"My lady . . ."
Julika shook her head and pulled the cotton slip up over herself and asked for the sheer dress. "I just want this day to be over."
Amira nodded and assisted her with the dress. She glanced down with it on and felt dread creep up her throat, she could see everything through it. In silence her and Amira walked to the temple doors, and in silence Amira left her. Julika swallowed hard before pushing the doors open.
She was greeted by heat and steam and a strange concoction of smells somewhere between a flora perfume and intense medicine. A large pool stood out before her but the water was a pale pink like rose petals. Small groups of foam slowly floated through moved by something underneath the waters she couldn't see. Across from her at the other end of the pool was what looked like an old man, sitting on a bench in gaudy black and green robes. In the white halls of the temple, with the soft pink waters and comforting heat, he was even more awful to look at.
A cleared throat turned her from her observations to the Chato-ran standing silently to her left. It was only a flash that she realized he was also only wearing the same thin fabric at his middle as she instantly covered her body with her hands. His palm entered the corner of her vision. "I won't look."
She glanced back at the water. She would be fine once she was under it right? No one would see anything? Realization just crossed her mind as she glanced back up the priest across the way then up at her husband. She snatched his hand looking away just as quickly as she had looked at him, forgetting he was just as exposed as she was.
If he wasn't going to look did that mean he wasn't going to do anything? If he wasn't going to look, he wouldn't be touching either, right? Her face brightened even more in embarrassment. She jumped immediately to the worse case scenario in her mind, but here was the so called "demon" offering her far more courtesy than she deserved.
He gave her hand a small squeeze and started walking down into the water. Julika let him lead her in as she clutched at her heart and reminded herself she just needed to get through this day.