-900 years later- (Yes. I'm going to skip that far. I mean, if these two are going to take so long to get married, then who wants to hear about all of that? Nah. Like I said, this story is about my parents, not their childhood.)
As I was saying….
Moonlight filtered through the dense canopy of the forest and crickets were busy chirping as Saoirse focused, her nose in the air, noticing an unfamiliar scent. She barked softly up at Sirius, summoning him. He was circling above her in the form of a black-and-white magpie, searching for prey.
At her request, he returned quickly to the ground. Their bond between them was as constant as ever and they had grown quite used to each other and could often understand one another without many words.
"I smell a trespasser," she whispered.
Sirius sniffed the air and tilted his head. "Strange. What's someone doing this deep in the forest, and so close to sunrise no less?"
The undead rarely ventured this far into their property because it was well known that it was property of the king. Driven by curiosity, Saoirse ignored Sirius' concern and silently made her way to the source of the scent. She spotted a man standing among the trees, speaking loudly into a phone. He was someone they didn't know and he smelled like….Saoirse. Sirius caught up to her and gently pulled on the back of her scruff with his beak. "Stop it Saoirse, you need to think this through, what if he's a human?"
"He doesn't smell like a human." She said stubbornly, a bit too loudly.
Suddenly, the man froze, his eyes darting to where she crouched. "Who's there?" he called out, his voice sharp with fear. A flashlight beam cut through the darkness, landing uncomfortably close to her hiding spot.
"Impossible," Sirius muttered from his perch. "Humans don't care about magpies…and they can't see you, for that matter."
The man's gaze drifted from alarm to confusion as he took a long look at her in her wolf form.
"Impossible." The man said, and then he turned around and ran away as quickly as he had come, disappearing into thin air alltogether. There was no way for them to catch him, he was obviously not a human.
Once the forest was silent again, Saoirse and Sirius exchanged puzzled glances before heading home.
Sirius and Saoirse had married 25 years ago and moved that night from the traumatic castle they grew up in into a cozy log cabin Sirius had built in the woods.
It was a nice contrast from the nightmares they had endured, especially Sirius as he could never escape the thumb of his father. His father wanted him to become a ruthless king like himself and the king before him, but Sirius protected Saoirse from harm and constantly resisted his father's ideals.
Then, on their wedding night, the king allowed his son one uncharacteristic kindness.
(After all they had gone through, even I was surprised that Sirius had gotten away with that.)
Their wedding night which was supposed to be beautiful but it had ended up being a night of fear as Sirius and Saoirse had put it off as long as the king would allow. He wanted them to have kids.
After the ceremony, Saoirse waited outside the throne room in fear as her new husband and lifelong companion plead with his father to let them live in the cabin.
Alastor was very very upset. The cabin had been hidden from him until now. But then, without even harming either of them, he let them go.
Alastor let them go on the one condition.
(Of course there was a condition. As I said, being kind was uncharacteristic of Alastor.)
He told them that they could go as long as they would tell him when they decided to conceive a child. Alastor wanted to be there.
(Now I know every one of you are thinking that Alastor is a creep. Of course he is. He really is. Should the Fylgia in charge of him just shank that guy? Yes he should. Believe me. That Fylgia is just as bad as him. I don't like all of my previous co-workers. But I promise, the reason he wanted to be there wasn't creepy at all. Selfish yes, but I'll tell you about that later.)
Sirius promised he would tell him, but he never made Alastor's wish a reality. In fact, they hadn't had kids because of the threat Alastor made towards their children and their life had become a solitary one mostly revolving around time spent together in the forest.
Once they reached the cabin, they dropped their things on the table. Sirius hopped onto the couch and turned on the TV. Saoirse settled beside him, leaning her head on his shoulder and absentmindedly played with his hair. She was thinking of the odd encounter they had and for some reason, it unnerved her that he seemed familiar.
It was a habit of hers when she was deep in thought to play with Sirius' hair. His hair, as always, held a few stray feathers—a mark of his favorite form, the magpie. Though he could shift into any creature, he always remained black and white so creatures that were black and white were more natural for him.
Saoirse, in contrast, was a white wolf with naturally white hair she had dyed blue, and her wolf form retained a faint hint of this color.
After a while of watching, they dozed off on the couch, and Saoirse awoke later, realizing they'd never made it to bed.
"Hey, Sirius, we should go to sleep," she said, nudging him. When he didn't respond, she got up, noticing that although no sunlight reached this part of the forest, a few hours had clearly passed.
She pulled him up and he clumsily let her lead him to bed where she undressed him and pulled his pajamas over his head.
He smiled sleepily at her as he settled into bed, barely opening his red eyes. "You don't have to take care of me." He muttered, but he was used to it.
As his servant, these duties were taught to her and although Sirius said he didn't need it, she chose to do it out of love.
She snuggled up next to him and smelled his familiar scent. "Goodnight." She whispered, placing a kiss on his lips.
He shuddered, the familiar temptation to consummate their marriage fluttered into his head, but he quickly suppressed his feelings.
Saoirse knew what he had felt when she touched him, and she knew why he suppressed it; he was still afraid of his father, his beast, and hurting her. It was something they mutually decided on long ago when they were teenagers and she had never caught a glimpse of his beast again. She was used to it. Usually she didn't mind, but it meant their blood bond was still incomplete, so sometimes the desire for each other was really overwhelming and sometimes the house felt a bit lonely.
Madeline and all of their friends had grandkids by now, but not them.
Sirius gave a slight sigh as her feelings of loneliness crossed her mind. As if he read her thoughts, he carefully put his arms around her. "Goodnight Saoirse, someday." Then he let go and turned the other way, a bit avoidant of his feelings.
As they settled in, the odd encounter from earlier crept back into Saoirse's mind. 'I wonder what that man was doing in the forest.'